Research Readiness Self-Assessment: Assessing Students\u27 Research Skills and Attitudes

Librarians and learning researchers at Central Michigan University collaboratively developed an online tool that assesses how student research attitudes and perceptions correlate to their actual research skills in order to educate them about state-of-the-art library resources and prepare them to write high-quality research papers. This article describes the reasons for developing the assessment as well as the design process and technical characteristics

Immunotherapy with MVA-BN®-HER2 induces HER-2-specific Th1 immunity and alters the intratumoral balance of effector and regulatory T cells

MVA-BN®-HER2 is a new candidate immunotherapy designed for the treatment of HER-2-positive breast cancer. Here, we demonstrate that a single treatment with MVA-BN®-HER2 exerts potent anti-tumor efficacy in a murine model of experimental pulmonary metastasis. This anti-tumor efficacy occurred despite a strong tumor-mediated immunosuppressive environment characterized by a high frequency of regulatory T cells (Treg) in the lungs of tumor-bearing mice. Immunogenicity studies showed that treatment with MVA-BN®-HER2 induced strongly Th1-dominated HER-2-specific antibody and T-cell responses. MVA-BN®-HER2-induced anti-tumor activity was characterized by an increased infiltration of lungs with highly activated, HER-2-specific, CD8+CD11c+ T cells accompanied by a decrease in the frequency of Treg cells in the lung, resulting in a significantly increased ratio of effector T cells to Treg cells. In contrast, administration of HER2 protein formulated in Complete Freund’s Adjuvant (CFA) induced a strongly Th2-biased immune response to HER-2. However, this did not lead to significant infiltration of the tumor-bearing lungs by CD8+ T cells or the decrease in the frequency of Treg cells nor did it result in anti-tumor efficacy. In vivo depletion of CD8+ cells confirmed that CD8 T cells were required for the anti-tumor activity of MVA-BN®-HER2. Furthermore, depletion of CD4+ or CD25+ cells demonstrated that tumor-induced Treg cells promoted tumor growth and that CD4 effector cells also contribute to MVA-BN®-HER2-mediated anti-tumor efficacy. Taken together, our data demonstrate that treatment with MVA-BN®-HER2 controls tumor growth through mechanisms including the induction of Th1-biased HER-2-specific immune responses and the control of tumor-mediated immunosuppression

Research Readiness Self-Assessment: Assessing Students\u27 Research Skills and Attitudes

Librarians and learning researchers at Central Michigan University collaboratively developed an online tool that assesses how student research attitudes and perceptions correlate to their actual research skills in order to educate them about state-of-the-art library resources and prepare them to write high-quality research papers. This article describes the reasons for developing the assessment as well as the design process and technical characteristics

A Comprehensive study of the effectivity of color indexing using a large database in plastic bottle sorting

Plastic bottle recycling has been a government effort to help in the country\u27s solid waste management. There have been a number of ways on how to sort plastic bottles to be recycled. Some sort by color, others sort by chemical composition, and others sort by the shape of the bottle. Each group has different opinions on which system works best with the least amount of error. The group has decided to test the ability and efficiency of sorting plastic bottles for recycling by employing the color indexing method using a large database. The system uses a large database of images collected from different bottles in all its conceivable appearances and positions. The bottles are transported using a conveyor. A camera then captures the image of the bottle, while the computer processes the image, and looks for a match in its collected database. When the image is identified, the bottle is pushed to its respective container bin, and is ready for the next step in the recycling process

Structures of the lipopolysaccharides from Rhizobium leguminosarum RBL5523 and its UDP-glucose dehydrogenase mutant (exo5)

