Transitioning Cell Culture CURE Labs from Campus to Online: Novel Strategies for a Novel Time.

Course-based undergraduate research experiences (CUREs) provide a way for students to gain research experience in a classroom setting. Few examples of cell culture CUREs or online CUREs exist in the literature. The Cell Biology Education Consortium (CBEC) provides a network and resources for instructors working to incorporate cell-culture based research into the classroom.

Students "Tackle" Quantitative Literacy in their Science Communication with Real-World Football Activity.

Undergraduate introductory biology students struggle when communicating quantitative data. This activity provides students with a real-world research experience to improve their quantitative literacy in science communication. Students were provided with a national sports media report that described a professional football athlete requiring 9,000 calories daily.

Riboflavin Riboswitch Regulation: Hands-On Learning about the Role of RNA Structures in the Control of Gene Expression in Bacteria.

American Society for Microbiology (ASM) Curriculum Guidelines highlight the importance of instruction about informational flow in organisms, including regulation of gene expression. However, foundational central dogma concepts and more advanced gene regulatory mechanisms are challenging for undergraduate biology students. To increase student comprehension of these principles, we designed an activity for upper-level biology students centered on construction and analysis of physical models of bacterial riboswitches.

Serum deprivation inhibits the transcriptional co-activator YAP and cell growth via phosphorylation of the 130-kDa isoform of Angiomotin by the LATS1/2 protein kinases.

Large tumor suppressor (LATS)1/2 protein kinases transmit Hippo signaling in response to intercellular contacts and serum levels to limit cell growth via the inhibition of Yes-associated protein (YAP). Here low serum and high LATS1 activity are found to enhance the levels of the 130-kDa isoform of angiomotin (Amot130) through phosphorylation by LATS1/2 at serine 175, which then forms a binding site for 14-3-3. Such phosphorylation, in turn, enables the ubiquitin ligase atrophin-1 interacting protein (AIP)4 to bind, ubiquitinate, and stabilize Amot130.

Amot130 adapts atrophin-1 interacting protein 4 to inhibit yes-associated protein signaling and cell growth.

The adaptor protein Amot130 scaffolds components of the Hippo pathway to promote the inhibition of cell growth. This study describes how Amot130 through binding and activating the ubiquitin ligase AIP4/Itch achieves these effects. AIP4 is found to bind and ubiquitinate Amot130 at residue Lys-481.

Capillary forces between surfaces with nanoscale roughness.

The flow and adhesion behavior of fine powders (approx. less than 10 microm) is significantly affected by the magnitude of attractive interparticle forces. Hence, the relative humidity and magnitude of capillary forces are critical parameters in the processing of these materials.

Origins of the Non-DLVO Force between Glass Surfaces in Aqueous Solution.

Direct measurement of surface forces has revealed that silica surfaces seem to have a short-range repulsion that is not accounted for in classical DLVO theory. The two leading hypotheses for the origin of the non-DLVO force are (i) structuring of water at the silica interface or (ii) water penetration into the surface resulting in a gel layer. In this article, the interaction of silica surfaces will be reviewed from the perspective of the non-DLVO force origin.

Adhesion between Nanoscale Rough Surfaces.

In this investigation, the adhesion between particles and plates with root-mean-square, rms, surface roughness of 0.17-10.5 nm was measured by atomic force microscopy.

Adhesion between Nanoscale Rough Surfaces.

Nanoscale surface roughness strongly affects the adhesion force between surfaces. In this investigation, a model that more accurately describes the size of an asperity based on the measurable parameters of root-mean-square (rms) roughness and the distance between the asperities is derived. The radius of the asperity from the proposed model is much larger than the radius used in previous approaches, considering the same surface with nanoscale roughness.

Directly observed therapy in an inner city hospital.

Setting: A directly observed therapy (DOT) tuberculosis (TB) program in a large urban teaching hospital in the East Harlem section of New York City.

Objective: In response to an emergent epidemic of TB, the State Department of Health mobilized a coalition of providers outside the public sector to provide DOT and medical care for people with TB, with the goal of treatment until cure. The results of the first 150 patients of one program are reviewed.

Tuberculin and anergy skin testing of patients receiving long-term hemodialysis.

Study Objectives: Immunocompromised patients with chronic renal failure requiring hemodialysis (HD) are at increased risk of developing tuberculosis (TB). Routine TB screening of this population is recommended. This study examined the frequency of TB reactions and anergy in HD patients in a community with a high prevalence of TB.

Public health campaign funds provide a "safety net" for indigent tuberculosis patients at the Mount Sinai Hospital.

This article describes the development of a partnership between a voluntary health care institution and a state agency for a focused public health program providing vital clinical, public health, and social supportive services. In addition to the historical development of this alliance, the article illustrates joint problem-solving processes to address complex issues. Since its inception in 1992, this collaboration has resulted in significant improvements in the health status of a high-risk, difficult-to-serve, indigent population that would otherwise pose a public health threat to the community.

Hospital care of tuberculosis patients referred for directly observed therapy in New York City: identifying factors in prolonged stays.

Individuals hospitalized and treated for tuberculosis (TB) who were then enrolled into TB directly observed therapy at four study hospitals in New York City (NYC) were identified. Review of hospital medical records determined whether the hospitalizations were warranted and whether lengths of stay were prolonged. Most hospitalizations were appropriate but over 70 percent of cases analyzed had prolonged stays.

Interpretation of the tuberculin skin test.

Objective: To reinterpret epidemiologic information about the tuberculin test (purified protein derivative) in terms of modern approaches to test characteristics; to clarify why different cutpoints of induration should be used to define a positive test in different populations; and to calculate test characteristics of the intermediate-strength tuberculin skin test, the probability of Mycobacterium tuberculosis infection at various induration sizes, the area under the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve, and optimal cutpoints for positivity.

Methods: Standard epidemiologic assumptions were used to distinguish M. tuberculosis-infected from -uninfected persons; also used were data from the U.

Hospital-acquired tuberculosis: addressing the challenge.

Treating contagious patients as outpatients is, of course, the best way to prevent nosocomial transmission. When hospitalized, they should be confined to areas with specified ventilation systems. Guidelines for monitoring exposed persons are presented.

Evaluation of the electrolarynx in the short-term hospital setting.

We evaluated the effectiveness of the electrolarynx as a communication tool in the short-term hospital setting with 22 tracheostomized patients. Following an initial training period, we found that 14 of 22 patients achieved good results in communicating with the electrolarynx, three patients had fair results, and five patients had poor results. There were no differences in success rates for older or younger patients or for men or women; we could not correlate specific disease diagnosis with success or failure.