Intrahost-diversity of influenza A virus in upper and lower respiratory tract derived samples from a college community

Motivation. Influenza is a rapidly mutating RNA virus responsible for annual epidemics causing substantial morbidity, mortality, and economic loss. Characterizing influenza virus mutational diversity and evolutionary processes within and between human hosts can provide tools to help track and understand transmission events. In this study we investigated possible differences between the intrahost genomic content of influenza virus in upper respiratory swabs and exhaled aerosols thought to be enriched for virus from the lower respiratory tract. Results. We examined the sequences of specimens collected from influenza A virus (IAV) infected college community members from December 2012 through May 2013. We analyzed four types of IAV samples μm aerosols (N=38), coarse >5μm aerosols (N=27), nasopharyngeal (N=53), and oropharyngeal swabs (N=47)) collected from 42 study participants with 60 sampling instances. Eighteen (42.9%) participants had data from four sample types (nasopharyngeal swab, oropharyngeal swab, coarse aerosol, fine aerosol) included in the analysis, 10 (23.8%) had data from 3 sample types, 10 (23.8%) had data from 2 sample types, and 4 (9.5%) had data from one type of sample included in the analysis. We found that 481 (53.3%) consensus single nucleotide polymorphisms are shared by all sample types and 600 (66.5%) are shared by at least three different sample types. We observed that within a single patient consensus and non-consensus single nucleotide variants are shared across all sample types. Finally, we inferred a phylogenetic tree using consensus sequences and found that samples derived from a single patient are monophyletic. Conclusions. Single nucleotide polymorphisms did not differentiate between samples with varying origin along the respiratory tree. We found that signatures of variation in non-consensus intrahost single nucleotide variants are host and sample, but not site-specific. We conclude that the genomic information available does not allow us to discern a transmission route. Future investigation into whether any site-specific mutational signatures emerge over a longer period of infection, for example in immunocompromised hosts, can be interesting from the virus evolution perspective.

REACHING HIGHER: UNDERSTANDING STUDENT DEVELOPMENT AND DEPARTURE

Since its foundation, post-secondary institutions have demonstrated a concern to the high rates of student departure which have led to a proliferation of studies focused on college students’ interest and retention in the 1970s (ASTIN, 1975; COPE e HANNAH, 1975; LENNING, 1978; TINTO, 1975). Concentrating on the institutions’ role, this study aims at—in a historical perspective—finding out: (i) how have institutions been viewing student interest and attrition and how (and if) they have been acting upon it, and (ii) if student academic failure has been in any way seen as related to it. It was observed that is through programs of academic and student leadership and discussion panels that students are given the opportunity to engage in the college community—learning with and from their peers.

Eltham College

Eltham College is a multi-campus, K–12 Australian school. It has close associations worldwide, principally, in China. Eltham ’s Knowledge Network forms the basis of all communications within the College community, including its overseas interests. Knowledge Network contains the Student Learning Management System[SLMS] jointly developed by Eltham and Corskills Australia. SLMS is a total package that includes students’ work and resources online, subject information, reporting, and direct teacher/student and teacher/parent contact information. The Senior teacher-librarian has developed an interactive online Information Literacy Skills course for Grades five and six students that links to SLMS.

ESL intergroup extracurricular creative project - based learning in college

The article describes the experience of implementing intergroup extra-curricular student-driven creative projects «Halloween Short Horror Film», «Christmas Miracles» и «Lockdown Web Series». All the aforementioned projects were designed for and carried out by the frst year Bachelor Journalism students as part of their English language course in 2019-2020. The current research found that intergroup creative collaborative projects help achieve a number of objectives: to build a stronger college community, to improve team-working and language skills and also to promote autonomous learning. The research paper provides a step-by-step procedure for implementing each project and analyses the student feedback data.

Risk factors for fecal carriage of multidrug-resistant Escherichia coli in a college community: a penalized regression model

BackgroundBacterial antimicrobial resistance is a serious global public health threat. Intestinal commensal drug-resistant bacteria have been suggested as an important reservoir of antimicrobial resistant genes (ARGs), which may be acquired via food. We aimed to identify risk factors associated with fecal carriage of drug-resistant commensal Escherichia coli (E. coli) among healthy adults focused on their dietary habit.MethodsWe conducted a cross-sectional study targeting healthy adult volunteers in a college community. Fecal samples and questionnaires were obtained from 113 volunteers. We conducted backward elimination logistic regression and least absolute shrinkage and selection (LASSO) methods to identify risk factors.ResultsWe analyzed responses from 81 of 113 volunteers who completed the questionnaire. The logistic regression and LASSO methods identified red meat consumption to be associated with increased risk (OR = 6.13 [1.83-24.2] and 1.82, respectively) and fish consumption with reduced risk (OR = 0.27 [0.08-0.85] and 0.82) for the carriage of multidrug-resistant E. coli, adjusted for gender, employment status, frequently-used supermarket, and previous travel.ConclusionsDietary habits are associated with the risk of fecal carriage of multidrug-resistant E. coli. This study supports the growing evidence that food may be an important source of ARGs present in human commensal E. coli.

College disability support offices as advertisements: A multimodal discourse analysis

This study examined the disability support offices (DSOs) websites of twelve US higher education institutions (HEIs) anchored in multimodal discourse analysis and genre analysis to examine how semiotic resources are deployed to describe DSO services on their websites and to determine the discursive functions of advertisement they perform. The DSO websites were within four clicks from HEI homepages but had inconsistent navigation paths, making it difficult to reach DSO websites. DSO websites were foregrounding promoting and branding the institutions rather than presenting the information about the services offered. This is achieved by using multimodal promotional rhetoric such as: (a) situating accessibility as central commodifiable attribute, (b) promoting the value of accessibility, (c) establishing the superiority of the institution, (d) constructing images of students with disabilities as empowered but dependent upon the DSO, and (e) situating students within a college community. Implications for DSO websites functioning as advertisements are also discussed.