162 research outputs found
The Effects of Ketone Supplementation on Recovery in Collegiate Male Soccer Players: Pilot Trial
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Real-time irrigation scheduling of maize using Degrees Above Non-Stressed (DANS) index in semi-arid environment
Irrigation scheduling methods have been used to determine the timing and amount of water applied to crops. Scheduling techniques can include measurement of soil water content, quantification of crop water use, and monitoring of crop physiological response to water stress. The aim of this study was to evaluate the performance of a simplified crop canopy temperature measurement (CTM) method as Irrigation Principles. Soil and Water Conservation Engineera technique to schedule irrigation for maize. Specifically, the Degrees Above Non-Stressed (DANS) index, which suggests water stress when canopy temperature exceeds the non-stressed canopy temperature (Tcns), was determined by estimating Tcns from a weather based multilinear regression model. The modeled Tcns had a strong correlation with observed Tcns with a pooled R2 values of 0.94 across the 2018, 2019, and 2020 growing seasons. This DANS index was also highly correlated with the conventionally used Crop Water Stress Index (CWSI) with R2 values of 0.67, 0.59, and 0.76 in 2018, 2019, and 2020, respectively. Furthermore, DANS had a strong linear relationship with soil water depletion above 60% in the 0.60 m soil profile with an R2 of 0.78. The CTM method was also compared to more commonly used scheduling methods namely: soil moisture monitoring (SMM) and crop evapotranspiration modeling (ETM). Grain yield was significantly lower for the CTM method than for the ETM method in 2018 and 2020 but not in 2019. No significant differences were observed in Irrigation Water Productivity (IWP) in 2018; however, all treatments were significantly different with the CTM method having the greatest IWP in 2020. For attempting to trigger full irrigation with the CTM method, a fixed DANS threshold of 0.5 â—¦C was found to be more appropriate than the literature value of 1.0 â—¦C, but consideration of crop growth stage would further improve scheduling
Phase II randomised discontinuation trial of brivanib in patients with advanced solid tumours
Background: Brivanib is a selective inhibitor of vascular endothelial growth factor
and fibroblast growth factor (FGF) signalling. We performed a phase II randomised discontinuation trial of brivanib in 7 tumour types (soft-tissue sarcomas [STS], ovarian cancer, breast
cancer, pancreatic cancer, non-small-cell lung cancer [NSCLC], gastric/esophageal cancer and
transitional cell carcinoma [TCC]).
Patients and methods: During a 12-week open-label lead-in period, patients received brivanib
800 mg daily and were evaluated for FGF2 status by immunohistochemistry. Patients with stable disease at week 12 were randomised to brivanib or placebo. A study steering committee
evaluated week 12 response to determine if enrolment in a tumour type would continue.
The primary objective was progression-free survival (PFS) for brivanib versus placebo in patients with FGF2-positive tumours.
Results: A total of 595 patients were treated, and stable disease was observed at the week 12
randomisation point in all tumour types. Closure decisions were made for breast cancer,
pancreatic cancer, NSCLC, gastric cancer and TCC. Criteria for expansion were met for
STS and ovarian cancer. In 53 randomised patients with STS and FGF2-positive tumours,
the median PFS was 2.8 months for brivanib and 1.4 months for placebo (hazard ratio
[HR]: 0.58, p Z 0.08). For all randomised patients with sarcomas, the median PFS was 2.8
months (95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.4e4.0) for those treated with brivanib compared with
1.4 months (95% CI: 1.3e1.6) for placebo (HR Z 0.64, 95% CI: 0.38e1.07; p Z 0.09). In the
36 randomised patients with ovarian cancer and FGF2-positive tumours, the median PFS was
4.0 (95% CI: 2.6e4.2) months for brivanib and 2.0 months (95% CI: 1.2e2.7) for placebo (HR:
0.56, 95% CI: 0.26e1.22). For all randomised patients with ovarian cancer, the median PFS in
those randomised to brivanib was 4.0 months (95% CI: 2.6e4.2) and was 2.0 months (95% CI:
1.2e2.7) in those randomised to placebo (HR Z 0.54, 95% CI: 0.25e1.17; p Z 0.11).
