Lesser Prairie-chicken Use of Harvested Corn Fields during Fall and Winter in Southwestern Kansas

The lesser prairie-chicken (Tympanuchus pallidicinctus) has declined in numbers in Kansas primarily due to the conversion of sand sagebrush (Artemisia .filifolia) prairie to cropland. The lesser prairie-chicken in Finney County, Kansas exists primarily in large fragments of sand sagebrush prairie, and it forages during fall and winter on waste grain in harvested com (Zea mays) fields adjacent to prairie fragments. We used radio-telemetry to monitor lesser prairie chicken locations and found no significant relationship between numbers of bird locations and amounts of waste grain on the ground in harvested com fields. Even the harvested fields with the least amount of waste grain seemed to have sufficient amounts of food available for foraging lesser prairie-chicken. There appeared to be no need to develop supplemental food sources for wintering lesser prairie-chicken populations that have access to harvested fields of irrigated com in Finney County

Per- and Polyfluoroalkyl Substances: From Disposition on Consumer Products and Field Materials to Treatment of Contaminated Groundwater

Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) are an emerging chemical class of concern. Recently in the United States, Health Advisory Limits for two PFAS in drinking water were established for perfluorooctane sulfonate and perfluorooctanoate in drinking water (set to 70 ng/L combine concentration) by the EPA. Because of PFAS mobility, persistence, and occurrence in drinking water throughout the country, it is import to understand potential sources of PFAS. In the first study, PFAS sample collection and storage and materials used in the field were examined. Sampling parameters including sampling materials, sample collection, and sample storage for the analytes represented by the new analytical method were examined. The optimal sample storage and analysis conditions were determined. Additionally, a characterization of 66 sampling materials was performed and a list of PFAS containing materials was compiled, as well as a list of materials that contain no PFAS. This study represents a comprehensive approach to over 35 PFAS actually present at an environmentally relevant site, sampling and storage, and materials that may impact analysis and cause false positives. In the second study, a subset of seventeen papers and textiles were analyzed using four techniques: liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) for 73 individual PFAS, gas chromatography mass spectrometry (GC-MS) for 7 individual PFAS, total oxidizable precursor (TOP) assay, and total fluorine by particle-induced gamma-ray emission (PIGE) spectroscopy. Total PFAS measured by LC-MS/MS, GC-MS, which represent monomeric PFAS with the potential for human exposure, only represent <2.6% of the total polymeric PFAS material bound to the surface of papers and textiles. Environmental PFAS contaminations is leading to a direct need for remediation. In the third study, PFAS breakthrough curves resulting from a pilot-scale granular activated carbon (GAC) system were modeled to determine the efficacy for removal of individual PFAS present at a military site over 11 months. The relationship between the order of individual PFAS elution by analytical analysis by LC-MS/MS or LC-QTOF was determined to be the same as the order of breakthrough from GAC. Understanding of PFAS mass balance leads to more effective remediation with an understanding of PFAS effluent breakthrough

A Tribute to Patrick Baude

The Board of Editors dedicates Volume 86 of the Indiana Law Journal to the memory of Patrick Baude, who taught at the School of Law from August 1968 until his death in January 2011, and who served for many years as the faculty advisor for the Indiana Law Journal. As evidenced below, Professor Baude’s influence spread far beyond the bounds of his classroom walls, and his presence in the Law School’s community will be sorely missed

A Tribute to Patrick Baude

The Board of Editors dedicates Volume 86 of the Indiana Law Journal to the memory of Patrick Baude, who taught at the School of Law from August 1968 until his death in January 2011, and who served for many years as the faculty advisor for the Indiana Law Journal. As evidenced below, Professor Baude’s influence spread far beyond the bounds of his classroom walls, and his presence in the Law School’s community will be sorely missed

Case report: an unexpected link between partial deletion of the SHANK3 gene and Heller’s dementia infantilis, a rare subtype of autism spectrum disorder

