344 research outputs found

    Metabolite Fingerprinting in Transgenic Nicotiana tabacum Altered by the Escherichia coli Glutamate Dehydrogenase Gene

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    With about 200 000 phytochemicals in existence, identifying those of biomedical significance is a mammoth task. In the postgenomic era, relating metabolite fingerprints, abundances, and profiles to genotype is also a large task. Ion analysis using Fourier transformed ion cyclotron resonance mass spectrometry (FT-ICR-MS) may provide a high-throughput approach to measure genotype dependency of the inferred metabolome if reproducible techniques can be established. Ion profile inferred metabolite fingerprints are coproducts. We used FT-ICR-MS-derived ion analysis to examine gdhA (glutamate dehydrogenase (GDH; EC 1.4.1.1)) transgenic Nicotiana tabacum (tobacco) carrying out altered glutamate, amino acid, and carbon metabolisms, that fundamentally alter plant productivity. Cause and effect between gdhA expression, glutamate metabolism, and plant phenotypes was analyzed by [Formula: see text] labeling of amino acid fractions, and by FT-ICR-MS analysis of metabolites. The gdhA transgenic plants increased (13)N labeling of glutamate and glutamine significantly. FT-ICR-MS detected 2 012 ions reproducible in 2 to 4 ionization protocols. There were 283 ions in roots and 98 ions in leaves that appeared to significantly change abundance due to the measured GDH activity. About 58% percent of ions could not be used to infer a corresponding metabolite. From the 42% of ions that inferred known metabolites we found that certain amino acids, organic acids, and sugars increased and some fatty acids decreased. The transgene caused increased ammonium assimilation and detectable ion variation. Thirty-two compounds with biomedical significance were altered in abundance by GDH including 9 known carcinogens and 14 potential drugs. Therefore, the GDH transgene may lead to new uses for crops like tobacco

    The Role and Responsibility of Prosecutors

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    In this panel, the discussion moves form the abstract to the very specific. Moderator Thomas Metzloff, professor of law at Duke University School of Law, asks the panelists to analyze the actions leading to the disbarment of former Durham District Attorney Mike Nifong. The speakers, all current or former prosecutors, detail personal experiences dealing with reporters, and discuss the guidelines, written and unwritten, which govern such interaction. Questions/themes/discussion topics The press as a tool to communicate with the public The press as a watchdog Training of young prosecutors in press interaction The effect of the U.S. Supreme Court\u27s 2002 decision in Minnesota v. White on regulating attorney speech Strategic advantages (or lack thereof) to press interaction To what degree can prosecutors control leaks from their office or, more problematically, from the local police department? Public statements as jury pool pollutant

    Challenges Associated with Semen Quality While Collecting Beef Bulls for Semen Freezing

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    Objective: The objective of this study was to evaluate the frequency of failure to freeze semen due to semen quality. Study Description: Semen collection data from 2008 to 2018 were obtained from the Kansas Artificial Breeding Services Unit and consisted of 14,750 ejaculates from bulls. Bulls were collected twice weekly on Mondays and Thursdays with an artificial vagina. Bulls not receptive to the artificial vagina were subject to electro-ejaculation. A single technician was responsible for all pre-freeze and post-thaw semen analysis. Ejaculates were required to meet quality standards for both progressive motility and morphology. Results: Over the ten years, 21% of ejaculates met all freezing quality standards, 11% of all ejaculates collected did not have a high enough motility to be considered satisfactory for a breeding soundness exam (BSE), and 63% of all ejaculates did not reach the motility quality threshold for freezing. Ejaculates from bulls ≤ 12 months of age produced ejaculates that would not meet satisfactory levels of a BSE 15% of the time. Ejaculates from bulls 13–18 months of age produced unsatisfactory ejaculates for motility for a BSE 6% of the time. When evaluating primary sperm abnormalities, 87% of ejaculates had less than 20% primary sperm abnormalities. Ejaculates from bulls ≤ 12 months of age produced the highest amount of ejaculates failing due to primary abnormalities with 24%, while bulls ≥ 31 months of age produced the least amount of ejaculates failing due to primary abnormalities at 10% of ejaculates. When evaluating total sperm abnormalities per ejaculate, 77% of ejaculates met the threshold of less than 30% total abnormalities. Ejaculates from bulls ≤ 12 months of age failed to meet the total sperm abnormality threshold 28% of the time. These results highlight one of the main difficulties of collecting freezing quality semen, in which semen meets the standards of normal spermatozoa but where most samples do not meet needs for progressive motility. The Bottom Line: Of over 14,000 collections, only 21% met all requirements for freezing semen, approximately 63% did not meet progressive motility freezing standards, and 11% did not meet the satisfactory level of a BSE

