Protocol for programing a degree-to-careers dashboard in R using Posit and Shiny.

Here, we present a protocol for programing a degree-to-careers dashboard in R using Posit and Shiny. We describe steps for installing software, obtaining datasets, and munging and joining data. We then detail procedures for programing and publishing the dashboard in Shiny web application that includes a filtered data table. The resulting dashboard links academic programs with careers and income data and may be useful to inform decision-making by higher education leaders and policymakers. For complete details on the use and execution of this protocol, please refer to Perkins and Carrier (2023).1.

Using R Shiny to develop a dashboard using IPEDS, U.S. Census, and bureau of labor statistics data.

This paper describes the development of an RStudio (now known as Posit) dashboard derived from the Integrated Postsecondary Educational Data System, the United States Census Bureau, and the Bureau of Labor Statistics and provides the user with institutional, community, and career information of IPEDS reporting higher education institutions in the United States and its territories. With this dashboard, users can select and learn about institutions, explore enrollment trends and demographics, compare outcomes, and correlate community and institutional variables. Users can also link degrees to career projections and wages. This paper explains how the dashboard was developed with examples of R programming language.

Semper's cells in the insect compound eye: Insights into ocular form and function.

The arthropod compound eye represents one of two major eye types in the animal kingdom and has served as an essential experimental paradigm for defining fundamental mechanisms underlying sensory organ formation, function, and maintenance. One of the most distinguishing features of the compound eye is the highly regular array of lens facets that define individual eye (ommatidial) units. These lens facets are produced by a deeply conserved quartet of cuticle-secreting cells, called Semper cells (SCs). Also widely known as cone cells, SCs were originally identified for their secretion of the dioptric system, i.e. the corneal lens and underlying crystalline cones. Additionally, SCs are now known to execute a diversity of patterning and glial functions in compound eye development and maintenance. Here, we present an integrated account of our current knowledge of SC multifunctionality in the Drosophila compound eye, highlighting emerging gene regulatory modules that may drive the diverse roles for these cells. Drawing comparisons with other deeply conserved retinal glia in the vertebrate single lens eye, this discussion speaks to glial cell origins and opens new avenues for understanding sensory system support programs.

Multifunctional glial support by Semper cells in the Drosophila retina.

Glial cells play structural and functional roles central to the formation, activity and integrity of neurons throughout the nervous system. In the retina of vertebrates, the high energetic demand of photoreceptors is sustained in part by Müller glia, an intrinsic, atypical radial glia with features common to many glial subtypes. Accessory and support glial cells also exist in invertebrates, but which cells play this function in the insect retina is largely undefined. Using cell-restricted transcriptome analysis, here we show that the ommatidial cone cells (aka Semper cells) in the Drosophila compound eye are enriched for glial regulators and effectors, including signature characteristics of the vertebrate visual system. In addition, cone cell-targeted gene knockdowns demonstrate that such glia-associated factors are required to support the structural and functional integrity of neighboring photoreceptors. Specifically, we show that distinct support functions (neuronal activity, structural integrity and sustained neurotransmission) can be genetically separated in cone cells by down-regulating transcription factors associated with vertebrate gliogenesis (pros/Prox1, Pax2/5/8, and Oli/Olig1,2, respectively). Further, we find that specific factors critical for glial function in other species are also critical in cone cells to support Drosophila photoreceptor activity. These include ion-transport proteins (Na/K+-ATPase, Eaat1, and Kir4.1-related channels) and metabolic homeostatic factors (dLDH and Glut1). These data define genetically distinct glial signatures in cone/Semper cells that regulate their structural, functional and homeostatic interactions with photoreceptor neurons in the compound eye of Drosophila. In addition to providing a new high-throughput model to study neuron-glia interactions, the fly eye will further help elucidate glial conserved "support networks" between invertebrates and vertebrates.