Leadership for Social Justice: Capacity-Building Resource Manual

This manual supports the development of new leaders committed to social justice. As a resource for facilitators of workshops and other education and training events, it shares session designs, exercises, handouts, short readings, and other materials that were developed through our work on Leadership for Social Justice Institutes organized at the request of the Ford Foundation International Fellowships Program

Molecular basis for passive immunotherapy of Alzheimer's disease

Amyloid aggregates of the amyloid-{beta} (A{beta}) peptide are implicated in the pathology of Alzheimer's disease. Anti-A{beta} monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) have been shown to reduce amyloid plaques in vitro and in animal studies. Consequently, passive immunization is being considered for treating Alzheimer's, and anti-A{beta} mAbs are now in phase II trials. We report the isolation of two mAbs (PFA1 and PFA2) that recognize A{beta} monomers, protofibrils, and fibrils and the structures of their antigen binding fragments (Fabs) in complex with the A{beta}(1–8) peptide DAEFRHDS. The immunodominant EFRHD sequence forms salt bridges, hydrogen bonds, and hydrophobic contacts, including interactions with a striking WWDDD motif of the antigen binding fragments. We also show that a similar sequence (AKFRHD) derived from the human protein GRIP1 is able to cross-react with both PFA1 and PFA2 and, when cocrystallized with PFA1, binds in an identical conformation to A{beta}(1–8). Because such cross-reactivity has implications for potential side effects of immunotherapy, our structures provide a template for designing derivative mAbs that target A{beta} with improved specificity and higher affinity

Greenland ice sheet surface temperature, melt and mass loss : 2000-06

Author Posting. © International Glaciological Society, 2008. This article is posted here by permission of International Glaciological Society for personal use, not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in Journal of Glaciology 54 (2008): 81-93, doi:10.3189/002214308784409170.A daily time series of 'clear-sky' surface temperature has been compiled of the Greenland ice sheet (GIS) using 1 km resolution moderate-resolution imaging spectroradiometer (MODIS) land-surface temperature (LST) maps from 2000 to 2006. We also used mass-concentration data from the Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) to study mass change in relationship to surface melt from 2003 to 2006. The mean LST of the GIS increased during the study period by ∼0.27°C a−1. The increase was especially notable in the northern half of the ice sheet during the winter months. Melt-season length and timing were also studied in each of the six major drainage basins. Rapid (<15 days) and sustained mass loss below 2000 m elevation was triggered in 2004 and 2005 as recorded by GRACE when surface melt begins. Initiation of large-scale surface melt was followed rapidly by mass loss. This indicates that surface meltwater is flowing rapidly to the base of the ice sheet, causing acceleration of outlet glaciers, thus highlighting the metastability of parts of the GIS and the vulnerability of the ice sheet to air-temperature increases. If air temperatures continue to rise over Greenland, increased surface melt will play a large role in ice-sheet mass loss.This work was supported by NASA’s Cryospheric Sciences Program

Establishing the entatic state in folding metallated Pseudomonas aeruginosa azurin

Understanding how the folding of proteins establishes their functional characteristics at the molecular level challenges both theorists and experimentalists. The simplest test beds for confronting this issue are provided by electron transfer proteins. The environment provided by the folded protein to the cofactor tunes the metal's electron transport capabilities as envisioned in the entatic hypothesis. To see how the entatic state is achieved one must study how the folding landscape affects and in turn is affected by the metal. Here, we develop a coarse-grained functional to explicitly model how the coordination of the metal (which results in a so-called entatic or rack-induced state) modifies the folding of the metallated Pseudomonas aeruginosa azurin. Our free-energy functional-based approach directly yields the proper nonlinear extra-thermodynamic free energy relationships for the kinetics of folding the wild type and several point-mutated variants of the metallated protein. The results agree quite well with corresponding laboratory experiments. Moreover, our modified free-energy functional provides a sufficient level of detail to explicitly model how the geometric entatic state of the metal modifies the dynamic folding nucleus of azurin

