Depletion of β1,6-N-acetylglucosaminyltransferase reduces E-selectin binding capacity and migratory potential of human gastrointestinal adenocarcinoma cells.

The commonly altered glycosylation of tumor cells is a hallmark of tumor progression and metastasis formation. One prominent example is the interaction of sialylated glycans at the tumor cell surface with endothelial (E)-selectin as an early event of an adhesion cascade that enables extravasation of circulating tumor cells (CTCs) into distant tissues. In a previous study, we identified GCNT3 (mucin-type core2/ core4 β1,6-N-acetylglucosaminyltransferase) highly over-expressed in gastrointestinal adenocarcinoma cells that facilitate the canonical E-selectin ligands sialyl-Lewis A and X (sLeA/X) for E-selectin binding and endothelial adhesion.

The contribution of physical exertion to heat-related illness and death in the Arizona borderlands.

Recent studies and reports suggest an increased mortality rate of undocumented border crossers (UBCs) in Arizona is the result of heat extremes and climatic change. Conversely, others have shown that deaths have occurred in cooler environments than in previous years. We hypothesized that human locomotion plays a greater role in heat-related mortality and that such events are not simply the result of exposure.

Developing a geospatial measure of change in core temperature for migrating persons in the Mexico-U.S. border region.

Although heat exposure is the leading cause of mortality for undocumented immigrants attempting to traverse the Mexico-U.S. border, there has been little work in quantifying risk.

Remotely identifying potential vector habitat in areas of refugee and displaced person populations due to the Syrian civil war.

Historically leishmaniasis is most prevalent in established urban centres but this research shows that refugees and, most significantly, internally displaced persons are now commonly in areas characterized by the presence of fly habitats potentially leading to higher prominence of Leishmania infection. Areas engulfed by the Syrian civil war has thus caused the dispersal of humans into previously unpopulated areas amid habitats of the sand fly Phlebotomus papatasi that hosts the parasite Leishmania. The addition of new places of exposure to this disease add to difficulties with respect to diagnosis as well as provision of care and treatment.

Social and spatial relationships driving landowner attitudes towards aquatic conservation in a Piedmont-Blue Ridge landscape.

More than half of land in the U.S. is privately owned and covers most of known endangered species habitat.