    The Effect of Method of Collection and Number of Sequential Ejaculates on Semen Characteristics of Beef Bulls

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    Objective: The objective of this study was to determine the effect of collection method and number of sequential ejaculates on beef bull ejaculate characteristics. Study Description: Semen collection data from 2008 to 2018 was obtained from the Kansas Artificial Breeding Services Unit and consisted of 11,642 ejaculates from 906 bulls. Bulls were collected twice weekly on Mondays and Thursdays with an artificial vagina. Bulls not receptive to the artificial vagina were subject to electro-ejaculation. A single technician was responsible for all pre-freeze and post-thaw semen analysis. Ejaculates were required to meet quality standards. Results: Progressive motility before freezing was greater (P \u3c 0.0001) for bulls collected with electro-ejaculate compared to artificial vagina. Ejaculate volume for electro-ejaculate collections was greater (P \u3c 0.0001) than those collected with artificial vagina. Percent spermatozoa with secondary abnormalities was greater (P \u3c 0.05) for bulls collected with electro-ejaculate compared to artificial vagina. Concentration of spermatozoa/mL was less (P \u3c 0.0001) for bulls collected with an electro-ejaculate (514 × 106) compared to artificial vagina (617 × 106). Total number of straws frozen/ejaculate was less (P \u3c 0.001) for bulls collected with electro ejaculate (94) compared to artificial vagina (108). The number of ejaculates collected/day was significant for the percent of spermatozoa with secondary abnormalities (P \u3c 0.001). As ejaculate number/day increased, the concentration of spermatozoa decreased (713, 580, 535, and 434 × 106/mL, respectively; P \u3c 0.0001) and the number of straws frozen/ejaculate decreased (123, 107, 93, and 82, respectively; P \u3c 0.0001). The Bottom Line: Producers and collection facilities should work together to balance collection method and number of ejaculates collected/day to maximize production while maintaining semen quality

    Genetic diversity of Brazilian isolates of feline immunodeficiency virus

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    We isolated Feline immunodeficiency virus (FIV) from three adult domestic cats, originating from two open shelters in Brazil. Viruses were isolated from PBMC following co-cultivation with the feline T-lymphoblastoid cell line MYA-1. All amplified env gene products were cloned directly into pGL8MYA. The nucleic acid sequences of seven clones were determined and then compared with those of previously described isolates. The sequences of all of the Brazilian virus clones were distinct and phylogenetic analysis revealed that all belong to subtype B. Three variants isolated from one cat and two variants were isolated from each of the two other cats, indicating that intrahost diversity has the potential to pose problems for the treatment and diagnosis of FIV infection

    Mental Health and School Functioning for Girls in the Child Welfare System : the Mediating Role of Future Orientation and School Engagement

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    This study investigated the association between mental health problems and academic and behavioral school functioning for adolescent girls in the child welfare system and determined whether school engagement and future orientation meditated the relationship. Participants were 231 girls aged between 12 and 19 who had been involved with the child welfare system. Results indicated that 39% of girls reported depressive symptoms in the clinical range and 54% reported posttraumatic symptoms in the clinical range. The most common school functioning problems reported were failing a class (41%) and physical fights with other students (35%). Participants reported a mean number of 1.7 school functioning problems. Higher levels of depression and PTSD were significantly associated with more school functioning problems. School engagement fully mediated the relationship between depression and school functioning and between PTSD and school functioning, both models controlling for age, race, and placement stability. Future orientation was not significantly associated with school functioning problems at the bivariate level. Findings suggest that school engagement is a potentially modifiable target for interventions aiming to ameliorate the negative influence of mental health problems on school functioning for adolescent girls with histories of abuse or neglect

    The KiVa antibullying program in primary schools in Chile, with and without the digital game component: study protocol for a randomized controlled trial.

