Examining the pseudo-standard web search engine results page

Nearly every web search engine presents its results in an identical format: a ranked list of web page summaries. Each summary comprises a title; some sentence fragments usually containing words used in the query; and URL information about the page. In this study we present data from our pilot experiments with eye tracking equipment to examine how users interact with this standard list of results as presented by the Australian sensis.com.au web search service. In particular, we observe: different behaviours for navigational and informational queries; that users generally scan the list top to bottom; and that eyes rarely wander from the left of the page. We also attempt to correlate the number of bold words (query words) in a summary with the amount of time spent reading the summary. Unfortunately there is no substantial correlation, and so studies relying heavily on this assumption in the literature should be treated with caution

Uso de marcação não radiativa para identificação de grandes rearranjos gênicos na deficiência da 21-hidroxilase

PURPOSE: To establish the Southern blotting technique using hybridization with a nonradioactive probe to detect large rearrangements of CYP21A2 in a Brazilian cohort with congenital adrenal hyperplasia due to 21-hydroxylase deficiency (CAH-21OH). METHOD: We studied 42 patients, 2 of them related, comprising 80 non-related alleles. DNA samples were obtained from peripheral blood, digested by restriction enzyme Taq I, submitted to Southern blotting and hybridized with biotin-labeled probes. RESULTS: This method was shown to be reliable with results similar to the radioactive-labeling method. We found CYP21A2 deletion (2.5%), large gene conversion (8.8%), CYP21AP deletion (3.8%), and CYP21A1P duplication (6.3%). These frequencies were similar to those found in our previous study in which a large number of cases were studied. Good hybridization patterns were achieved with a smaller amount of DNA (5 mug), and fragment signs were observed after 5 minutes to 1 hour of exposure. CONCLUSIONS: We established a non-radioactive (biotin) Southern blot/hybridization methodology for CYP21A2 large rearrangements with good results. Despite being more arduous, this technique is faster, requires a smaller amount of DNA, and most importantly, avoids problems with the use of radioactivity.OBJETIVO: Padronizar a técnica de Southern blotting usando hibridização com material não radioativo para detectar grandes rearranjos no gene CYP21A2 em uma amostra da população brasileira com hiperplasia adrenal congênita. MÉTODO: Foram estudados 42 pacientes, 2 dos quais aparentados, totalizando 80 alelos não relacionados. As amostras de DNA foram obtidas de sangue periférico, digeridas com enzima de restrição Taq I, realizado Southern blotting e hibridizadas com sonda marcada com biotina. RESULTADOS: O método se mostrou eficaz, com resultados similares aos encontrados ao utilizar a metodologia com material radioativo. Foram encontradas 2,5% de deleção do CYP21A2, 8,8% de grandes conversões, 3,8% de deleção do CYP21A1P e 6,3% de duplicação do CYP21A1P. Estas freqüências foram similares às encontradas em nosso estudo prévio, onde um número significante de casos foi estudado. Um bom padrão de hibridização foi alcançado utilizando menor quantidade de DNA (5mg) e a emissão de sinais foi observada entre 5 minutos e 1 hora de exposição. CONCLUSÕES: Padronizamos uma técnica de Southern blotting/ hibridização com material não radioativo (biotina) para a pesquisa de grandes rearranjos no gene CYP21A2 com bons resultados. Apesar de ser mais trabalhoso, este método é mais rápido, utiliza menores quantidades de DNA e, principalmente, evita problemas com o uso de radioatividade

Editorial: Fungi as cell factories: Genetic engineering and applications

Wherever they are found—on nearly any substrate on Earth—fungal organisms have a key role in promoting the homeostasis of the ecosystems. They are important decomposers in the soil food web due to their role in converting organic matter that is hard to digest into forms that other organisms can use. Fungi are not only beneficial for natural processes but have also become crucial players in engineered bioprocesses within the new bioeconomy due to their functionally diverse capacities. Fungi encompass a large group of organisms, ranging from well-studied species (e.g., Saccharomyces cerevisiae) to more complex filamentous fungi, including mushroom-forming species. Several fungal species have shown amenability to genetic engineering and large-scale production, but many are yet to be explored

