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The global pandemic of COVID-19 brought about the transition to Emergency Remote Teaching (ERT) at higher education institutions across the United States, prompting both students and the faculty to rapidly adjust to a different modality of teaching and learning. Other crises have induced disruptions to academic continuity (e.g., earthquakes, hurricanes), but not to the same extent as COVID-19, which has affected universities on a global scale. In this paper, we describe a qualitative case study where we interviewed 11 second-year Integrated Engineering students during the Spring 2020 semester to explore how they adapted to the transition to remote learning. Our results revealed several student challenges, how they used self-discipline strategies to overcome them, and how the faculty supported students in the classroom through a compassionate and flexible pedagogy. Faculty members showed compassion and flexibility by adjusting the curriculum and assessment and effectively communicating with students. This was especially important for the women participants in this study, who more frequently expressed utilizing pass/fail grading and the personal and gendered challenges they faced due to the pandemic. During this unprecedented crisis, we found that a key element for supporting students' well-being and success is the faculty members communicating care and incorporating flexibility into their courses.

The following is a concise review of the Pediatric Pulmonary Medicine Core reviewing pediatric pulmonary infections, diagnostic assays, and imaging techniques presented at the 2021 American Thoracic Society Core Curriculum. Molecular methods have revolutionized microbiology. We highlight the need to collect appropriate samples for detection of specific pathogens or for panels and understand the limitations of the assays. Considerable progress has been made in imaging modalities for detecting pediatric pulmonary infections. Specifically, lung ultrasound and lung magnetic resonance imaging are promising radiation-free diagnostic tools, with results comparable with their radiation-exposing counterparts, for the evaluation and management of pulmonary infections. Clinicians caring for children with pulmonary disease should ensure that patients at risk for nontuberculous mycobacteria disease are identified and receive appropriate nontuberculous mycobacteria screening, monitoring, and treatment. Children with coronavirus disease (COVID-19) typically present with mild symptoms, but some may develop severe disease. Treatment is mainly supportive care, and most patients make a full recovery. Anticipatory guidance and appropriate counseling from pediatricians on social distancing and diagnostic testing remain vital to curbing the pandemic. The pediatric immunocompromised patient is at risk for invasive and opportunistic pulmonary infections. Prompt recognition of predisposing risk factors, combined with knowledge of clinical characteristics of microbial pathogens, can assist in the diagnosis and treatment of specific bacterial, viral, or fungal diseases.

ABBV-184, a novel survivin peptide-targeting T-cell receptor (TCR)/anti-CD3 bispecific protein, demonstrated preclinical T-cell activation and cytotoxicity toward HLA-A2:01-positive tumor lines. This first-in-human trial evaluated ABBV-184 monotherapy in patients with acute myeloid leukemia (AML) and non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). This phase 1 multicenter, open-label, dose escalation trial (NCT04272203) enrolled adult patients with relapsed/refractory AML or NSCLC with an HLA-A2:01 restricted genotype. Patients received ABBV-184 at 0.07 ug/kg initially, with 2- to 3-fold dose increases. The primary objective was determining the ABBV-184 recommended phase 2 dose. Secondary objectives included safety, tolerability, pharmacokinetics, and immunogenicity assessments. Fifteen patients enrolled in the dose escalation (8 AML and 7 NSCLC). ABBV-184 doses ranged from 0.07 mg/kg–0.7 µg/kg, with a half-life of approximately 13–29 hours. Transient cytokine increases were observed at all dose levels, and in patients with NSCLC, transient peripheral blood lymphocyte decreases were observed. The most frequently reported treatment-emergent adverse events (TEAEs) were anemia, diarrhea, and headache. Grade 1–2 infusion-related reaction (IRR) and cytokine release syndrome (CRS) TEAEs were reported. ABBV-184 was well tolerated and demonstrated preliminary evidence of CD3 engagement with transient cytokine increases and peripheral lymphocyte decreases. NCT04272203 [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Accumulation of activated immune cells results in nonspecific hepatocyte killing in chronic hepatitis B (CHB), leading to fibrosis and cirrhosis. This study aims to understand the underlying mechanisms in humans and to define whether these are driven by widespread activation or a subpopulation of immune cells. We enrolled CHB patients with active liver damage to receive antiviral therapy and performed longitudinal liver sampling using fine-needle aspiration to investigate mechanisms of CHB pathogenesis in the human liver. Single-cell sequencing of total liver cells revealed a distinct liver-resident, polyclonal [CD8.sup.+] T cell population that was enriched at baseline and displayed a highly activated immune signature during liver damage. Cytokine combinations, identified by in silico prediction of ligand-receptor interaction, induced the activated phenotype in healthy liver [CD8.sup.+] T cells, resulting in nonspecific Fas ligand-mediated killing of target cells. These results define a [CD8.sup.+] T cell population in the human liver that can drive pathogenesis and a key pathway involved in their function in CHB patients., Introduction Nonspecific activation of memory [CD8.sup.+] T cells is a common feature of acute and chronic human viral diseases (1-7). Bystander-activated [CD8.sup.+] T cells respond in a TCR-independent manner and [...]

