Pediatric Brain Tumors & Subsequent Communication and Swallowing Disorders.

This study was designed to determine if there were speech, language, or swallowing disorders in a child with a brain stem glioma tumor or medulloblastoma tumor. It also was designed to determine if motor speech was more affected than swallowing in a child with a brain stem glioma tumor and in a child with a medulloblastoma tumor. Thirdly, this study investigated the incidence and treatment of speech, language, or swallowing disorders through survey. The surveys were sent through the United States Postal Service to speech-language pathologists (SLPs). The SLPs worked in pediatric hospitals or hospitals with pediatric floors. The purpose of the surveys was to gain information regarding the SLPs’ perceptions regarding prevalence of communication and/or swallowing disorders and type and duration of communication and/or swallowing disorders found following medical management. The researcher’s first hypothesis was that there were no diagnosed disorders of speech, language and/or swallowing in a child with a brain stem glioma tumor or medulloblastoma tumor. The researcher’s second hypothesis was that swallowing disorders were the primary communicative disorders identified and treated by SLPs in a child with a brain stem glioma tumor or medulloblastoma tumor. The results of this study showed the first hypothesis to be rejected due to the identification of speech, language and/or swallowing disorders in children with the two types of tumors. The results of this study also showed no significant difference between the number of SLPs who identified swallowing disorders and the number of SLPs who identified motor speech disorders in children with brain stem gliomas or medulloblastomas

Periportal Capsulotomy: A Technique for Limited Violation of the Hip Capsule During Arthroscopy for Femoroacetabular Impingement.

Hip arthroscopy has become the standard treatment for symptomatic femoroacetabular impingement as patients have shown good outcomes and high satisfaction with this intervention. However, capsular management to gain access for intra-articular procedures remains greatly debated. Capsular closure is advocated particularly in the setting of interportal or T-capsulotomy to avoid complications of instability or nonhealing capsule. We introduce a technique for capsular management through a limited periportal capsulotomy during arthroscopic treatment of femoroacetabular impingement. In using dilation of the anterolateral and mid-anterior portals without completion of a full interportal capsulotomy, the stabilizing iliofemoral ligament is preserved. We have found that periportal capsulotomy provides safe and sufficient access to the hip joint without necessitating capsular closure

Comparing the use of qPCR on isolated smallmouth bass (Micropterus dolomieu) and rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss) hepatocytes for estrogen screening

Exposure of fish to estrogenic endocrine disrupting chemicals (EEDCs) is believed to be a contributing factor of intersex (the presence of immature oocytes in the testes) and fish kills in the Potomac and Shenandoah Rivers. EEDCs are often seen in the effluent of wastewater treatment plants. A simple and common way to look at the estrogenicity of water samples is to deploy Passive Organic Chemical Integrative Samplers (POCIS) and extract the hydrophilic compounds from the filters with methanol. Samplers were deployed upstream and downstream of two wastewater treatment plants, one on the Conococheague River and one on the Monocacy River, both of which are in Maryland. For comparison purposes, one POCIS was deployed in Blue Plains, just outside of Washington, D.C. and one POCIS was deployed at a control site in a closed pond at the National Fish Health Research Laboratory in Kearneysville, WV. Primary hepatocytes from rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss) and smallmouth bass (Micropterus dolomieu) were isolated to compare vitellogenin induction upon exposure to 17-beta estradiol. Smallmouth bass hepatocytes yielded low concentrations of RNA and qPCR was unsuccessful. Male rainbow trout showed low vitellogenin induction levels at high concentrations of 17-beta estradiol and no induction at low concentrations. Female rainbow trout hepatocytes showed vitellogenin induction during exposure to 17-beta estradiol at high and low concentrations. Rainbow trout hepatocytes were used to screen for estrogenic compounds from the extracts of the deployed water samplers also using vitellogenin induction as an endpoint. Male rainbow trout hepatocytes showed no vitellogenin induction. Female rainbow trout hepatocytes exposed to samples showed no statistically significant differences in vitellogenin induction

