Microstructural Studies of Gluten and a Hypothesis on Dough Formation

The transformation of a mixture of water and wheat flour into a viscoelastic dough was studied by light microscopy, scanning and transmission electron mi croscopy. In flour particles, gluten protein fills up the space between the starch granules forming a three- dimensional network. Dough formation is the result of the adhesion of the protein networks of individual flour particles to one another and their extension during kneading. In the course of the kneading process protein films form from the strands by bidirectional extension. The strands of the gluten network consist of randomly arranged protein threads which are twisted to form loops and knots in the unextended state. Bidirectional extension of the gluten pulls apart these knots to platelet- like forms

The Ursinus Weekly, May 11, 1972

Travelin\u27 5 talent ready • Campus Chest presents: You can\u27t take it with you • U.C. students offered esoteric subject matter • Warren Robinson named St. Andrews scholar • U.C. receives grant • U.C. graduate presents piano concert • Executives discuss gift solicitation on campus • Editorial: Reflections; Need for a counselor • Focus: Barbara Dando • Fidler on the wax: Humble Pie • Faculty portrait: Dr. Louis DeCatur • Strike • College scholars • Letters to the editor: U.S. government defended; Collegeville\u27s smut store; Apathy habit • Final examination schedule • Spring Parents\u27 Day • Ursinus pounds Penn • U.C. baseball loses to Haverford in top of 9th • The Ersinus Weaklyhttps://digitalcommons.ursinus.edu/weekly/1124/thumbnail.jp

Establishing bacterial infectivity models in striped Catfish Pangasianodon hypophthalmus (Sauvage) with Edwardsiella ictaluri

A bacterial infectivity challenge model of Edwardsiella ictaluri in striped catfish was developed. All experiments were conducted using a bacterial isolate of E. ictaluri that had been recovered during a natural outbreak of bacillary necrosis of Pangasianodon (BNP) in farmed striped catfish Pangasianodon hypophthalmus in Vietnam. Time of immersion in 107 CFU.ml−1 had a significant effect on mortality. The immersion bacterial dose of 107 CFU/ml for 30 s resulted in a cumulative percentage mortality of 63%. Three to four days post‐bacterial challenge, fish showed gross clinical signs of natural BNP and E. ictaluri was recovered and identified from these fish. Moreover, a cohabitation challenge was evaluated as an alternative challenge method, although the mortalities among the infected fish were lower at around 15%–40%. This study confirmed the horizontal transmission of E. ictaluri in striped catfish and elucidated that cohabitation challenge could be used in reproducing the disease under controlled conditions

Prospecting environmental mycobacteria: combined molecular approaches reveal unprecedented diversity

Background: Environmental mycobacteria (EM) include species commonly found in various terrestrial and aquatic environments, encompassing animal and human pathogens in addition to saprophytes. Approximately 150 EM species can be separated into fast and slow growers based on sequence and copy number differences of their 16S rRNA genes. Cultivation methods are not appropriate for diversity studies; few studies have investigated EM diversity in soil despite their importance as potential reservoirs of pathogens and their hypothesized role in masking or blocking M. bovis BCG vaccine. Methods: We report here the development, optimization and validation of molecular assays targeting the 16S rRNA gene to assess diversity and prevalence of fast and slow growing EM in representative soils from semi tropical and temperate areas. New primer sets were designed also to target uniquely slow growing mycobacteria and used with PCR-DGGE, tag-encoded Titanium amplicon pyrosequencing and quantitative PCR. Results: PCR-DGGE and pyrosequencing provided a consensus of EM diversity; for example, a high abundance of pyrosequencing reads and DGGE bands corresponded to M. moriokaense, M. colombiense and M. riyadhense. As expected pyrosequencing provided more comprehensive information; additional prevalent species included M. chlorophenolicum, M. neglectum, M. gordonae, M. aemonae. Prevalence of the total Mycobacterium genus in the soil samples ranged from 2.3×107 to 2.7×108 gene targets g−1; slow growers prevalence from 2.9×105 to 1.2×107 cells g−1. Conclusions: This combined molecular approach enabled an unprecedented qualitative and quantitative assessment of EM across soil samples. Good concordance was found between methods and the bioinformatics analysis was validated by random resampling. Sequences from most pathogenic groups associated with slow growth were identified in extenso in all soils tested with a specific assay, allowing to unmask them from the Mycobacterium whole genus, in which, as minority members, they would have remained undetected

Front-end electronics for the ALICE TPC-detector

The Front-End electronics for the Time Projection Chamber (TPC) for the ALICE experiment consists of 5x105 channels. A single readout channel is comprised of three basic units: a charge sensitive amplifier/shaper with a fast tail cancellation; a 10 bit 10 Msamples/sec low power ADC; a digital ASIC which contains the zero suppression circuit and a multiple-event buffer. Data from a number of channels (4096) are multiplexed into an optical link (DDL) by means of a local custom bus which can support a data throughput of 2 Mbyte/event at a trigger rate of 50 Hz. The construction of a prototype of this electronics is presented in this paper

Effect of Hydrogen Peroxide on Immersion Challenge of Rainbow Trout Fry with Flavobacterium psychrophilum

An experimental model for immersion challenge of rainbow trout fry (Oncorhynchus mykiss) with Flavobacterium psychrophilum, the causative agent of rainbow trout fry syndrome and bacterial cold water disease was established in the present study. Although injection-based infection models are reliable and produce high levels of mortality attempts to establish a reproducible immersion model have been less successful. Various concentrations of hydrogen peroxide (H₂O₂) were evaluated before being used as a pre-treatment stressor prior to immersion exposure to F. psychrophilum. H₂O₂ accelerated the onset of mortality and increased mortality approximately two-fold; from 9.1% to 19.2% and from 14.7% to 30.3% in two separate experiments. Clinical signs observed in the infected fish corresponded to symptoms characteristically seen during natural outbreaks. These findings indicate that pre-treatment with H₂O₂ can increase the level of mortality in rainbow trout fry after exposure to F. psychrophilum

CAG Repeat Variants in the POLG1 Gene Encoding mtDNA Polymerase-Gamma and Risk of Breast Cancer in African-American Women

The DNA polymerase-gamma (POLG) gene, which encodes the catalytic subunit of enzyme responsible for directing mitochondrial DNA replication in humans, contains a polyglutamine tract encoded by CAG repeats of varying length. The length of the CAG repeat has been associated with the risk of testicular cancer, and other genomic variants that impact mitochondrial function have been linked to breast cancer risk in African-American (AA) women. We evaluated the potential role of germline POLG-CAG repeat variants in breast cancer risk in a sample of AA women (100 cases and 100 age-matched controls) who participated in the Women's Circle of Health Study, an ongoing multi-institutional, case-control study of breast cancer. Genotyping was done by fragment analysis in a blinded manner. Results from this small study suggest the possibility of an increased risk of breast cancer in women with minor CAG repeat variants of POLG, but no statistically significant differences in CAG repeat length were observed between cases and controls (multivariate-adjusted odds ratio 1.74; 95% CI, 0.49–6.21). Our study suggests that POLG-CAG repeat length is a potential risk factor for breast cancer that needs to be explored in larger population-based studies

A Unique Signal Distorts the Perception of Species Richness and Composition in High-Throughput Sequencing Surveys of Microbial Communities: a Case Study of Fungi in Indoor Dust

Sequence-based surveys of microorganisms in varied environments have found extremely diverse assemblages. A standard practice in current high-throughput sequence (HTS) approaches in microbial ecology is to sequence the composition of many environmental samples at once by pooling amplicon libraries at a common concentration before processing on one run of a sequencing platform. Biomass of the target taxa, however, is not typically determined prior to HTS, and here, we show that when abundances of the samples differ to a large degree, this standard practice can lead to a perceived bias in community richness and composition. Fungal signal in settled dust of five university teaching laboratory classrooms, one of which was used for a mycology course, was surveyed. The fungal richness and composition in the dust of the nonmycology classrooms were remarkably similar to each other, while the mycology classroom was dominated by abundantly sporulating specimen fungi, particularly puffballs, and appeared to have a lower overall richness based on rarefaction curves and richness estimators. The fungal biomass was three to five times higher in the mycology classroom than the other classrooms, indicating that fungi added to the mycology classroom swamped the background fungi present in indoor air. Thus, the high abundance of a few taxa can skew the perception of richness and composition when samples are sequenced to an even depth. Next, we used in silico manipulations of the observed data to confirm that a unique signature can be identified with HTS approaches when the source is abundant, whether or not the taxon identity is distinct. Lastly, aerobiology of indoor fungi is discussed. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (doi:10.1007/s00248-013-0266-4) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users

Online medical crowdfunding in the United States: a cross-sectional analysis of gendered cancer campaign outcomes

This cross-sectional analysis examined online US crowdfunding campaigns from 2010–2018. Campaigns including prostate, breast, bladder, kidney, cervical, uterine, ovarian, testicular, oral, and thyroid cancers were included. Multivariable modeling was utilized to examine predictive factors for successful campaigns. A total of 1830 online cancer campaigns were included in the final analysis. Breast cancer was estimated to be the most frequent online campaign type (n = 3682), followed by cervical (n = 492), kidney (n = 475), ovarian (n = 460), and prostate cancers (n = 382). Breast cancer campaigns generated the most total funding ($15.3 million). In adjusted models, breast cancers generated significantly more donations per campaign than any other cancer. There was no difference in the average amount of funds raised per campaign by most cancer types, except for thyroid (19.4% less than breast, p < 0.001). Friend-authored campaigns generated more funding than self- and family-authored. Male cancers are under-represented, and breast cancer campaigns are disproportionately over-represented in online medical crowdfunding and generate more donations than many other cancers. Gendered differences in cancer crowdfunding are likely multifactorial and may be influenced by social networks and public health campaigns