Pharmacological Inhibition of Histone Methyltransferase G9a Affects Expression of Citron Kinase Target Genes in Neural Stem Cells

Regulated repression of gene expression by post-translational modification of histones is required for normal development. The histone methyltransferase G9a is essential for embryonic development, and we have shown that phosphorylation of G9a by the CitK, a gene required for normal CNS development, gates gene repression and dimethylation of histone H3 at lysine 9 (H3K9me2) in neural progenitors. CitK and G9a co-localize to promoter regions of genes up-regulated in CitK null cells. CitK mutant progenitors lack H3K9me2 at promoter regions of up-regulated genes, and re-expression of CitK restores both repression of gene expression and H3K9me2 occupancy. In this thesis we examine the role of the G9a inhibitor Bix-01294 effect on gene expression in neural stem cells. Interestingly, we found that the addition of Bix-01294 causes changes in gene expression that are consistent with changes observed in the null CitK cells. These data support a connection between CitK and its effect on G9a as a means by which neural stem cells regulate gene expression

Addressing Sexual Assault: How Architectural Design Can Promote Life Long Healing

The Trauma of any origin can forever alter the way individuals live their everyday lives. Relationships with people, places, and the self are compromised and may never fully heal. Generally, Post-traumatic Stress Disorder is a globally accepted condition, with many great strides being made to provide centers of continual healing to those who suffer from it. The two most common demographics that are clinically diagnosed with PTSD are military Veterans and survivors of sexual assault. Where there is a lot of research and active development towards establishing treatments in combination with spacial and architectural design for Veterans, there is virtually no base of research of similar goals geared towards survivors of Sexual Assault. This group tends to be sequestered to crisis centers and hospital wings, with no real centralization of life-long care. Trauma and addiction recovery centers tend to take on PTSD as a secondary treatment to drug abuse. Sexual Assault Survivors exist within every niche of our communities. Still, due to culturally ingrained stigmas and the nature of the assault itself, it has been challenging to address the indefinite needs of these victims. PTSD is a condition that requires a medically invisible type of care. The cures can be achieved through spacial relationships, psychological reactions to color and light, and programs that allow individuals to be part of a group. Transparency through sight lines and curved walls paired with an encompassing sense of security along the perimeter and through entry are the end goals of the architectural design. These fundamental ideas can be the building blocks of architectural design to help build a center focused on providing continual healing to Sexual Assault Survivors

Moving Away from Programming and Towards Computer Science in the CS First Year

After completing a pilot study using the Python programming language to transition to Java within our first-year introductory programming sequence, our department opted to make a more radical change. We assert that our students are better served in their first year of study by a focus on problems in computer science and their solutions, rather than programming. Our new introductory sequence emphasizes algorithm development and analysis, object-oriented design, and testing. As in our pilot, programming is first done in Python, switching to Java when object-oriented design and static typing become advantageous. Students reported liking the problem focus of the courses, while the distribution of grades remained similar to those in previous years. As a result, our department will be discontinuing our earlier introductory sequence, and offering the new problem-based one to all the groups of students our department services beginning in Fall 2010

A Pattern for Distributing Turn-Based Games

A common choice of applications used in introductory computer science courses is from the domain of simple games. Games present some interesting design notions including move, outcome, state, and turn. If one focuses on the notion of a turn a new design is revealed that combines the familiar patterns of the Model- View-Controller architecture and Proxy when the game is played over a network

Design Patterns in Parsing

oops3, targeted to Java and C#, is the latest in a family of LL(1) parser generators based on an object-oriented architecture that carries through to the parsers it generates. Moreover, because oops3 employs several design patterns, its rich variety of APIs are nevertheless easy to learn. This paper discusses the use of patterns in the oops3 system and the resulting benefits for users and educators

Functional Parsing — A Multi-Lingual Killer-Application

Monads are used in Haskell to support error handling and a concept of global state such as input/output. Parsing is a killer application for monads. This paper discusses a parser generator implementation for Java and JavaScript and shows how to benefit greatly from object-oriented design patterns based on monads adapted from functional programming. All examples discussed here are available for online use through the links at the end of the paper

Sudoku: A Little Lesson in OOP

Paying only lip service to the principles of object-oriented programming rarely results in the expected benefits. This paper presents a series of designs for a Sudoku application that will lead introductory students through the allimportant process of trial and error. They will see examples of design analysis, criticism, and improvement. The paper concludes with some general pointers why and how the initial mistakes could have been avoided

Highly-efficient, diffraction-limited laser emission from a Vertical External Cavity Surface-emitting Organic Laser

We report on a solid-state laser structure being the organic counterpart of the Vertical External-Cavity Surface-Emitting Laser (VECSEL) design. The gain medium is a poly (methyl methacrylate) film doped with Rhodamine 640, spin-casted onto the High-Reflectivity mirror of a plano-concave resonator. Upon pumping by 7-ns pulses at 532 nm, a diffraction-limited beam (M^2=1) was obtained, with a conversion efficiency of 43%; higher peak powers (2kW) could be attained when resorting to shorter (0.5 ns) pump pulses. The spectrum was controlled by the thickness of the active layer playing the role of an intracavity etalon; tunability is demonstrated over up to 20 nm

New technique for endoscopically-assisted particulate graft reconstruction of the mandible

The reconstruction of mandibular defects using particulate grafts is a proven technique that restores the osseous anatomy effectively. Secondary osseous reconstruction can be accomplished with endoscopic assistance and reduced-access incisions if an intermediate spacer is placed during resection. Two patients required reconstruction after resection of mandibular ameloblastomas. We used a modified protocol that involved the implantation of a graft of particulate corticocancellous bone after removal of the spacer, and prepared the recipient site under endoscopic guidance with small extraoral incisions. The grafts healed uneventfully and matured into ossicles suitable for the placement of osseointegrated implants.http://bjoms.comhttp://www.journals.elsevier.com/british-journal-of-oral-and-maxillofacial-surgery2019-06-01hj2018Maxillo-Facial and Oral Surger