Rhizobial lipopolysaccharide (LPS) is required to establish an effective symbiosis with its host plant. An exo5 mutant of Rhizobium leguminosarum RBL5523, strain RBL5808, is defective in UDP-glucose (Glc) dehydrogenase that converts UDP-Glc to UDP-glucuronic acid (GlcA). This mutant is unable to synthesize either UDP-GlcA or UDP-galacturonic acid (GalA) and is unable to synthesize extracellular and capsular polysaccharides, lacks GalA in its LPS and is defective in symbiosis (Laus MC, Logman TJ, van Brussel AAN, Carlson RW, Azadi P, Gao MY, Kijne JW. 2004. Involvement of exo5 in production of surface polysaccharides in Rhizobium leguminosarum and its role in nodulation of Vicia sativa subsp. nigra. J Bacteriol. 186:6617–6625). Here, we determined and compared the structures of the RBL5523 parent and RBL5808 mutant LPSs. The parent LPS core oligosaccharide (OS), as with other R. leguminosarum and Rhizobium etli strains, is a Gal1Man1GalA3Kdo3 octasaccharide in, which each of the GalA residues is terminally linked. The core OS from the mutant lacks all three GalA residues. Also, the parent lipid A consists of a fatty acylated GlcNGlcNonate or GlcNGlcN disaccharide that has a GalA residue at the 4′-position, typical of other R. leguminosarum and R. etli lipids A. The mutant lipid A lacks the 4′-GalA residue, and the proximal glycosyl residue was only present as GlcNonate. In spite of these alterations to the lipid A and core OSs, the mutant was still able to synthesize an LPS containing a normal O-chain polysaccharide (OPS), but at reduced levels. The structure of the OPS of the mutant LPS was identical to that of the parent and consists of an O-acetylated →4)-α-d-Glcp-(1→3)-α-d-QuipNAc-(1→ repeating unit

Patterns of Postoperative Trismus Following Mandibulectomy and Fibula Free Flap Reconstruction

The factors that contribute to postoperative trismus after mandibulectomy and fibula free flap reconstruction (FFFR) are undefined. We retrospectively assessed postoperative trismus (defined as a maximum interincisal opening ≤35 mm) in 106 patients undergoing mandibulectomy with FFFR, employing logistic regression to identify risk factors associated with this sequela. The surgical indication was primary ablation in 64%, salvage for recurrence in 24%, and osteonecrosis in 12%. Forty-five percent of patients had existing preoperative trismus, and 58% of patients received adjuvant radiation/chemoradiation following surgery. The overall rates of postoperative trismus were 76% in the early postoperative period (≤3 months after surgery) and 67% in the late postoperative period (>6 months after surgery). Late postoperative trismus occurred more frequently in patients with ramus-involving vs. ramus-preserving posterior mandibulotomies (82% vs. 46%, p = 0.004). A ramus-involving mandibulotomy was the only variable significantly associated with trismus >6 months postoperatively on multivariable logistic regression (OR, 7.94; 95% CI, 1.85–33.97; p = 0.005). This work demonstrates that trismus is common after mandibulectomy and FFFR, and suggests that posterior mandibulotomies that involve or remove the ramus may predispose to a higher risk of persistent postoperative trismus

BcsQ is an essential component of the Escherichia coli cellulose biosynthesis apparatus that localizes at the bacterial cell pole

International audienceBiofilms are microbial communities characterized by three-dimensional growth resulting from the ability of individual cells to adhere to each other as well as to produce an extracellular matrix that ensures biofilm physical cohesion. Numerous bacteria produce cellulose as a biofilm matrix polymer, a property relying on the expression of bacterial cellulose synthesis (Bcs) proteins and their post-translational activation upon binding of cyclic di-guanosine mono-phosphate second messenger (c-di-GMP) produced by diguanylate cyclases. In Escherichia coli and other Enterobacteriaceae, two genes of unknown function, yhjR and yhjQ, are located upstream of the bcs genes. Here, we show that yhjQ, but not yhjR, is essential for cellulose biosynthesis; it has therefore been renamed bcsQ. Using a green fluorescent protein (GFP) fusion approach, we demonstrate that BcsQ, a MinD homologue, displays a polar localization and that cell-to-cell adhesion is initiated through production of cellulose at the BcsQ-labelled pole. Although we did not detect a similar localization for other Bcs proteins, immunogold labelling of cellulose itself at the pole of individual bacteria indicates the localized activity of the cellulose biosynthesis apparatus. These results therefore suggest that BcsQ could participate in spatial restriction of cellulose biosynthesis activity in Enterobacteriaceae