UN Peace operations and conflicting legitimacies

Analyses of UN peacekeeping increasingly consider legitimacy a key factor for success, conceiving of it as a resource that operations should seek and use in the pursuit of their goals. However, these analyses rarely break down legitimacy by source. Because the UN is an organization with multiple identities and duties however, different legitimacy sources—in particular output and procedural legitimacy—and the UN’s corresponding legitimation practices come into conflict in the context of peacekeeping. Drawing on a range of examples and a specific case of the UN mission in Congo, this article argues that looking at different legitimacy sources and linking them to the institutional identity of the UN is thus critical and it shows how the UN’s in contradictory legitimation practices can reduce overall legitimacy perceptions

Humanized mice efficiently engrafted with fetal hepatoblasts and syngeneic immune cells develop human monocytes and NK cells

Human liver chimeric mice are useful models of human hepatitis virus infection, including hepatitis B and C virus infections. Independently, immunodeficient mice reconstituted with CD34(+) hematopoietic stem cells (HSC) derived from fetal liver reliably develop human T and B lymphocytes. Combining these systems has long been hampered by inefficient liver reconstitution of human fetal hepatoblasts. Our study aimed to enhance hepatoblast engraftment in order to create a mouse model with syngeneic human liver and immune cells.The effects of human oncostatin-M administration on fetal hepatoblast engraftment into immunodeficient fah(-/-) mice was tested. Mice were then transplanted with syngeneic human hepatoblasts and HSC after which human leukocyte chimerism and functionality were analyzed by flow cytometry, and mice were challenged with HBV.Addition of human oncostatin-M enhanced human hepatoblast engraftment in immunodeficient fah(-/-) mice by 5-100 fold. In contrast to mice singly engrafted with HSC, which predominantly developed human T and B lymphocytes, mice co-transplanted with syngeneic hepatoblasts also contained physiological levels of human monocytes and natural killer cells. Upon infection with HBV, these mice displayed rapid and sustained viremia.Our study provides a new mouse model with improved human fetal hepatoblast engraftment and an expanded human immune cell repertoire. With further improvements, this model may become useful for studying human immunity against viral hepatitis.Important human pathogens such as hepatitis B virus, hepatitis C virus and human immunodeficiency virus only infect human cells which complicates the development of mouse models for the study of these pathogens. One way to make mice permissive for human pathogens is the transplantation of human cells into immune-compromised mice. For instance, the transplantation of human liver cells will allow the infection of these so-called liver chimeric mice with hepatitis B virus and hepatitis C virus. The co-transplantation of human immune cells into liver chimeric mice will further allow the study of human immune responses to hepatitis B virus or hepatitis C virus. However, for immunological studies it will be crucial that the transplanted human liver and immune cells are derived from the same human donor. In our study we describe the efficient engraftment of human fetal liver cells and immune cells derived from the same donor into mice. We show that liver co-engraftment resulted in an expanded human immune cell repertoire, including monocytes and natural killer cells in the liver. We further demonstrate that these mice could be infected with hepatitis B virus, which lead to an expansion of natural killer cells. In conclusion we have developed a new mouse model that could be useful to study human immune responses to human liver pathogens

Personal Actions: The Correlation Between Water and Energy Conservation

Water and energy conservation are growing concerns around the world. Energy conservation policies create both energy and water savings (Gu et al., 2016). Conversely, water conservation impacts energy usage (Sokolow et al., 2016). Heating water in the home accounts for 20% of the home’s energy use (Chini et al., 2016). Our study examines the relationship between water conservation and energy conservation

Análise de mutação germinativa do Tpit em cães da raça Poodle com hiperadrenocorticismo ACTH-dependente

