Gender and the Jubilee: Black Freedom and the Reconstruction of Citizenship in Civil War Missouri

From Slavery to Citizenship In May 1864, Jane Ciss walked into a provost marshal’s office in St. Louis hoping that she could be officially recognized as contraband of war. Ciss and two soldiers of the USCT testified before Union Captain Charles Hills that Ciss’s owner was “most of the time...

Acceptability and proof of concept of internet-delivered treatment for depression, anxiety, and stress in university students: protocol for an open feasibility trial

BACKGROUND: In recent years, university counseling and mental health services have reported an increase in the number of clients seeking services and in yearly visits. This trend has been observed at many universities, indicating that behavioral and mental health issues pose significant problems for many college students. The aim of this study is to assess the acceptability and proof of concept of internet-delivered treatment for depression, anxiety, and stress for university students. METHODS/DESIGN: The study is an open feasibility trial of the SilverCloud programs for depression (Space from Depression), anxiety (Space from Anxiety), and stress (Space from Stress). All three are 8-module internet-delivered CBT (iCBT) intervention programs. Participants are assigned a supporter who provides weekly feedback on progress and exercises. Participants will complete the Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9), Generalized Anxiety Disorder-7 (GAD-7), and stress subscale of the Depression, Anxiety, Stress Scale-21 (DASS-21) as the outcome measures for the depression, anxiety, and stress interventions, respectively. Other outcomes include measures of acceptability of, and satisfaction, with the intervention. Data will be collected at baseline, 8 weeks and 3-month follow-up. DISCUSSION: It is anticipated that the study will inform the researchers and service personnel of the programs' potential to reduce depression, anxiety, and stress in a student population as well as the protocols to be employed in a future trial. In addition, it will provide insight into students' engagement with the programs, their user experience, and their satisfaction with the online delivery format

Occupancy and Abundance of Stream Salamanders along a Specific Conductance Gradient

In the Central Appalachians (USA), mountaintop-removal mining accompanied by valley fills often leads to streams with elevated specific conductivity (SC). Thus, the ionic composition of freshwaters in this region is hypothesized to be a driver of the distribution and abundance of freshwater taxa, including stream salamanders. We examined the association between SC and stream salamander populations by conducting salamander counts in 30 southeastern Kentucky streams across a continuous gradient of SC that ranged from 30 to 1966 μS/cm. We counted 2319 salamanders across 5 species and, using a hierarchical Bayesian version of the N-mixture model, found a negative association between SC and salamander occupancy rates. This finding was consistent across adults and larvae of the 5 species we examined. Furthermore, we found that most salamander species and life stages showed reduced abundances given occupancy at greater SC levels. For example, estimated mean abundance given occupancy of larval Southern Two-lined Salamanders (Eurycea cirrigera) was 67.69 (95% credible interval 48.31–98.25) ind/10 m at 250 μS/cm and 2.30 (95% credible interval 1.46–3.93) ind/10 m at 2000 μS/cm. The consistent negative association across all species and life stages supports the hypothesis that salamander distributions and abundances are negatively associated with elevated SC of streams in southeastern Kentucky, even though physical and chemical environmental attributes, such as forest cover within stream catchments, were correlated with SC. Restoration of streams affected by mountaintop-removal mining should focus on restoring the ionic compositions that naturally occur in this region

Effects of Cu/Zn Superoxide Dismutase (sod1) Genotype and Genetic Background on Growth, Reproduction and Defense in Biomphalaria glabrata

Resistance of the snail Biomphalaria glabrata to the trematode Schistosoma mansoni is correlated with allelic variation at copper-zinc superoxide dismutase (sod1). We tested whether there is a fitness cost associated with carrying the most resistant allele in three outbred laboratory populations of snails. These three populations were derived from the same base population, but differed in average resistance. Under controlled laboratory conditions we found no cost of carrying the most resistant allele in terms of fecundity, and a possible advantage in terms of growth and mortality. These results suggest that it might be possible to drive resistant alleles of sod1 into natural populations of the snail vector for the purpose of controlling transmission of S. mansoni. However, we did observe a strong effect of genetic background on the association between sod1 genotype and resistance. sod1 genotype explained substantial variance in resistance among individuals in the most resistant genetic background, but had little effect in the least resistant genetic background. Thus, epistatic interactions with other loci may be as important a consideration as costs of resistance in the use of sod1 for vector manipulation

Kinomic exploration of temozolomide and radiation resistance in Glioblastoma multiforme xenolines

Glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) represents the most common and deadly primary brain malignancy, particularly due to temozolomide (TMZ) and radiation (RT) resistance. To better understand resistance mechanisms, we examined global kinase activity (kinomic profiling) in both treatment sensitive and resistant human GBM patient-derived xenografts (PDX or “xenolines”)

Genomic Identification of the TOR Signaling Pathway as a Target of the Plant Alkaloid Antofine in the Phytopathogen Fusarium graminearum

Antofine, a phenanthroindolizidine alkaloid, is a bioactive natural product isolated from milkweeds that exhibits numerous biological activities, including anticancer, antimicrobial, antiviral, and anti-inflammatory properties. However, the direct targets and mode of action of antofine have not been determined. In this report, we show that antofine displays antifungal properties against the phytopathogen Fusarium graminearum, the cause of Fusarium head blight disease (FHB). FHB does devastating damage to agriculture, causing billions of dollars in economic losses annually. We therefore sought to understand the mode of action of antofine in F. graminearum using insights from yeast chemical genomic screens. We used haploinsufficiency profiling (HIP) to identify putative targets of antofine in yeast and identified three candidate targets, two of which had homologs in F. graminearum The Fusarium homologues of two targets, glutamate dehydrogenase (FgGDH) and resistance to rapamycin deletion 2 (FgRRD2), can bind antofine. Of the two genes, only the Fgrrd2 knockout displayed a los

Kinomic Profiling of Electromagnetic Navigational Bronchoscopy Specimens: A New Approach for Personalized Medicine

Purpose Researchers are currently seeking relevant lung cancer biomarkers in order to make informed decisions regarding therapeutic selection for patients in so-called “precision medicine.” However, there are challenges to obtaining adequate lung cancer tissue for molecular analyses. Furthermore, current molecular testing of tumors at the genomic or transcriptomic level are very indirect measures of biological response to a drug, particularly for small molecule inhibitors that target kinases. Kinase activity profiling is therefore theorized to be more reflective of in vivo biology than many current molecular analysis techniques. As a result, this study seeks to prove the feasibility of combining a novel minimally invasive biopsy technique that expands the number of lesions amenable for biopsy with subsequent ex vivo kinase activity analysis. Methods Eight patients with lung lesions of varying location and size were biopsied using the novel electromagnetic navigational bronchoscopy (ENB) technique. Basal kinase activity (kinomic) profiles and ex vivo interrogation of samples in combination with tyrosine kinase inhibitors erlotinib, crizotinib, and lapatinib were performed by PamStation 12 microarray analysis. Results Kinomic profiling qualitatively identified patient specific kinase activity profiles as well as patient and drug specific changes in kinase activity profiles following exposure to inhibitor. Thus, the study has verified the feasibility of ENB as a method for obtaining tissue in adequate quantities for kinomic analysis and has demonstrated the possible use of this tissue acquisition and analysis technique as a method for future study of lung cancer biomarkers. Conclusions We demonstrate the feasibility of using ENB-derived biopsies to perform kinase activity assessment in lung cancer patients