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Positron Emission Tomography-Computed Tomography (PET-CT) is routinely used for staging and monitoring of human cancer patients and is becoming increasingly available in veterinary medicine. In this study, 18-fluorodeoxyglucose (18FDG)-PET-CT was used in dogs with naturally occurring splenic hemangiosarcoma (HSA) to assess its utility as a staging and monitoring modality as compared to standard radiography and ultrasonography. Nine dogs with stage-2 HSA underwent 18FDG-PET-CT following splenectomy and prior to commencement of chemotherapy. Routine staging (thoracic radiography and abdominal ultrasonography) was performed prior to 18FDG-PET-CT in all dogs. When abnormalities not identified on routine tests were noted on 18FDG-PET-CT, owners were given the option to repeat a PET-CT following treatment with eBAT. A PET-CT scan was repeated on Day 21 in three dogs. Abnormalities not observed on conventional staging tools, and most consistent with malignant disease based on location, appearance, and outcome, were detected in two dogs and included a right atrial mass and a hepatic nodule, respectively. These lesions were larger and had higher metabolic activity on the second scans. 18FDG-PET-CT has potential to provide important prognostic information and influence treatment recommendations for dogs with stage-2 HSA. Additional studies will be needed to precisely define the value of this imaging tool for staging and therapy monitoring in dogs with this and other cancers.

We have fabricated a fully-flexible, focus-tunable microlens array on a sheet and demonstrated its imaging capabilities. Each liquid lens of the array is individually tunable via electrowetting on dielectric (EWOD) actuation and is situated on a polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) substrate, which allows the lens array to operate as a reconfigurable optical system. In particular, we observed a significant increase in the field of view (FOV) of the system to 40.4° by wrapping it on a cylindrical surface as compared to the FOV of 21.5° obtained by the array on a planer surface. We also characterized the liquid lenses of the system, observing a range of focus length from 20.2 mm to 9.2 mm as increased voltage was applied to each EWOD lens. A Shack−Hartmann wavefront sensor (SHWS) was used to measure the wavefront of the lens as it was actuated, and the aberrations of the lens were assessed by reporting the Zernike coefficients of the wavefronts.

Williams Syndrome (WS) is a neurodevelopmental disorder caused by a deletion of 25⁻28 genes on chromosome 7 and characterized by a specific behavioral phenotype, which includes hypersociability and anxiety. Here, we examined the density of neurons and glia in fourteen human brains in Brodmann area 25 (BA 25), in the ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC), using a postmortem sample of five adult and two infant WS brains and seven age-, sex- and hemisphere-matched typically developing control (TD) brains. We found decreased neuron density, which reached statistical significance in the supragranular layers, and increased glia density and glia to neuron ratio, which reached statistical significance in both supra- and infragranular layers. Combined with our previous findings in the amygdala, caudate nucleus and frontal pole (BA 10), these results in the vmPFC suggest that abnormalities in frontostriatal and frontoamygdala circuitry may contribute to the anxiety and atypical social behavior observed in WS.

For many emerging and re-emerging infectious diseases, definitive solutions via sterilizing adaptive immunity may require years or decades to develop, if they are even possible. The innate immune system offers alternative mechanisms that do not require antigen-specific recognition or a priori knowledge of the causative agent. However, it is unclear whether effective stable innate immune system activation can be achieved without triggering harmful autoimmunity or other chronic inflammatory sequelae. Here, we show that transgenic expression of a picornavirus RNA-dependent RNA polymerase (RdRP), in the absence of other viral proteins, can profoundly reconfigure mammalian innate antiviral immunity by exposing the normally membrane-sequestered RdRP activity to sustained innate immune detection. RdRP-transgenic mice have life-long, quantitatively dramatic upregulation of 80 interferon-stimulated genes (ISGs) and show profound resistance to normally lethal viral challenge. Multiple crosses with defined knockout mice (Rag1, Mda5, Mavs, Ifnar1, Ifngr1, and Tlr3) established that the mechanism operates via MDA5 and MAVS and is fully independent of the adaptive immune system. Human cell models recapitulated the key features with striking fidelity, with the RdRP inducing an analogous ISG network and a strict block to HIV-1 infection. This RdRP-mediated antiviral mechanism does not depend on secondary structure within the RdRP mRNA but operates at the protein level and requires RdRP catalysis. Importantly, despite lifelong massive ISG elevations, RdRP mice are entirely healthy, with normal longevity. Our data reveal that a powerfully augmented MDA5-mediated activation state can be a well-tolerated mammalian innate immune system configuration. These results provide a foundation for augmenting innate immunity to achieve broad-spectrum antiviral protection.

