Panelist Presentations & Q&A

Immediately following lunch, our women panelists will speak about the mathematics courses they took and the role mathematics plays in their chosen career, followed by questions from the audience.

Computational and Biochemical Approaches to Molecular Epidemiology

Mining activity in Butte, Montana has taken place, or continues to take place, within the urban residence of Butte itself. This has led to urban areas with high concentrations of toxic metals such as arsenic, lead, copper, zinc, mercury and cadmium. Advances in protein study and gene sequencing has opened the possibility of finding molecular biomarkers whose presence, absence or morphological changes could indicate disease processes in populations exposed to environmental toxins. While in principle, biomarkers can be any chemicals or metabolites, as well as proteins and genes that are indicative of exposure to xenobiotics, this study seeks to identify changes in cellular pathways that suggest chronic (or acute) exposure to low-levels of metals associated with historical mining activities on the Butte Hill that could cause oxidative stress or other stress to the cell.

Organic Wastewater Chemicals in Silver Bow Creek - Butte to Warm Springs Ponds

The purpose of this study is to detail and analyze the distribution, concentration, and loads of 5 organic compounds along Silver Bow Creek in Butte, Montana from the Municipal Wastewater treatment plant to the Warm Springs Ponds. The chemicals analyzed include Carbamazepine (pharmaceutical), Miconazole (fungicide) and three antibiotics – Sulfamethoxazole, Thiabendazole, and Ciprofloxacin. This project begins a 2 year study to analyze 6 additional compounds (11 compounds total), to develop an effective method to detail and analyze OWCs using Mass Spectrometer/Liquid chromatography system, and to aid in assessment of aquatic health and ongoing restoration work. The EPA method 1694 was used for analysis

Human bronchial epithelium controls TH2 responses by TH1-induced, nitric oxide-mediated STAT5 dephosphorylation: implications for the pathogenesis of asthma

Increased levels of NO in exhaled air in association with increased NO synthetase (NOS)2 expression in bronchial epithelial are hallmark features of asthma. It has been suggested that NO contributes to asthma pathogenesis by selective down-regulation of TH1 responses. We demonstrate, however, that NO can reversibly limit in vitro expansion of both human TH1 and TH2 CD4+ T cells. Mechanistically, NO induces cGMP-mediated reversible STAT5 dephosphorylation and therefore interferes with the IL-2R activation cascade. Human bronchial epithelial cells (HBEC) up-regulate NOS2 after stimulation with IFN-gamma secreted by TH1 CD4+ T cells and release NO, which inhibits both TH1 and TH2 cell proliferation. This reversible T cell growth arrest depends on NO because T cell proliferation is completely restored after in vitro blocking of NOS2 on HBEC. HBEC thus drive the effector end of a TH1-controlled feedback loop, which protects airway mucosal tissues at the potential lesional site in asthma from overwhelming CD4+ TH2 (and potentially TH1) responses following allergen exposure. Variations in the efficiency of this feedback loop provides a plausible mechanism to explain why only a subset of atopics sensitized to ubiquitous aeroallergens progress to expression of clinically relevant levels of airways inflammation.

Implementing Swedish Models of Social Work in a Russian Context

The economic and social changes taking place in Russia in recent decades have implied a restructuring of the Russian society. Among other things, Russian leaders have expressed a need for the reorientation of social development. In the 1990’s, cooperation was initiated on a number of social work and social welfare projects with international support, a process further speeded up during President Jeltsin’s state visit to Sweden in 1997. Discussions between the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida) and the Russian authorities dealing with welfare issues started from the assumption that Russian professional social work was weak and needed to be strengthened. In the 1990's Sida was also given a stronger general mandate to work with other former Soviet countries in Eastern Europe, for example the Baltic States. The Russian-Swedish discussions resulted in projects aiming to raise social work competencies in public authorities, managements and among social workers in Russia. One of the areas chosen for these projects was Saint Petersburg, where several projects aiming to develop new models for social work were launched. The point of departure has been to transfer and adjust Swedish models of social work to the Russian context. The Stockholm University Department of Social Work became responsible for a number of such projects and besides using academic teachers also involved a number of practitioners, such as social workers in disablement services and reformatory staff who could meet and match Russian authorities and partners.

A Gly98Val mutation in the N-Myc downstream regulated gene 1 (NDRG1) in Alaskan Malamutes with polyneuropathy.

