Stakeholders’ awareness and acceptance of the vision, mission, goals, and outcomes statements of a teacher education college

This study examined the awareness and acceptance of the stakeholders of a teacher education college in the Philippines of their university vision and mission and the college goals, and outcomes statements (VMGOs). Of the 700 target respondents, 406 stakeholders responded to the survey transcribed in Google Form. They were 42 school personnel, 106 parents, and 258 students; 301 females and 105 males. The five-point rating scales asked the respondents to assess their awareness and acceptance of 16 statements including one vision, one mission, five institutional outcomes (IO), two college goals, and seven program outcomes (PO). The respondents as a whole indicated they were very aware of the VMGOs and these were very acceptable for them. However, the school personnel were consistently more aware than the students and the parents/officials; while the parents/officials consistently indicated the lowest awareness and acceptability scores for all the statements. The results further revealed a significant acceptable relationship between awareness and acceptability scores. The variables share a variance ranging from 51% to 61% confirming that as awareness increases, acceptance rate also increases. Various implications of these findings are discussed

The Utility of Transient Sensitivity for Wildlife Management and Conservation: Bison as a Case Study

Developing effective management strategies is essential to conservation biology. Population models and sensitivity analyses on model parameters have provided a means to quantitatively compare different management strategies, allowing managers to objectively assess the resulting impacts. Inference from traditional sensitivity analyses (i.e., eigenvalue sensitivity methods) is only valid for a population at its stable age distribution, while more recent methods have relaxed this assumption and instead focused on transient population dynamics. However, very few case studies, especially in long-lived vertebrates where transient dynamics are potentially most relevant, have applied these transient sensitivity methods and compared them to eigenvalue sensitivity methods. We use bison (Bison bison) at Badlands National Park as a case study to demonstrate the benefits of transient methods in a practical management scenario involving culling strategies. Using an age and stage-structured population model that incorporates culling decisions, we find that culling strategies over short time-scales (e.g., 1–5 years) are driven largely by the standing population distribution. However, over longer time-scales (e.g., 25 years), culling strategies are governed by reproductive output. In addition, after 25 years, the strategies predicted by transient methods qualitatively coincide with those predicted by traditional eigenvalue sensitivity. Thus, transient sensitivity analyses provide managers with information over multiple time-scales in contrast to the long time-scales associated with eigenvalue sensitivity analyses. This flexibility is ideal for adaptive management schemes and allows managers to balance short-term goals with long-term viability

Association between micronutrients, oxidative stress biomarkers and angiogenic growth mediators in early and late-onset preeclamptic Ghanaian women

Objectives: Micronutrients, especially calcium (Ca) and magnesium (Mg) are reported to reduce preeclampsia events via several factors such as endothelial cell control, optimal oxidative stress and a balanced angiogenic growth mediator. We evaluated the association of micronutrients with oxidative stress biomarkers, and angiogenic growth mediators in early-onset preeclampsia and late-onset preeclampsia. Methods: This case-control study recruited 197 preeclampsia (early-onset preeclampsia = 70 and late-onset preeclampsia = 127) as cases and 301 normotensive pregnant women as controls from the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital, Ghana. Samples were collected after 20 weeks of gestation for both cases and controls and estimated for Ca, Mg, soluble fms-like tyrosine kinase-1, placental growth factor, vascular endothelial growth factor-A, soluble endoglin, 8-hydroxydeoxyguanosine, 8-epiprostaglandinF2-alpha and total antioxidant capacity. Results: Early-onset preeclampsia women had significantly lower levels of Ca, Mg, placental growth factor, vascular endothelial growth factor-A and total antioxidant capacity but higher levels of soluble fms-like tyrosine kinase-1, soluble endoglin, 8-epiprostaglandinF2-alpha, 8-hydroxydeoxyguanosine, soluble fms-like tyrosine kinase-1/placental growth factor ratio, 8-epiprostaglandinF2-alpha /placental growth factor ratio, 8-hydroxydeoxyguanosine/placental growth factor ratio and soluble endoglin/placental growth factor ratio than late-onset preeclampsia and normotensive pregnant women (p \u3c 0.0001). Among the early-onset preeclampsia women, the first and second quartile for serum placental growth factor, first quartile for vascular endothelial growth factor-A and total antioxidant capacity and the fourth quartiles for serum sEng, serum sFlt-1, 8-epiPGF2 and 8-OHdG were independently associated with low Ca and Mg (p \u3c 0.05). Among late-onset preeclampsia women, the fourth quartile for soluble fms-like tyrosine kinase-1 was independently associated with low Ca and Mg (p \u3c 0.05). Conclusion: Magnesium and calcium are associated with an imbalance in angiogenic growth mediators and oxidative stress biomarkers among preeclampsia women, particularly early-onset preeclampsia. Serial and routine measurement of these micronutrients would allow the monitoring of poor placental angiogenesis while enabling an understanding of the triggers of increased oxidative stress and reduced antioxidant in preeclampsia

Age-dependent maintenance of motor control and corticostriatal innervation by death receptor 3

