Genetic Sequencing Methodologies to Assess Human Contributions of Fecal Coliforms to a Freshwater Receiving Stream

2012 S.C. Water Resources Conference - Exploring Opportunities for Collaborative Water Research, Policy and Managemen

Gratitude and suicide risk among college students: Substantiating the protective benefits of being thankful

Objective: Gratitude, or thankfulness for positive aspects of life, is related to psychosocial well-being and decreased psychopathology, and may reduce suicide risk. We explored four potential hypotheses purported to explain the beneficial outcomes of gratitude (schematic, positive affect, broaden-and-build, and coping), hypothesizing that hopelessness (schematic), depression (positive affect), social support (broaden-and-build), and substance use (coping) would mediate the gratitude-suicide linkage. Participants: 913 undergraduate students from a mid-size, southeastern U.S. university. Methods: Respondents completed online self-report questionnaires including the Suicidal Behaviors Questionnaire-Revised, Gratitude Questionnaire, Beck Hopelessness Scale, Beck Depression Inventory, Duke Social Support Index, Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test, and Drug Abuse Screening Test. Results: Supporting theory and hypotheses, gratitude was related to less suicide risk via beneficial associations with hopelessness, depression, social support, and substance misuse. Conclusions: The linkage between gratitude and suicide risk appears to be predicated on the beneficial association of gratitude to negative mood and interpersonal functioning

The effect of DPP-4 inhibitors on asthma control : an administrative database study to evaluate a potential pathophysiological relationship

Acknowledgments The authors acknowledge Koustubh Ranade (MedImmune, Gaithersburg, MD, USA) and Stephen Johnston, a member of the steering committee who was employed by Truven Health Analytics at the time the study was conducted, for their contributions to this study . Truven Health Analytics, an IBM Company, received funding from AstraZeneca in relation to this study. This work was previously presented as a poster at the annual international conference of the American Thoracic Society, May 19–24, 2017, Washington, DC (Colice G, et al. The Effect of Dipeptidyl-Peptidase-4 Inhibitors on Asthma Control: An Administrative Database Study to Evaluate a Potential Pathophysiological Relationship. Am J Respir Crit Care Med. 2017;195:A3050).Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Inhibition of gastric H,K-ATPase activity and gastric epithelial cell IL-8 secretion by the pyrrolizine derivative ML 3000

BACKGROUND: ML 3000 ([2,2-dimethyl-6-(4-chlorophenyl)-7-phenyl-2,3-dihydro-1H-pyrrolizine-5-yl]-acetic acid) is an inhibitor of both cyclooxygenase and 5-lipoxygenase in vitro, and shows promise as a novel non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug (NSAID). Unlike conventional NSAIDs which are associated with gastric ulcerogenic effects, ML 3000 causes little or no damage to the gastric mucosa, even though it significantly depresses gastric prostaglandin synthesis. METHODS: As part of an effort to clarify mechanisms underlying the gastric sparing properties of ML 3000, we studied the effects of ML 3000 on H,K-ATPase activity in vitro, on acid accumulation in isolated gastric parietal cells, and on IL-8 secretion by gastric epithelial cells in culture. RESULTS: SCH28080-sensitive H,K-ATPase activity in highly-purified pig gastric microsomes was dose-dependently inhibited by ML 3000 (IC(50) = 16.4 μM). Inhibition was reversible, and insensitive to ML 3000 acidification in the pH range 2.0–8.0. In rabbit gastric parietal cells, ML 3000 dose-dependently inhibited histamine-stimulated acid accumulation (IC(50) = 40 μM) and forskolin-stimulated acid accumulation (IC(50) = 45 μM). Lastly, in human gastric adenocarcinoma (AGS) cells, ML 3000 dose-dependently inhibited both baseline and IL-1β-stimulated (20 ng/ml) IL-8 secretion with IC(50)s of 0.46 μM and 1.1 μM respectively. CONCLUSION: The data indicate that ML 3000 affects acid-secretory mechanisms downstream of cAMP mobilization induced by histamine H(2) receptor activation, that it directly inhibits H,K-ATPase specific activity, and that baseline gastric epithelial cell IL-8 secretory inhibition may be mediated by ML 3000 inhibition of 5-lipoxygenase activity. We conclude that these gastric function inhibitory data may underlie the gastric sparing properties of ML 3000

Control of Gastric H,K-ATPase Activity by Cations, Voltage and Intracellular pH Analyzed by Voltage Clamp Fluorometry in Xenopus Oocytes

