An Investigation of the Impact of Multiple Exposures to New Vocabulary Words have on Students with Language Processing Disorders

The purpose of this research aimed to investigate how fifth-grade students diagnosed with processing disorders best-learned new vocabulary and the role motivation played in success. The district, school, and students were given pseudonyms in order to maintain anonymity. Over the course of three, one-week instructional periods, four students participated in six different oral and written vocabulary activities. They completed an assessment immediately following four days of instruction and again at the end of the study to measure growth in their ability to identify and use the word using a four-point scale. Based on the results of the assessments, they showed that, overall, students made gains in their ability to recall the meaning of words and to use the words appropriately in context. Motivation was measured through observations and a rating system. In the final week, when students were familiar with the expectations of the activities, motivation was at its peak and so was quality of work and assessment scores. These findings support the use of explicit vocabulary instruction with the use of various multi-modal activities in order to improve recall, long-term memory, and word retrieval for students with language processing disorders and that motivation does play a role in success

Homoeologous Recombination in Brassica napus

Polyploidy is very common among plants but having multiple sets of chromosomes creates additional challenges for chromosome pairing and recombination during meiosis. Brassica napus is an allotetraploid comprised of the A and C genomes from B. rapa and B. oleracea, respectively. In adapted B. napus lines, the chromosomes of the A and C genomes pair almost exclusively with their true homologue during meiosis, but in newly resynthesized B. napus plants there is a significant increase in pairing between homoeologues, the closely related chromosomes from the other genome, i.e. A/C pairings. This interaction between homoeologues can result in an uneven distribution of chromosomes in the gametes so restricting pairing is important for overall plant fitness. However, this unequal crossing over can also serve to introduce novel variation allowing for species diversification and adaptation. I have developed a new method for detecting homoeologous recombination events in B. napus using a single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) array. Traditionally scientists have used cytology or restriction fragment length polymorphism markers but the SNP array offers much quicker data generation and a higher density of markers for more precise identification of crossover points and detection of smaller exchanges. Using this new methodology I measured recombination between the A and C genomes in natural B. napus lines and have shown that homoeologous exchanges continue to happen in modern B. napus cultivars at a relatively high frequency. I have also used the SNP array to analyze a resynthesized B. napus population segregating for the level of homoeologous recombination and mapped three quantitative trait loci (QTL) controlling this phenomenon. Further analysis of the genes underlying these QTL can help to identify the mechanisms that have evolved in natural B. napus to control meiotic chromosome pairing and manipulation of those genes could be used to increase homoeologous recombination rates to introduce novel traits from diverse species

Persistent holes in a fluid

We observe stable holes in a vertically oscillated 0.5 cm deep aqueous suspension of cornstarch for accelerations a above 10g. Holes appear only if a finite perturbation is applied to the layer. Holes are circular and approximately 0.5 cm wide, and can persist for more than 10^5 cycles. Above a = 17g the rim of the hole becomes unstable producing finger-like protrusions or hole division. At higher acceleration, the hole delocalizes, growing to cover the entire surface with erratic undulations. We find similar behavior in an aqueous suspension of glass microspheres.Comment: 4 pages, 6 figure

Characterization and mapping of retr04, retr05 and retr06 broad-spectrum resistances to Turnip mosaic virus in Brassica juncea, and the development of robust methods for utilizing recalcitrant genotyping data

Turnip mosaic virus (TuMV) induces disease in susceptible hosts, notably impacting cultivation of important crop species of the Brassica genus. Few effective plant viral disease management strategies exist with the majority of current approaches aiming to mitigate the virus indirectly through control of aphid vector species. Multiple sources of genetic resistance to TuMV have been identified previously, although the majority are strain-specific and have not been exploited commercially. Here, two Brassica juncea lines (TWBJ14 and TWBJ20) with resistance against important TuMV isolates (UK 1, vVIR24, CDN 1, and GBR 6) representing the most prevalent pathotypes of TuMV (1, 3, 4, and 4, respectively) and known to overcome other sources of resistance, have been identified and characterized. Genetic inheritance of both resistances was determined to be based on a recessive two-gene model. Using both single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) array and genotyping by sequencing (GBS) methods, quantitative trait loci (QTL) analyses were performed using first backcross (BC1) genetic mapping populations segregating for TuMV resistance. Pairs of statistically significant TuMV resistance-associated QTLs with additive interactive effects were identified on chromosomes A03 and A06 for both TWBJ14 and TWBJ20 material. Complementation testing between these B. juncea lines indicated that one resistance-linked locus was shared. Following established resistance gene nomenclature for recessive TuMV resistance genes, these new resistance-associated loci have been termed retr04 (chromosome A06, TWBJ14, and TWBJ20), retr05 (A03, TWBJ14), and retr06 (A03, TWBJ20). Genotyping by sequencing data investigated in parallel to robust SNP array data was highly suboptimal, with informative data not established for key BC1 parental samples. This necessitated careful consideration and the development of new methods for processing compromised data. Using reductive screening of potential markers according to allelic variation and the recombination observed across BC1 samples genotyped, compromised GBS data was rendered functional with near-equivalent QTL outputs to the SNP array data. The reductive screening strategy employed here offers an alternative to methods relying upon imputation or artificial correction of genotypic data and may prove effective for similar biparental QTL mapping studies