Conservation and divergence in higher order chromatin structure

Aspects of higher order chromatin structure such as replication timing, lamina association and Hi-C inter-locus interactions have been recently studied in several human and mouse cell types and it has been suggested that most of these features of genome organisation are conserved over evolution. However, the extent of evolutionary divergence in higher order structure has not been rigorously measured across the mammalian genome, and little is known about the characteristics of any divergent loci defined. Here we generate an orthologous dataset combining multiple measurements of chromatin structure and organisation over many embryonic cell types for both human and mouse that, for the first time, allows a comprehensive assessment of the extent of structural divergence between different mammalian genomes. Comparison of orthologous regions confirms that all measurable facets of higher order structure are conserved between human and mouse, across the majority of the orthologous genome. This broad similarity is observed in spite of the substantial time since the species diverged, differences in experimental procedures among the datasets examined, and the presence of cell type specific structures at many loci. However, we also identify hundreds of regions showing consistent evidence of divergence between these species, constituting at least 10% of the orthologous mammalian genome and encompassing many hundreds of human and mouse genes. Divergent regions are enriched in genes implicated in vertebrate development, suggesting important roles for structural divergence in mammalian evolution. They are also relatively enriched for genes showing divergent expression patterns between human and mouse ES cells, implying these regions may underlie divergent regulation. Divergent regions show unusual shifts in compositional bias, sequence divergence and are unevenly distributed across both genomes. We investigate the mechanisms of divergence in higher order structure by examining the influence of sequence divergence and also many features of primary level chromatin, such as histone modification and DNA methylation patterns. Using multiple regression, we identify the dominant factors that appear to have shaped the physical structure of the mammalian genome. These data suggest that, though relatively rare, divergence in higher order chromatin structure has played important roles during evolution

Into Africa : Molecular phylogenetics and historical biogeography of sub-Saharan African woodferns (Dryopteris)

PREMISE OF THE STUDY: Our goal was to infer the phylogenetic relationships and historical biogeography of the genus Dryopteris with a focus on taxa in sub-Saharan Africa and neighboring islands. In general, little is known about the relationships between African fern species and their congeners in other geographic regions, and our aim was to determine whether the sub-Saharan African species of Dryopteris are monophyletic and evolved within Africa or arrived there via repeated dispersals into Africa from other regions. METHODS: We obtained sequence data for five chloroplast markers from 214 species of Dryopteris and 18 outgroups. We performed phylogenetic and molecular dating analyses using a Bayesian relaxed clock method in BEAST with fossil and secondary calibration points and estimated ancestral ranges for the genus globally by comparing multiple models in BioGeoBEARS. KEY RESULTS: We found that 22 of 27 accessions of sub-Saharan African Dryopteris belong to a large clade of 31 accessions that also includes taxa from Indian and Atlantic Ocean islands. Additional accessions of taxa from our regions of interest have Asian, Hawaiian, European, or North American species as their closest relatives. CONCLUSIONS: The majority of sub-Saharan African Dryopteris species are descended from a shared common ancestor that dispersed to Africa from Asia approximately 10 Ma. There have been subsequent dispersal events from the African mainland to islands in the Atlantic and Indian Oceans, including Madagascar. Several additional species are estimated to have descended from ancestors that reached Africa via separate events over the last roughly 20 million years.Peer reviewe

The adverse childhood experiences questionnaire: Two decades of research on childhood trauma as a primary cause of adult mental illness, addiction, and medical diseases

Objective. In 1998, Felitti and colleagues published the first study of the Adverse Childhood Experiences-Questionnaire (ACE-Q), a 10-item scale used to correlate childhood maltreatment and adverse rearing contexts with adult health outcomes. This paper qualitatively reviews nearly two decades of research utilizing the ACE-Q, highlighting its contribution to our understanding of the causal roots of common, interlinked comorbidities of the brain and body.Methods. An OVID/PubMed search was conducted for English language articles published before 2016, containing the phrase “Adverse Childhood Experiences” in which the ACE-Q was utilized. Source review included a manual search of bibliographies, resulting in 134 articles, including 44 based on the original ACE-Q study population.Results. ACE-Q research has demonstrated that exposures to adverse childhood experiences converge dose-dependently to potently increase the risk for a wide array of causally interlinked mental illnesses, addictions, and multi-organ medical diseases. The intergenerational transmission of this disease burden via disrupted parenting and insecure rearing contexts is apparent throughout this literature. However, the ACE-Q does not tease out genetic or fetal drug exposure components of this transmission.Conclusions. Adverse childhood experiences and rearing may generate a public health burden that could rival or exceed all other root causes. Translating this information to health-care reform will require strengthening brain-behavioral health as core public and preventative health-care missions. Greater integration of mental health and addiction services for parents should be accompanied by more research into brain mechanisms impacted by different forms and interactions between adverse childhood experiences

Principles of Biology I (Valdosta State University)

This Grants Collection uses the grant-supported lecture slides to Principles of Biology I from Valdosta State University: http://oer.galileo.usg.edu/biology-ancillary/1/ This Grants Collection for Principles of Biology I was created under a Round Two ALG Textbook Transformation Grant. Affordable Learning Georgia Grants Collections are intended to provide faculty with the frameworks to quickly implement or revise the same materials as a Textbook Transformation Grants team, along with the aims and lessons learned from project teams during the implementation process. Documents are in .pdf format, with a separate .docx (Word) version available for download. Each collection contains the following materials: Linked Syllabus Initial Proposal Final Reporthttps://oer.galileo.usg.edu/biology-collections/1007/thumbnail.jp