The first cases of early-onset progressive polyneuropathy appeared in the Alaskan Malamute population in Norway in the late 1970s. Affected dogs were of both sexes and were ambulatory paraparetic, progressing to non-ambulatory tetraparesis. On neurologic examination, affected dogs displayed predominantly laryngeal paresis, decreased postural reactions, decreased spinal reflexes and muscle atrophy. The disease was considered eradicated through breeding programmes but recently new cases have occurred in the Nordic countries and the USA. The N-myc downstream-regulated gene (NDRG1) is implicated in neuropathies with comparable symptoms or clinical signs both in humans and in Greyhound dogs. This gene was therefore considered a candidate gene for the polyneuropathy in Alaskan Malamutes. The coding sequence of the NDRG1 gene derived from one healthy and one affected Alaskan Malamute revealed a non-synonymous G>T mutation in exon 4 in the affected dog that causes a Gly98Val amino acid substitution. This substitution was categorized to be "probably damaging" to the protein function by PolyPhen2 (score: 1.000). Subsequently, 102 Alaskan Malamutes from the Nordic countries and the USA known to be either affected (n = 22), obligate carriers (n = 7) or healthy (n = 73) were genotyped for the SNP using TaqMan. All affected dogs had the T/T genotype, the obligate carriers had the G/T genotype and the healthy dogs had the G/G genotype except for 13 who had the G/T genotype. A protein alignment showed that residue 98 is conserved in mammals and also that the entire NDRG1 protein is highly conserved (94.7%) in mammals. We conclude that the G>T substitution is most likely the mutation that causes polyneuropathy in Alaskan Malamutes. Our characterization of a novel candidate causative mutation for polyneuropathy offers a new canine model that can provide further insight into pathobiology and therapy of human polyneuropathy. Furthermore, selection against this mutation can now be used to eliminate the disease in Alaskan Malamutes.

Microwave radiometer to retrieve temperature profiles from the surface to the stratopause

TEMPERA (TEMPERature RAdiometer) is a new ground-based radiometer which measures in a frequency range from 51–57 GHz radiation emitted by the atmosphere. With this instrument it is possible to measure temperature profiles from ground to about 50 km. This is the first ground-based instrument with the capability to retrieve temperature profiles simultaneously for the troposphere and stratosphere. The measurement is done with a filterbank in combination with a digital fast Fourier transform spectrometer. A hot load and a noise diode are used as stable calibration sources. The optics consist of an off-axis parabolic mirror to collect the sky radiation. Due to the Zeeman effect on the emission lines used, the maximum height for the temperature retrieval is about 50 km. The effect is apparent in the measured spectra. The performance of TEMPERA is validated by comparison with nearby radiosonde and satellite data from the Microwave Limb Sounder on the Aura satellite. In this paper we present the design and measurement method of the instrument followed by a description of the retrieval method, together with a validation of TEMPERA data over its first year, 2012.

Outlines of Jewish history. Rev. by M. Friedländer

by [Katie] Magnus

An ARHGEF10 deletion is highly associated with a juvenile-onset inherited polyneuropathy in Leonberger and Saint Bernard dogs

An inherited polyneuropathy (PN) observed in Leonberger dogs has clinical similarities to a genetically heterogeneous group of peripheral neuropathies termed Charcot-Marie-Tooth (CMT) disease in humans. The Leonberger disorder is a severe, juvenile-onset, chronic, progressive, and mixed PN, characterized by exercise intolerance, gait abnormalities and muscle atrophy of the pelvic limbs, as well as inspiratory stridor and dyspnea. We mapped a PN locus in Leonbergers to a 250 kb region on canine chromosome 16 (Praw = 1.16×10-10, Pgenome, corrected = 0.006) utilizing a high-density SNP array. Within this interval is the ARHGEF10 gene, a member of the rho family of GTPases known to be involved in neuronal growth and axonal migration, and implicated in human hypomyelination. ARHGEF10 sequencing identified a 10 bp deletion in affected dogs that removes four nucleotides from the 3'-end of exon 17 and six nucleotides from the 5'-end of intron 17 (c.1955_1958+6delCACGGTGAGC). This eliminates the 3'-splice junction of exon 17, creates an alternate splice site immediately downstream in which the processed mRNA contains a frame shift, and generates a premature stop codon predicted to truncate approximately 50% of the protein. Homozygosity for the deletion was highly associated with the severe juvenile-onset PN phenotype in both Leonberger and Saint Bernard dogs. The overall clinical picture of PN in these breeds, and the effects of sex and heterozygosity of the ARHGEF10 deletion, are less clear due to the likely presence of other forms of PN with variable ages of onset and severity of clinical signs. This is the first documented severe polyneuropathy associated with a mutation in ARHGEF10 in any species.

Surgical treatments for esophageal cancers.

The following, from the 12th OESO World Conference: Cancers of the Esophagus, includes commentaries on the role of the nurse in preparation of esophageal resection (ER); the management of patients who develop high-grade dysplasia after having undergone Nissen fundoplication; the trajectory of care for the patient with esophageal cancer; the influence of the site of tumor in the choice of treatment; the best location for esophagogastrostomy; management of chylous leak after esophagectomy; the optimal approach to manage thoracic esophageal leak after esophagectomy; the choice for operational approach in surgery of cardioesophageal crossing; the advantages of robot esophagectomy; the place of open esophagectomy; the advantages of esophagectomy compared to definitive chemoradiotherapy; the pathologist report in the resected specimen; the best way to manage patients with unsuspected positive microscopic margin after ER; enhanced recovery after surgery for ER: expedited care protocols; and long-term quality of life in patients following esophagectomy.