Death receptor 3 is a proinflammatory member of the immunomodulatory tumor necrosis factor receptor superfamily, which has been implicated in several inflammatory diseases such as arthritis and inflammatory bowel disease. Intriguingly however, constitutive DR3 expression has been detected in the brains of mice, rats, and humans, although its neurological function remains unknown. By mapping the normal brain expression pattern of DR3, we found that DR3 is expressed specifically by cells of the neuron lineage in a developmentally regulated and region-specific pattern. Behavioral studies on DR3-deficient (DR3(ko)) mice showed that constitutive neuronal DR3 expression was required for stable motor control function in the aging adult. DR3(ko) mice progressively developed behavioral defects characterized by altered gait, dyskinesia, and hyperactivity, which were associated with elevated dopamine and lower serotonin levels in the striatum. Importantly, retrograde tracing showed that absence of DR3 expression led to the loss of corticostriatal innervation without significant neuronal loss in aged DR3(ko) mice. These studies indicate that DR3 plays a key nonredundant role in the retention of normal motor control function during aging in mice and implicate DR3 in progressive neurological disease

Passive and active ventricular elastances of the left ventricle

BACKGROUND: Description of the heart as a pump has been dominated by models based on elastance and compliance. Here, we are presenting a somewhat new concept of time-varying passive and active elastance. The mathematical basis of time-varying elastance of the ventricle is presented. We have defined elastance in terms of the relationship between ventricular pressure and volume, as: dP = EdV + VdE, where E includes passive (E(p)) and active (E(a)) elastance. By incorporating this concept in left ventricular (LV) models to simulate filling and systolic phases, we have obtained the time-varying expression for E(a )and the LV-volume dependent expression for E(p). METHODS AND RESULTS: Using the patient's catheterization-ventriculogram data, the values of passive and active elastance are computed. E(a )is expressed as: [Image: see text]; E(p)is represented as: [Image: see text]. E(a )is deemed to represent a measure of LV contractility. Hence, Peak dP/dt and ejection fraction (EF) are computed from the monitored data and used as the traditional measures of LV contractility. When our computed peak active elastance (E(a,max)) is compared against these traditional indices by linear regression, a high degree of correlation is obtained. As regards E(p), it constitutes a volume-dependent stiffness property of the LV, and is deemed to represent resistance-to-filling. CONCLUSIONS: Passive and active ventricular elastance formulae can be evaluated from a single-beat P-V data by means of a simple-to-apply LV model. The active elastance (E(a)) can be used to characterize the ventricle's contractile state, while passive elastance (E(p)) can represent a measure of resistance-to-filling

MacV: VCSELs for miniature atomic clocks

Compact coherent population trapping (CPT) based clocks require single-mode, low-power consumption, high-speed and polarization-stable laser sources. We report our progress in developing customized vertical cavity surface emitting laser (VCSEL) diodes designed for operating on the D1 transition of cesium, and specifically tailored for CPT-based atomic clocks. The VCSELs provide high power (>1 mW), narrow linewidths (15 dB). Preliminary spectroscopy has been observed

Production of Potent Fully Human Polyclonal Antibodies against Ebola Zaire Virus in Transchromosomal Cattle

Polyclonal antibodies, derived from humans or hyperimmunized animals, have been used prophylactically or therapeutically as countermeasures for a variety of infectious diseases. SAB Biotherapeutics has successfully developed a transchromosomic (Tc) bovine platform technology that can produce fully human immunoglobulins rapidly, and in substantial quantities, against a variety of disease targets. In this study, two Tc bovines expressing high levels of fully human IgG were hyperimmunized with a recombinant glycoprotein (GP) vaccine consisting of the 2014 Ebola virus (EBOV) Makona isolate. Serum collected from these hyperimmunized Tc bovines contained high titers of human IgG against EBOV GP as determined by GP specific ELISA, surface plasmon resonance (SPR), and virus neutralization assays. Fully human polyclonal antibodies against EBOV were purified and evaluated in a mouse challenge model using mouse adapted Ebola virus (maEBOV). Intraperitoneal administration of the purified anti-EBOV IgG (100 mg/kg) to BALB/c mice one day after lethal challenge with maEBOV resulted in 90% protection; whereas 100% of the control animals succumbed. The results show that hyperimmunization of Tc bovines with EBOV GP can elicit protective and potent neutralizing fully human IgG antibodies rapidly and in commercially viable quantities

An intranasal ASO therapeutic targeting SARS-CoV-2

The COVID-19 pandemic is exacting an increasing toll worldwide, with new SARS-CoV-2 variants emerging that exhibit higher infectivity rates and that may partially evade vaccine and antibody immunity. Rapid deployment of non-invasive therapeutic avenues capable of preventing infection by all SARS-CoV-2 variants could complement current vaccination efforts and help turn the tide on the COVID-19 pandemic. Here, we describe a novel therapeutic strategy targeting the SARS-CoV-2 RNA using locked nucleic acid antisense oligonucleotides (LNA ASOs). We identify an LNA ASO binding to the 5′ leader sequence of SARS-CoV-2 that disrupts a highly conserved stem-loop structure with nanomolar efficacy in preventing viral replication in human cells. Daily intranasal administration of this LNA ASO in the COVID-19 mouse model potently suppresses viral replication (>80-fold) in the lungs of infected mice. We find that the LNA ASO is efficacious in countering all SARS-CoV-2 “variants of concern” tested both in vitro and in vivo. Hence, inhaled LNA ASOs targeting SARS-CoV-2 represents a promising therapeutic approach to reduce or prevent transmission and decrease severity of COVID-19 in infected individuals. LNA ASOs are chemically stable and can be flexibly modified to target different viral RNA sequences and could be stockpiled for future coronavirus pandemics

Hypertension in Holmes County, Mississippi / CAC No. 138

Includes bibliographic references (p. 10-11)