We used heparosan (HEP) polysaccharides for controlling nanoparticle delivery to innate immune cells. Our results show that HEP-coated nanoparticles were endocytosed in a time-dependent manner by ...innate immune cells via both clathrin-mediated and macropinocytosis pathways. Upon endocytosis, we observed HEP-coated nanoparticles in intracellular vesicles and the cytoplasm, demonstrating the potential for nanoparticle escape from intracellular vesicles. Competition with other glycosaminoglycan types inhibited the endocytosis of HEP-coated nanoparticles only partially. We further found that nanoparticle uptake into innate immune cells can be controlled by more than 3 orders of magnitude via systematically varying the HEP surface density. Our results suggest a substantial potential for HEP-coated nanoparticles to target innate immune cells for efficient intracellular delivery, including into the cytoplasm. This HEP nanoparticle surface engineering technology may be broadly used to develop efficient nanoscale devices for drug and gene delivery as well as possibly for gene editing and immuno-engineering applications.
This article reviews 1 decade of research on cheating in academic institutions. This research demonstrates that cheating is prevalent and that some forms of cheating have increased dramatically in ...the last 30 years. This research also suggests that although both individual and contextual factors influence cheating, contextual factors, such as students' perceptions of peers' behavior, are the most powerful influence. In addition, an institution's academic integrity programs and policies, such as honor codes, can have a significant influence on students' behavior. Finally, we offer suggestions for managing cheating from students' and faculty members' perspectives.
Examine how your university can help solve the complex problems of your community Community Outreach Partnership Centers (COPC) sponsored by the United States Department of Housing and Urban ...Development (HUD) have identified civic engagement and community partnership as critical themes for higher education. This unique book addresses past, present, and future models of university-community partnerships, COPC programs, wide-ranging social work partnerships that involve teaching, research, and social change, and innovative methods in the processes of civic engagement. The text recognizes the many professions, schools, and higher education institutions that contribute to advancing civic engagement through university-community partnerships. One important contribution this book makes to the literature of civic engagement is that it is the first publication that significantly highlights partnership contributions from schools of social work, which are rediscovering their community roots through these initiatives. University-Community Partnerships: Universities in Civic Engagement documents how universities are involved in creative individual, faculty, and program partnerships that help link campus and community-partnerships that are vital for teaching, research, and practice. Academics and practitioners discuss outreach initiatives, methods of engagement (with an emphasis on community organization), service learning and other teaching/learning methods, research models, participatory research, and 'high-engagement' techniques used in university-community partnerships. The book includes case studies, historical studies, policy analysis, program evaluation, and curriculum development. University-Community Partnerships: Universities in Civic Engagement examines:
the increasing civic engagement of institutions of higher education civic engagement projects involving urban nonprofit community-based organizati
Aaron McDuffie Moore Hill-Saya, Blake; Butterfield, G. K; Watts Welch, C. Eileen
05/2020
eBook
Aaron McDuffie Moore (1863-1923) was born in rural Columbus County in eastern North Carolina at the close of the Civil War. Defying the odds stacked against an African American of this era, he ...pursued an education, alternating between work on the family farm and attending school. Moore originally dreamed of becoming an educator and attended notable teacher training schools in the state. But later, while at Shaw University, he followed another passion and entered Leonard Medical School. Dr. Moore graduated with honors in 1888 and became the first practicing African American physician in the city of Durham, North Carolina. He went on to establish the Durham Drug Company and the Durham Colored Library; spearhead and run Lincoln Hospital, the city's first secular, freestanding African American hospital; cofound North Carolina Mutual Life Insurance Company; help launch Rosenwald schools for African American children statewide; and foster the development of Durham's Hayti community. Dr. Moore was one-third of the mighty "Triumvirate" alongside John Merrick and C. C. Spaulding, credited with establishing Durham as the capital of the African American middle class in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries and founding Durham's famed Black Wall Street. His legacy can still be seen on the city streets and country backroads today, and an examination of his life provides key insights into the history of Durham, the state, and the nation during Reconstruction and the beginning of the Jim Crow Era.
Abstract
Outstanding Trainee Award Winner
Purpose
Assessment of postural balance in varsity athletes is essential to managing sport-related concussion. The current study characterizes the ...relationship between subjective and objective measures of balance in varsity athletes.
Methods
A total of 208 varsity athletes across 12 sports participated in pre-season testing from June 2019 to January 2020 (no history of concussion= 117; 1+ past concussion= 91). Measures included the Sport Concussion Assessment Tool (SCAT-5) and the AccuGait force plate. Relationships between objective and subjective balance measures were assessed using correlations, parametric, and non-parametric tests.
Results
Of the total sample, 9.6% (n=20) endorsed subjective balance issues and 5.3% (n=11) reported subjective dizziness. Those with a history of concussion, endorsed greater total number of symptoms at baseline (M=2.95, SD=4.03) than those without (M=1.90, SD=3.07; p=.04; Cohen’s d=.30). However, there were no differences on subjective or objective balance measures (i.e., total balance error on the MBESS or force plate measures; ps>0.05) between athletes with and without a history of concussion. For those with no history of concussion, total balance errors from the Modified Balance Error Scoring system were significantly associated with force plate metrics in the eyes closed condition (ps<0.05) but not the eyes open condition. These associations were not observed in athletes with history of concussion (ps>0.05). Similarly, no associations were found between subjective balance issues and objective balance metrics.
