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Abstract Background In response to the rise in opioid-related deaths, communities across Ontario have developed opioid or overdose response plans to address issues at the local level. Public Health Ontario (PHO) leads the Community Opioid / Overdose Capacity Building (COM-CAP) project, which aims to reduce overdose-related harms at the community level by working with communities to identify, develop, and evaluate capacity building supports for local needs around overdose planning. The ‘From Design to Action’ co-design workshop used a participatory design approach to engage communities in identifying the requirements for capacity building support. Methods A participatory approach (co-design) provided opportunity for collaborative discussion around capacity building needs at the community level. The co-design workshop included three structured collaborative activities to 1) prioritize scenarios that illustrated various challenges associated with community overdose response planning, 2) prioritize the challenges within each scenario and 3) prioritize the supports to address each of these challenges. It was conducted with fifty-two participants involved in opioid/overdose-related response plans in Ontario. Participatory materials were informed by the results of a situational assessment (SA) data gathering process, including survey, interview, and focus group data. A voting system, including dot stickers and discussion notes, was applied to identify priority supports and delivery mechanisms. Results At the workshop, key challenges and top-priority supports were identified, for development and implementation. The prioritized challenges were organized into five categories of capacity building supports addressing: 1) stigma & equity; 2) trust-based relationships, consensus building & on-going communication; 3) knowledge development & on-going access to information and data; 4) tailored strategies and plan adaptation to changing structures and local context; and 5) structural enablers and responsive governance. Conclusion Using a participatory approach, the workshop provided an opportunity for sharing, generating, and mobilizing knowledge to address research-practice gaps at the community level for opioid response planning. The application of health design methods such as the ‘From Design to Action’ co-design workshop supports teams to gain a deeper understanding of needs for capacity building as well as illustrating the application of participatory approaches in identifying capacity building needs for complex public health issues such as the overdose crisis.

Clinical management of pancreatic cancer remains challenging. Here, the authors suggest SMARCD3 as a potential epigenetic dependency establishing the metabolic landscape in aggressive pancreatic cancer cells and as a potential therapeutic target in pancreatic cancer.

Abstract Background Many communities across North America are coming together to develop comprehensive plans to address and respond to the escalating overdose crisis, largely driven by an increasingly toxic unregulated drug supply. As there is a need to build capacity for successful implementation, the objective of our mixed methods study was to identify the current planning and implementation practices, needs, and priority areas of support for community overdose response plans in Ontario, Canada. Methods We used a situational assessment methodology to collect data on current planning and implementation practices, needs, and challenges related to community overdose response plans in Ontario, consisting of three components. Between November 2019 to February 2020, we conducted ten semi-structured key informant interviews, three focus groups with 25 participants, and administered an online survey (N = 66). Purposeful sampling was used to identify professionals involved in coordinating, supporting, or partnering on community overdose response plans in jurisdictions with relevant information for Ontario including other Canadian provinces and American states. Key informants included evaluators, representatives involved in centralised supports, as well as coordinators and partners on community overdose response plans. Focus group participants were coordinators or leads of community overdose response plans in Ontario. Results Sixty-six professionals participated in the study. The current planning and implementation practices of community overdose response plans varied in Ontario. Our analysis generated four overarching areas for needs and support for the planning and implementation of community overdose response plans: 1) data and information; 2) evidence and practice; 3) implementation/operational factors; and 4) partnership, engagement, and collaboration. Addressing stigma and equity within planning and implementation of community overdose response plans was a cross-cutting theme that included meaningful engagement of people with living and lived expertise and meeting the service needs of different populations and communities. Conclusions Through exploring the needs and related supports for community overdose response plans in Ontario, we have identified key priority areas for building local capacity building to address overdose-related harms. Ongoing development and refinement, community partnership, and evaluation of our project will highlight the influence of our supports to advance the capacity, motivation, and opportunities of community overdose response plans.