Conclusion: Brivanib demonstrated activity in STS and ovarian cancer with an acceptable
safety profile. FGF2 expression, as defined in the protocol, is not a predictive biomarker of
the efficacy of brivanib
Vascular disrupting agents in clinical development
Growth of human tumours depends on the supply of oxygen and nutrients via the surrounding vasculature. Therefore tumour vasculature is an attractive target for anticancer therapy. Apart from angiogenesis inhibitors that compromise the formation of new blood vessels, a second class of specific anticancer drugs has been developed. These so-called vascular disrupting agents (VDAs) target the established tumour vasculature and cause an acute and pronounced shutdown of blood vessels resulting in an almost complete stop of blood flow, ultimately leading to selective tumour necrosis. As a number of VDAs are now being tested in clinical studies, we will discuss their mechanism of action and the results obtained in preclinical studies. Also data from clinical studies will be reviewed and some considerations with regard to the future development are given
Incorporating field wind data to improve crop evapotranspiration parameterization in heterogeneous regions
Accurate parameterization of reference evapotranspiration ( ET0) is necessary for optimizing irrigation scheduling and avoiding costs associated with over-irrigation (water expense, loss of water productivity, energy costs, and pollution) or with under-irrigation (crop stress and suboptimal yields or quality). ET0 is often estimated using the FAO-56 method with meteorological data gathered over a reference surface, usually short grass. However, the density of suitable ET0 stations is often low relative to the microclimatic variability of many arid and semi-arid regions, leading to a potentially inaccurate ET0 for irrigation scheduling. In this study, we investigated multiple ET0 products from six meteorological stations, a satellite ET0 product, and integration (merger) of two stations’ data in Southern California, USA. We evaluated ET0 against lysimetric ET observations from two lysimeter systems (weighing and volumetric) and two crops (wine grapes and Jerusalem artichoke) by calculating crop ET ( ETc) using crop coefficients for the lysimetric crops with the different ET0. ETc calculated with ET0 products that incorporated field-specific wind speed had closer agreement with lysimetric ET, with RMSE reduced by 36 and 45% for grape and Jerusalem artichoke, respectively, with on-field anemometer data compared to wind data from the nearest station. The results indicate the potential importance of on-site meteorological sensors for ET0 parameterization; particularly where microclimates are highly variable and/or irrigation water is expensive or scarce
Internet of Things in Agricultural Innovation and Security
The agricultural Internet of Things (Ag-IoT) paradigm has tremendous potential in transparent integration of underground soil sensing, farm machinery, and sensor-guided irrigation systems with the complex social network of growers, agronomists, crop consultants, and advisors. The aim of the IoT in agricultural innovation and security chapter is to present agricultural IoT research and paradigm to promote sustainable production of safe, healthy, and profitable crop and animal agricultural products. This chapter covers the IoT platform to test optimized management strategies, engage farmer and industry groups, and investigate new and traditional technology drivers that will enhance resilience of the farmers to the socio-environmental changes. A review of state-of-the-art communication architectures and underlying sensing technologies and communication mechanisms is presented with coverage of recent advances in the theory and applications of wireless underground communications. Major challenges in Ag-IoT design and implementation are also discussed
Meta-analysis of GWAS of over 16,000 individuals with autism spectrum disorder highlights a novel locus at 10q24.32 and a significant overlap with schizophrenia.
To access publisher's full text version of this article, please click on the hyperlink in Additional Links field or click on the hyperlink at the top of the page marked FilesOver the past decade genome-wide association studies (GWAS) have been applied to aid in the understanding of the biology of traits. The success of this approach is governed by the underlying effect sizes carried by the true risk variants and the corresponding statistical power to observe such effects given the study design and sample size under investigation. Previous ASD GWAS have identified genome-wide significant (GWS) risk loci; however, these studies were of only of low statistical power to identify GWS loci at the lower effect sizes (odds ratio (OR) <1.15).We conducted a large-scale coordinated international collaboration to combine independent genotyping data to improve the statistical power and aid in robust discovery of GWS loci. This study uses genome-wide genotyping data from a discovery sample (7387 ASD cases and 8567 controls) followed by meta-analysis of summary statistics from two replication sets (7783 ASD cases and 11359 controls; and 1369 ASD cases and 137308 controls).We observe a GWS locus at 10q24.32 that overlaps several genes including PITX3, which encodes a transcription factor identified as playing a role in neuronal differentiation and CUEDC2 previously reported to be associated with social skills in an independent population cohort. We also observe overlap with regions previously implicated in schizophrenia which was further supported by a strong genetic correlation between these disorders (Rg = 0.23; P = 9 × 10(-6)). We further combined these Psychiatric Genomics Consortium (PGC) ASD GWAS data with the recent PGC schizophrenia GWAS to identify additional regions which may be important in a common neurodevelopmental phenotype and identified 12 novel GWS loci. These include loci previously implicated in ASD such as FOXP1 at 3p13, ATP2B2 at 3p25.3, and a 'neurodevelopmental hub' on chromosome 8p11.23.This study is an important step in the ongoing endeavour to identify the loci which underpin the common variant signal in ASD. In addition to novel GWS loci, we have identified a significant genetic correlation with schizophrenia and association of ASD with several neurodevelopmental-related genes such as EXT1, ASTN2, MACROD2, and HDAC4.National Institutes of Mental Health (NIMH, USA)
ACE Network
Autism Genetic Resource Exchange (AGRE) is a program of Autism Speaks (USA)
The Autism Genome Project (AGP) from Autism Speaks (USA)
Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR), Genome Canada
Health Research Board (Ireland)
Hilibrand Foundation (USA)
Medical Research Council (UK)
National Institutes of Health (USA)
Ontario Genomics Institute
University of Toronto McLaughlin Centre
Simons Foundation
Johns Hopkins
Autism Consortium of Boston
NLM Family foundation
National Institute of Health grants
National Health Medical Research Council
Scottish Rite
Spunk Fund, Inc.
Rebecca and Solomon Baker Fund
APEX Foundation
National Alliance for Research in Schizophrenia and Affective Disorders (NARSAD)
endowment fund of the Nancy Pritzker Laboratory (Stanford)
Autism Society of America
Janet M. Grace Pervasive Developmental Disorders Fund
The Lundbeck Foundation
universities and university hospitals of Aarhus and Copenhagen
Stanley Foundation
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)
Netherlands Scientific Organization
Dutch Brain Foundation
VU University Amsterdam
Trinity Centre for High Performance Computing through Science Foundation Ireland
Autism Genome Project (AGP) from Autism Speak
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