The Ursinus Weekly, January 23, 1969

Williams presents Aesthetic Japan • USGA announces students named to Ursinus Board • Cut system modified for failing students • Ursinus obtains Gulf Oil grant • Merck & Co. awards research grant to UC • Final examination schedule • Confrontation: Black vs. white • Editorial: Another chapter in the ongoing inquiry in the higher morality as precepted and pursued on the Ursinus College campus • Letters to the editor • Exchange • Underground films debut at Ursinus • Editorial: Neglected issues • Faculty portrait: Dr. Levie Van Dam • Freeland spirit pervades • Parents O.K. strict rules • Bears drop three, fall to PMC, 61-60 • UC matmen down Albright squad • The President casts a vote for football • Greek gleanings • Committee deliberates on Ursinus centennial • A.C.A.C. initiates graduate services • Placement Office posts interviewshttps://digitalcommons.ursinus.edu/weekly/1169/thumbnail.jp

Molecular tracers of PDR-dominated galaxies

Photon-dominated regions (PDRs) are powerful molecular line emitters in external galaxies. They are expected in galaxies with high rates of massive star formation due to either starburst (SB) events or starburst coupled with active galactic nuclei (AGN) events. We have explored the PDR chemistry for a range of physical conditions representing a variety of galaxy types. Our main result is a demonstration of the sensitivity of the chemistry to changes in the physical conditions. We adopt crude estimates of relevant physical parameters for several galaxy types and use our models to predict suitable molecular tracers of those conditions. The set of recommended molecular tracers differs from that which we recommended for use in galaxies with embedded massive stars. Thus, molecular observations can in principle be used to distinguish between excitation by starburst and by SB+AGN in distant galaxies. Our recommendations are intended to be useful in preparing Herschel and ALMA proposals to identify sources of excitation in galaxies.Comment: 18 pages, 6 figures, Accepted in Ap

The properties of SCUBA cores in the Perseus molecular cloud: the bias of clump-finding algorithms

We present a new analysis of the properties of star-forming cores in the Perseus molecular cloud, identified in SCUBA 850 micron data. Our goal is to determine which core properties can be robustly identified and which depend on the extraction technique. Four regions in the cloud are examined: NGC1333, IC348/HH211, L1448 and L1455. We identify clumps of dust emission using two popular automated algorithms, CLFIND and GAUSSCLUMPS, finding 85 and 122 clumps in total respectively. Some trends are true for both populations: clumps become increasingly elongated over time and are consistent with constant surface brightness objects, with an average brightness ~4 to 10 times larger than the surrounding molecular cloud; the clump mass distribution (CMD) resembles the stellar intial mass function, with a slope alpha = -2.0+/-0.1 for CLFIND and alpha = -3.15+/-0.08 for GAUSSCLUMPS, which straddle the Salpeter value. The mass at which the slope shallows (similar for both algorithms at M~6 Msun) implies a star-forming efficiency of between 10 and 20 per cent. Other trends reported elsewhere depend on the clump-finding technique: we find protostellar clumps are both smaller (for GAUSSCLUMPS) and larger (for CLFIND) than their starless counterparts; the functional form, best-fitting to the CMD, is different for the two algorithms. The GAUSSCLUMPS CMD is best-fitted with a log-normal distribution, whereas a broken power law is best for CLFIND; the reported lack of massive starless cores in previous studies can be seen in the CLFIND but not the GAUSSCLUMPS data. Our approach highlights similarities and differences between the clump populations, illustrating the caution that must be exercised when comparing results from different studies and interpreting the properties of continuum cores.Comment: 19 pages, 17 figures, accepted for publication by MNRA

Surface warming hiatus caused by increased heat uptake across multiple ocean basins

The first decade of the twenty-first century was characterised by a hiatus in global surface warming. Using ocean model hindcasts and reanalyses we show that heat uptake between the 1990s and 2000s increased by 0.7 ± 0.3Wm−2. Approximately 30% of the increase is associated with colder sea surface temperatures in the eastern Pacific. Other basins contribute via reduced heat loss to the atmosphere, in particular the Southern and subtropical Indian Oceans (30%), and the subpolar North Atlantic (40%). A different mechanism is important at longer timescales (1960s-present) over which the Southern Annular Mode trended upwards. In this period, increased ocean heat uptake has largely arisen from reduced heat loss associated with reduced winds over the Agulhas Return Current and southward displacement of Southern Ocean westerlies