Phosphorus Dynamics in Tennessee Soils Receiving Various Long-term Manure Applications

Manure application is an age-old process used by agriculturalists to fertilize the soil. In the past, manure application has been loosely based on the N need of the crop. However, this can lead to the potential over-fertilization of P. Long-term manure application has been shown to increase total soil P concentrations as much as eight fold. This study was conducted in order to determine the effects of long-term manure application on P characteristics of Tennessee soils. A total of 10 farms located in the various physiographic regions of Tennessee were sampled. Four of the farms received swine, three dairy, and three poultry for time periods ranging from 10-50 years. There were three main objectives for this study to (1) evaluate the chemical and microbial characteristics of the selected long-term manured fields, (2) compare various extraction techniques for determining bioavailable P in long-term manured fields, and (3) evaluate the use of a P-index for predicting site vulnerability to P movement. We found that manure application significantly increased the majority of the soil P fractions measured. However, manure application did not have a significant affect on the microbial characteristics measured. The extractable P concentrations of the sampled fields varied depending on the extraction procedure used, manure application, and depth of sampling. Both versions of the P index studied predicted sites that were vulnerable to P movement, however additional research is necessary to better evaluate the P indexing system and how it correlates to actual P movement off-site

Flexibilidad curricular y construcción interdisciplinaria para el aprendizaje autogestivo de la ciencia y la tecnología

El Colegio Nacional de la UNLP, en su Ciclo Superior Preuniversitario, cuenta con una asignatura de carácter obligatoria en el 6° año, referida al tratamiento de las temáticas científico tecnológicas, a la historia de la ciencia, al contexto de investigación en C y T regional y al desarrollo de competencias metodológicas para producir conocimiento. Esta materia, se dicta desde tres perspectivas disciplinares de las Ciencias Naturales: biología, física y química, sosteniendo cada una de las orientaciones programaciones programáticas diferenciales. El presente trabajo, desarrolla la historia del proceso que se llevó a cabo para unificar una propuesta común, tanto a nivel curricular como en la construcción interdisciplinaria del equipo de trabajo. Los diferentes ejes que se propusieron para su resolución y su flexibilidad resolutiva para su cursada. Del mismo modo, plantea algunas secuencias didácticas planificadas para el abordaje y resolución de esos ejes por parte de los alumnos, así como sus producciones. Los imaginarios del contexto institucional acerca de la actividad científica y las articulaciones establecidas con las Instituciones locales que llevan adelante investigaciones y desarrollos de este tipo.Colegio Nacional "Rafael Hernández

Lack of association between PCK1 polymorphisms and obesity, physical activity, and fitness in European Youth Heart Study (EYHS)

Phosphoenolpyruvate carboxykinase-1 (PCK1) is the rate-limiting enzyme in the hepatic gluconeogenic pathway. Studies have shown that overexpression of Pck1 in mice results in obesity-related traits and higher levels of physical activity (PA). Therefore, our aims were to investigate whether common genetic variation in the PCK1 gene influences obesity-related traits, PA, and fitness, and to examine whether PA and fitness attenuate the influence of the PCK1 polymorphisms on obesity in children. Analyses were undertaken on data from Danish and Estonian children (958 boys and 1,104 girls) from the European Youth Heart Study (EYHS), a school-based, cross-sectional study of children (mean ± s.d. age: 9.6 ± 0.4 years) and adolescents (15.5 ± 0.5 years). We genotyped eight polymorphisms that captured the common genetic variations in the PCK1 gene. The association between the PCK1 polymorphisms and BMI, waist circumference (WC), sum of four skinfolds, PA, and fitness was tested using an additive model adjusted for age, age-group, gender, maturity, and country. Interactions were tested by including interaction terms in the model. None of the polymorphisms were significantly associated with BMI, WC, sum of four skinfolds, PA, and fitness, and also with the risk of being overweight or obese (P > 0.05). The interactions between the polymorphisms and age-group, gender, PA, and fitness were not statistically significant. This is the first study to comprehensively examine the association of PCK1 polymorphisms with obesity, PA, and fitness. Despite strong evidence from animal studies, our study in the EYHS cohort failed to identify an association of PCK1 polymorphisms with obesity, PA, and fitness

New genetic loci implicated in fasting glucose homeostasis and their impact on type 2 diabetes risk.

