Microbiomes for All

Microbiome research projects are often interdisciplinary, involving fields such as microbiology, genetics, ecology, evolution, bioinformatics, and statistics. These research projects can be an excellent fit for undergraduate courses ranging from introductory biology labs to upper-level capstone courses. Microbiome research projects can attract the interest of students majoring in health and medical sciences, environmental sciences, and agriculture, and there are meaningful ties to real-world issues relating to human health, climate change, and environmental sustainability and resilience in pristine, fragile ecosystems to bustling urban centers. In this review, we will discuss the potential of microbiome research integrated into classes using a number of different modalities. Our experience scaling-up and implementing microbiome projects at a range of institutions across the US has provided us with insight and strategies for what works well and how to diminish common hurdles that are encountered when implementing undergraduate microbiome research projects. We will discuss how course-based microbiome research can be leveraged to help faculty make advances in their own research and professional development and the resources that are available to support faculty interested in integrating microbiome research into their courses

Bureaucracy as a Lens for Analyzing and Designing Algorithmic Systems

Scholarship on algorithms has drawn on the analogy between algorithmic systems and bureaucracies to diagnose shortcomings in algorithmic decision-making. We extend the analogy further by drawing on Michel Crozier’s theory of bureaucratic organizations to analyze the relationship between algorithmic and human decision-making power. We present algorithms as analogous to impartial bureaucratic rules for controlling action, and argue that discretionary decision-making power in algorithmic systems accumulates at locations where uncertainty about the operation of algorithms persists. This key point of our essay connects with Alkhatib and Bernstein’s theory of ’street-level algorithms’, and highlights that the role of human discretion in algorithmic systems is to accommodate uncertain situations which inflexible algorithms cannot handle. We conclude by discussing how the analysis and design of algorithmic systems could seek to identify and cultivate important sources of uncertainty, to enable the human discretionary work that enhances systemic resilience in the face of algorithmic errors.Peer reviewe

Do Age And Baseline Ldl Cholesterol Levels Determine The Effect Of Regular Exercise On Plasma Lipoprotein Cholesterol And Apolipoprotein B Levels?

Apolipoprotein B (apoB) concentration and age are independently associated with an increased risk for cardiovascular disease. Age is also associated with increased apoB concentration. The purpose of this study was to determine the effects of exercise on apoB and examine the association between age and lipoproteins. Forty-one sedentary individuals exercised for 6 months, four times/week for 40 min between 60 and 85% of their maximal heart rate. Lipids were determined three times: Before training, 24 and 72 h after the last training session. Exercise did not alter apoB (1.2 ± 0.05 g/l vs. 1.2 ± 0.05 g/l; P \u3e 0.05), or other lipids or lipoproteins. When participants were sequestered by baseline low density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDLc), total cholesterol (TC) was decreased at 24 h post (6.3 ± 0.2 mmol/l vs. 6.0 ± 0.2 mmol/l, P \u3c 0.05) and LDLc after 24 and 48 h post (4.3 ± 0.1 mg/dl vs. 3.9 ± 0.1 and 4.1 ± 0.2 mg/dl, P \u3c 0.05) in the high LDLc group. In the low LDLc group both TC (4.4 ± 0.2 mmol/l vs. 4.6 ± 0.2 and 4.6 ± 0.2 mmol/l, P \u3e 0.05) and LDLc (2.6 ± 0.1 mmol/l vs. 2.8 ± 0.1 and 2.8 ± 0.2 mmol/l, P \u3c 0.05) were elevated at 24 h and remained elevated at 72 h post compared to baseline. Age does not affect apoB or lipoproteins in response to exercise. Individuals with high baseline LDLc experienced acute reduction in TC and LDLc produced by each exercise session. © Springer-Verlag 2007

MSC Frequency Correlates with Blood Vessel Density in Equine Adipose Tissue

Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) are multipotent cells that have the capacity to develop into different mature mesenchymal cell types. They were originally isolated from bone marrow, but MSC-like cells have also been isolated from other tissues. The common feature of all of these tissues is that they all house blood vessels. It is, thus, possible that MSCs are associated with perivascular locations. The objective of this work was to test the hypothesis that MSCs are associated with blood vessels by verifying if MSC frequency positively correlates with blood vessel density. To this end, samples from highly and poorly vascularized adipose tissue sites of two equine donors were collected and processed for histology and cell isolation. MSC frequency in these samples was estimated by means of CFU-F assays, which were performed under MSC conditions. Culture-adherent cells from equine adipose tissue and bone marrow were culture expanded, tested for differentiation into mesenchymal cell types in vitro, and implanted in vivo in porous ceramic vehicles to assess their osteogenic capacity, using human MSCs and brain pericytes as controls. The differentiation assays showed a difference between adipose tissue–derived cells as compared to equine bone marrow MSCs. While differences in CFU-F frequencies between both donors were evident, the CFU-F numbers correlated directly with blood vessel densities (r2 = 0.86). We consider these preliminary data as further evidence linking MSCs to blood vessels