Brains! - A Neuroscience Cartoon for Kids

Brains! is a comic book and coloring book created to give elementary school students the chance to learn a little bit about neuroscience, while also showing them that science can be fun and relatable

Brains!: A Neuroscience Comic Book for Kids

When I was growing up, comic books served as a medium for me to let my imagination grow, explore new worlds, and have fun while reading. The goal of Brains!: A Neuroscience Comic Book for Kids is to provide that same experience for elementary school students while teaching them a little bit about neurobiology along the way. I worked with Professor Michael Dailey, Professor Renita Schmidt, and Professor Kevin Ripka at the University of Iowa to create a short comic book that was accurate, accessible to elementary school students, and fun to read. I then did a reading with the Strong Girls Read Strong Books book club, and distributed the book online. In the future, I hope to use the feedback I received on the first comic book to create a new comic book and continue spreading fun, informative, and understandable science literature

Extracellular Adenosine Protects Microglia-like Cells During Simulated Ischemia

Microglia are the surveillant immune cells of the brain, and as such they help protect the nervous system by clearing pathogens and dead cells, producing neurotrophic factors, and maintaining homeostasis. As guardians of the brain, microglia may be especially important in neural repair following injuries such as ischemic stroke, a disease which takes 6.2 million lives worldwide every year. Although microglia respond to tissue injury after stroke, they are themselves also vulnerable to ischemic death. Protecting microglia from ischemia-induced cell death could promote brain tissue restoration after stroke. Given the well-known anti-inflammatory and protective effects of adenosine (Ado) on other cell types following ischemia, we investigated the effects of Ado on MG during ischemia. Here, we provide preliminary evidence in an in-vitro model that exogenous Ado can attenuate MG cell death during stroke. Using cultured microglia-like BV2 cells in oxygen-glucose deprivation (OGD) conditions to mimic ischemic stroke, we found that application of 500 µM Ado during OGD significantly (p=.00002) reduced cell death (Cell Death Ratios- Control: 0.12±0.03, OGD: 0.23±0.08, OGD+500µM Ado: 0.08±0.03). Preliminary evidence also indicates that Ado (500 µM) protects parenchymal microglia against OGD in a neonatal mouse hippocampal slice model. We are currently investigating the receptor(s) (R) responsible for mediating the protection. Preliminary studies using 35 nM 2-Chloro-N6-cyclopentyladenosine (an A1-R agonist) and 200 nM CGS21680 (an A2A-R agonist) indicate that neither A1-R nor A2A-R alone are sufficient to cause the protective effects of Ado (p=0.70 and p=0.34 respectively). Using 2 nM ZM 241385 (an A2A-R antagonist) was also not able to block the protective effects of adenosine, indicating that the A2A-R is not necessary for this protective effect. To continue these experiments, we have begun to extend our project into a line of primary microglial cells, to create a model that is even closer to resident microglia during stroke. Moving forward, using both Ado-R agonists and antagonists to identify the specific Ado-R(s) protecting microglia during stroke would not only suggest a new role for adenosine in microglial signaling, but could also give rise to a new pharmaceutical target for either inducing or preventing microglial cell death during ischemia

Current Expected Credit Losses (CECL) Standard and Banks’ Information Production

We examine whether the adoption of the current expected credit losses (CECL) model, which reflects forward-looking information in loan loss provisions, improves banks’ information production. We find that CECL adopting banks’ loan loss provisions are timelier and better reflect future local economic conditions. Consistent with these outcomes resulting from better information production, we find that CECL adopting banks have fewer loan defaults and disclose more forward-looking information after adopting CECL. In addition, the improvement in the quality of loan loss provisions is greater for banks that invest more in CECL-related information systems and human capital, a plausible channel for improved information production. Finally, CECL adopters’ lending becomes less sensitive to economic uncertainty. Our findings suggest that banks benefit from better information quality by adopting a more forward-looking accounting standard

What does the current NAMA-space in South Africa look like? A TERI-NFA NAMA Country Report on South Africa

Attempting to open pdf gives an error message: Not Found The requested URL /Research_Articles/PDFS/14Boyd_etal_Current_NAMA_space.pdf was not found on this server. Apache/2.2.22 (Ubuntu) Server at admin.lib.uct.ac.za Port 80Internationally South Africa is regarded as a leader in Nationally Appropriate Mitigation Action (NAMA) development, but is this actually the case? Similarly to other countries, South Africa has yet to formally submit a NAMA to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change registry, nor have mitigation actions been articulated as NAMAs at a domestic policy level. This is not to say, however, that mitigation activities are not happening – in the areas of energy efficiency and renewable energy significant progress has been made in South Africa. Yet these cannot be attributed to the NAMA concept per se. Rather, the drivers relate to energy policy and – very broadly speaking – national climate change objectives as outlined in the current National Climate Change Response Strategy. This paper reviews how South African NAMAs are presented in international literature and how this compares to mitigation actions and national policy development and implementation. It finds that there is disjuncture between what is reflected in the literature and what is observable in South Africa

Science Outreach Collaboration with Upward Bound

As part of a science outreach collaboration with Upward Bound, a federal TRIO program that helps first-generation and low-income high school students prepare for postsecondary education, a Saturday symposium event was hosted where Upward Bound students were provided with hands-on, interactive science activities, in fields such as a biology, in order to encourage them to pursue careers in science

Propionibacterium acnes bacteriophages display limited genetic diversity and broad killing activity against bacterial skin isolates.

UnlabelledInvestigation of the human microbiome has revealed diverse and complex microbial communities at distinct anatomic sites. The microbiome of the human sebaceous follicle provides a tractable model in which to study its dominant bacterial inhabitant, Propionibacterium acnes, which is thought to contribute to the pathogenesis of the human disease acne. To explore the diversity of the bacteriophages that infect P. acnes, 11 P. acnes phages were isolated from the sebaceous follicles of donors with healthy skin or acne and their genomes were sequenced. Comparative genomic analysis of the P. acnes phage population, which spans a 30-year temporal period and a broad geographic range, reveals striking similarity in terms of genome length, percent GC content, nucleotide identity (>85%), and gene content. This was unexpected, given the far-ranging diversity observed in virtually all other phage populations. Although the P. acnes phages display a broad host range against clinical isolates of P. acnes, two bacterial isolates were resistant to many of these phages. Moreover, the patterns of phage resistance correlate closely with the presence of clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeat elements in the bacteria that target a specific subset of phages, conferring a system of prokaryotic innate immunity. The limited diversity of the P. acnes bacteriophages, which may relate to the unique evolutionary constraints imposed by the lipid-rich anaerobic environment in which their bacterial hosts reside, points to the potential utility of phage-based antimicrobial therapy for acne.ImportancePropionibacterium acnes is a dominant member of the skin microflora and has also been implicated in the pathogenesis of acne; however, little is known about the bacteriophages that coexist with and infect this bacterium. Here we present the novel genome sequences of 11 P. acnes phages, thereby substantially increasing the amount of available genomic information about this phage population. Surprisingly, we find that, unlike other well-studied bacteriophages, P. acnes phages are highly homogeneous and show a striking lack of genetic diversity, which is perhaps related to their unique and restricted habitat. They also share a broad ability to kill clinical isolates of P. acnes; phage resistance is not prevalent, but when detected, it appears to be conferred by chromosomally encoded immunity elements within the host genome. We believe that these phages display numerous features that would make them ideal candidates for the development of a phage-based therapy for acne