Talking about Transfer: Students' Language, Writing, and Reflection as Indications of Near Transfer in a First-Year Writing Course

This dissertation project reveals that students in my English 101 course in the fall of 2013 at a large, mid-western university were able to demonstrate near transfer with the use of high-road strategies. The analysis of the materials collected for this study indicates that a course that is explicitly designed to teach for transfer does indeed foster the transfer of writing related skills. The analysis also reveals that students self-reported transfer and used their language to report and identify their transfer of writing knowledge with terms related to the genres they wrote most often. Students demonstrated an evolution of their rhetorical awareness through their writing samples and reflections: some students were able to directly state such a transfer of knowledge, while others’ transfer was uncovered during the analysis process. This project uncovered the ways in which students communicated and demonstrated transfer within a course and reveals ways in which composition studies’ scholars can design courses that foster transfer, making students hyper-aware of our desire for them to transfer writing knowledge and helping students use high-road transfer strategies, which gives researchers and instructors in composition studies a place to start when understanding the transfer process and moving on to studying high-road, far transfer

Tissue- and Liquid-Based Biomarkers in Prostate Cancer Precision Medicine

Worldwide, prostate cancer (PC) is the second-most-frequently diagnosed male cancer and the fifth-most-common cause of all cancer-related deaths. Suspicion of PC in a patient is largely based upon clinical signs and the use of prostate-specific antigen (PSA) levels. Although PSA levels have been criticised for a lack of specificity, leading to PC over-diagnosis, it is still the most commonly used biomarker in PC management. Unfortunately, PC is extremely heterogeneous, and it can be difficult to stratify patients whose tumours are unlikely to progress from those that are aggressive and require treatment intensification. Although PC-specific biomarker research has previously focused on disease diagnosis, there is an unmet clinical need for novel prognostic, predictive and treatment response biomarkers that can be used to provide a precision medicine approach to PC management. In particular, the identification of biomarkers at the time of screening/diagnosis that can provide an indication of disease aggressiveness is perhaps the greatest current unmet clinical need in PC management. Largely through advances in genomic and proteomic techniques, exciting pre-clinical and clinical research is continuing to identify potential tissue, blood and urine-based PC-specific biomarkers that may in the future supplement or replace current standard practices. In this review, we describe how PC-specific biomarker research is progressing, including the evolution of PSA-based tests and those novel assays that have gained clinical approval. We also describe alternative diagnostic biomarkers to PSA, in addition to biomarkers that can predict PC aggressiveness and biomarkers that can predict response to certain therapies. We believe that novel biomarker research has the potential to make significant improvements to the clinical management of this disease in the near future

The IL6-like Cytokine Family: Role and Biomarker Potential in Breast Cancer

IL6-like cytokines are a family of regulators with a complex, pleiotropic role in both the healthy organism, where they regulate immunity and homeostasis, and in different diseases, including cancer. Here we summarise how these cytokines exert their effect through the shared signal transducer IL6ST (gp130) and we review the extensive evidence on the role that different members of this family play in breast cancer. Additionally, we discuss how the different cytokines, their related receptors and downstream effectors, as well as specific polymorphisms in these molecules, can serve as predictive or prognostic biomarkers with the potential for clinical application in breast cancer. Lastly, we also discuss how our increasing understanding of this complex signalling axis presents promising opportunities for the development or repurposing of therapeutic strategies against cancer and, specifically, breast neoplasms

The signal transducer IL6ST (gp130) as a predictive and 2 prognostic biomarker in breast cancer

Novel biomarkers are needed to continue to improve breast cancer clinical management and outcome. IL6-like cytokines, whose pleiotropic functions include roles in many hallmarks of malignancy, rely on the signal transducer IL6ST (gp130) for all their signalling. To date, 10 separate independent studies based on the analysis of clinical breast cancer samples have identified IL6ST as a predictor. Consistent findings suggest that IL6ST is a positive prognostic factor and is associated with ER status. Interestingly, these studies include 4 multigene signatures (EndoPredict, EER4, IRSN-23 and 42GC) that incorporate IL6ST to predict risk of recurrence or outcome from endocrine or chemotherapy. Here we review the existing evidence on the promising predictive and prognostic value of IL6ST. We also discuss how this potential could be further translated into clinical practice beyond the EndoPredict tool, which is already available in the clinic. The most promising route to further exploit IL6ST’s promising predicting power will likely be through additional hybrid multifactor signatures that allow for more robust stratification of ER+ breast tumours into discrete groups with distinct outcomes, thus enabling greater refinement of the treatment-selection process

Dynamic modulation of phosphoprotein expression in ovarian cancer xenograft models

The authors thank Medical Research Scotland and the Scottish Funding Council. This work was su pported by Medical Research Scotland [FRG353 to V.A.S.]; the FP7 -­‐ Directorate -­‐ General for Research and Innovation of the European Commission [EU HEALTH -­‐ F4 -­‐ 2012 -­‐ 305033 to Coordinating Action Systems Medicine -­‐ D.J.H.]; the Chief Scientist Office of Scotland [D.J.H.], the Scottish Funding Council [D.J.H. and S.P.L.]. Health Canada Scholarship (Indspire) [KEF], Scottish Overseas Research Student Award Scheme (University of Edinburgh)[KEF] and the Three Fires Award (Wikwemikong Board of Education)[KEF].Background: The dynamic changes that occur in protein expression after treatment of a cancer in vivo are poorly described. In this study we measure the effect of chemotherapy over time on the expression of a panel of proteins in ovarian cancer xenograft models. The objective was to identify phosphoprotein and other protein changes indicative of pathway activation that might link with drug response. Methods: Two xenograft models, platinum-responsive OV1002 and platinum-unresponsive HOX424, were used. Treatments were carboplatin and carboplatin-paclitaxel. Expression of 49 proteins over 14 days post treatment was measured by quantitative immunofluorescence and analysed by AQUA . Results: Carboplatin treatment in the platinum-sensitive OV1002 model triggered up-regulation of cell cycle, mTOR and DDR pathways, while at late time points WNT, invasion , EMT and MAPK pathways were modulated. Estrogen receptor-alpha (ESR1) and ERBB pathways were down-regulated early, within 24h from treatment administration. Combined carboplatin-paclitaxel treatment triggered a more extensive response in the OV1002 model modulating expression of 23 of 49 proteins. Therefore the cell cycle and DDR pathways showed similar or more pronounced changes than with carboplatin alone . In addition to expression of pS6 and pERK increasing, components of the AKT pathway were modulated with pAKT increasing while its regulator PTEN was down-regulated early. WNT signaling, EMT and invasion markers were modulated at later time points. Additional pathways were also observed with the NFκB and JAK/STAT pathways being up-regulated. ESR1 was down-regulated as was HER4, while further protein members of the ERB B pathway were upregulated late. By contrast, in the carboplatin-unresponsive HOX 424 xenograft, carboplatin only modulated expression of MLH1 while carboplatin-paclitaxel treatment modulated ESR1 and pMET.Publisher PDFPeer reviewe