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Background/Objectives: Sleep issues are common in the general population, and these problems occur even more frequently for people with cancer. Sleep problems may pre-exist a patient’s cancer diagnosis, and there is a growing interest in understanding the impact of sleep on cancer development and progression. Sleep disorders may impact cancer through altered metabolism, impacts on immune response, and alterations in hormones and gene expression. Sleep disorders may also arise after, or be aggravated by, an individual’s cancer and cancer treatment. Treating a person with cancer’s sleep disorder may help improve their healing, mental health, cognition, and overall resilience. Methods: Studies examining a variety of aspects of the relationship between sleep and cancer were found by searching the National Library of Medicine and characterized by their specific information provided on the relationship between sleep and cancer. Results: This review article summarizes our current understanding of the complex inter-relationship between sleep and cancer, the underlying mechanisms that create these connections, and the methods and impact of treating sleep issues in cancer patients. The article also outlines an approach to sleep complaints for clinicians caring for patients with cancer. Conclusions: Significant research is still needed to understand the full relationship between sleep disorders and cancer. The impact of sleep issues on cancer and of cancer on sleep appears to be specific to the tissue and the molecular type of cancer. The treatment of sleep disorders is multimodal, and offers a promising avenue to improve the health and quality of life of cancer patients.

Kerstin Meyer and colleagues analyze a breast cancer gene regulatory network generated using publicly available expression and ChIP-seq data sets. They identify a cluster of 36 regulons that are significantly enriched for known breast cancer risk-associated genes and propose the use of regulon activity for patient stratification. Genetic risk for breast cancer is conferred by a combination of multiple variants of small effect. To better understand how risk loci might combine, we examined whether risk-associated genes share regulatory mechanisms. We created a breast cancer gene regulatory network comprising transcription factors and groups of putative target genes (regulons) and asked whether specific regulons are enriched for genes associated with risk loci via expression quantitative trait loci (eQTLs). We identified 36 overlapping regulons that were enriched for risk loci and formed a distinct cluster within the network, suggesting shared biology. The risk transcription factors driving these regulons are frequently mutated in cancer and lie in two opposing subgroups, which relate to estrogen receptor (ER) + luminal A or luminal B and ER − basal-like cancers and to different luminal epithelial cell populations in the adult mammary gland. Our network approach provides a foundation for determining the regulatory circuits governing breast cancer, to identify targets for intervention, and is transferable to other disease settings.

Distinguishing obstructive sleep apnea from central apnea depends upon accurate measure of chest and abdominal movement. American Academy of Sleep Medicine (AASM) polysomnography guidelines recommend the use of respiratory inductive plethysmography (RIP) belts but not piezoelectrode (PE) belts for measuring chest and abdominal movements. To compare these two sensors, we measured the signal amplitude for 10 RIP belts and 10 PE belts stretched by mechanical distraction across six distances (2.5 to 15.0 centimeters) and replicated 10 times for each belt. Amplitudes were measured using the Stellate Harmonie (Stellate Systems, Inc., Natus Medical, Inc., San Carlos, California, USA) recording system. A Pearson Product Moment Correlation coefficient was calculated. All RIP belts performed well at all distraction lengths and demonstrated linear performance. Eight of 10 PE belts performed well through all measures whereas, two showed nonlinear increase in signal on stretch of greater than 12.5 centimeters. Signals from PE belts highly correlated with the distance of distraction (r=0.96 to 0.99) and the RIP belts (r=0.98 to 0.99). These results suggest that PE belts perform similarly to RIP belts at distraction distances up to 10.0 centimeters. Further testing on biological models is needed to determine if PE belts are a suitable alternative for RIP belts in polysomnography.

Two years before my coauthor and I began this narrative inquiry, as the school superintendent of a rural community, I failed to fire a malicious football coach and resigned shortly thereafter. I floundered for a few months and then decided to pursue a doctorate in educational administration. Soon I met a professor, now my coauthor, who offered me the opportunity to explain what had happened in terms of socially constructed gender roles. We investigated 40 post-World War II urban, suburban, and rural female superintendents whom my coauthor and other scholars had interviewed. After theming their stories into five prototypes we wove these collective representations into my personal narrative and found that operationalizing any political agenda necessitated being aware of how a school community views acceptable womanhood, because it determined how the female superintendent was received. Had I adopted my stakeholders' notion of female demeanor, more school patrons may have heard me. Yet, for me and other superintendents the feasibility and ethics of what might be seen as outright manipulation will forever loom on the horizon of politics, gender and the superintendency

