When the going gets tough, the tough get going: Social identification and individual effort in intergroup competition.

Based on social identity theory, the authors predicted that in ongoing intergroup competition, people’s strength of social identification will have a positive impact on their behavioral efforts on behalf of an ingroup when its current status is low, whereas this will not be the case when its current status is high. In a first experiment, male participants showed the expected pattern of behavior. Female participants, however, tended to display opposite reactions. As a possible explanation, it was argued that the experimental procedure may have inadvertently evoked a gender-based stereotype threat for female participants. In an attempt to obtain more consistent support for their hypothesis, the authors therefore replicated the experiment with modifications to avoid such a threat. These changes proved to be effective in the sense that this time the predicted interaction effect between ingroup identification and current group status was obtained for both male and female participants

Establishing populations of Megasphaera elsdenii YE 34 and Butyrivibrio fibrisolvens YE 44 in the rumen of cattle fed high grain diets

Aim: To determine whether Megasphaera elsdenii YE34 (lactic acid degrader) and Butyrivibrio fibrisolvens YE44 (alternative starch utilizer to Streptococcus bovis) establish viable populations in the rumen of beef cattle rapidly changed from a forage-based to a grain-based diet. Methods and Results: Five steers were inoculated with the two bacterial strains (YE34 and YE44) and five served as uninoculated controls. With the exception of one animal in the control group, which developed acidosis, all steers rapidly adapted to the grain-based diet without signs of acidosis (pH decline and accumulation of lactic acid). Bacterial populations of S. bovis, B. fibrisolvens and M. elsdenii were enumerated using real-time Taq nuclease assays. Populations of S. bovis remained constant (except in the acidotic animal) at ca 107 cell equivalents (CE) ml-1 throughout the study. Megasphaera elsdenii YE34, was not detectable in animals without grain in the diet, but immediately established in inoculated animals, at 106 CE ml-1, and increased 100-fold in the first 4 days following inoculation. Butyrivibrio fibrisolvens, initially present at 108 CE ml-1, declined rapidly with the introduction of grain into the diet and was not detectable 8 days after grain introduction. Conclusion: Megasphaera elsdenii rapidly establishes a lactic acid-utilizing bacterial population in the rumen of grain-fed cattle 7–10 days earlier than in uninoculated cattle. Significance and Impact of the Study: The study has demonstrated that rumen bacterial populations, and in particular the establishment of bacteria inoculated into the rumen for probiotic use, can be monitored by real-time PCR

FAIR data retrieval for sensitive clinical research data in Galaxy

Background: In clinical research, data have to be accessible and reproducible, but the generated data are becoming larger and analysis complex. Here we propose a platform for Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, and Reusable (FAIR) data access and creating reproducible findings. Standardized access to a major genomic repository, the European Genome-Phenome Archive (EGA), has been achieved with API services like PyEGA3. We aim to provide a FAIR data analysis service in Galaxy by retrieving genomic data from the EGA and provide a generalized “omics” platform for FAIR data analysis. Results: To demonstrate this, we implemented an end-to-end Galaxy workflow to replicate the findings from an RD-Connect synthetic dataset Beyond the 1 Million Genomes (synB1MG) available from the EGA. We developed the PyEGA3 connector within Galaxy to easily download multiple datasets from the EGA. We added the gene.iobio tool, a diagnostic environment for precision genomics, to Galaxy and demonstrate that it provides a more dynamic and interpretable view for trio analysis results. We developed a Galaxy trio analysis workflow to determine the pathogenic variants from the synB1MG trios using the GEMINI and gene.iobio tool. The complete workflow is available at WorkflowHub, and an associated tutorial was created in the Galaxy Training Network, which helps researchers unfamiliar with Galaxy to run the workflow. Conclusions: We showed the feasibility of reusing data from the EGA in Galaxy via PyEGA3 and validated the workflow by rediscovering spiked-in variants in synthetic data. Finally, we improved existing tools in Galaxy and created a workflow for trio analysis to demonstrate the value of FAIR genomics analysis in Galaxy.</p

Perbandingan Tiga Metode Transformasi Agrobacterium Untuk Pencarian Gen-gen Terkait Toleransi Kekeringan Menggunakan Transposon Ac/Ds Pada Padi CV. Batutegi

Transformation Strategy for Indonesian Indica Rice in Attempt to Discover Drought-TolerantRelated Genes Using of Transposon Ac/Ds. Attempt to identify, isolate the gene, and study forgene function for several agronomical traits have been done including some drought toleranttraits. Japonica rice cultivars have been used due to its higher efficiencies compared withindica cultivars. Two plasmids namely pNU400 and pUR224 were used to generate mutants ofthese cultivars (Batutegi dan Kasalath cultivars). Those plasmids contain an element calledActivator (Ac) and Dissociator (Ds) respectively. The pNU400 contains GFP (green flourescensprotein) as a selectable marker, whereas the pUR224 contains hygromycine resistant gene andgusA as a reporter gene. Each plasmid was transformed into rice genome of Batutegi andKasalath cultivars by Agrobacterium mediated transformation using three methods oftransformation (A, B and C). The transformation method A was not suitable for both cultivars,where none of plantlets were produced from pNU400 and pUR224 plasmids. The transformationmethod B produced some plantlets from the Kasalath cultivar only using pUR224 plasmid.The transformation method C was the best method to produce transgenic plants from bothcultivars (Batutegi and Kasalath), using both plasmids (pNU400 and pUR224). The PCR analysisshowed that 19 and 9 plants of Batutegi and Kasalath contained both gusA and hpt genesrespectively. None of those plants contained of gusA gene. Southern blot analysis revealed 3independent lines from Batutegi dan 7 independent lines from Kasalath. The integration of Actransposon was analyzed based on expression gfp gene when observed under UV dark reader.This research has proved that indica rice cultivars, especially the Batutegi cultivar of Indonesianorigin, could be transformed. The cultivar could be used as plant model for the indicatransformation

Transformasi Padi Indica Kultivar Batutegi dan Kasalath dengan Gen Regulator HD-Zip untuk Perakitan Varietas Toleran Kekeringan

Water deficiency. Genetic engineering at the level of transcription factors (TF) is particulary a promising strategy in developing drought tolerant rice cultivar. HD-Zip genes are TF that function in plant adaptation to some environmental stresses including water deficit. The recombinant plasmid pC1301H Oshox6 which contained HD-Zip Oshox6 gene was placed under a drought inducible promoter called LEA promoter, gusA and hpt genes were driven with CaMV promoter. The aim of research was to obtain indica rice transgenic plants of Batutegi and Kasalath cultivars using pC1301H Oshox6 plasmid. Recombinant plasmid was transformed into immature rice embryos using Agrobacterium tumefaciens. Kasalath cultivar showed a better capacity to form embryogenic calli compared to Batutegi. Transformation efficiency of Batutegi is lower (1.5 - 0.3%) than Kasalath (2.2-28.3%). Regeneration efficiency is 25-83.3% and 7.7-100% for Batutegi and Kasalath, respectively. Number of putative transformant plantlets of Batutegi and Kasalath are 63 and 48 plantlets, respectively. Southern blot analysis (using hpt probe) on 12 independent lines of each Batutegi and Kasalath cultivars showed different gene copy number, ranging from one to four copies of gene