Actin is important for a variety of cellular processes, including uptake of extracellular material and intracellular transport. Several emerging lines of evidence indicate that herpesviruses exploit actin and actin-associated myosin motors for viral entry, intranuclear transport of capsids, and virion egress. The goal of this review is to explore these processes and to highlight potential future directions for this area of research.

This study examines an aspect of gender and racial/ethnic gaps in undergraduate computing by focusing on sense of belonging among women and underrepresented minority (URM) introductory computing students. We examine change in sense of belonging during the introductory course as well as the predictors of belonging, with attention to conditional effects by gender and URM status. Results show that sense of belonging outcomes are a product of both incoming student characteristics and college environments and experiences, highlighting the important role the computing faculty play in fostering belonging. These and other findings are discussed, focusing on sense of belonging among women, URM students, and URM women.

In mid-May 2007, a respiratory disease outbreak associated with adenovirus, serotype B14 (Ad14), was recognized at a large military basic training facility in Texas. The affected population was highly mobile; after the 6-week basic training course, trainees immediately dispersed to advanced training sites worldwide. Accordingly, enhanced surveillance and control efforts were instituted at sites receiving the most trainees. Specimens from patients with pneumonia or febrile respiratory illness were tested for respiratory pathogens by using cultures and reverse transcription–PCR. During May through October 2007, a total of 959 specimens were collected from 21 sites; 43.1% were adenovirus positive; the Ad14 serotype accounted for 95.3% of adenovirus isolates. Ad14 was identified at 8 sites in California, Florida, Mississippi, Texas, and South Korea. Ad14 spread readily to secondary sites after the initial outbreak. Military and civilian planners must consider how best to control the spread of infectious respiratory diseases in highly mobile populations traveling between diverse geographic locations.

BackgroundWhether pembrolizumab given both before surgery (neoadjuvant therapy) and after surgery (adjuvant therapy), as compared with pembrolizumab given as adjuvant therapy alone, would increase event-free survival among patients with resectable stage III or IV melanoma is unknown.MethodsIn a phase 2 trial, we randomly assigned patients with clinically detectable, measurable stage IIIB to IVC melanoma that was amenable to surgical resection to three doses of neoadjuvant pembrolizumab, surgery, and 15 doses of adjuvant pembrolizumab (neoadjuvant-adjuvant group) or to surgery followed by pembrolizumab (200 mg intravenously every 3 weeks for a total of 18 doses) for approximately 1 year or until disease recurred or unacceptable toxic effects developed (adjuvant-only group). The primary end point was event-free survival in the intention-to-treat population. Events were defined as disease progression or toxic effects that precluded surgery; the inability to resect all gross disease; disease progression, surgical complications, or toxic effects of treatment that precluded the initiation of adjuvant therapy within 84 days after surgery; recurrence of melanoma after surgery; or death from any cause. Safety was also evaluated.ResultsAt a median follow-up of 14.7 months, the neoadjuvant-adjuvant group (154 patients) had significantly longer event-free survival than the adjuvant-only group (159 patients) (P = 0.004 by the log-rank test). In a landmark analysis, event-free survival at 2 years was 72% (95% confidence interval [CI], 64 to 80) in the neoadjuvant-adjuvant group and 49% (95% CI, 41 to 59) in the adjuvant-only group. The percentage of patients with treatment-related adverse events of grades 3 or higher during therapy was 12% in the neoadjuvant-adjuvant group and 14% in the adjuvant-only group.ConclusionsAmong patients with resectable stage III or IV melanoma, event-free survival was significantly longer among those who received pembrolizumab both before and after surgery than among those who received adjuvant pembrolizumab alone. No new toxic effects were identified. (Funded by the National Cancer Institute and Merck Sharp and Dohme; S1801 ClinicalTrials.gov number, NCT03698019.).

Women who contract a viral or bacterial infection during pregnancy have an increased risk of giving birth to a child with a neurodevelopmental or psychiatric disorder. The effects of maternal infection are likely mediated by the maternal immune response, as preclinical animal models have confirmed that maternal immune activation (MIA) leads to long lasting changes in offspring brain and behavior development. The present study sought to determine the impact of MIA-exposure during the first or second trimester on neuronal morphology in dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) and hippocampus from brain tissue obtained from MIA-exposed and control male rhesus monkey (Macaca mulatta) during late adolescence. MIA-exposed offspring display increased neuronal dendritic branching in pyramidal cells in DLPFC infra- and supragranular layers relative to controls, with no significant differences observed between offspring exposed to maternal infection in the first and second trimester. In addition, the diameter of apical dendrites in DLPFC infragranular layer is significantly decreased in MIA-exposed offspring relative to controls, irrespective of trimester exposure. In contrast, alterations in hippocampal neuronal morphology of MIA-exposed offspring were not evident. These findings demonstrate that a maternal immune challenge during pregnancy has long-term consequences for primate offspring dendritic structure, selectively in a brain region vital for socioemotional and cognitive development.

PurposeCombination programmed cell death protein 1/cytotoxic T-cell lymphocyte-4-blockade and dual BRAF/MEK inhibition have each shown significant clinical benefit in patients with BRAFV600-mutant metastatic melanoma, leading to broad regulatory approval. Little prospective data exist to guide the choice of either initial therapy or treatment sequence in this population. This study was conducted to determine which initial treatment or treatment sequence produced the best efficacy.Patients and methodsIn a phase III trial, patients with treatment-naive BRAFV600-mutant metastatic melanoma were randomly assigned to receive either combination nivolumab/ipilimumab (arm A) or dabrafenib/trametinib (arm B) in step 1, and at disease progression were enrolled in step 2 to receive the alternate therapy, dabrafenib/trametinib (arm C) or nivolumab/ipilimumab (arm D). The primary end point was 2-year overall survival (OS). Secondary end points were 3-year OS, objective response rate, response duration, progression-free survival, crossover feasibility, and safety.ResultsA total of 265 patients were enrolled, with 73 going onto step 2 (27 in arm C and 46 in arm D). The study was stopped early by the independent Data Safety Monitoring Committee because of a clinically significant end point being achieved. The 2-year OS for those starting on arm A was 71.8% (95% CI, 62.5 to 79.1) and arm B 51.5% (95% CI, 41.7 to 60.4; log-rank P = .010). Step 1 progression-free survival favored arm A (P = .054). Objective response rates were arm A: 46.0%; arm B: 43.0%; arm C: 47.8%; and arm D: 29.6%. Median duration of response was not reached for arm A and 12.7 months for arm B (P < .001). Crossover occurred in 52% of patients with documented disease progression. Grade ≥ 3 toxicities occurred with similar frequency between arms, and regimen toxicity profiles were as anticipated.ConclusionCombination nivolumab/ipilimumab followed by BRAF and MEK inhibitor therapy, if necessary, should be the preferred treatment sequence for a large majority of patients.

Electrowetting-on-dielectric (EWOD) is a fast, well-established actuation method for a variety of applications, from microfluidics to electrowetting displays to electrowetting lenses. We therefore seek to develop a robust, scalable fabrication method for the realization of EWOD on a flexible polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) substrate in order to increase the range of possible applications. We fabricated a 5 × 5 array of individually controlled electrowetting cells to manipulate silicone oil droplets via EWOD. The fabrication process utilized exclusively flexible materials to improve the robustness of the overall device, and processing methods were adapted to accommodate the particular challenges posed by flexible materials. Simulation of the EWOD devices was conducted using ANSYS Fluent and showed the change in contact angle in response to voltage applied. Fabricated devices were also tested, with actuation of the oil droplet observed with up to 100 V (RMS) AC applied across underlying electrodes. We demonstrated fabrication of a fully flexible array and verified actuation to center droplets over the electrodes. This work may be expanded to address more specific flexible applications for EWOD.

Glen J Pearson1,5, Kari L Olson6, Nicole E Panich1, Sumit R Majumdar2,5, Ross T Tsuyuki1,4, Dawna M Gilchrist2,5, Ali Damani4, Gordon A Francis3,5The MILLARR Study (Maintenance of Improved Lipid Levels Following Attendance at a Cardiovascular Risk Reduction Clinic) 1Department of Medicine, Divisions of Cardiology; 2General Internal Medicine; 3Endocrinology and Metabolism; Faculty of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences; 4University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada; 5Cardiovascular Risk Reduction Clinic (CRRC), University of Alberta Hospital, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada; 6University of Colorado Health Sciences Center, Denver, Colorado, USA; 7Family Medicine (Private Practice), Calgary, Alberta, CanadaBackground: Specialty cardiovascular risk reduction clinics (CRRC) increase the proportion of patients attaining recommended lipid targets; however, it is not known if the benefits are sustained after discharge. We evaluated the impact of a CRRC on lipid levels and assessed the long-term effect of a CRRC in maintaining improved lipid levels following discharge.Methods: The medical records of consecutive dyslipidemic patients discharged >6 months from a tertiary hospital CRRC from January 1991 to January 2001 were retrospectively reviewed. The primary outcome was the change in patients’ lipid levels between the final CRRC visit and the most recent primary care follow-up. A worst-case analysis was conducted to evaluate the potential impact of the patients in whom the follow-up lipid profiles post-discharge from the CRRC were not obtained.Results: Within the CRRC (median follow-up = 1.28 years in 1064 patients), we observed statistically significant improvements in all lipid parameters. In the 411 patients for whom post-discharge lipid profiles were available (median follow-up = 2.41 years), there were no significant differences observed in low-density lipoprotein-cholesterol, total cholesterol (TC), or triglycerides since CRRC discharge; however, there were small improvements in high-density lipoprotein-cholesterol (HDL-C) and TC:HDL ratio (p < 0.05 for both). The unadjusted worst-case analysis (653 patients with no follow-up lipid profiles) demonstrated statistically significant worsening of all lipid parameters between CRRC discharge and the most recent follow-up. However, when the change in lipid parameters between the baseline and the most recent follow-up was assessed in this analysis, the changes in all lipid parameters were significantly improved (p < 0.05).Conclusions: This study demonstrates that a CRRC can improve lipid levels and suggests that these benefits are sustained once patients are returned to the care of their primary physician.Keywords: cardiovascular risk factors, dyslipidemia, outcomes, pharmacotherapy, secondary prevention

Background: Though the importance of the transmembrane mucin MUC1 in mammary oncogenesis has long been recognized, the relative contributions of the cytoplasmic tail and tandem repeat domains are poorly understood.Methods: To address this, mouse models of mammary carcinogenesis were created expressing full-length, cytoplasmic tail-deleted, or tandem repeat-deleted MUC1 constructs.Results: Overexpression of full-length MUC1 resulted in tumor formation in young mice (12 months); however, loss of either the cytoplasmic tail or the tandem repeat domain abrogated this oncogenic capacity. Aged mice in all strains developed late-onset mammary tumors similar to those previously described for the FVB background.Conclusions: This study is the fi rst spontaneous cancer model to address the relative importance of the cytoplasmic tail and tandem repeat domains to MUC1-driven mammary oncogenesis, and suggests that both of these domains are essential for tumor formation.

The correlation between diet and dental topography is of importance to paleontologists seeking to diagnose ecological adaptations in extinct taxa. Although the subject is well represented in the literature, few studies directly compare methods or evaluate dietary signals conveyed by both upper and lower molars. Here, we address this gap in our knowledge by comparing the efficacy of three measures of functional morphology for classifying an ecologically diverse sample of thirteen medium- to large-bodied platyrrhines by diet category (e.g., folivore, frugivore, hard object feeder). We used Shearing Quotient (SQ), an index derived from linear measurements of molar cutting edges and two indices of crown surface topography, Occlusal Relief (OR) and Relief Index (RFI). Using SQ, OR, and RFI, individuals were then classified by dietary category using Discriminate Function Analysis. Both upper and lower molar variables produce high classification rates in assigning individuals to diet categories, but lower molars are consistently more successful. SQs yield the highest classification rates. RFI and OR generally perform above chance. Upper molar RFI has a success rate below the level of chance. Adding molar length enhances the discriminatory power for all variables. We conclude that upper molar SQs are useful for dietary reconstruction, especially when combined with body size information. Additionally, we find that among our sample of platyrrhines, SQ remains the strongest predictor of diet, while RFI is less useful at signaling dietary differences in absence of body size information. The study demonstrates new ways for inferring the diets of extinct platyrrhine primates when both upper and lower molars are available, or, for taxa known only from upper molars. The techniques are useful in reconstructing diet in stem representatives of anthropoid clade, who share key aspects of molar morphology with extant platyrrhines.

The single leg squat and single leg step down are two commonly used functional tasks to assess movement patterns. It is unknown how kinematics compare between these tasks. The purpose of this study was to identify kinematic differences in the lower extremity, pelvis and trunk between the single leg squat and the step down. Fourteen healthy individuals participated in this research and performed the functional tasks while kinematic data were collected for the trunk, pelvis, and lower extremities using a motion capture system. For the single leg squat task, the participant was instructed to squat as low as possible. For the step down task, the participant was instructed to stand on top of a box, slowly lower him/herself until the non-stance heel touched the ground, and return to standing. This was done from two different heights (16 cm and 24 cm). The kinematics were evaluated at peak knee flexion as well as at 60° of knee flexion. Pearson correlation coefficients (r) between the angles at those two time points were also calculated to better understand the relationship between each task. The tasks resulted in kinematics differences at the knee, hip, pelvis, and trunk at both time points. The single leg squat was performed with less hip adduction (p ≤ 0.003), but more hip external rotation and knee abduction (p ≤ 0.030), than the step down tasks at 60° of knee flexion. These differences were maintained at peak knee flexion except hip external rotation was only significant in the 24 cm step down task (p ≤ 0.029). While there were multiple differences between the two step heights at peak knee flexion, the only difference at 60° of knee flexion was in trunk flexion (p < 0.001). Angles at the knee and hip had a moderate to excellent correlation (r = 0.51-0.98), but less consistently so at the pelvis and trunk (r = 0.21-0.96). The differences in movement patterns between the single leg squat and the step down should be considered when selecting a single leg task for evaluation or treatment. The high correlation of knee and hip angles between the three tasks indicates that similar information about knee and hip kinematics was gained from each of these tasks, while pelvis and trunk angles were less well predicted.

Increasingly, functional and evolutionary research has highlighted the important contribution emotion processing makes to complex human social cognition. As such, it may be asked whether neural structures involved in emotion processing, commonly referred to as limbic structures, have been impacted in human brain evolution. To address this question, we performed an extensive evolutionary analysis of multiple limbic structures using modern phylogenetic tools. For this analysis, we combined new volumetric data for the hominoid (human and ape) amygdala and 4 amygdaloid nuclei, hippocampus, and striatum, collected using stereological methods in complete histological series, with previously published datasets on the amygdala, orbital and medial frontal cortex, and insula, as well as a non-limbic structure, the dorsal frontal cortex, for contrast. We performed a parallel analysis using large published datasets including many anthropoid species (human, ape, and monkey), but fewer hominoids, for the amygdala and 2 amygdaloid subdivisions, hippocampus, schizocortex, striatum, and septal nuclei. To address evolutionary change, we compared observed human values to values predicted from regressions run through a) nonhuman hominoids and b) nonhuman anthropoids, assessing phylogenetic influence using phylogenetic generalized least squares regression.Compared with other hominoids, the volumes of the hippocampus, the lateral nucleus of the amygdala, and the orbital frontal cortex were, respectively, 50%, 37%, and 11% greater in humans than predicted for an ape of human hemisphere volume, while the medial and dorsal frontal cortex were, respectively, 26% and 29% significantly smaller. Compared with other anthropoids, only human values for the striatum fell significantly below predicted values. Overall, the data present support for the idea that regions involved in emotion processing are not necessarily conserved or regressive, but may even be enhanced in recent human evolution.

Ectopic ovaries are a rare finding in the literature, with fewer than 50 published cases to date. This phenomenon has been found in the omentum, bladder, mesentery, and uterus; attached to the colon; inside the left labia majora; and in the kidney. Various etiologies have been proposed, including postsurgical or postinflammatory transplantation, malignant origins, and abnormal embryologic development. We report the ultrasonographic, computed tomographic (CT), and magnetic resonance (MR) imaging of, what is to the best of our knowledge, the first case of an intrahepatic ectopic ovary.

Ableism is the systematic oppression of and prejudice toward individuals with disabilities due to the idealization of nondisabled bodies and minds. Despite legislation aimed at broadening the rights of individuals with disabilities, ableism persists, including in classrooms of postsecondary institutions and within the field social work. However, changes can be made with adoption of the social model of disability, and in applying Universal Design for Learning (UDL). UDL offers a more holistic framework for curriculum and instruction, benefiting institutions of higher education in the education and retention of individuals with disabilities, and more importantly, individuals with disabilities themselves. This analysis examines UDL as a potential solution for reducing ableism in institutions of higher education and the field of social work.

Late adolescence is a period of dynamic change in the brain as humans learn to navigate increasingly complex environments. In particular, prefrontal cortical (PFC) regions undergo extensive remodeling as the brain is fine-tuned to orchestrate cognitive control over attention, reasoning, and emotions. Late adolescence also presents a uniquely vulnerable period as neurodevelopmental illnesses, such as schizophrenia, become evident and worsen into young adulthood. Challenges in early development, including prenatal exposure to infection, may set the stage for a cascade of maladaptive events that ultimately result in aberrant PFC connectivity and function before symptoms emerge. A growing body of research suggests that activation of the mother's immune system during pregnancy may act as a disease primer, in combination with other environmental and genetic factors, contributing to an increased risk of neurodevelopmental disorders, including schizophrenia. Animal models provide an invaluable opportunity to examine the course of brain and behavioral changes in offspring exposed to maternal immune activation (MIA). Although the vast majority of MIA research has been carried out in rodents, here we highlight the translational utility of the nonhuman primate (NHP) as a model species more closely related to humans in PFC structure and function. In this review, we consider the protracted period of brain and behavioral maturation in the NHP, describe emerging findings from MIA NHP offspring in the context of rodent preclinical models, and lastly explore the translational relevance of the NHP MIA model to expand understanding of the etiology and developmental course of PFC pathology in schizophrenia.

K-12 special education policies and practices that ensure students with disabilities receive a free appropriate public education in the least restrictive environment are coming under pressure from rapid expansion of online learning. Forty-six state and non-state jurisdiction special education directors responded to a brief survey about K-12 online learning. Findings demonstrated the increased number of states providing online instruction; indicated students with many different types of disabilities participate in online learning; and described the directors’ reflections on current issues as well as anticipated barriers to students with disabilities participating in online learning. Ambiguity and variability existed across state policies as each state may have been in a different stage of adopting this relatively new approach to K-12 education. The authors suggest that federal guidance might be required to safeguard the civil rights of students with disabilities in online learning.

Visual exploration in primates depends on saccadic eye movements that cause alternations of neural suppression and enhancement. This modulation extends beyond retinotopic areas, and is thought to facilitate perception; yet saccades may also influence brain regions critical for forming memories of these exploratory episodes. The hippocampus, for example, shows oscillatory activity that is generally associated with encoding of information. Whether or how hippocampal oscillations are influenced by eye movements is unknown. We recorded the neural activity in the human and macaque hippocampus during visual scene search. Across species, saccadic eye movements were associated with a time-limited alignment of a low-frequency (3-8 Hz) rhythm. The phase alignment depended on the task and not only on eye movements per se, and the frequency band was not a direct consequence of saccade rate. Hippocampal theta-frequency oscillations are produced by other mammals during repetitive exploratory behaviors, including whisking, sniffing, echolocation and locomotion. The present results may reflect a similar yet distinct primate homologue supporting active perception during exploration.

Some hemoproteins have the structural robustness to withstand extraction of the heme cofactor and replacement with a heme analog. Recent reports have reignited interest and exploration in this field by demonstrating the versatility of these systems. Heme binding proteins can be utilized as protein scaffolds to support heme analogs that can facilitate new reactivity by noncovalent bonding at the heme-binding site utilizing the proximal ligand for support. These substituted hemoproteins have the capability to enhance catalytic reactivity and functionality comparatively to their native forms. This review will focus on progress and recent advances of artificially engineered hemoproteins utilized as a new target for the development of biocatalysts.

Understanding the interactions of plants with beneficial and pathogenic microbes is a promising avenue to improve crop productivity and agriculture sustainability. Proteomic techniques provide a unique angle to describe these intricate interactions and test hypotheses. The various approaches for proteome analysis generally include protein/peptide separation and identification, but can also provide quantification and the characterization of post-translational modifications. In this review, we discuss how these techniques have been applied to the study to plant-microbe interactions. We also present some areas where this field of study would benefit from the utilization of newly developed methods that overcome previous limitations. Finally, we reinforce the need for expanding, integrating, and curating protein databases, as well as the benefits of combining protein-level datasets with genetics and other high-throughput large-scale approaches for a systems-level understanding of plant-microbe interactions.

Managing endangered species often involves evaluating the relative impacts of multiple anthropogenic and ecological pressures. This challenge is particularly formidable for cetaceans, which spend the majority of their time underwater. Noninvasive physiological approaches can be especially informative in this regard. We used a combination of fecal thyroid (T3) and glucocorticoid (GC) hormone measures to assess two threats influencing the endangered southern resident killer whales (SRKW; Orcinus orca) that frequent the inland waters of British Columbia, Canada and Washington, U.S.A. Glucocorticoids increase in response to nutritional and psychological stress, whereas thyroid hormone declines in response to nutritional stress but is unaffected by psychological stress. The inadequate prey hypothesis argues that the killer whales have become prey limited due to reductions of their dominant prey, Chinook salmon (Oncorhynchus tshawytscha). The vessel impact hypothesis argues that high numbers of vessels in close proximity to the whales cause disturbance via psychological stress and/or impaired foraging ability. The GC and T3 measures supported the inadequate prey hypothesis. In particular, GC concentrations were negatively correlated with short-term changes in prey availability. Whereas, T3 concentrations varied by date and year in a manner that corresponded with more long-term prey availability. Physiological correlations with prey overshadowed any impacts of vessels since GCs were lowest during the peak in vessel abundance, which also coincided with the peak in salmon availability. Our results suggest that identification and recovery of strategic salmon populations in the SRKW diet are important to effectively promote SRKW recovery.

Antecedent interventions are often used preventatively to address engagement, but few studies have evaluated their effectiveness with students at risk for disability. This study evaluated the effectiveness of two commonly recommended antecedent interventions that have limited empirical support for use with students at risk: social stories and visual supports. Both interventions were evaluated separately in the context of two single-case alternating treatments designs across five elementary students at risk for emotional and behavioral disorders. Social stories were not effective for improving students' levels of engagement during targeted activities; visual supports resulted in increases in students' engagement relative to baseline conditions. Future use of visual supports for students at risk should include evaluations of the feasibility of implementation by teaching staff.

Numerous American national committees have recommended the replacement of traditional labs with a more engaging curriculum that inspires inquiry and enhances scientific skills (examples include the President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST)'s Engage to Excel program and American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) Vision and Change, among others), due to a large body of evidence that shows significant enhancements in student learning and affective outcomes. The implementation of Course-Based Undergraduate Research Experiences (CUREs) is a creative way to scale up the deployment of authentic research experiences to students. Another highly regarded high-impact practice in postsecondary education is the addition of learning communities. The integration of a three-course learning community and authentic research experiences to laboratory courses adds both a community of scholarship and a development of scientific communication and process skills. This study describes a course that blends these two high-impact practices in higher education in order to promote greater post-course gains in essential elements of a CURE curriculum. This collaborative course shows large post-course gains in essential elements, such as scientific communication and working collaboratively.

Tests of recognition memory in macaques typically assay memory for objects or isolated images, over time spans of seconds to hours from stimulus presentation, and/or require extensive training. Here, we propose a new application of the flicker change detection task that could measure object-in-scene memory days after single-trial exposures. In three experiments, participants searched for a changing object - or ‘target’ - embedded within a scene as their eye movements were tracked. For new targets-in-scenes, the change is difficult to detect and requires extensive search. Once the target is found, however, the change becomes obvious. We reasoned that the decreased times required to find a target in a repeated scene would indicate memory for the target. In humans, targets were found faster when the targets and scenes were explicitly remembered than when they were forgotten, or had never been seen before. This led to faster repeated-trial compared to novel-trial search times. Based solely on repeated-trial search times, we were able to select distributions comprised of predominantly remembered or predominantly forgotten trials. Macaques exhibited the same repetition effects as humans, suggesting that remembered trials could be dissociated from novel or forgotten trials using the same procedures we established in humans. Finally, an anterograde amnesic patient with damage that included the medial temporal lobe showed no search time differences, suggesting that memory revealed through search times on this task requires medial temporal lobe integrity. Together, these findings indicate that the time required to locate a changing object reveals object-in-scene memory over long retention intervals in humans and macaques.

Auditory and visual signals often occur together, and the two sensory channels are known to infl uence each other to facilitate perception. The neural basis of this integration is not well understood, although other forms of multisensory infl uences have been shown to occur at surprisingly early stages of processing in cortex. Primary visual cortex neurons can show frequency-tuning to auditory stimuli, and auditory cortex responds selectively to certain somatosensory stimuli, supporting the possibility that complex visual signals may modulate early stages of auditory processing. To elucidate which auditory regions, if any, are responsive to complex visual stimuli, we recorded from auditory cortex and the superior temporal sulcus while presenting visual stimuli consisting of various objects, neutral faces, and facial expressions generated during vocalization. Both objects and conspecifi c faces elicited robust fi eld potential responses in auditory cortex sites, but the responses varied by category: both neutral and vocalizing faces had a highly consistent negative component (N100) followed by a broader positive component (P180) whereas object responses were more variable in time and shape, but could be discriminated consistently from the responses to faces. The face response did not vary within the face category, i.e., for expressive vs. neutral face stimuli. The presence of responses for both objects and neutral faces suggests that auditory cortex receives highly informative visual input that is not restricted to those stimuli associated with auditory components. These results reveal selectivity for complex visual stimuli in a brain region conventionally described as non-visual unisensory cortex.

The course-based research experience (CRE) with its documented educational benefits is increasingly being implemented in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics education. This article reports on a study that was done over a period of 3 years to explicate the instructional processes involved in teaching an undergraduate CRE. One hundred and two instructors from the established and large multi-institutional SEA-PHAGES program were surveyed for their understanding of the aims and practices of CRE teaching. This was followed by large-scale feedback sessions with the cohort of instructors at the annual SEA Faculty Meeting and subsequently with a small focus group of expert CRE instructors. Using a qualitative content analysis approach, the survey data were analyzed for the aims of inquiry instruction and pedagogical practices used to achieve these goals. The results characterize CRE inquiry teaching as involving three instructional models: 1) being a scientist and generating data; 2) teaching procedural knowledge; and 3) fostering project ownership. Each of these models is explicated and visualized in terms of the specific pedagogical practices and their relationships. The models present a complex picture of the ways in which CRE instruction is conducted on a daily basis and can inform instructors and institutions new to CRE teaching.