Developing a colorimetric membrane sensor to detect trihalomethanes in water samples utilizing the Fujiwara reaction

This work focused on creating a colorimetric sensor to detect trihalomethanes (THMs) at concentrations near the level of environmental regulations from the environmental protection agency (EPA). This work utlized the fujiwara reaction as well as a hydrophobic electrospun polyprolylene membrane to produce a sensitive colorimetric reaction. A calibration curve was produced which was able to predict the concentration of a bromoroform solution in the range of 8-250 ppb with a confidence of 97.7 % using the intensity of the color change as a quantitative measure

bak deletion stimulates gastric epithelial proliferation and enhances Helicobacter felis-induced gastric atrophy and dysplasia in mice

Helicobacter infection causes a chronic superficial gastritis that in some cases progresses via atrophic gastritis to adenocarcinoma. Proapoptotic bak has been shown to regulate radiation-induced apoptosis in the stomach and colon and also susceptibility to colorectal carcinogenesis in vivo. Therefore we investigated the gastric mucosal pathology following H. felis infection in bak-null mice at 6 or 48 wk postinfection. Primary gastric gland culture from bak-null mice was also used to assess the effects of bak deletion on IFN-γ-, TNF-α-, or IL-1β-induced apoptosis. bak-null gastric corpus glands were longer, had increased epithelial Ki-67 expression, and contained fewer parietal and enteroendocrine cells compared with the wild type (wt). In wt mice, bak was expressed at the luminal surface of gastric corpus glands, and this increased 2 wk post-H. felis infection. Apoptotic cell numbers were decreased in bak-null corpus 6 and 48 wk following infection and in primary gland cultures following cytokine administration. Increased gastric epithelial Ki-67 labeling index was observed in C57BL/6 mice after H. felis infection, whereas no such increase was detected in bak-null mice. More severe gastric atrophy was observed in bak-null compared with C57BL/6 mice 6 and 48 wk postinfection, and 76% of bak-null compared with 25% of C57BL/6 mice showed evidence of gastric dysplasia following long-term infection. Collectively, bak therefore regulates gastric epithelial cell apoptosis, proliferation, differentiation, mucosal thickness, and susceptibility to gastric atrophy and dysplasia following H. felis infection

Application of Fall Nitrogen Increased Spring Tall Fescue Yield

Late season nitrogen fertilization is a practice that has long been implemented in turfgrass production. This practice involves applying nitrogen from September through December and results in an extended green period in the fall without stimulating excessive shoot growth. The longer green period results in higher levels of carbohydrate reserves and enhanced root growth compared with a spring-summer fertilization program. In addition to these benefits, sods fertilized in late fall have been shown to green up two to six weeks earlier in the spring. Limited research has considered the impact of late fall nitrogen applications on grass growth in hayfields and pastures. The objective of this study was to evaluate the impact of late fall nitrogen fertilization on dry matter production of an established tall fescue stand. In 2020 and 2021, the study was conducted at the UK Research and Extension Center located in Princeton, KY. The experimental design was a random complete block with four replications. In early December 2020 and 2021, 0, 34, 67, and 101 kg ha-1 was applied as ammonium nitrate, ammonium sulfate, and Anuvia SYMTRX 20S. An additional 90 kg ha-1 was applied as urea to all plots the following spring. Plots were harvested on 13-May-2021 and 24-May-2022 using a self-propelled sickle bar type forage harvester equipped with load cells. Averaged across sources, first harvest yields ranged from 3428 to 5675 and 3929 to 5831 kg ha-1 in 2021 and 2022, respectively. Fall applied nitrogen resulted in a linear increase in dry matter yield of 25.0 and 21.2 kg ha-1 in 2021 and 2022, respectively. Nitrogen sources had no impact on dry matter yield (P \u3e 0.05). Plots receiving fall applied nitrogen also initiated growth earlier in the spring

