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The Hispanic Serving Institution Advanced Technological Education Hub 2 (HSI ATE Hub 2) is a three-year collaborative research project funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF) that builds upon the successful outcomes of two mentoring and professional development (PD) programs in a pilot that translates foundational theory related to culturally responsive pedagogy into practice using a 3-tier scaffolded faculty PD model. The goal of HSI ATE Hub 2 is to improve outcomes for Latinx students in technician education programs through design, development, pilot, optimization, and dissemination of this model at 2-year Hispanic Serving Institutions (HSIs). The tiered PD model has been tested by two faculty cohorts at Westchester Community College (WCC), an HSI in the State University of New York (SUNY) system. In year one, Cohort A piloted the PD modules in Tier 1 which featured reflective exercises and small culturally responsive activities to try with their STEM students. In year two, Cohort A piloted the PD modules in Tier 2 and peer-mentored Cohort B as they piloted optimizations introduced to Tier 1 from Cohort A feedback. Three types of optimizations came from faculty feedback. The first considered feedback regarding delivery and/or nature of the content that influenced a subsequent module. The second involved making changes to a particular module before it was delivered to another faculty cohort. The third takes into account what worked and what didn’t to decide which content to bring into virtual webinars for the broader advanced technician education community. Dissemination of the tiered PD model has been achieved in annual webinars with the broader ATE community and at conferences for advanced technician educators to achieve broader impacts in the ATE Community. Longer term, providing professional development in culturally responsive pedagogy and practices can help existing and future faculty learn to productively engage their students in more inclusive ways. As faculty mindsets shift to asset-based thinking and a climate of mutual respect is developed, the learning environment for all students in technician education programs will improve. When students learn in a supportive environment, their chances for success increase. The professional development provided in the HSI ATE Hub 2 project will lead to longer term improvements in four ways: 1) Retainment of Culturally responsive practices by those directly engaged after the project ends; 2) Inserting top activities from the PD into national webinars to extend the reach of the training; 3) Strengthening grant proposals as faculty integrate culturally responsive strategies, knowledge and experience within their ATE proposals to the NSF; and 4) Meeting industry demand for a diverse technician workforce. This second paper in a three-part series describes ongoing progress and lessons learned in developing and piloting the 3-Tier PD model with two Cohorts of STEM faculty at a 2-year HSI. 

The Hispanic Serving Institution Advanced Technological Education Hub 2 (HSI ATE Hub 2) is a three-year collaborative research project funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF) that builds upon the successful outcomes of two mentoring and professional development (PD) programs in a pilot that translates foundational theory related to culturally responsive pedagogy into practice using a 3-tier scaffolded faculty PD model. The goal of HSI ATE Hub 2 is to improve outcomes for Latinx students in technician education programs through design, development, pilot, optimization, and dissemination of this model at 2-year Hispanic Serving Institutions (HSIs). The tiered PD model has been tested by two faculty cohorts at Westchester Community College (WCC), an HSI in the State University of New York (SUNY) system. In year one, Cohort A piloted the PD modules in Tier 1 which featured reflective exercises and small culturally responsive activities to try with their STEM students. In year two, Cohort A piloted the PD modules in Tier 2 and peer-mentored Cohort B as they piloted optimizations introduced to Tier 1 from Cohort A feedback. Three types of optimizations came from faculty feedback. The first considered feedback regarding delivery and/or nature of the content that influenced a subsequent module. The second involved making changes to a particular module before it was delivered to another faculty cohort. The third takes into account what worked and what didn’t to decide which content to bring into virtual webinars for the broader advanced technician education community. Dissemination of the tiered PD model has been achieved in annual webinars with the broader ATE community and at conferences for advanced technician educators to achieve broader impacts in the ATE Community. Longer term, providing professional development in culturally responsive pedagogy and practices can help existing and future faculty learn to productively engage their students in more inclusive ways. As faculty mindsets shift to asset-based thinking and a climate of mutual respect is developed, the learning environment for all students in technician education programs will improve. When students learn in a supportive environment, their chances for success increase. The professional development provided in the HSI ATE Hub 2 project will lead to longer term improvements in four ways: 1) Retainment of Culturally responsive practices by those directly engaged after the project ends; 2) Inserting top activities from the PD into national webinars to extend the reach of the training; 3) Strengthening grant proposals as faculty integrate culturally responsive strategies, knowledge and experience within their ATE proposals to the NSF; and 4) Meeting industry demand for a diverse technician workforce. This second paper in a three-part series describes ongoing progress and lessons learned in developing and piloting the 3-Tier PD model with two Cohorts of STEM faculty at a 2-year HSI. 

