IN PURSUIT OF CONFERENCE EQUITY Martínez-Farrington, Isabel M.; Bonet, Loraine Martell; Alemán-Díaz, Aixa ...
Oceanography (Washington, D.C.),
06/2024, Volume:
37, Issue:
2
Journal Article
Peer reviewed
Open access
Scientific meetings and conferences are a cornerstone of scientific culture. By bringing people together around a shared purpose, meetings serve as a platform for knowledge exchange and can often ...foster a sense of belonging. As some will argue, conferences can become “counterspaces” to affirm a person’s identity, provided they have adequate access to resources and support (Nakajima et al., 2024). From students to retirees, scientific meetings and conferences provide engagement and professional development opportunities for people from various career tracks and stages and serve as engines of innovation and collaboration. As a major source of revenue, meetings and conferences are also integral to the business models of many professional societies, publishers, exhibitors, businesses, and local economies.
Leaving graduate school and entering the workforce can be intimidating. The competition for postdoctoral fellowships, tenure-track professorships, and research associate positions creates a ...challenging environment for recent graduates interested in pursuing a career in academia, causing many to consider changing sectors (Cyranoski et al., 2011; Main et al., 2021; Nerad et al., 2022). However, students are often unprepared to make this professional change because graduate programs are typically designed to prepare them for continuing in academic careers, and mentors are often less familiar with career choices in the non-academic world.
Acute myeloid leukemia (AML) is a cancer of myeloid-lineage cells with limited therapeutic options. We previously combined ex vivo drug sensitivity with genomic, transcriptomic, and clinical ...annotations for a large cohort of AML patients, which facilitated discovery of functional genomic correlates. Here, we present a dataset that has been harmonized with our initial report to yield a cumulative cohort of 805 patients (942 specimens). We show strong cross-cohort concordance and identify features of drug response. Further, deconvoluting transcriptomic data shows that drug sensitivity is governed broadly by AML cell differentiation state, sometimes conditionally affecting other correlates of response. Finally, modeling of clinical outcome reveals a single gene, PEAR1, to be among the strongest predictors of patient survival, especially for young patients. Collectively, this report expands a large functional genomic resource, offers avenues for mechanistic exploration and drug development, and reveals tools for predicting outcome in AML.
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•Acute myeloid leukemia patient cohort with clinical, molecular, drug response data•Validation and discovery of diverse biological features of drug response•Broad mapping of tumor cell differentiation state affecting response to drugs•Modeling reveals a strong and targetable determinant of clinical outcome
Bottomly et al. present a functional genomic resource composed of molecular, clinical, and drug response data on acute myeloid leukemia patient specimens. Through integration of all of these data, they identify genetic and cell differentiation state features that predict drug response, and they utilize modeling to identify targetable determinants of clinical outcome.
Unpaid internships provide opportunities for students and early career individuals to gain work experience in a field of their interest. In lieu of payment for their labor, interns are compensated by ...gaining deeper knowledge of the field or industry as well as critical networking opportunities. Completing an unpaid work experience is nearly unavoidable for early career individuals to gain the experience required to stand out within a competitive, passion-driven field (Bailey et al., 2022). Deciding to begin a career in marine science with an unpaid position can be an exclusionary point for people from non-affluent socioeconomic backgrounds, and the stress experienced from a lack of financial and professional support can lead to individuals exiting the field in the early stages of their career. Unpaid internships impede diverse recruitment and contribute to the overwhelming lack of diversity in the ocean sciences (Bernard and Cooperdock, 2018, Figure 1). Adequately compensating individuals entering the field for their work would increase diversity in entry level positions and promote the development of early career researchers. These individuals would then be more likely to advance into higher level, permanent positions, thereby improving diversity in all career levels throughout marine science (Fournier et al., 2019; Osiecka et al., 2022).
Mentorship is defined as a professional relationship, whereby a mentee and mentor are matched to share professional and personal skills and experiences, as well as enhance career development. It has ...been in existence for many centuries, and in several South Asian cultures, mentorship took place through an ancient tradition called the guru-shishya parampara. In a unique and innovative pedagogical approach, a guru (teacher) assumed comprehensive responsibility for a shishya (student), providing education, guidance, and support in every aspect of life, following the tradition of parampara, the succession of knowledge from one guru to the next. A good shishya had the following attributes: smriti (memory), medha (intelligence), shlanga (merit), raga (devotion and dedication), sangharsha (hard work), and utsaha (enthusiasm). Under the guru’s tutelage, the student acquired a multi-faceted education, encompassing science, warfare, critical thinking, linguistics, agriculture, dance, music, and arts. Practicing yoga was important for spiritual progress. Skills, knowledge, and wisdom were passed down from generation to generation. The philosophical pursuit of knowledge, its seeking and giving, was equated with power and status, making both guru and shishya aware of their mutually beneficial relationship.