Abstract Background An Aboriginal-developed empowerment and social and emotional wellbeing program, known as Family Wellbeing (FWB), has been found to strengthen the protective factors that help Indigenous Australians to deal with the legacy of colonisation and intergenerational trauma. This article reviews the research that has accompanied the implementation of the program, over a 23 year period. The aim is to assess the long-term impact of FWB research and identify the key enablers of research impact and the limitations of the impact assessment exercise. This will inform more comprehensive monitoring of research impact into the future. Methods To assess impact, the study took an implementation science approach, incorporating theory of change and service utilisation frameworks, to create a logic model underpinned by Indigenous research principles. A research impact narrative was developed based on mixed methods analysis of publicly available data on: 1) FWB program participation; 2) research program funding; 3) program outcome evaluation (nine studies); and 4) accounts of research utilisation (seven studies). Results Starting from a need for research on empowerment identified by research users, an investment of $2.3 million in research activities over 23 years produced a range of research outputs that evidenced social and emotional wellbeing benefits arising from participation in the FWB program. Accounts of research utilisation confirmed the role of research outputs in educating participants about the program, and thus, facilitating more demand (and funding acquisition) for FWB. Overall research contributed to 5,405 recorded participants accessing the intervention. The key enablers of research impact were; 1) the research was user- and community-driven; 2) a long-term mutually beneficial partnership between research users and researchers; 3) the creation of a body of knowledge that demonstrated the impact of the FWB intervention via different research methods; 4) the universality of the FWB approach which led to widespread application. Conclusions The FWB research impact exercise reinforced the view that assessing research impact is best approached as a “wicked problem” for which there are no easy fixes. It requires flexible, open-ended, collaborative learning-by-doing approaches to build the evidence base over time. Steps and approaches that research groups might take to build the research impact knowledge base within their disciplines are discussed.

Identifying leukaemia stem cells (LSC) and defining how they drive tumourigenesis might aid in the treatment of disease. Here, the authors show that a reporter Musashi 2 can serve as a platform to effectively identify leukemic stem cells and it is used to define Syndecan-1 as a dependency for these aggressive, therapy resistant cells.

In this work, the density, viscosity, speed of sound, flash point, and surface tension of mixtures of military jet fuel JP-5 and biodiesels were measured at various temperatures. The biodiesels were synthesized from various oils (avocado, canola, castor, coconut, corn grapeseed, linseed, neem, oil, palm, peanut, soybean, and walnuts), bacon grease, and duck fat. The isentropic bulk modulus was calculated from the speed of sound and density. These physical properties are important for modeling the spray of fuel into a diesel engine cylinder.

Abstract Background Intron retention (IR) is the most prevalent form of alternative splicing in plants. IR, like other forms of alternative splicing, has an important role in increasing gene product diversity and regulating transcript functionality. Splicing is known to occur co-transcriptionally and is influenced by the speed of transcription which in turn, is affected by chromatin structure. It follows that chromatin structure may have an important role in the regulation of splicing, and there is preliminary evidence in metazoans to suggest that this is indeed the case; however, nothing is known about the role of chromatin structure in regulating IR in plants. DNase I-seq is a useful experimental tool for genome-wide interrogation of chromatin accessibility, providing information on regions of chromatin with very high likelihood of cleavage by the enzyme DNase I, known as DNase I Hypersensitive Sites (DHSs). While it is well-established that promoter regions are highly accessible and are over-represented with DHSs, not much is known about DHSs in the bodies of genes, and their relationship to splicing in general, and IR in particular. Results In this study we use publicly available DNase I-seq data in arabidopsis and rice to investigate the relationship between IR and chromatin structure. We find that IR events are highly enriched in DHSs in both species. This implies that chromatin is more open in retained introns, which is consistent with a kinetic model of the process whereby higher speeds of transcription in those regions give less time for the spliceosomal machinery to recognize and splice out those introns co-transcriptionally. The more open chromatin in IR can also be the result of regulation mediated by DNA-binding proteins. To test this, we performed an exhaustive search for footprints left by DNA-binding proteins that are associated with IR. We identified several hundred short sequence elements that exhibit footprints in their DNase I-seq coverage, the telltale sign for binding events of a regulatory protein, protecting its binding site from cleavage by DNase I. A highly significant fraction of those sequence elements are conserved between arabidopsis and rice, a strong indication of their functional importance. Conclusions In this study we have established an association between IR and chromatin accessibility, and presented a mechanistic hypothesis that explains the observed association from the perspective of the co-transcriptional nature of splicing. Furthermore, we identified conserved sequence elements for DNA-binding proteins that affect splicing.