ObjectivesAIDS is caused by CD4 T-cell depletion. Although combination antiretroviral therapy can restore blood T-cell numbers, the clonal diversity of the reconstituting cells, critical for immunocompetence, is not well defined.MethodsWe performed an extensive analysis of parameters of thymic function in perinatally HIV-1-infected (n = 39) and control (n = 28) participants ranging from 13 to 23 years of age. CD4 T cells including naive (CD27 CD45RA) and recent thymic emigrant (RTE) (CD31/CD45RA) cells, were quantified by flow cytometry. Deep sequencing was used to examine T-cell receptor (TCR) sequence diversity in sorted RTE CD4 T cells.ResultsInfected participants had reduced CD4 T-cell levels with predominant depletion of the memory subset and preservation of naive cells. RTE CD4 T-cell levels were normal in most infected individuals, and enhanced thymopoiesis was indicated by higher proportions of CD4 T cells containing TCR recombination excision circles. Memory CD4 T-cell depletion was highly associated with CD8 T-cell activation in HIV-1-infected persons and plasma interlekin-7 levels were correlated with naive CD4 T cells, suggesting activation-driven loss and compensatory enhancement of thymopoiesis. Deep sequencing of CD4 T-cell receptor sequences in well compensated infected persons demonstrated supranormal diversity, providing additional evidence of enhanced thymic output.ConclusionDespite up to two decades of infection, many individuals have remarkable thymic reserve to compensate for ongoing CD4 T-cell loss, although there is ongoing viral replication and immune activation despite combination antiretroviral therapy. The longer term sustainability of this physiology remains to be determined.

[CD4.sup.+] T cell failure is a hallmark of chronic hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection. However, the mechanisms underlying the impairment and loss of virus-specific [CD4.sup.+] T cells in persisting HCV infection remain unclear. Here we examined HCV-specific [CD4.sup.+] T cells longitudinally during acute infection with different infection outcomes. We found that HCV-specific [CD4.sup.+] T cells are characterized by expression of a narrower range of T cell inhibitory receptors compared with [CD8.sup.+] T cells, with initially high expression levels of PD-1 and CTLA-4 that were associated with negative regulation of proliferation in all patients, irrespective of outcome. In addition, HCV-specific [CD4.sup.+] T cells were phenotypically similar during early resolving and persistent infection and secreted similar levels of cytokines. However, upon viral control, [CD4.sup.+] T cells quickly downregulated inhibitory receptors and differentiated into long-lived memory cells. In contrast, persisting viremia continued to drive T cell activation and PD-1 and CTLA-4 expression, and blocked T cell differentiation, until the cells quickly disappeared from the circulation. Our data support an important and physiological role for inhibitory receptor-mediated regulation of [CD4.sup.+] T cells in early HCV infection, irrespective of outcome, with persistent HCV viremia leading to sustained upregulation of PD-1 and CTLA-4., Introduction Hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection presents a unique human disease model to define determinants of acute versus chronic infection because its natural history includes both completely resolving and persistent [...]

A new free-list measure of cognitive salience, B', is presented, which includes both list position and list frequency. It surpasses other extant measures by being normed to vary between a maximum of 1 and a minimum of 0, thereby making it useful for comparisons irrespective of list length or number of respondents. An illustration of its properties, uses, and computation is provided with the aid of examples drawn from free lists of foods elicited from a sample of migrants from the Republic of the Marshall Islands.