School administrators rarely have the opportunity to confer and share their challenges with colleagues. To address this problem in 2005 the Educational Administration Department (EAD) at Central University (a Midwestern PhD granting institution located in a thriving city of about 100,00 people) created a virtual/local doctoral cohort for 14 school leaders living and working in two states. Three years into the course of study we conducted a year long inquiry that asked, \"How did students' self-perceptions evolve within a cohort context, and how did these changes advance or retard professional learning community (PLC) growth?\" Our interviews had a phenomenological focus but we used symbolic interactionism to analyze them and dramaturgy to present our findings. Themes of faculty and student relationships, work and/or personal problems and dealing with technology indicated that despite some significant hurdles students' identity evolutions moved the group toward becoming a PLC, a collaborative culture of thinkers.

As a Mexican American and an educator, all of my life I have travelled between formal educational and Mexican American cultures. For decades I felt alienated professionally and thoroughly embedded within my ethnic origins until an educational trip to Mexico encouraged me to think differently. As a result, to become a more authentic educator and person, with my coauthor's assistance, I conducted a reflective self-study. To accomplish this task, I looked for myself within a large body of literature on Mexican American education by gazing into mirrors that throughout my life reflected how others viewed me, and how I in turn came to define myself. My journey personalizes the literature, making it increasingly accessible to those charged with educating Mexican American children.

Platinum-based drugs are a mainstay of solid tumor treatment and act by inducing bulky DNA adducts which should ultimately result in cell death. Unfortunately, these drugs have serious side effects and rates of resistance are high; for example about half of colorectal tumors are platinum-resistant. Understanding the molecular mechanisms of resistance could help maximize efficacy by providing targets to counter drug resistance. The overall purpose of this project is to comprehensively characterize the role of DNA intrastrand adduct formation, nucleotide excision repair, circadian rhythm, and the interplay of these processes in tumor and normal tissue response to platinum-based chemotherapy. To achieve this, we used novel methods to measure repair rates, amounts, and genome-wide patterns at single-nucleotide resolution of multiple tumor models. In a panel of 10 colorectal cancer cell lines, we demonstrate that nucleotide excision repair is not an essential component of platinum resistance as all cell lines have similar nucleotide excision repair efficiencies despite the varying responses. Damage formation, however, may partially dictate oxaliplatin response as lower damage levels correlate with oxaliplatin resistance. While all oxaliplatin-resistant cell lines in this study showed low levels of platinum induced adducts, oxaliplatin sensitive cell lines showed more variation. We next sought to address factors that may lead to this variable damage formation and response in sensitive cell lines. Notably, we identify a large DNA amplification, containing many cancer related transcripts, specific to the sensitive cell lines with low initial damage. Additionally, damage repair in normal and xenograft tissues appear to oscillate throughout a 24 hour period indicating that treatment timing impacts the platinum-DNA adduct formation. The studies described in this dissertation improve our understanding of the role of DNA damage formation and nucleotide excision repair in response to platinum-based chemotherapy and provide a foundation for understanding how circadian rhythms may impact these factors.

Current profiles of colleges/schools of allied health include nontraditional faculty, a limited percentage of faculty with doctoral degrees, and low research/scholarship productivity. This preliminary study asked allied health professionals to express their awareness of the tenure guidelines and criteria. Although a few variations in beliefs emerged based upon appointment type and personal experiences, three primary themes emerged: (1) limited understanding of the tenure guidelines and criteria, (2) research/scholarship is necessary, but perceived as difficult for allied health faculty, and (3) tenure is desirable, but is considered unachievable by some. This study, therefore, suggested that allied health faculty in higher education institutions perceived research/scholarship as central to achieving tenure, but were frustrated by the lack of formal guidance through the process.

School administrators rarely have the opportunity to confer and share their challenges with colleagues. To address this problem in 2005 the Educational Administration Department (EAD) at Central University (a Midwestern PhD granting institution located in a thriving city of about 100,00 people) created a virtual/local doctoral cohort for 14 school leaders living and working in two states. Three years into the course of study we conducted a year long inquiry that asked, \"How did students' self-perceptions evolve within a cohort context, and how did these changes advance or retard professional learning community (PLC) growth?\" Our interviews had a phenomenological focus but we used symbolic interactionism to analyze them and dramaturgy to present our findings. Themes of faculty and student relationships, work and/or personal problems and dealing with technology indicated that despite some significant hurdles students' identity evolutions moved the group toward becoming a PLC, a collaborative culture of thinkers. Key Words: Learning Communities, Doctoral Cohorts, Phenomenology, Dramaturgy.