Uniform cost system for grinding wheel manufacturers

The system presented here for the Grinding Wheel Manufacturers is a simple one. In a few instances two methods of accomplishing the same purpose are given. In such cases one method will be found to give more detail than the other, but either will produce satisfactory results. Much of the data necessary for the operation of this system is undoubtedly being collected by grinding wheel manufacturers already. There are few manufacturers indeed who do not possess a payroll and ledger, and it is assumed that the grinding wheel manufacturer is as well provided with these two important books as the average. If the information furnished by these books is used as recommended a large advance in the right direction will have been made, and very little, if any more, labor required. It is not necessary to install all features of this system at once. In fact it is much better if it is installed in sections as it is then possible to see that one part is in good working order before another is started

Further Validation of Survey Effort Measures of Relevant Character Skills: Results from a Sample of High School Students

Character skills, including conscientiousness, grit or self-control are important determinants of relevant life outcomes. However, researchers struggle to find valid measures of these skills and many existing datasets lack any measures of them at all. This limits research on how these important skills could be better supported and developed. Recent research has shown the potential of parametrizations of survey effort measures as proxy measures of character skills related to conscientiousness, to either complement other collected measures or to add to datasets that lack such measures. This study provides further validation of these survey effort measures in a sample of high school students by studying their relationship with external measures reported by teachers, other direct performance task measures of related skills, high school academic outcomes, and college attendance. Our results show promise for survey effort measures to be used as proxy measures of character skills related to grit and self-control

Sensing Subjective Well-being from Social Media

Subjective Well-being(SWB), which refers to how people experience the quality of their lives, is of great use to public policy-makers as well as economic, sociological research, etc. Traditionally, the measurement of SWB relies on time-consuming and costly self-report questionnaires. Nowadays, people are motivated to share their experiences and feelings on social media, so we propose to sense SWB from the vast user generated data on social media. By utilizing 1785 users' social media data with SWB labels, we train machine learning models that are able to "sense" individual SWB from users' social media. Our model, which attains the state-by-art prediction accuracy, can then be used to identify SWB of large population of social media users in time with very low cost.Comment: 12 pages, 1 figures, 2 tables, 10th International Conference, AMT 2014, Warsaw, Poland, August 11-14, 2014. Proceeding

Oral iron exacerbates colitis and influences the intestinal microbiome

Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) is associated with anaemia and oral iron replacement to correct this can be problematic, intensifying inflammation and tissue damage. The intestinal microbiota also plays a key role in the pathogenesis of IBD, and iron supplementation likely influences gut bacterial diversity in patients with IBD. Here, we assessed the impact of dietary iron, using chow diets containing either 100, 200 or 400 ppm, fed ad libitum to adult female C57BL/6 mice in the presence or absence of colitis induced using dextran sulfate sodium (DSS), on (i) clinical and histological severity of acute DSS-induced colitis, and (ii) faecal microbial diversity, as assessed by sequencing the V4 region of 16S rRNA. Increasing or decreasing dietary iron concentration from the standard 200 ppm exacerbated both clinical and histological severity of DSS-induced colitis. DSS-treated mice provided only half the standard levels of iron ad libitum (i.e. chow containing 100 ppm iron) lost more body weight than those receiving double the amount of standard iron (i.e. 400 ppm); p<0.01. Faecal calprotectin levels were significantly increased in the presence of colitis in those consuming 100 ppm iron at day 8 (5.94-fold) versus day-10 group (4.14-fold) (p<0.05), and for the 400 ppm day-8 group (8.17-fold) versus day-10 group (4.44-fold) (p<0.001). In the presence of colitis, dietary iron at 400 ppm resulted in a significant reduction in faecal abundance of Firmicutes and Bacteroidetes, and increase of Proteobacteria, changes which were not observed with lower dietary intake of iron at 100 ppm. Overall, altering dietary iron intake exacerbated DSS-induced colitis; increasing the iron content of the diet also led to changes in intestinal bacteria diversity and composition after colitis was induced with DSS