There is a high incidence of pituitary-dependent hyperadrenocorticism (PDH) in Poodle dogs, with family members being affected by the disease, suggesting a genetic involvement. Tpit is an obligate transcription factor for the expression of pro-opiomelanocortingene and for corticotroph terminal differentiation. The aim of the present study was to screen the Tpit gene for germline mutations in Poodles with PDH. Fifty Poodle dogs (33 female, 8.71 +/- 2.8 years) with PDH and 50 healthy Poodle dogs (32 females, 9.4241 2.8 years) were studied. Genomic DNA was isolated from peripheral blood, amplified by PCR and submitted to automatic sequence. No mutation in the coding region of Tpit was found, whereas the new single nucleotide polymorphism p.S343G, in heterozygous state, was found in the same frequency in both PDH and control groups. We concluded that Tpit gain-of-function mutations are not involved in the etiology of PDH in Poodle dogs.O hiperadrenocorticismo ACTH-dependente (HACAD) apresenta elevada incidência em cães da raça Poodle, sendo que membros da mesma família têm sido acometidos pela doença, sugerindo envolvimento genético. Tpit é um fator de transcrição obrigatório para a expressão do gene da pro-opiomelanocortina e para a diferenciação terminal dos corticotrofos. O objetivo deste trabalho foi pesquisar mutações germinativas no gene Tpit em Poodles com HACAD. Cinquenta cães da raça Poodle, 33 fêmeas, média de idade de 8,71±2,8 anos, com HACAD, e 50 cães Poodles saudáveis, 32 fêmeas, média de idade de 9,4±2,8 anos, foram estudados. Mutações na região codificadora do gene Tpit não foram identificadas. Foi observado um novo polimorfismo em heterozigose, p.S343G, com a mesma frequência no grupo de cães com HACAD e no grupo-controle. Conclui-se que a mutação ativadora no gene Tpit não está envolvida na patogênese do hiperadrenocorticismo ACTH-dependente em cães da raça Poodle

Multicolor plate reader fluorescence calibration

This is a pre-copyedited, author-produced version of an article accepted for publication in Synthetic Biology following peer review. The version of record Jacob Beal, Cheryl A Telmer, Alejandro Vignoni, Yadira Boada, Geoff S Baldwin, Liam Hallett, Taeyang Lee, Vinoo Selvarajah, Sonja Billerbeck, Bradley Brown, Guo-nan Cai, Liang Cai, Edward Eisenstein, Daisuke Kiga, David Ross, Nina Alperovich, Noah Sprent, Jaclyn Thompson, Eric M Young, Drew Endy, Traci Haddock-Angelli, Multicolor plate reader fluorescence calibration, Synthetic Biology, Volume 7, Issue 1, 2022, ysac010, https://doi.org/10.1093/synbio/ysac010, is available online at: https://doi.org/10.1093/synbio/ysac010.[EN] Plate readers are commonly used to measure cell growth and fluorescence, yet the utility and reproducibility of plate reader data is limited by the fact that it is typically reported in arbitrary or relative units. We have previously established a robust serial dilution protocol for calibration of plate reader measurements of absorbance to estimated bacterial cell count and for green fluorescence from proteins expressed in bacterial cells to molecules of equivalent fluorescein. We now extend these protocols to calibration of red fluorescence to the sulforhodamine-101 fluorescent dye and blue fluorescence to Cascade Blue. Evaluating calibration efficacy via an interlaboratory study, we find that these calibrants do indeed provide comparable precision to the prior calibrants and that they enable effective cross-laboratory comparison of measurements of red and blue fluorescence from proteins expressed in bacterial cells.This work was supported in part by the following funding sources: J.B. was supported by Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) and DARPA contract FA8750-17-C-0184. N.S. was supported by funding from the BBSRC under award BB/M011178/1. G.B., L.H., and T.L. were supported by the EPSRC under award EP/R034915/1 and EP/S022856/1. G.C. and L.C. were supported by funds from YF Capital and the National Top Talent Undergraduate Training Program, China. A.V. and Y.B. were funded by Grant MINECO/AEI, EU DPI2017-82896-C2-1-R and MCIN/AEI/10.13039/501100011033 grant number PID2020117271RB-C21. Y.B. was supported by Secretaria de Educaci ' on Superior, Ciencia, Tecnologia e Innovacion-Ecuador (Scholarship Convocatoria Abierta 2011). D.K. was supported by JST, CREST Grant Number JPMJCR21N4, Japan. E.Y. was supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant No. 1939860. J.T. was supported by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI), Intelligence Advanced Research Projects Activity (IARPA) under Finding Engineering Linked Indicators (FELIX) program contract N66001-18-C-4507. This document does not contain technology or technical data controlled under either the U.S. International Traffic in Arms Regulations or the U.S. Export Administration Regulations. Views, opinions, and/or findings expressed are those of the author(s) and should not be interpreted as representing the official views or policies of the Department of Defense or the U.S. Government.Beal, J.; Telmer, CA.; Vignoni, A.; Boada-Acosta, YF.; Baldwin, GS.; Hallett, L.; Lee, T.... (2022). Multicolor plate reader fluorescence calibration. Synthetic Biology. 7(1):1-9. https://doi.org/10.1093/synbio/ysac010197