Maternal reprogramming of histone methylation is critical for reestablishing totipotency in the zygote, but how histone-modifying enzymes are regulated during maternal reprogramming is not well characterized. To address this gap, we asked whether maternal reprogramming by the H3K4me1/2 demethylase SPR-5/LSD1/KDM1A, is regulated by the chromatin co-repressor protein, SPR-1/CoREST, in Caenorhabditis elegans and mice. In C. elegans, SPR-5 functions as part of a reprogramming switch together with the H3K9 methyltransferase MET-2. By examining germline development, fertility, and gene expression in double mutants between spr-1 and met-2, as well as fertility in double mutants between spr-1 and spr-5, we find that loss of SPR-1 results in a partial loss of SPR-5 maternal reprogramming function. In mice, we generated a separation of function Lsd1 M448V point mutation that compromises CoREST binding, but only slightly affects LSD1 demethylase activity. When maternal LSD1 in the oocyte is derived exclusively from this allele, the progeny phenocopy the increased perinatal lethality that we previously observed when LSD1 was reduced maternally. Together, these data are consistent with CoREST having a conserved function in facilitating maternal LSD1 epigenetic reprogramming.

 

Dipolarizing flux bundles (DFBs) have been suggested to transport energy and momentum from regions of reconnection in the magnetotail to the high latitude ionosphere, where they can generate localized ionospheric currents that can produce large nighttime geomagnetic disturbances (GMDs). In this study we identified DFBs observed in the midnight sector from ∼7 to ∼10 R_Eby THEMIS A, D, and E during days in 2015–2017 whose northern hemisphere magnetic footpoints mapped to regions near Hudson Bay, Canada, and have compared them to isolated GMDs observed by ground magnetometers. We found 6 days during which one or more of these DFBs coincided to within ±3 min with ≥6 nT/s GMDs observed by latitudinally closely spaced ground‐based magnetometers located near those footpoints. Spherical elementary current systems (SECS) maps and all‐sky imager data provided further characterization of two events, showing short‐lived localized intense upward currents, auroral intensifications and/or streamers, and vortical perturbations of a westward electrojet. On all but one of these days the coincident DFB—GMD pairs occurred during intervals of high‐speed solar wind streams but low values of SYM/H. The observations reported here indicate that isolated DFBs generated under these conditions influence only limited spatial regions nearer Earth. In some events, in which the DFBs were observed closer to Earth and with lower Earthward velocities, the GMDs occurred slightly earlier than the DFBs, suggesting that braking had begun before the time of the DFB observation.

 

Tomography is a widely used tool for analyzing microstructures in three dimensions (3D). The analysis, however, faces difficulty because the constituent materials produce similar grey-scale values. Sometimes, this prompts the image segmentation process to assign a pixel/voxel to the wrong phase (active material or pore). Consequently, errors are introduced in the microstructure characteristics calculation. In this work, we develop a filtering algorithm called PerSplat based on topological persistence (a technique used in topological data analysis) to improve segmentation quality. One problem faced when evaluating filtering algorithms is that real image data in general are not equipped with the `ground truth' for the microstructure characteristics. For this study, we construct synthetic images for which the ground-truth values are known. On the synthetic images, we compare the pore tortuosity and Minkowski functionals (volume and surface area) computed with our PerSplat filter and other methods such as total variation (TV) and non-local means (NL-means). Moreover, on a real 3D image, we visually compare the segmentation results provided by our filter against TV and NL-means. The experimental results indicate that PerSplat provides a significant improvement in segmentation quality. 

Glypicans influence signaling pathways by regulating morphogen trafficking and reception. However, the underlying mechanisms in vertebrates are poorly understood. In zebrafish, Glypican 4 (Gpc4) is required for convergence and extension (C&E) of both the mesoderm and endoderm. Here, we show that transgenic expression of GFP-Gpc4 in the endoderm of gpc4 mutants rescued C&E defects in all germ layers. The rescue of mesoderm was likely mediated by Wnt5b and Wnt11f2 and depended on signaling filopodia rather than on cleavage of the Gpc4 GPI anchor. Gpc4 bound both Wnt5b and Wnt11f2 and regulated formation of the filopodia that transport Wnt5b and Wnt11f2 to neighboring cells. Moreover, this rescue was suppressed by blocking signaling filopodia that extend from endodermal cells. Thus, GFP-Gpc4–labeled protrusions that emanated from endodermal cells transported Wnt5b and Wnt11f2 to other germ layers, rescuing the C&E defects caused by a gpc4 deficiency. Our study reveals a new mechanism that could explain in vivo morphogen distribution involving Gpc4.

 

Formation of a zygote is coupled with extensive epigenetic reprogramming to enable appropriate inheritance of histone methylation and prevent developmental delays. In Caenorhabditis elegans, this reprogramming is mediated by the H3K4me2 demethylase SPR-5 and the H3K9 methyltransferase, MET-2. In contrast, the H3K36 methyltransferase MES-4 maintains H3K36me2/3 at germline genes between generations to facilitate re-establishment of the germline. To determine whether the MES-4 germline inheritance pathway antagonizes spr-5; met-2 reprogramming, we examined the interaction between these two pathways. We found that the developmental delay of spr-5; met-2 mutant progeny is associated with ectopic H3K36me3 and the ectopic expression of MES-4-targeted germline genes in somatic tissues. Furthermore, the developmental delay is dependent upon MES-4 and the H3K4 methyltransferase, SET-2. We propose that MES-4 prevents crucial germline genes from being repressed by antagonizing maternal spr-5; met-2 reprogramming. Thus, the balance of inherited histone modifications is necessary to distinguish germline versus soma and prevent developmental delay.

This article has an associated ‘The people behind the papers’ interview.