Whereas electrogenic partial reactions of the Na,K-ATPase have been studied in depth, much less is known about the influence of the membrane potential on the electroneutrally operating gastric H,K-ATPase. In this work, we investigated site-specifically fluorescence-labeled H,K-ATPase expressed in Xenopus oocytes by voltage clamp fluorometry to monitor the voltage-dependent distribution between E1P and E2P states and measured Rb+ uptake under various ionic and pH conditions. The steady-state E1P/E2P distribution, as indicated by the voltage-dependent fluorescence amplitudes and the Rb+ uptake activity were highly sensitive to small changes in intracellular pH, whereas even large extracellular pH changes affected neither the E1P/E2P distribution nor transport activity. Notably, intracellular acidification by approximately 0.5 pH units shifted V0.5, the voltage, at which the E1P/E2P ratio is 50∶50, by −100 mV. This was paralleled by an approximately two-fold acceleration of the forward rate constant of the E1P→E2P transition and a similar increase in the rate of steady-state cation transport. The temperature dependence of Rb+ uptake yielded an activation energy of ∼90 kJ/mol, suggesting that ion transport is rate-limited by a major conformational transition. The pronounced sensitivity towards intracellular pH suggests that proton uptake from the cytoplasmic side controls the level of phosphoenzyme entering the E1P→E2P conformational transition, thus limiting ion transport of the gastric H,K-ATPase. These findings highlight the significance of cellular mechanisms contributing to increased proton availability in the cytoplasm of gastric parietal cells. Furthermore, we show that extracellular Na+ profoundly alters the voltage-dependent E1P/E2P distribution indicating that Na+ ions can act as surrogates for protons regarding the E2P→E1P transition. The complexity of the intra- and extracellular cation effects can be rationalized by a kinetic model suggesting that cations reach the binding sites through a rather high-field intra- and a rather low-field extracellular access channel, with fractional electrical distances of ∼0.5 and ∼0.2, respectively

Production of ultrasonic vocalizations by Peromyscus mice in the wild

BACKGROUND: There has been considerable research on rodent ultrasound in the laboratory and these sounds have been well quantified and characterized. Despite the value of research on ultrasound produced by mice in the lab, it is unclear if, and when, these sounds are produced in the wild, and how they function in natural habitats. RESULTS: We have made the first recordings of ultrasonic vocalizations produced by two free-living species of mice in the genus Peromyscus (P. californicus and P. boylii) on long term study grids in California. Over 6 nights, we recorded 65 unique ultrasonic vocalization phrases from Peromyscus. The ultrasonic vocalizations we recorded represent 7 different motifs. Within each motif, there was considerable variation in the acoustic characteristics suggesting individual and contextual variation in the production of ultrasound by these species. CONCLUSION: The discovery of the production of ultrasonic vocalizations by Peromyscus in the wild highlights an underappreciated component in the behavior of these model organisms. The ability to examine the production of ultrasonic vocalizations in the wild offers excellent opportunities to test hypotheses regarding the function of ultrasound produced by rodents in a natural context

Finite element modeling of metal foam structures subject to compressive loading

A unit-cell model was developed for open metallic foams in order to predict their effective elastic moduli and the plastic collapse strengths. The model is based on the metallic ligament frame of tetrakaidecahedral shape. The frame structure of the unit-cell was analyzed using the finite element method. The plastic collapse strength was determined when the joints of ligaments became plastic hinges under the assumption of elastic-perfectly plastic material behavior of the metallic material. Both elastic modulus and plastic collapse strength were computed using a single step of finite element analysis without any iterative or incremental procedure. In addition, a very small number of finite elements used. As a result, the unit-cell is computationally very efficient. The next study considered the effective elastic moduli and plastic collapse strengths of the same metallic foams filled with a viscoelastic material. For this study, the unit-cell model was modified. The model considered the ligament frame structure supported by viscoelastic foundation that represented the filler material. In order to validate the unit-cell models, experiments were also conducted. The experimental data agreed very well with the predicted values of both stiffness and strength. Proper design of the materials studied here can have high strength and stiffness, low weight, high damping properties so that they may be useful for multifunctional materials that can be used in the Navy and Department of Defense applications.http://archive.org/details/finiteelementmod109451331US Navy (USN) autho

5. FUNDING NUMBERS

Public reporting burden for this collection of information is estimated to average 1 hour per response, including the time for reviewing instruction, searching existing data sources, gathering and maintaining the data needed, and completing and reviewing the collection of information. Send comments regarding this burden estimate or any other aspect of this collection of information, including suggestions for reducing this burden, to Washingto

Drug-Resistant Salmonella typhi in Pakistan

Enteric fever (formerly typhoid fever) is a bacterial illness caused by fecal-oral transmission of Salmonella typhi or paratyphi. In early 2018, an outbreak of Salmonella typhi resistant to third-generation cephalosporins, ampicillin, ciprofloxacin, trimethroprim-sulfamethoxazole, and chloramphenicol was reported in Pakistan. This strain, termed "extensively resistant typhi," has infected more than 5000 patients in endemic areas of South Asia, as well as travelers to and from these areas, including 5 cases in the United States. We present the case of one such child who developed extensively resistant enteric fever during a recent visit to Pakistan and required broader antimicrobial treatment than typically required. Clinicians should be aware that incoming cases of enteric fever may be nonsusceptible to commonly recommended antibiotics and that extensively resistant typhi requires treatment with carbapenems such as meropenem or azithromycin