Events

EAS Doctoral Defense by Shakti K. Bhattarai

TITLE : Application of random forest to predict microbiome markers on clinical outcomes DATE: Monday, July 29, 2019 TIME: 8:30 AM LOCATION: TXT-219 Abstract: Alzheimers disease (AD), the most common cause of dementia, has long been associated with bacterial infections and inflammation-causing immunosenescence. Recent studies examining the intestinal microbiota of AD patients revealed that their microbiome differs from that of subjects without dementia. Application of random forest classification identified clinical parameters as well as numerous microbial taxa and functional genes that act as predictors of AD dementia in comparison to elders without dementia or with other dementia types. We further demonstrate that stool samples from elders with AD can induce lower P-gp expression levels in vitro than those samples from elders without dementia or with other dementia types. We observed that the microbiome of AD elders shows a lower proportion and prevalence of bacteria with the potential to synthesize butyrate, as well as higher abundances of taxa that are known to cause proinflammatory states. Therefore, a potential nexus between the intestinal microbiome and AD is the modulation of intestinal homeostasis by increases in inflammatory, and decreases in anti-inflammatory, microbial metabolism. In a TB treatment study where the participants were randomized to receive treatments (either NTZ or HRZE) for 14 days, we first show that treatment with NTZ significantly perturbs the intestinal microbiome, with about half of volunteers becoming dominated with single clades of intestinal pathobionts. Second, we demonstrate that HRZE treatment for Tuberculosis, as previously described in cross sectional studies, has a narrow effect on the intestinal microbiome even after 2 weeks of treatment. Third, we show that changes in peripheral gene expression after 2 weeks of HRZE treatment are solely the result of anti-tubercular activity of the HRZE, rather than a com- bination of anti-tubercular activity and microbiome alterations. In fact, we demonstrate that in the NTZ cohort, there are no significant changes paraphernal gene expression after 2 weeks of profound alterations in the intestinal microbiome. Finally, we describe the microbiome-specific dynamics predicting why some individuals are dominated while taking NTZ, whereas others seem to be less affected. Collectively, these results challenge the notion that microbiome alterations have significant impacts at least on peripheral gene expression, limiting the extent to which one could conclude that the microbiome has systemic alterations on the host. Advisors: Dr. Vanni Bucci, Department of Bioengineering, UMD Committee members: Dr. Hua (Julia) Fang, Department of Computer & Information Science, UMD; Dr. Alfa R.H. Heryudono, Department of Mathematics, UMD; Gaurav Khanna, Department of Physics, UMD All EAS students are encouraged to attend and all interested parties invited. For further information, please contact Dr. Vanni Bucci or by email vbucci@umassd.edu

Academic year commences

The academic year begins.

Convocation

Convocation is a ceremony that celebrates the beginning of the academic year and welcomes our new students to campus.

First Day of Classes

Fall 2019 classes begin today.

Video Exhibition at the 'Bubbler Gallery' | Star Store Campus

Renee Piechocki, Brandon Forrest Frederick May 24 - September 9, 2019 Location: Bubbler Gallery, Star Store Campus The video stations above the water fountains, so called Bubbler are presenting the work by Brandon Forrest Frederick and Renee Piechocki. Brandon Forrest Frederick's 2017 video, Yard Maintenance / Perpetual Motion, is inspired by witnessing the futility of using a leaf blower on a windy day, this video references the human desire to structure uncontrollable forces. Brandon Forrest Frederick is an interdisciplinary artist, educator, and organizer based in Kansas City, Missouri. His work explores many relational aspects to living in a capitalistic and consumption based society. In using images, videos, sculptures, and found objects he looks to reveal poetic and poignant moments within the everyday and provide a new sense of agency in the act of disruption. To that effect he uses humor, performative gestures, models of reproduction, image making, community collaboration, and moments of civic imagination, organization, and reinterpretation. Each of these points of interaction facilitate a multi-faceted approach to dealing with the inequities of our current situation while learning to cope within the peculiar humor of it all. Renee Piechocki's 2019 video and stop motion animation Between Forest and Cabin, was developed during an artist residency on the Olympic Peninsula in Washington State. Alone in a cabin in the woods for two weeks, she spent time listening and watching, recording sounds and images in the forest. The artist states that the video captures changes in the wind, light, and my comfort level. In addition to her studio practice, Renee Piechocki is engaged with collaborative projects as an artist and public art consultant. She is based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and graduated from Hunter College with a degree in Studio Art.

Exhibition by Spencer Finch: Wind (Through Emily Dickinson's Window) | Star Store Campus