Levels of circulating glucose are tightly regulated. To identify new loci influencing glycemic traits, we performed meta-analyses of 21 genome-wide association studies informative for fasting glucose, fasting insulin and indices of beta-cell function (HOMA-B) and insulin resistance (HOMA-IR) in up to 46,186 nondiabetic participants. Follow-up of 25 loci in up to 76,558 additional subjects identified 16 loci associated with fasting glucose and HOMA-B and two loci associated with fasting insulin and HOMA-IR. These include nine loci newly associated with fasting glucose (in or near ADCY5, MADD, ADRA2A, CRY2, FADS1, GLIS3, SLC2A2, PROX1 and C2CD4B) and one influencing fasting insulin and HOMA-IR (near IGF1). We also demonstrated association of ADCY5, PROX1, GCK, GCKR and DGKB-TMEM195 with type 2 diabetes. Within these loci, likely biological candidate genes influence signal transduction, cell proliferation, development, glucose-sensing and circadian regulation. Our results demonstrate that genetic studies of glycemic traits can identify type 2 diabetes risk loci, as well as loci containing gene variants that are associated with a modest elevation in glucose levels but are not associated with overt diabetes

Ranking and characterization of established BMI and lipid associated loci as candidates for gene-environment interactions

Phenotypic variance heterogeneity across genotypes at a single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) may reflect underlying gene-environment (G×E) or gene-gene interactions. We modeled variance heterogeneity for blood lipids and BMI in up to 44,211 participants and investigated relationships between variance effects (Pv), G×E interaction effects (with smoking and physical activity), and marginal genetic effects (Pm). Correlations between Pv and Pm were stronger for SNPs with established marginal effects (Spearman’s ρ = 0.401 for triglycerides, and ρ = 0.236 for BMI) compared to all SNPs. When Pv and Pm were compared for all pruned SNPs, only BMI was statistically significant (Spearman’s ρ = 0.010). Overall, SNPs with established marginal effects were overrepresented in the nominally significant part of the Pv distribution (Pbinomial <0.05). SNPs from the top 1% of the Pm distribution for BMI had more significant Pv values (PMann–Whitney= 1.46×10−5), and the odds ratio of SNPs with nominally significant (<0.05) Pm and Pv was 1.33 (95% CI: 1.12, 1.57) for BMI. Moreover, BMI SNPs with nominally significant G×E interaction P-values (Pint<0.05) were enriched with nominally significant Pv values (Pbinomial = 8.63×10−9 and 8.52×10−7 for SNP × smoking and SNP × physical activity, respectively). We conclude that some loci with strong marginal effects may be good candidates for G×E, and variance-based prioritization can be used to identify them

Genome-Wide and Abdominal MRI-Imaging Data Provides Evidence that a Genetically Determined Favourable Adiposity Phenotype is Characterized by Lower Ectopic Liver Fat and Lower Risk of Type 2 Diabetes, Heart Disease and Hypertension

Recent genetic studies have identified alleles associated with opposite effects on adiposity and risk of type 2 diabetes. We aimed to identify more of these variants and test the hypothesis that such favorable adiposity alleles are associated with higher subcutaneous fat and lower ectopic fat. We combined MRI data with genome-wide association studies of body fat percentage (%) and metabolic traits. We report 14 alleles, including 7 newly characterized alleles, associated with higher adiposity but a favorable metabolic profile. Consistent with previous studies, individuals carrying more favorable adiposity alleles had higher body fat % and higher BMI but lower risk of type 2 diabetes, heart disease, and hypertension. These individuals also had higher subcutaneous fat but lower liver fat and a lower visceral-to-subcutaneous adipose tissue ratio. Individual alleles associated with higher body fat % but lower liver fat and lower risk of type 2 diabetes included those in PPARG, GRB14, and IRS1, whereas the allele in ANKRD55 was paradoxically associated with higher visceral fat but lower risk of type 2 diabetes. Most identified favorable adiposity alleles are associated with higher subcutaneous and lower liver fat, a mechanism consistent with the beneficial effects of storing excess triglycerides in metabolically low-risk depots.</p

Incremental value of a panel of serum metabolites for predicting risk of atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease

No abstract available

A Mendelian randomization study of circulating uric acid and type 2 diabetes

We aimed to investigate the causal effect of circulating uric acid concentrations on type 2 diabetes risk. A Mendelian randomization study was performed using a genetic score with 24 uric acid associated loci. We used data of the EPIC-InterAct case-cohort study, comprising 24,265 individuals of European ancestry from eight European countries. During a mean (SD) follow-up of 10 (4) years, 10,576 verified incident type 2 diabetes cases were ascertained. Higher uric acid associated with higher diabetes risk following adjustment for confounders, with a HR of 1.20 (95%CI: 1.11,1.30) per 59.48 µmol/L (1 mg/dL) uric acid. The genetic score raised uric acid by 17 µmol/L (95%CI: 15,18) per SD increase, and explained 4% of uric acid variation. Using the genetic score to estimate the unconfounded effect found that a 59.48 µmol/L higher uric acid concentration did not have a causal effect on diabetes (HR 1.01, 95%CI: 0.87,1.16). Including data from DIAGRAM consortium, increasing our dataset to 41,508 diabetes cases, the summary OR estimate was 0.99 (95%CI: 0.92, 1.06). In conclusion, our study does not support a causal effect of circulating uric acid on diabetes risk. Uric acid lowering therapies may therefore not be beneficial in reducing diabetes risk

Recombinant Newcastle disease virus immunotherapy drives oncolytic effects and durable systemic antitumor immunity

A recombinant Newcastle Disease Virus (NDV), encoding either a human (NDVhuGM-CSF, MEDI5395) or murine (NDVmuGM-CSF) GM-CSF transgene, combined broad oncolytic activity with ability to significantly modulate genes related to immune functionality in human tumor cells. Replication in murine tumor lines was significantly diminished relative to human tumor cells. Nonetheless, intratumoral injection of NDVmuGM-CSF conferred antitumor effects in three syngeneic models in vivo; with efficacy further augmented by concomitant treatment with anti-PD-1/L-1 or T cell agonists. Ex vivo immune-profiling, including TCRseq, revealed profound immune-contexture changes; consistent with priming and potentiation of adaptive immunity and tumor-microenvironment (TME) re-programming towards an immune-permissive state. CRISPR modifications rendered CT26 significantly more permissive to NDV replication, and in this setting NDVmuGM-CSF confers immune-mediated¬¬¬¬¬¬ effects in the non-injected tumor in vivo. Taken together the data supports the thesis that MEDI5395 primes and augments cell mediated antitumor immunity and has significant utility as a combination partner with other immunomodulatory cancer treatments

Xenon and Sevoflurane Provide Analgesia during Labor and Fetal Brain Protection in a Perinatal Rat Model of Hypoxia-Ischemia

It is not possible to identify all pregnancies at risk of neonatal hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy (HIE). Many women use some form of analgesia during childbirth and some anesthetic agents have been shown to be neuroprotective when used as analgesics at subanesthetic concentrations. In this study we sought to understand the effects of two anesthetic agents with presumptive analgesic activity and known preconditioning-neuroprotective properties (sevoflurane or xenon), in reducing hypoxia-induced brain damage in a model of intrauterine perinatal asphyxia. The analgesic and neuroprotective effects at subanesthetic levels of sevoflurane (0.35%) or xenon (35%) were tested in a rat model of intrauterine perinatal asphyxia. Analgesic effects were measured by assessing maternal behavior and spinal cord dorsal horn neuronal activation using c-Fos. In separate experiments, intrauterine fetal asphyxia was induced four hours after gas exposure; on post-insult day 3 apoptotic cell death was measured by caspase-3 immunostaining in hippocampal neurons and correlated with the number of viable neurons on postnatal day (PND) 7. A separate cohort of pups was nurtured by a surrogate mother for 50 days when cognitive testing with Morris water maze was performed. Both anesthetic agents provided analgesia as reflected by a reduction in the number of stretching movements and decreased c-Fos expression in the dorsal horn of the spinal cord. Both agents also reduced the number of caspase-3 positive (apoptotic) neurons and increased cell viability in the hippocampus at PND7. These acute histological changes were mirrored by improved cognitive function measured remotely after birth on PND 50 compared to control group. Subanesthetic doses of sevoflurane or xenon provided both analgesia and neuroprotection in this model of intrauterine perinatal asphyxia. These data suggest that anesthetic agents with neuroprotective properties may be effective in preventing HIE and should be tested in clinical trials in the future