Alternative splicing and alternative polyadenylation (APA) contribute to mRNA diversity but are difficult to assess using short read RNA-seq data. Here, the authors use single molecule long-read isoform sequencing and develop a computational pipeline to identify full-length splice isoforms and APA sites in sorghum.

Generalizing is a critical aspect of mathematics learning, with researchers and policy documents highlighting generalizing as a core mathematical practice. It can also be challenging to foster in class settings, and teachers need access to better resources to teach generalizing, including an understanding of effective forms of instruction. This article proposes Classroom Supports for Generalizing (CSGs), investigating how multiple elements--such as tasks, teacher moves, student interactions, and representations--interact to meaningfully foster student generalizing. Drawing on class video data from a middle school teacher and two high school teachers, we present the CSG Framework, which identifies three categories of supports: Interactions for Generalizing, Structures for Generalizing, and Routines for Generalizing.

The significance of thermal heterogeneities in small surface water bodies as drivers of mixing and for habitat provision is increasingly recognized, yet obtaining three-dimensionally-resolved observations of the thermal structure of lakes and rivers remains challenging. Remote observations of water temperature from aerial platforms are attractive: such platforms do not require shoreline access; they can be quickly and easily deployed and redeployed to facilitate repeated sampling and can rapidly move between target locations, allowing multiple measurements to be made during a single flight. However, they are also subject to well-known limitations, including payload, operability and a tradeoff between the extent and density over which measurements can be made within restricted flight times. This paper introduces a novel aerial thermal sensing platform that lowers a temperature sensor into the water to record temperature measurements throughout a shallow water column and presents results from initial field experiments comparing \emph{in situ} temperature observations to those made from the UAS platform. These experiments show that with minor improvements, UASs have the potential to enable high-resolution 3D thermal mapping of a \(\sim\)1-ha lake in 2–3 flights (\textit{circa} 2 h), sufficient to resolve diurnal variations. This paper identifies operational constraints and key areas for further development, including the need for the integration of a faster temperature sensor with the aerial vehicle and better control of the sensor depth, especially when near the water surface.

Abiotic stresses affect plant physiology, development, growth, and alter pre-mRNA splicing. Western poplar is a model woody tree and a potential bioenergy feedstock. To investigate the extent of stress-regulated alternative splicing (AS), we conducted an in-depth survey of leaf, root, and stem xylem transcriptomes under drought, salt, or temperature stress. Analysis of approximately one billion of genome-aligned RNA-Seq reads from tissue- or stress-specific libraries revealed over fifteen millions of novel splice junctions. Transcript models supported by both RNA-Seq and single molecule isoform sequencing (Iso-Seq) data revealed a broad array of novel stress- and/or tissue-specific isoforms. Analysis of Iso-Seq data also resulted in the discovery of 15,087 novel transcribed regions of which 164 show AS. Our findings demonstrate that abiotic stresses profoundly perturb transcript isoform profiles and trigger widespread intron retention (IR) events. Stress treatments often increased or decreased retention of specific introns – a phenomenon described here as differential intron retention (DIR). Many differentially retained introns were regulated in a stress- and/or tissue-specific manner. A subset of transcripts harboring super stress-responsive DIR events showed persisting fluctuations in the degree of IR across all treatments and tissue types. To investigate coordinated dynamics of intron-containing transcripts in the study we quantified absolute copy number of isoforms of two conserved transcription factors (TFs) using Droplet Digital PCR. This case study suggests that stress treatments can be associated with coordinated switches in relative ratios between fully spliced and intron-retaining isoforms and may play a role in adjusting transcriptome to abiotic stresses.