Spencer Finch: Wind (Through Emily Dickinson's Window) May 24 - September 9, 2019 Location: UMass Dartmouth Gallery 244, Star Store Campus, 715 Purchase Street, New Bedford, MA This exhibition introduces the work by well-known New York City based artist Spencer Finch to New Bedford audiences. His piece Wind (through Emily Dickinson's window, August 14, 2012, 3:22pm) is a re-creation of a summer breeze blowing through the window in the poet Emily Dickinson's bedroom in Amherst that the artist measured with an anemometer on site. Spencer Finch's watercolor drawings are based on videos of falling leaves whose paths he had traced. After the artist made the video recording, he collected leaves from under the tree and matched those colors with the watercolor. He says, 'What I especially like about it is that the twists of the watercolor line as it gets thicker and thinner refer to the rotation and movement of the leaf as it descends from the tree.' Spencer Finch is known to explore these kind of elusive and sensory experiences through his work— from the color of a sunset outside of his motel room to the light in a Turner painting, using both a scientific approach to gathering data and a true poetic sensibility. Spencer Finch (born 1962, New Haven, Connecticut) has exhibited extensively, both in the US and internationally. He has a BA in comparative literature from Hamilton College and an MFA in sculpture from the Rhode Island School of Design. Recent major projects include Fifteen Stones (Ry an-ji), an intervention in the International Pavilion at the Fundaci Mies van der Rohe, Barcelona, Spain (2018); A Cloud Index, a site-specific commission for the new Elizabeth line station at Paddington in London (2018); Lost Man Creek, his project with the Public Art Fund, Brooklyn, NY (2016-2018); Trying To Remember the Color of the Sky on That September Morning, a special commission for the 9/11 Memorial, New York, NY (2014); and A Certain Slant of Light, The Morgan Library & Museum, New York, NY (2014). Significant solo exhibitions include Utah Museum of Fine Arts, Salt Lake City, UT (2018-2019); MASS MoCA, North Adams, MA (2017); Norton Museum of Art, West Palm Beach, FL (2017); Seattle Museum of Art, WA (2017); Turner Contemporary, Margate, United Kingdom (2014); Rhode Island School of Design Museum of Art, Providence, RI (2012); Art Institute of Chicago, IL (2011); Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego, La Jolla, CA (2011); Emily Dickinson Museum, Amherst, MA (2011); Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. (2010); Frac des Pays de la Loire, Carquefou, France (2010); Queensland Gallery of Modern Art, Brisbane, Australia (2009) and MASS MocA, North Adams, MA (2007). Finch was included in the 2004 Whitney Biennial, the 2008 Turin Triennale and the 53rd Venice Biennale (2009). His work can be found in collections including the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, D.C.; High Museum of Art, Atlanta, GA; Museum Moderne Kunst, Frankfurt, Germany; Art Gallery of New South Wales, Australia; Kemper Museum of Art, St Louis, MO; Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, IL; National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.; Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, NY; and the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY. Spencer Finch lives and works in Brooklyn, New York.

Last day to Add, Drop, or Audit

Today is the last day to add/drop a class. Today is the last day to audit a class. Students taking online or continuing education courses please consult the University Extension withdrawal and refund policy. http://www.umassd.edu/extension/tuitionandfees/withdrawalandrefundpolicy/

Exhibition by Elizabeth Keithline: (The Air) As It Moves | Star Store Campus | Downtown New Bedford

Elizabeth Keithline: (The Air) As It Moves May 24 - September 12, 2019 Location: University Art Gallery, Star Store Campus, 715 Purchase Street, New Bedford, MA Reception: Thursday, AHA! Night, June 13, 6-8.30 pm 7 pm: Artist Talk 7.30 pm: Summer Winds concert with musicians Laura Pardee Schaefer (oboe) and Daniel Beilman (bassoon) from New Bedford Symphony Orchestra Interactive Shadow Drawing: July 11 & August 8, 6-8 pm Closing Reception: Thursday, AHA! Night, September 12, 6-8 pm Contact: Viera Levitt, Gallery Director and Exhibition Curator, gallery@umassd.edu Hours: 9 AM to 6 PM daily, closed on major holidays. Open until 9 pm during AHA! Nights (the second Thursday of every month) The UMass Dartmouth University Art Gallery presents four projects connected to the theme of wind throughout the Star Store Campus in Downtown New Bedford. Inspired by the inaugural Design Art Technology Massachusetts (DATMA) festival, titled Summer Winds 2019, visitors can experience various installations and video projects from different artists: Rhode Island's Elizabeth Keithline presents a site specific installation (The Air) As it Moves at the University Art Gallery; Spencer Finch, a well-known New York City artist exhibits Wind (Through Emily Dickinson's Window) in Gallery 244; videos by Renee Piechocki and Brandon Forrest Frederick play at the Bubbler Gallery. Lastly, a project Whispers by Canadian based Light Society will be projected on the Lecture Hall wall only during AHA! Nights, and is not to miss. (The Air) As It Moves is a site-specific installation by Elizabeth Keithline that uses hanging wire objects to create a play of light and shadows as it moves in the air. These abstract shapes have a memory of suspended skeletal, swaying wire beams and rafters that invite viewers to contemplate the invisible forces at work in our lives. We see these forces only because of their ancillary activity, never directly. Viewers are invited to move through the gallery and, by doing so, gently activate the installation. Throughout the sumer, the walls will become populated by additional shadow drawings, which will make it hard to distinguish the real shadows from their drawings, creating a disorienting and off balance feeling. On July 11 & August 8, there will be a family-friendly interactive shadow drawing from 6 to 8 pm. Artist Elizabeth Keithline's work focuses on human self-extension and its effects on contemporary society. Born in Connecticut in 1961, Keithline has been a weaver since she was 14 years old. In 1996, after moving to Rhode Island, she invented a sculpture technique wherein wire is woven around an object and then burned out, leaving behind a wire memory. As the installations grew, she began to cut away and re-mend parts of the wire, rather than burning it out. The spines that the repairs incorporated became part of the work's content area. She has installed public art projects in Boston, Paxton, and Oxford, MA. A current project, "The Shadow Tree" is installed in the Art & Nature Center at the Peabody Essex Museum through March 2021. Keithline's work has been reviewed in the New York Times, Sculpture Magazine, the Boston Globe, the Hartford Courant and others. She is also the consulting director for the Rhode Island State Council On the Arts Percent For Art Program and the State's Cultural Facilities Grant and serves on the advisory committee of Public Art Review.

Last day to file Pass/Fail

Today is the last day to file Pass/Fail.

Columbus Day Holiday - no classes

Columbus Day, no classes today.

Follow Monday's class schedule

Follow Monday's schedule.

Veterans Day Holiday - no classes

Veterans Day holiday, no classes today.