Impact of H1N1 on Socially Disadvantaged Populations: Systematic Review

The burden of H1N1 among socially disadvantaged populations is unclear. We aimed to synthesize hospitalization, severe illness, and mortality data associated with pandemic A/H1N1/2009 among socially disadvantaged populations.Studies were identified through searching MEDLINE, EMBASE, scanning reference lists, and contacting experts. Studies reporting hospitalization, severe illness, and mortality attributable to laboratory-confirmed 2009 H1N1 pandemic among socially disadvantaged populations (e.g., ethnic minorities, low-income or lower-middle-income economy countries [LIC/LMIC]) were included. Two independent reviewers conducted screening, data abstraction, and quality appraisal (Newcastle Ottawa Scale). Random effects meta-analysis was conducted using SAS and Review Manager.Sixty-two studies including 44,777 patients were included after screening 787 citations and 164 full-text articles. The prevalence of hospitalization for H1N1 ranged from 17-87% in high-income economy countries (HIC) and 11-45% in LIC/LMIC. Of those hospitalized, the prevalence of intensive care unit (ICU) admission and mortality was 6-76% and 1-25% in HIC; and 30% and 8-15%, in LIC/LMIC, respectively. There were significantly more hospitalizations among ethnic minorities versus non-ethnic minorities in two studies conducted in North America (1,313 patients, OR 2.26 [95% CI: 1.53-3.32]). There were no differences in ICU admissions (n = 8 studies, 15,352 patients, OR 0.84 [0.69-1.02]) or deaths (n = 6 studies, 14,757 patients, OR 0.85 [95% CI: 0.73-1.01]) among hospitalized patients in HIC. Sub-group analysis indicated that the meta-analysis results were not likely affected by confounding. Overall, the prevalence of hospitalization, severe illness, and mortality due to H1N1 was high for ethnic minorities in HIC and individuals from LIC/LMIC. However, our results suggest that there were little differences in the proportion of hospitalization, severe illness, and mortality between ethnic minorities and non-ethnic minorities living in HIC

Comprehensive and Integrated Genomic Characterization of Adult Soft Tissue Sarcomas

Sarcomas are a broad family of mesenchymal malignancies exhibiting remarkable histologic diversity. We describe the multi-platform molecular landscape of 206 adult soft tissue sarcomas representing 6 major types. Along with novel insights into the biology of individual sarcoma types, we report three overarching findings: (1) unlike most epithelial malignancies, these sarcomas (excepting synovial sarcoma) are characterized predominantly by copy-number changes, with low mutational loads and only a few genes (, , ) highly recurrently mutated across sarcoma types; (2) within sarcoma types, genomic and regulomic diversity of driver pathways defines molecular subtypes associated with patient outcome; and (3) the immune microenvironment, inferred from DNA methylation and mRNA profiles, associates with outcome and may inform clinical trials of immune checkpoint inhibitors. Overall, this large-scale analysis reveals previously unappreciated sarcoma-type-specific changes in copy number, methylation, RNA, and protein, providing insights into refining sarcoma therapy and relationships to other cancer types

Association between convalescent plasma treatment and mortality in COVID-19: a collaborative systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized clinical trials.

Funder: laura and john arnold foundationBACKGROUND: Convalescent plasma has been widely used to treat COVID-19 and is under investigation in numerous randomized clinical trials, but results are publicly available only for a small number of trials. The objective of this study was to assess the benefits of convalescent plasma treatment compared to placebo or no treatment and all-cause mortality in patients with COVID-19, using data from all available randomized clinical trials, including unpublished and ongoing trials (Open Science Framework, https://doi.org/10.17605/OSF.IO/GEHFX ). METHODS: In this collaborative systematic review and meta-analysis, clinical trial registries (ClinicalTrials.gov, WHO International Clinical Trials Registry Platform), the Cochrane COVID-19 register, the LOVE database, and PubMed were searched until April 8, 2021. Investigators of trials registered by March 1, 2021, without published results were contacted via email. Eligible were ongoing, discontinued and completed randomized clinical trials that compared convalescent plasma with placebo or no treatment in COVID-19 patients, regardless of setting or treatment schedule. Aggregated mortality data were extracted from publications or provided by investigators of unpublished trials and combined using the Hartung-Knapp-Sidik-Jonkman random effects model. We investigated the contribution of unpublished trials to the overall evidence. RESULTS: A total of 16,477 patients were included in 33 trials (20 unpublished with 3190 patients, 13 published with 13,287 patients). 32 trials enrolled only hospitalized patients (including 3 with only intensive care unit patients). Risk of bias was low for 29/33 trials. Of 8495 patients who received convalescent plasma, 1997 died (23%), and of 7982 control patients, 1952 died (24%). The combined risk ratio for all-cause mortality was 0.97 (95% confidence interval: 0.92; 1.02) with between-study heterogeneity not beyond chance (I2 = 0%). The RECOVERY trial had 69.8% and the unpublished evidence 25.3% of the weight in the meta-analysis. CONCLUSIONS: Convalescent plasma treatment of patients with COVID-19 did not reduce all-cause mortality. These results provide strong evidence that convalescent plasma treatment for patients with COVID-19 should not be used outside of randomized trials. Evidence synthesis from collaborations among trial investigators can inform both evidence generation and evidence application in patient care