Nouwen (2010) proposes that numeral modifiers like “at most” and “up to” belong to a natural class of expressions that share the same semantic interpretation. We identify several semantic contrasts between “at most” and “up to” that are inconsistent with this proposal. Moreover, we show that Nouwen’s semantics cannot be right for “at most”. In attempting to apply his semantics to “up to”, we propose an amendment intended to accomodate certain observations not captured in Nouwen’s original account. http://dx.doi.org/10.3765/sp.5.1 BibTeX info

With the increased interest in using Immersive Virtual Worlds (IVWs) such as Second Life to augment and amplify teaching or to develop communities of practice, the author engaged graduate students, all current K-12 teachers, in a qualitative study to examine their attitudes about communicating for the first time in a virtual setting represented by an interactive avatar. This study sought to determine if students were able to discern degrees of expertise in other avatars by providing encounters with guests who had a significant amount of experience navigating in a virtual world. The study examined Second Life as a synchronous discussion tool for a higher education setting and finds it lacking in some respects, but is able to make recommendations about training instructors to exhibit behaviours that may inspire confidence while leading a class in such a setting.

With the increased interest in using Immersive Virtual Worlds (IVWs) such as Second Life to augment and amplify teaching or to develop communities of practice, the author engaged graduate students, all current K-12 teachers, in a qualitative study to examine their attitudes about communicating for the first time in a virtual setting represented by an interactive avatar. This study sought to determine if students were able to discern degrees of expertise in other avatars by providing encounters with guests who had a significant amount of experience navigating in a virtual world. The study examined Second Life as a synchronous discussion tool for a higher education setting and finds it lacking in some respects, but is able to make recommendations about training instructors to exhibit behaviours that may inspire confidence while leading a class in such a setting.

CENS programs are designed to create an educational pipeline to graduate school, provide support and development to our graduate student affiliates and increase the diversity of our Center and those pursuing education and careers in science and engineering.

Plant and animal phenology measurements provide an important means of understanding the relationship between periodic phenomena, such as leaf flushes or bird nesting dates, and microenvironmental and climatic conditions. The collection of phenological data, however, can be labor intensive, and thus basic phenological information about many plant and animal species is not known. Imaging technologies at the James Reserve are currently being used to collect high-frequency, multiple-location phenological images together with micrometeorological data. Using simple algorithms for color analysis of images, results from the MossCam project have indicated that rainfalls of even 1 mm can result in significant increases of photosynthesis by the moss Tortula priceps and that leaf area of Rhododendron is positively correlated with green: red pixel ratios. Current work on improving algorithms, extending studies to analyze annual carbon budgets, and correlating micrometeorological data with nesting behavior will allow us to increase our understanding animal population dynamics and the climatic effects on plant distributions and primary productivity.

Human-powered minirhizotrons have been used to estimate root and hyphal turnover rates, but recording and image analysis processes are time consuming. Minirhizotron images and CO2 measurements usually have been taken with the available instruments at time intervals longer than the timescales at which ecological processes happen. We are developing an automated minirhizotron capable to record images at user-defined intervals that will be able to capture short-term ecological changes. Image data alone is not enough to understand ecological processes (e.g. root and hyphal turnover), so coupled with the automated minirhizotron we installed a network of soil sensing instruments. We present variations observed in manual long-term monitoring in a minirhizotron tube and continuous soil CO2 concentration and flux to show a potential application of this technology to identify meaningful temporal scales.

The prototype of the automated minirhizotron (AMR) has demonstrated better image quality than conventional manual minirhizotrons. The AMR is capable to record images at user-defined intervals that will be able to capture short-term ecological changes. We have compiled an image database with >60,000 images from manual minirhizotrons at the James Reserve, CA since June 2005. Images were analyzed manually and we used the MARK capture-recapture program to calculate the root survival rate. Preliminarily results suggest that new-born roots have a shorter lifespan than old ones (9 days vs. 24 days). Additionally to the root image analysis we have data from our soil sensor array or soil temperature moisture and soil CO2. We measured CO2 concentration at three soil depths to calculate soil respiration based on CO2 gradients and diffusivity. Data collected from these sensors have increased the understanding of spatio-temporal variation in soil respiration and its relation with root dynamics. To identify the fungal biota participating in soil biogeochemical processes we isolated fungal hyphae from soil.

As sensor networks become widely deployed in ecological settings, imaging is increasingly becoming an integral component of the system. Often, ecologists are interested in meta-information about the content of these images, rather than the images themselves. This information is at least tedious, and sometimes completely impractical, to extract manually. We will discuss our experiences with images from two deployments at the James Reserve: the existing minirhizotron systems (with an eye toward the upcoming AMARRS), and the nestbox cameras.

The goal of this integrated and cross-campus project is to sense the environment from the leaf to the landscape level. Aspects of the project include, but are not limited to: (1) NIMS and fixed-camera technologies that allow the real-time and automated observation of plant phenological events: leaf flushes, flowering, herbivore attack, and pollination and flower-visitation events. (2) Embedded micro-sensors that include light sensors sensitive to photosynthetic photon flux (PPF; 400-700 nm wavelength) installed on leaf surfaces indicate leaf- and plant-level responses to changes in light conditions, sap flow sensors that measure the velocity at which the transpiration stream flows by the dissipation of heat within a branch, and micrometeorological sensors that monitor conditions that change the driving force for transpiration and affect water balance on a plant- and landscape-level. (3) Minirhizotron tubes enable the direct measurement of root growth and allow for the estimations of microbial activity in the soil.

Following in the footsteps of the field Networked Infomechanical Systems (NIMS) currently deployed at the James San Jacinto Mountain Reserve in Idyllwild California, two smaller scale NIMS architectures have emerged. The Laboratory Systems (NIMS-LS) provides an experimental testbed for verification of actuated sensing of environmental phenomena. The NIMS-LS System also includes emulation of environmental phenomena (i.e. light distribution in ecosystems). The Rapidly Deployable (NIMS-RD) platform provides a flexible means of sampling environmental phenomena directly with minimal infrastructure, rapid deployability and minimal impact on the environment. NIMS-RD has been deployed at the James San Jacinto Mountain Reserve, Medea Creek in the Santa Monica Mountains, Merced River in Merced CA and White Mountains Research Station near Bishop CA.

Rapidly growing stress on the natural environment has created an urgent demand for new environmental exploration systems that operate remotely and autonomously. As sensor networks are applied to these critical environmental monitoring problems, a series of new requirements have emerged for extensive characterization of dynamic phenomena in three-dimensional environments. The unpredictable presence of obstacles to sensing and the inherent temporal evolution of events create limitations for optimal deployment of sensors in the environment. Networked Infomechanical Systems (NIMS) technology has been developed to introduce precise and sustainable actuation for distributed sensing. NIMS devices are suspended on cable infrastructure to provide a combination of broad range motion combined with accurate localization.

Rapidly growing stress on the natural environment has created an urgent demand for new environmental exploration systems that operate remotely and autonomously. As sensor networks are applied to these critical environmental monitoring problems, a series of new requirements have emerged for extensive characterization of dynamic phenomena in three-dimensional environments. The unpredictable presence of obstacles to sensing and the inherent temporal evolution of events create limitations for optimal deployment of sensors in the environment.

The ability to do robust, meaningful research with minirhizotron images is currently limited by the amount of time that can be spent by a human expert classifying the data. This poster focuses on presenting progress along a path towards the automated analysis of these images. It shows custom software that has been developed to aid in the classification process and filters which locate structures of interest in some cases.

EMISSARY is a field-portable interface for advanced data visualization, modelling, and data exploration of sensor micronets. Geographical Information Systems (GIS) and a Graphical User Interface (GUI) are combined to expand our understanding of data collected from sensors in the field. EMISSARY supplies real-time access to current and archived data and data models. It also provides field guidance and facilitates the process of sensor configuration, calibration, testing and debugging. It provides researchers with the capability to produce models using past and real-time data for hypothesis testing and experiment planning.

EMISSARY is a new system under development for an advanced data visualization, spatio-temporal modeling interface, and field portable tools for in-situ data exploration of sensormicronets and distributed instrument management. Our research is defining a set of functional capabilities for an advanced system for in the field communication with a sensormicronet and distributed instrumentation, on-line and interactive modeling tools, and system diagnostics and configuration interfaces. Conceptually this system would be a hand-held PDA or laptop class computer with wireless communication to mote-class devices (sensor nodes), networked data-logging instruments, WAN/LAN, and the Internet.