Conclusions
Overall, findings suggest poor alignment between subjective and objective balance measures in varsity athletes, regardless of concussion history. Associations were observed across the objective balance measures in those with no history of injury, but not in athletes with a history of concussion.
The Integrated Community Development and Child Welfare Model (CD-CW) engages workers with families and communities to reduce poverty, and at the same time, improve the well-being of children. Skill ...building in asset-based development, family enterprise, and child trauma is delivered through a three-stage, applied training model. CD-CW was pilot tested and implemented with 100 livelihood and child welfare workers in Ethiopia. Data from Learning Portfolios, team consultations, and a 2-day evaluation retreat are reported. Findings include the importance of using asset-based assessments, applied assignments, and integrated training to address poverty directly as a root cause of child maltreatment.
Pancreatic islets compose the endocrine pancreas and are considered distinct from the exocrine pancreas in terms of both function and regulation of blood flow. Indeed, enzymatically isolated islets ...directly respond to glucose and other secretagogues in vitro. The islet has been regarded as an enclosed micro-organ, in which blood flows uni-directionally from an afferent arteriole to an efferent venule. This blood circulation pattern has been termed as “the insulo-acinar portal system.” Historically, the endocrine and exocrine pancreas have been studied separately by different fields of investigators. Using intravital analysis of pancreas blood flow in mice, we have recently reported that islet capillaries are continuously integrated with those in the exocrine pancreas, which makes the islet circulation open, not self-contained. Furthermore, by tracking fluorescently-labeled red blood cells revealed bi-directional blood flow between the endocrine and exocrine pancreas. In the present study, in order to verify whether this integrated vascular network is conserved among different species, we carried out three-dimensional morphological analysis of pancreatic capillary networks using thick pancreatic tissue slices (600-800 µm) in ferrets, rabbits, pigs, dogs and monkeys, besides mice and humans. We have confirmed that the integrated blood flow between endocrine and exocrine pancreas is conserved among multiple species that we studied. Here we propose that the open circulation model physically links both endocrine and exocrine parts of the pancreas as a single organ through the integrated vascular network. This new paradigm may provide revived or contrasting insights into the findings of past studies, as well as a novel approach for prospective research projects.
Disclosure
J.K. Butterfield: None. M. Hara: None.
Funding
National Institutes of Health (DK117192, DK020595)
Asset-based community development strategy (ABCD) is a development that recognizes and builds upon the strengths and assets of individuals, associations, and institutions to address the felt needs of ...the local community. As the application of ABCD in an urban area of Africa, The Gedam Sefer Community Partnership (GSCP) was formed to improve the lives of poor families living in a slum neighborhood of Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Five building blocks of ABCD from the literature are used to analyze and evaluate the 5-year formation and implementation of the GSCP. The article examines the process of engagement between community and university members, the difficulties encountered in attempting to implement ABCD through an international university-community partnership, and the formation of the community's own new association. To sustain hope and build community and organizational capacity, the practical and symbolic value of short-term development activities with immediately visible results are outlined. Findings are discussed in relation to engagement with the community; the use of communication to connect ideas, assets, and people; and ABCD from the inside out and bottom up.
The two rings of (50000) Quaoar Pereira, C. L.; Sicardy, B.; Morgado, B. E. ...
Astronomy & astrophysics,
05/2023, Letnik:
673
Journal Article
Recenzirano
Odprti dostop
Context.
Quaoar is a classical trans-Neptunian object (TNO) with an area-equivalent diameter of 1100 km and an orbital semi-major axis of 43.3 astronomical units. Based on stellar occultations ...observed between 2018 and 2021, an inhomogeneous ring (Q1R, i.e., Quaoar’s first ring) has been detected around this body.
Aims.
A new stellar occultation by Quaoar was observed on August 9, 2022, with the aim of improving Quaoar’s shape models and the physical parameters of Q1R, while searching for additional material around the body.
Methods.
The occultation provided nine effective chords across Quaoar, pinning down its size, shape, and astrometric position. Large facilities, such as Gemini North and the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope (CFHT), were used to obtain high acquisition rates and signal-to-noise ratios. The light curves were also used to characterize the Q1R ring (radial profiles and orbital elements).
Results.
Quaoar’s elliptical fit to the occultation chords yields the limb with an apparent semi-major axis of 579.5 ± 4.0 km, apparent oblateness of 0.12 ± 0.01, and area-equivalent radius of 543 ± 2 km. Quaoar’s limb orientation is consistent with Q1R and Weywot orbiting in Quaoar’s equatorial plane. The orbital radius of Q1R is refined to a value of 4057 ± 6 km. The radial opacity profile of the more opaque ring profile follows a Lorentzian shape that extends over 60 km, with a full width at half maximum (FWHM) of ∼5 km and a peak normal optical depth of 0.4. Besides the secondary events related to the already reported rings, new secondary events detected during the August 2022 occultation in three different data sets are consistent with another ring around Quaoar with a radius of 2520 ± 20 km, assuming the ring is circular and co-planar with Q1R. This new ring has a typical width of 10 km and a normal optical depth of ∼0.004. Just as Q1R, it also lies outside Quaoar’s classical Roche limit.