Background Pyoderma gangrenosum (PG) is a rare ulcerative skin condition with no current standardized outcomes or outcome measures. With a rich investigational therapeutic pipeline, standardization of outcomes and improvement of data quality and interpretability will promote the appropriate and consistent evaluation of potential new therapies. Core outcome sets (COS) are agreed, standardized sets of outcomes that represent the minimum that should be measured and reported in all clinical trials of a specific condition. Objectives To identify and reach a consensus on which domains (what to be measured) should be included in the Understanding Pyoderma Gangrenosum: Review and Analysis of Disease Effects (UPGRADE) core domain set for clinical trials in PG. Methods Collaborative discussions between patients and PG experts, and a systematic review of the literature identified items and prospective domains. A three-round international eDelphi exercise was performed to prioritize the domains and refine the provisional items (consensus: ≥ 70% of participants rating a domain as 'extremely important' and < 15% of participants voting 'not important'), followed by an international meeting to reach consensus on the core domain set (consensus: < 30% disagreement). Item-generation discussions and consensus meetings were hosted via online videoconferences. The eDelphi exercise and consensus voting were performed using Qualtrics survey software. Participants were adults with PG, healthcare professionals, researchers and industry representatives. Results Collaborative discussions and systematic reviews yielded 115 items, which were distilled into 15 prospective domains. The eDelphi exercise removed the three lowest-priority domains ('laboratory tests', 'treatment costs' and 'disease impact on family') and ranked 'pain', 'quality of life' and 'physical symptoms' as the highest-priority prospective domains. Consensus was reached on the domains of 'pain', 'quality of life' and 'clinical signs'. The domain of 'disease course/disease progression' narrowly failed to reach consensus for inclusion in the core set (32% of participants voted 'no'). Refinement of this domain definition will be required and presented for consideration at future consensus meetings. Conclusions The UPGRADE core domain set for clinical trials in PG has been agreed by international multistakeholder consensus. Future work will develop and/or select outcome measurement instruments for these domains to establish a COS. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Thymectomy is performed in infants during cardiothoracic surgery leaving many patients with reduced thympopoiesis. An association between immune disorders and regulatory T cells (Treg) after incidental thymectomy has not been investigated. Questionnaires soliciting symptoms of atopic or autoimmune disease and biomarkers were measured in children and adults with congenital heart disease and either reduced or preserved thymopoiesis. Tregs were examined. Atopic or autoimmune-like symptoms and elevated anti-dsDNA antibodies were common after surgery in individuals with low thymopoiesis. Total Treg number and function were maintained but with fewer naïve Treg. TCR spectratypes were similar to other memory T cells. These data suggest that thymectomy does not reduce total Treg number but homeostasis is affected with reduced naïve Treg. Prevalence of autoimmune or atopic symptoms after surgery is not associated with total number or proportion of Tregs but appears to be due to otherwise unknown factors that may include altered Treg homeostasis.

We describe a novel instrument that combines adaptive optics - Fourier-domain optical coherence tomography (AO-OCT) with an adaptive optics scanning laser ophthalmoscope (AO-SLO). Both systems share a common AO sub-system and vertical scanner to permit simultaneous acquisition of retinal images from both OCT and SLO. One of the benefits of combining OCT with SLO includes automatic co-registration between the two imaging modalities and potential for correcting lateral and transversal eye motion resulting in motion artifact-free volumetric retinal imaging. Results of using this system for eye model imaging are presented. Feasibility for clinical application is briefly discussed as well as potential further improvements of the current system. © 2009 SPIE.

Does emphasizing the role of people in engineering influence the memorability of engineering content? This study is part of a larger project through which our team developed a new undergraduate energy course to better reflect students' cultures and lived experiences through asset-based pedagogies to help students develop a sociotechnical mindset in engineering problem solving. In this study, students in the class were invited to participate in semi-structured interviews (n=5) to explore our effectiveness in helping them develop a sociotechnical mindset around energy issues and conceptualize engineering as a sociotechnical endeavor. This study focuses on an activity during the interview where the participants were asked to sort a variety of images associated with class learning experiences along a spectrum of least to most memorable. Emergent themes from students' responses revolved around learning experiences that included global perspectives and emphasized a "who" (i.e., whose problems, who is impacted by engineering, and what type of engineers the students will choose to become) as the most memorable. Our results indicate that students found the sociotechnical aspects of the course more memorable than the traditional canonical engineering content. These findings suggest that framing engineering content as sociotechnical can be one strategy to increase student engagement, increase memorability of lessons, and help students to think more deeply about their own goals as future engineers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Statistical tests for biomarker identification and classification methods for patient grouping are two important topics in adaptive designs of clinical trials related to genomic studies. In this article, we evaluate four test methods for biomarker identification in the first stage of an adaptive design: a model-based identification method, the popular two-sided t-test, the nonparametric Wilcoxon Rank-Sum test (two-sided), and the Regularized Generalized Linear Models. For patients grouping in the second stage, we examine classification methods such as Random Forest, Elastic-net Regularized Generalized Linear Models, Support Vector Machine (SVM), Gradient Boosting Machine (GBM), and Extreme Gradient Boosting (XGBoost). Simulation studies are carried out to assess the performance of the different methods. The best identification methods are chosen based on the well-known F 1 score, while the best classification techniques are selected based on the area under a receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC). The chosen methods are then applied to the Adaptive Signature Design (ASD) with a real data set from breast cancer patients for the purpose of evaluating the performance of ASD in different situations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study explores the contemporary foodscape of Jersey City, New Jersey. Although Jersey City has a long history as a destination for immigrants from a wide range of countries, few studies exist concerning its rich array of ethnic foodways. Analysis of the diverse foodscape of Jersey City identifies risks to sovereignty such as the availability of culturally appropriate foods. The mixed methods research utilizes semi-structured surveys and freelists. The results demonstrate a strong, positive cognitive connection between immigrants and their traditional foodways, manifested in the popularity of fresh vegetables. Spatial representations of traditionally designated food deserts and the distribution of food stores suggest that the presence and roles of ethnic food stores should be more explicitly considered when constructing ideas about access to healthy food. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]