BROADENING PARTICIPATION IN TOS Muller-Karger, Frank; Bhatt, EeShan; Meyer-Gutbrod, Erin
Oceanography (Washington, D.C.),
09/2022, Volume:
35, Issue:
2
Journal Article
Peer reviewed
Open access
The Oceanography Society (TOS) Honors Program provides opportunities for its members to amplify the Society’s values (https://tos.org/about) and to recognize and celebrate the accomplishments of ...colleagues. However, individual and systemic biases can affect the nomination and selection process. In fall 2021, the TOS Council postponed a cycle of the Honors Program due to lack of diversity in nominees (https://tos.org/tos-news-june-2022). The TOS JEDI Committee (https://tos.org/diversity) is considering ways to generate a large and diverse pool of nominees by embedding TOS’s justice, equity, diversity, and inclusion goals into the honors and awards process. This article highlights some of those suggestions and invites TOS members to weigh in.
In the Golden Isles of Georgia, the Gullah art of braiding sweetgrass into baskets can be traced back over 400 years to its West African roots. This skill is passed on from generation to generation, ...preserving the oral history, sovereignty, and culture of the Gullah people. Local and indigenous coastal communities, like the Gullah-Geechee, have a deep connection with their natural environment as they depend on forests, fisheries, and wildlife resources for their livelihood and culture. These frontline communities are also facing a complex web of challenges that include rising sea levels, coastal erosion, saltwater intrusion, encroaching development and increasing property taxes, and loss of fisheries and other coastal livelihoods. As communities develop strategies to address these complex challenges, they need access to place-based research and education that is unique to their people, culture, and ecology.
Both local and international careers in the ocean sciences are largely unavailable or inaccessible to interested students and graduates from under-resourced nations. Barriers to ocean science careers ...result from a range of region-specific factors. Financial and infrastructural resources supporting ocean science opportunities are limited. Inter- and intranational abuses of power, societal instabilities, and exploitation of communities and resources can create and exacerbate these resource deficits. Access to available resources is not evenly distributed due to societally constructed gaps in opportunity, representation, inclusion, and equity in education and in the geosciences in particular. Ocean careers in under-resourced nations are further constrained by the lack of awareness efforts and examples of real-life, societally beneficial applications of geoscience in education, as well as the absence of specialized mentors and role models.
A hitherto unexplored class of molecules for molecular force probe applications are expanded porphyrins. This work proves that mechanical force is an effective stimulus to trigger the interconversion ...between Hückel and Möbius topologies in 28hexaphyrin, making these expanded porphyrins suitable to act as conformational mechanophores operating at mild (sub‐1 nN) force conditions. A straightforward approach based on distance matrices is proposed for the selection of pulling scenarios that promote either the planar Hückel topology or the three lowest lying Möbius topologies. This approach is supported by quantum mechanochemical calculations. Force distribution analyses reveal that 28hexaphyrin selectively allocates the external mechanical energy to molecular regions that trigger Hückel–Möbius interconversions, explaining why certain pulling scenarios favor the Hückel two‐sided topology and others favor Möbius single‐sided topologies. The meso‐substitution pattern on 28hexaphyrin determines whether the energy difference between the different topologies can be overcome by mechanical activation.
Use the force: The Hückel and Möbius topology of 28hexaphyrin can be mechanically locked by applying an external pulling force to different meso positions in a sub‐nano‐Newton force regime. The mechanical energy is distributed to a specific region in the molecule to trigger the interconversion.
The biennial Ocean Sciences Meeting (OSM) is the most extensive opportunity for members of the global ocean sciences community to come together to share knowledge, network, build and strengthen ...collaborations, and grow ideas. In addition to sharing progress in research, technology, and education, these meetings are a valuable opportunity to advance diversity and inclusivity in the ocean sciences community. OSM 2020 featured several successful events and sessions with these themes, and reflection on them since then has been valuable for guiding further diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) efforts at our home institutions and for planning future conferences (Behl et al., 2021, in this issue; Le Bras, 2021).
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