International audienceAbstractBackgroundDeletions and mutations involving the SHANK3 gene lead to a nonspecific clinical presentation with moderate to profound intellectual disability, severely delayed or absent speech, and autism spectrum disorders (ASD).Better knowledge of the clinical spectrum of SHANK3 haploinsufficiency is useful to facilitate clinical care monitoring and to guide molecular diagnosis, essential for genetic counselling.Case presentationHere, we report a detailed clinical description of a 10-year-old girl carrying a pathogenic interstitial 22q13.3 deletion encompassing only the first 17 exons of SHANK3.The clinical features displayed by the girl strongly suggested the diagnosis of dementia infantilis, described by Heller in 1908, also known as childhood disintegrative disorder.ConclusionOur present case confirms several observations according to which regression may be part of the clinical phenotype of SHANK3 haploinsufficiency. Therefore, we think it is crucial to look for mutations in the gene SHANK3 in patients diagnosed for childhood disintegrative disorder or any developmental disorder with a regressive pattern involving social and communicative skills as well as cognitive and instinctual functions, with onset around 3 years

The Swift Surge of Perovskite Photovoltaics

The breakthrough early 1990s dye sensitization of mesoscopic TiO2 films along with a regenerative iodide redox couple led to the explosive growth of dye-sensitized solar cell (DSC) research. The pioneering work of Grätzel and colleagues also made it possible to develop a solid-state DSSC with spiro-oMETAD as the hole conductor and thus replace the liquid electrolyte in the cell. Research efforts of Konenkamp and others further initiated the search for the “extremely thin absorber” (ETA) nanostructured solar cell, using TiO2 as the electron conductor, an inorganic absorber, and a hole conductor. Another major research thrust was by Weller, Kamat, Zaban, Nozik, Hodes, and others, who employed inorganic quantum dots (e.g., CdS and CdSe) as sensitizers. While discussing developments in sensitized solar cells, it is important to note the contributions of early visionaries like Gerischer, Sutin, and Bard, who were first to establish the concepts of sensitization using dye molecules and semiconductor nanostructures

Expression of Msx1 and Dlx1 during Dumbo rat head development: Correlation with morphological features

The Dumbo rat possesses some characteristics that evoke several human syndromes, such as Treacher-Collins: shortness of the maxillary, zygomatic and mandibular bones, and low position of the ears. Knowing that many homeobox genes are candidates in craniofacial development, we investigated the involvement of the Msx1 and Dlx1 genes in the Dumbo phenotype with the aim of understanding their possible role in abnormal craniofacial morphogenesis and examining the possibility of using Dumbo rat as an experimental model for understanding abnormal craniofacial development. We studied the expression of these genes during craniofacial morphogenesis by RT-PCR method. We used Dumbo embryos at E12 and E14 and included the Wistar strain as a control. Semi-quantitative PCR analysis demonstrated that Msx1 and Dlx1 are expressed differently between Dumbo and Wistar rats, indicating that their low expression may underly the Dumbo phenotype

Topographical analysis of the subependymal zone neurogenic niche

The emerging model for the adult subependymal zone (SEZ) cell population indicates that neuronal diversity is not generated from a uniform pool of stem cells but rather from diverse and spatially confined stem cell populations. Hence, when analysing SEZ proliferation, the topography along the anterior-posterior and dorsal-ventral axes must be taken into account. However, to date, no studies have assessed SEZ proliferation according to topographical specificities and, additionally, SEZ studies in animal models of neurological/psychiatric disorders often fail to clearly specify the SEZ coordinates. This may render difficult the comparison between studies and yield contradictory results. More so, by focusing in a single spatial dimension of the SEZ, relevant findings might pass unnoticed. In this study we characterized the neural stem cell/progenitor population and its proliferation rates throughout the rat SEZ anterior-posterior and dorsal-ventral axes. We found that SEZ proliferation decreases along the anterior-posterior axis and that proliferative rates vary considerably according to the position in the dorsal-ventral axis. These were associated with relevant gradients in the neuroblasts and in the neural stem cell populations throughout the dorsal-ventral axis. In addition, we observed spatially dependent differences in BrdU/Ki67 ratios that suggest a high variability in the proliferation rate and cell cycle length throughout the SEZ; in accordance, estimation of the cell cycle length of the neuroblasts revealed shorter cell cycles at the dorsolateral SEZ. These findings highlight the need to establish standardized procedures of SEZ analysis. Herein we propose an anatomical division of the SEZ that should be considered in future studies addressing proliferation in this neural stem cell niche.Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT