Consequential insights for advancing informal STEM learning and outcomes for students from historically marginalized communities.

Consequential STEM experiences in informal settings can address issues of equity by fully engaging historically marginalized high school students in complex socio-scientific issues. However, inclusive and effective programs are in high demand, and there is little research on what specific aspects, context, and timeframes are most important when scaling these experiences. Using a mixed method approach, this study demonstrates that students make significant gains, in the short and long term, through in-person and remote informal programs ranging between 22-h and 320-h.

Chimeric maternal cells in offspring do not respond to renal injury, inflammatory or repair signals.

Maternal microchimerism (MMc) can persist for years in a child, and has been implicated in the pathogenesis of chronic inflammatory autoimmune diseases. Chimeric cells may either contribute to disease by acting as immune targets or expand in response to signals of injury, inflammation or repair. We investigated the role of maternal cells in tissue injury in the absence of autoimmunity by quantifying MMc by quantitative PCR in acute and chronic models of renal injury: (1) reversible acute renal injury, inflammation and regeneration induced by rhabdomyolysis and (2) chronic injury leading to fibrosis after unilateral ureteral obstruction.

High prevalence of enteroinvasive Escherichia coli isolated in a remote region of northern coastal Ecuador.

Enteroinvasive Escherichia coli (EIEC) causes dysentery; however, it is less widely reported than other etiological agents in studies of diarrhea worldwide. Between August 2003 and July 2005, stool samples were collected in case-control studies in 22 rural communities in northwestern Ecuador. Infection was assessed by PCR specific for LT and STa genes of enterotoxigenic E.

A morphological and genetic characterization of metamorphosis in the ascidian Boltenia villosa.

Ascidian metamorphosis is a critical life history stage for exploring chordate evolution and conserved chordate developmental signaling pathways. The vast majority of research on ascidian development has been focused on embryogenesis. Thus there is still little known about the development of ascidian post-larval structures, including differentiation of the chordate pharyngeal gill slits and endostyle along with the heart, blood cells and gut.