Insulin-like growth factor 1 gene (CA)n repeats and a variable number of tandem repeats of the insulin gene in Brazilian children born small for gestational age

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the influence of (CA)n repeats in the insulin-like growth factor 1 gene and a variable number of tandem repeats of the insulin gene on birth size in children who are small or adequate-sized for gestational age and to correlate these polymorphisms with serum insulin-like growth factor 1 levels and insulin sensitivity in children who are small for gestational age, with and without catch-up growth. PATIENTS AND METHODS: We evaluated 439 infants: 297 that were adequate-sized for gestational age and 142 that were small for gestational age (66 with and 76 without catch-up). The number of (CA)n repeat in the insulin-like growth factor 1 gene and a variable number of tandem repeats in the insulin gene were analyzed using GENESCAN software and polymerase chain reaction followed by enzymatic digestion, respectively. Clinical and laboratory data were obtained from all patients. RESULTS: The height, body mass index, paternal height, target height and insulin-like growth factor 1 serum levels were higher in children who were small for gestational age with catch-up. There was no difference in the allelic and genotypic distributions of both polymorphisms between the adequate-sized and small infants or among small infants with and without catch-up. Similarly, the polymorphisms were not associated with clinical or laboratory variables. CONCLUSION: Polymorphisms of the (CA)n repeats of the insulin-like growth factor 1 gene and a variable number of tandem repeats of the insulin gene, separately or in combination, did not influence pre- or postnatal growth, insulin-like growth factor 1 serum levels or insulin resistance

"Here is your mission, now own it!" The rhetoric and practice of local ownership in EU interventions

One of the core principles of EU interventions under the Common Security and Defence Policy (CSDP) has been local ownership. While the EU takes pride in fully respecting this principle, the existing research suggests that the implementation has been far from smooth. However, we still know very little how this principle is conceptualised and operationalised, let alone why its implementation has been so difficult. Drawing on document analysis and 27 in-depth interviews, the article makes 3 arguments. First, ownership is increasingly construed in the EU policy rhetoric as a middle ground between imposition and restraint. Second, in practice, ownership is operationalised as an externally driven, top-down endeavour, resulting in the low degree of local participation. Third, in addition to the obstacles normally faced by other peace-builders, the EU's efforts to implement ownership are constrained by the politics and policy-making of CSDP. The arguments are illustrated in a case study of the European Union Mission on Regional Maritime Capacity Building in the Horn of Africa (EUCAP Nestor)