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    BACKGROUND: Bullying is a major problem worldwide and Chile is no exception. Bullying is defined as a systematic aggressive behavior against a victim who cannot defend him or herself. Victims suffer social isolation and psychological maladjustment, while bullies have a higher risk for conduct problems and substance use disorders. These problems appear to last over time. The KiVa antibullying program has been evaluated in Finland and other European countries, showing preventive effects on victimization and self-reported bullying. The aims of this study are (1) to develop a culturally appropriate version of the KiVa material and (2) to test the effectiveness of the KiVa program, with and without the online game, on reducing experiences of victimization and bullying behavior among vulnerable primary schools in Santiago (Chile), using a cluster randomized controlled trial (RCT) design with three arms: (1) full KiVa program group, (2) partial KiVa (without online game) program group and (3) control group. METHODS AND DESIGN: This is a three-arm, single-blind, cluster randomized controlled trial (RCT) with a target enrolment of 1495 4th and 5th graders attending 13 vulnerable schools per arm. Students in the full and partial KiVa groups will receive universal actions: ten 2-h lessons delivered by trained teachers during 1 year; they will be exposed to posters encouraging them to support victims and behave constructively when witnessing bullying; and a person designated by the school authorities will be present in all school breaks and lunchtimes using a visible KiVa vest to remind everybody that they are in a KiVa school. KiVa schools also will have indicated actions, which consist of a set of discussion groups with the victims and with the bullies, with proper follow-up. Only full KiVa schools will also receive an online game which has the aim to raise awareness of the role of the group in bullying, increase empathy and promote strategies to support victimized peers. Self-reported victimization, bullying others and peer-reported bullying actions, psychological and academic functioning, and sense of school membership will be measured at baseline and 12 months after randomization. DISCUSSION: This is the first cluster RCT of the KiVa antibullying program in Latin America. TRIAL REGISTRATION: ClinicalTrials.gov, Identifier: NCT02898324 . Registered on 8 September 2016

    LSST: from Science Drivers to Reference Design and Anticipated Data Products

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    (Abridged) We describe here the most ambitious survey currently planned in the optical, the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope (LSST). A vast array of science will be enabled by a single wide-deep-fast sky survey, and LSST will have unique survey capability in the faint time domain. The LSST design is driven by four main science themes: probing dark energy and dark matter, taking an inventory of the Solar System, exploring the transient optical sky, and mapping the Milky Way. LSST will be a wide-field ground-based system sited at Cerro Pach\'{o}n in northern Chile. The telescope will have an 8.4 m (6.5 m effective) primary mirror, a 9.6 deg2^2 field of view, and a 3.2 Gigapixel camera. The standard observing sequence will consist of pairs of 15-second exposures in a given field, with two such visits in each pointing in a given night. With these repeats, the LSST system is capable of imaging about 10,000 square degrees of sky in a single filter in three nights. The typical 5σ\sigma point-source depth in a single visit in rr will be 24.5\sim 24.5 (AB). The project is in the construction phase and will begin regular survey operations by 2022. The survey area will be contained within 30,000 deg2^2 with δ<+34.5\delta<+34.5^\circ, and will be imaged multiple times in six bands, ugrizyugrizy, covering the wavelength range 320--1050 nm. About 90\% of the observing time will be devoted to a deep-wide-fast survey mode which will uniformly observe a 18,000 deg2^2 region about 800 times (summed over all six bands) during the anticipated 10 years of operations, and yield a coadded map to r27.5r\sim27.5. The remaining 10\% of the observing time will be allocated to projects such as a Very Deep and Fast time domain survey. The goal is to make LSST data products, including a relational database of about 32 trillion observations of 40 billion objects, available to the public and scientists around the world.Comment: 57 pages, 32 color figures, version with high-resolution figures available from https://www.lsst.org/overvie

    Belongingness in early secondary school: Key factors that primary and secondary schools need to consider

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    © 2015 Vaz et al. It is unknown if, and how, students redefine their sense of school belongingness after negotiating the transition to secondary school. The current study used longitudinal data from 266 students with, and without, disabilities who negotiated the transition from 52 primary schools to 152 secondary schools. The study presents the 13 most significant personal student and contextual factors associated with belongingness in the first year of secondary school. Student perception of school belongingness was found to be stable across the transition. No variability in school belongingness due to gender, disability or household-socio-economic status (SES) was noted. Primary school belongingness accounted for 22% of the variability in secondary school belongingness. Several personal student factors (competence, coping skills) and school factors (low-level classroom task-goal orientation), which influenced belongingness in primary school, continued to influence belongingness in secondary school. In secondary school, effort-goal orientation of the student and perception of their school's tolerance to disability were each associated with perception of school belongingness. Family factors did not influence belongingness in secondary school. Findings of the current study highlight the need for primary schools to foster belongingness among their students at an early age, and transfer students' belongingness profiles as part of the handover documentation. Most of the factors that influenced school belongingness before and after the transition to secondary are amenable to change
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