Long-term cardiovascular effects of breast cancer treatment

Breast cancer (BC) is the most common cancer in women. In western countries, implementation of screening and treatment advances have increased 5-year survival rates up to 82%. Though effective, chemo- and radiotherapy may lead to cardiac dysfunction. The aim of this thesis was to study the prevalence and risk of long-term cardiovascular effects in BC survivors. For that, we evaluated a retrospective cohort and conducted a cross-sectional assessment in BC survivors treated with chemotherapy and/or radiotherapy, at least 5 years after diagnosis. In both studies a comparison was made with age- and general practitioner (GP) matched controls. Longterm BC survivors treated with chemo- and/or radiotherapy were at a two times increased risk of developing mild systolic cardiac dysfunction (LVEF<54%; 15 vs. 7%), and cardiovascular diseases were more prevalent among BC survivors: 31% vs. 24% and 14% vs. 7% in the retrospective and the cross-sectional study, respectively. Bias cannot be excluded. Furthermore, we systematically examined the predictive value of cardiac biomarkers measured at time of BC diagnosis and analyzed biomarker profiles to hypothesize on causal pathways of cardiac dysfunction development among survivors. We did not find a useful predictive biomarker. BC survivors treated with chemotherapy and anti-hormonal therapy appeared to have a higher pro-inflammatory and proarteriosclerotic biomarker profile compared to controls. Based on our findings, we cannot formulate a specific cardiac follow-up for women treated for BC. However, because 15% of these women have a reduced cardiac function, maintaining a healthy lifestyle and having cardiac risk factors treated is important

Impact of Increasing Level of Milk Production on Cow and Calf Behavior and Performance in the Nebraska Sandhills

Selection for increased milk production across the United States has resulted in variable cow and calf production responses. Better understanding of calf nursing and grazing behaviors may provide opportunities to help estimate how milk and grazed forage intake influence variability in calf performance. In a 2-yr study, cow-calf pairs (n = 65) were equipped with neck collars containing global positioning system (GPS) units to validate the efficacy of high-frequency GPS data to accurately identify calf nursing events and grazing behavior. Data were collected during 3-wk tracking periods during early lactation (calf age 65.4 ± 10.0 d; EARLY) and late lactation (calf age 162 ± 22.3 d; LATE). Calf behavior was visually observed for a total of 350 hrs and was used in a training dataset for a random forest (RF) classification model. Out of bag (OOB) estimates of individual behaviors indicated relatively low misclassification error rates, less than 4%, suggesting that high frequency GPS tracking can be used to effectively classify calf nursing and grazing behaviors. Behavior prediction results in this study match ranges reported in previous literature, supporting the efficacy of this technique to assess behavior in beef calves. In a 2-yr study, crossbred cow-calf pairs (n = 118) from March- and May-calving herds were used to determine the impact of increasing total milk production on cow body weight (BW), body condition score (BCS), reproductive performance, calf BW, and calf average daily gain (ADG). On approximately 30, 60, 90, 120, and 210 d postpartum, individual cow 24-h milk yield was estimated with weigh-suckle-weigh techniques. Milk area under the curve (AUC) values were calculated and data were analyzed using linear regression analysis. Cow BW, BW change, and reproductive performance were not (P \u3e 0.12) associated with milk AUC, except for a tendency (P = 0.09) for lower BW at breeding. At weaning, cow BCS was negatively associated (P = 0.09) with increasing milk AUC but was not associated at any other physiological stage. A significant positive association with calf average daily gain (ADG) was observed from birth to age 120 d and a tendency (P = 0.09) for a positive association was observed from age 120 d to weaning. Steer ADG in the finishing phase was not (P = 0.63) associated with dam milk production. In this environment, increasing milk production had a positive increase in calf growth during the pre-weaning phase without any negative impacts on overall cow-calf production. Advisors: J. Travis Mulliniks and Mitchell B. Stephenso

Evaluation and Utilization of a Chemical Male Gametocide in Sorghum

Sorghum bicolor (L.) is an ancient grain and forage crop, grown from the tropics to temperate regions of the world. It is a self-pollinated species that can be grown as either a pure line cultivar or hybrid, depending on the region of production. Existing methods of hybridization of sorghum are useful but have some limitations. Methods of inducing temporal male sterility could enhance several aspects of sorghum breeding. One potential application of temporal male sterility would be to scale up cross-pollination in order to implement a doubled haploid (DH) breeding system in sorghum. A chemical male gametocide that reliably renders plants male-sterile might be ideal for this purpose. Two studies were conducted to assess the utility of trifluoromethanesulfonamide (TFMSA) as a chemical gametocide of sorghum. The first study evaluated the amino acid composition of anther and glume tissues following application of TFMSA. To do so, anther and glume tissue were excised from florets of plants that had received an application of either 0 mg, 2 mg, 6 mg, or 20 mg. TFMSA. After excision of the tissues, the amino acids were extracted in Milli-Q® water; then -high-pressure liquid chromatography (HPLC) was used to quantify the amino acids. Fold changes were calculated to look for shifts among treated and untreated plant tissues. In the anther tissues, several amino acids experienced drastic shifts, the most notable being a >10x decrease of proline and a >20x increase of asparagine. Similar shifts were not observed in glume tissue. Consequently, one, or, both of these shifts may be associated with the induction of male sterility. The second study was conducted to evaluate the efficacy of TFMSA to induce male sterility in two field environments. Both environments were grown in College Station with planting dates that differed by 2 weeks. TFMSA was applied to three distinct genotypes using both hand application and backpack sprayer application in dosages ranging from 5 mg to 30 mg Multiple applications of the 10 mg and 15 mg dosages were also evaluated. Results indicated that once a minimum dosage threshold was exceeded, specific dosages and number of applications had little overall effect on male sterility. Use of a backpack sprayer showed sterility induction albeit at slightly lower levels of male sterility. The results indicate that TFMSA can be used as an effective and durable chemical male gametocide in sorghum

Assessing a Media Discernment Course for Freshmen at Illiana Christian High School: A Case Study

This case study examines the effectiveness of a team-taught mass-media freshman level course on discernment of media messages, and decision-making. By means of pre- and post- course surveys of students and faculty, this study examines students\u27 decisions about consuming mass media and how after taking the course, their media selection process became more complex, deliberate, and organized. It also examines faculty response to the course in terms of how it appears to affect the students and how it affects faculty teaching and learning

Integration of Biological Sources: Exploring the Case of Protein Homology

Data integration is a key issue in the domain of bioin- formatics, which deals with huge amounts of heteroge- neous biological data that grows and changes rapidly. This paper serves as an introduction in the field of bioinformatics and the biological concepts it deals with, and an exploration of the integration problems a bioinformatics scientist faces. We examine ProGMap, an integrated protein homology system used by bioin- formatics scientists at Wageningen University, and several use cases related to protein homology. A key issue we identify is the huge manual effort required to unify source databases into a single resource. Un- certain databases are able to contain several possi- ble worlds, and it has been proposed that they can be used to significantly reduce initial integration efforts. We propose several directions for future work where uncertain databases can be applied to bioinformatics, with the goal of furthering the cause of bioinformatics integration

Evaluation of CCK2 receptor binding ligands: the inheritance of Thomas Behr.

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