Planar cell polarity genes Frizzled3a, Vangl2, and Scribble are required for spinal commissural axon guidance

Background A fundamental feature of early nervous system development is the guidance of axonal projections to their targets in order to assemble neural circuits that control behavior. Spinal commissural neurons are an attractive model to investigate the multiple guidance cues that control growth cone navigation both pre- and post-midline crossing, as well as along both the dorsal–ventral (D–V) and anterior–posterior (A–P) axes. Accumulating evidence suggests that guidance of spinal commissural axons along the A–P axis is dependent on components of the planar cell polarity (PCP) signaling pathway. In the zebrafish, the earliest born spinal commissural neuron to navigate the midline and turn rostrally is termed commissural primary ascending (CoPA). Unlike mammalian systems, CoPA axons cross the midline as a single axon and allow an analysis of the role of PCP components in anterior pathfinding in single pioneering axons. Results Here, we establish CoPA cells in the zebrafish spinal cord as a model system for investigating the molecular function of planar cell polarity signaling in axon guidance. Using mutant analysis, we show that the functions of Fzd3a and Vangl2 in the anterior turning of commissural axons are evolutionarily conserved in teleosts. We extend our findings to reveal a role for the PCP gene scribble in the anterior guidance of CoPA axons. Analysis of single CoPA axons reveals that these commissural axons become responsive to PCP-dependent anterior guidance cues even prior to midline crossing. When midline crossing is prevented by dcc gene knockdown, ipsilateral CoPA axons still extend axons anteriorly in response to A–P guidance cues. We show that this ipsilateral anterior pathfinding that occurs in the absence of midline crossing is dependent on PCP signaling. Conclusion Our results demonstrate that anterior guidance decisions by CoPA axons are dependent on the function of planar cell polarity genes both prior to and after midline crossing

Factors Associated with Food Insecurity and Food Assistance Program Participation among University Students

Background and Significance: Food insecurity is an emerging issue among college students. It impacts the lives of many university students due to financial reasons. There is limited information about factors that affect food insecurity in that population. This cross-sectional study aimed to examine factors associated with food insecurity and food assistance program participation among college students. Methods: Food security status was determined using the short form of the USDA’s Food Security Survey Module. Results: Out of 116 students, 50 students (43.1%) were food insecure. Food insecurity was inversely associated with self-reported cumulative grade point averages. Only 24% of food insecure students participated in food assistance programs. Students who were involved in campus activities were significantly more likely to participate in food assistance programs. University-level policies and programs that help students combat food insecurity need to be considered. Conclusion: The inverse association between food insecurity and academic success indicates the importance of addressing food insecurity issues to foster their academic and professional success among university students. More research on strategies for promoting food assistance programs to college students is warranted. © 2018 Californian Journal of Health Promotion. All rights reserved

What risks in whose risk society?

This thesis was submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy and was awarded by Brunel University.The thesis discusses the mediating role of socioeconomic factors in risk debates through an examination of the decontamination and demolition of Fulham Power Station in 1983-1984. The power station was built between the wars by and for the people of Fulham. Located on the Thames in the neighbourhood of Sands End, it generated electricity and provided employment until 1978, when it was sold to a property development company. During the decontamination, a quantity of asbestos was released into the environment. A protest group was formed to secure better standards of work at the site. The group never had more than a dozen active members. All the members were middle-class. At the time of the decontamination and demolition, Sands End was a poor neighbourhood. A majority of the local population faced many 'social' as well as environmental hazards. Amongst these were sub-standard housing, unemployment, under-employment, low wages, inadequate work and educational skills and crime. The thesis discusses whether the neighbourhood's socioeconomic problems had any bearing on the character and dynamics of the power station debate. It suggests that the social geography and economic status of Sands End had two major effects on the debate. Firstly, gentrification provided the neighbourhood with a (small) middle-class constituency receptive to issues of environmental risk, such as the long-term health implications of airborne asbestos dust. Secondly, the neighbourhood's pressing social and economic problems mitigated against a wider involvement in the campaign. Most residents were too preoccupied with meeting their social and economic needs to become actively involved. The thesis also suggests that the population's experience of Fulham Power Station as a source of 'convenient' electrical power, employment and civic pride may have made it difficult for those native to Sands End to accept the activists' construction of the power station as a source of danger.Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC

Portfolio of compositions with commentary

The 'Portfolio of Compositions' comprises three works, 'Contretemps', 'Awaken' and 'The Pit and the Pendulum', all of which share a common origin, a point of conception. The circumstances of their inception and subsequent development are explained in the commentary, a document which also sets out in an attempt to contextualise the relationship, diversity and scope of their respective content, through reference to both the commonality of the compositional stimulus and the precepts of my research plan. The main focus of the portfolio, 'The Pit and the Pendulum', is a work of operatic stature, inspired by a short story of the same name by Edgar Allan Poe. The two shorter pieces were completed first, but were also, however, born out of the beginnings of the major work; a few pages of orchestral score, scribbled quickly, the result of my initial emotional response to Poe's opening lines. Pages that survive virtually unchanged in the final orchestration, setting the 'harmonic' scene for the unfolding tale. Developing an interest in the complex and algorithmic properties of effective or fulfilling musical ‘line’, I wondered if there might be found, in Poe’s written prose, some suggestion of a literary equivalence of melodic line and counterpoint, mirrored in his narrative style. The objectives of my research questions, then, are as follows: The production of a large-scale musical composition, created entirely in artistic response to Edgar Allen Poe’s short tale. The composition shall sit within the restrictive framework of Poe’s unaltered narrative: the perceived spoken rhythm of each line of his prose, at first carefully transcribed as a stream of un-pitched notation, thereby providing a clearly defined stimulus for subsequent melodic and harmonic development. This ‘musicalisation’ to be inspired by the characteristics and style of Poe’s narrative content, fully preserved and presented, verbatim, in the finished work as the vocal line. Through intertextual exposition, it is anticipated that some justification of my postulations on Poe’s method might be revealed. The process has generated an outcome for further discussion; a portfolio of three discrete compositions, all inspired by the same source and which can be directly related to each other through reflective consideration and articulation of the creative process

Developing a model of distributed sensemaking: a case study of military analysis

In this paper, we examine the role of representational artefacts in sensemaking. Embodied within representational media, such as maps, charts and lists, are a number of affordances, which can furnish sensemakers with the ability to perform tasks that may be difficult to do inside the head. Presented here is a study of sensemaking in action. We conducted a study of military intelligence analysts carrying out a training exercise, the analysis of which focuses on the use of external task-specific representations. We present a discussion of the findings of our study in the form of a model of distributed sensemaking. Our model concentrates on the interaction of information and various representational artefacts, leading to the generation of insights and a situation picture. We also introduce a number of levels of description for examining the properties and affordances offered by representational artefacts and their role in the sensemaking process