Supporting Youth of All Abilities in a Childcare Setting

The purpose of this capstone project was to develop multiple toolkits and resources, deliver staff education presentations, and create environmental modifications to better support youth of all abilities in a childcare setting. The capstone project was completed at the YMCA Youth Development Center (YDC) in Aberdeen, SD. The YDC provides childcare for children four weeks old through sixth grade. The focus areas of the capstone project included: occupational therapy, sensory processing and integration, behavior management strategies, fine motor activities, developmental milestones, age-appropriate play activities, and autism spectrum disorder. Professional development and continuing education courses were completed at the beginning of the experience to gain deeper knowledge and skills for working with the pediatric population. The author assisted and led various activities within each classroom. Eight binders were developed providing numerous educational toolkits and resources A total of four staff education presentations were completed. Behavior care plans were implemented with four children utilizing the resources developed for the project. Sensory kits and a small sensory space were created to address sensory needs within the facility. Mastery of all learning objectives were accomplished through completion of all learning activities and deliverables

Finishing the euchromatic sequence of the human genome

The sequence of the human genome encodes the genetic instructions for human physiology, as well as rich information about human evolution. In 2001, the International Human Genome Sequencing Consortium reported a draft sequence of the euchromatic portion of the human genome. Since then, the international collaboration has worked to convert this draft into a genome sequence with high accuracy and nearly complete coverage. Here, we report the result of this finishing process. The current genome sequence (Build 35) contains 2.85 billion nucleotides interrupted by only 341 gaps. It covers ∼99% of the euchromatic genome and is accurate to an error rate of ∼1 event per 100,000 bases. Many of the remaining euchromatic gaps are associated with segmental duplications and will require focused work with new methods. The near-complete sequence, the first for a vertebrate, greatly improves the precision of biological analyses of the human genome including studies of gene number, birth and death. Notably, the human enome seems to encode only 20,000-25,000 protein-coding genes. The genome sequence reported here should serve as a firm foundation for biomedical research in the decades ahead

Type of anesthesia for cancer resection surgery: No differential impact on cancer recurrence in mouse models of breast cancer

<p>The files include minimal data for the manuscript 'Type of anesthesia for cancer resection surgery: No differential impact on cancer recurrence in mouse models of breast cancer'</p> <p> </p&gt

Type of anesthesia for cancer resection surgery: No differential impact on cancer recurrence in mouse models of breast cancer

Background Surgery is essential for curative treatment of solid tumors. Evidence from recent retrospective clinical analyses suggests that use of propofol-based total intravenous anesthesia during cancer resection surgery is associated with improved overall survival compared to inhaled volatile anesthesia. Evaluating these findings in prospective clinical studies is required to inform definitive clinical guidelines but will take many years and requires biomarkers to monitor treatment effect. Therefore, we examined the effect of different anesthetic agents on cancer recurrence in mouse models of breast cancer with the overarching goal of evaluating plausible mechanisms that could be used as biomarkers of treatment response. Methods To test the hypothesis that volatile anesthesia accelerates breast cancer recurrence after surgical resection of the primary tumor, we used three mouse models of breast cancer. We compared volatile sevoflurane anesthesia with intravenous propofol anesthesia and used serial non-invasive bioluminescent imaging to track primary tumor recurrence and metastatic recurrence. To determine short-term perioperative effects, we evaluated the effect of anesthesia on vascular integrity and immune cell changes after surgery in animal models. Results Survival analyses found that the kinetics of cancer recurrence and impact on survival were similar regardless of the anesthetic agent used during cancer surgery. Vascular permeability, immune cell infiltration and cytokine profiles showed no statistical difference after resection with inhaled sevoflurane or intravenous propofol anesthesia. Conclusions These preclinical studies found no evidence that choice of anesthetic agent used during cancer resection surgery affected either short-term perioperative events or long-term cancer outcomes in mouse models of breast cancer. These findings raise the possibility that mouse models do not recapitulate perioperative events in cancer patients. Nonetheless, the findings suggest that future evaluation of effects of anesthesia on cancer outcomes should focus on cancer types other than breast cancer

Innate and adaptive immune cells were profiled in lung and spleen after surgery with sevoflurane or propofol anaesthesia.

A. Schematic of the experimental design for mechanistic studies after resection of 66cl4 tumor under sevoflurane versus propofol anaesthesia. B. Flow cytometry quantification of myeloid cells in spleen and lung. C. Flow cytometry analysis of lymphoid populations in spleen (n = 8–10 per group). D. Cytokine levels were measured in plasma using multiplex ELISA (n = 6–9 per group). Data show mean ± SD. G-CSF: granulocyte-colony stimulating factor, IFN: interferon, IL: Interleukin, MCP1: monocyte chemoattractant protein 1, NK: natural killer cell, Treg: T regulatory cell.</p

Supporting information including S1 Fig, S1 and S2 Tables.

Supporting information including S1 Fig, S1 and S2 Tables.</p

Vascular integrity and innate immune profiles after surgery with sevoflurane versus propofol anaesthesia.

A. Schematic of the study design for mechanistic studies after resection of MDA-MB-231 mammary tumor under sevoflurane versus propofol anaesthesia. B. Lung vascular permeability was measured 24h after resection surgery by sodium fluorescein uptake into tissues. n = 13 per group, AU: arbitrary fluorescent units. C, D. Flow cytometric analysis of immune cells in spleen and lung on day 3 (C, n = 8–9 per group) and day 4 (D, n = 9 per group) after surgery. Data show mean ± SD. DC: dendritic cells, MDSC: myeloid derived suppressor cells, NK: natural killer cells.</p

Cancer recurrence after surgical resection of MDA-MB-231 mammary tumors under sevoflurane versus propofol anaesthesia.

A. Schematic of the experimental design. B. Bioluminescence was used to detect growth of MDA-MB-231 primary tumors (PT) in nude mice, demonstrate complete resection after surgery, and track onset and magnitude of recurrence at the primary site or metastatic target organs (Mets). C. Graph shows the probability of primary tumor recurrence after tumor resection. D. Graph shows the probability to onset of metastasis after primary tumor resection. Shaded area shows 95% confidence intervals. n = 33–34 mice per group. PT: primary tumor. Met: Metastasis.</p

Cancer recurrence after surgical resection of mammary tumors from immune-intact mice under sevoflurane versus propofol anaesthesia.

A and B. Graphs show the probability of (A) primary tumor recurrence and (B) metastasis development after 4T1.2 tumor resection. n = 7–9 mice per group. C. Representative bioluminescence images of mice prior to and after resection surgery and after metastasis development (Met). D, E. Graph shows the probability of (D) primary tumor recurrence and (E) metastasis after 66cl4 tumor resection. n = 15–17 mice per group. F. Representative bioluminescence images of mice prior and after surgery and after distant recurrence (metastasis). Shaded area shows 95% confidence intervals. PT: primary tumor. Met: Metastasis.</p