High-level gene expression in Aedes albopictus cells using a baculovirus Hr3 enhancer and IE1 transactivator

BACKGROUND: Aedes aegypti is the key vector of both the Yellow Fever and Dengue Fever viruses throughout many parts of the world. Low and variable transgene expression levels due to position effect and position effect variegation are problematic to efforts to create transgenic laboratory strains refractory to these viruses. Transformation efficiencies are also less than optimal, likely due to failure to detect expression from all integrated transgenes and potentially due to limited expression of the transposase required for transgene integration. RESULTS: Expression plasmids utilizing three heterologous promoters and three heterologous enhancers, in all possible combinations, were tested. The Hr3/IE1 enhancer-transactivator in combination with each of the constitutive heterologous promoters tested increased reporter gene expression significantly in transiently transfected Aedes albopictus C7-10 cells. CONCLUSIONS: The addition of the Hr3 enhancer to expression cassettes and concomitant expression of the IE1 transactivator gene product is a potential method for increasing the level of transgene expression in insect systems. This mechanism could also potentially be used to increase the level of transiently-expressed transposase in order to increase the number of integration events in transposon-mediated transformation experiments

Cloning and characterization of cDNAs encoding putative CTCFs in the mosquitoes, Aedes aegypti and Anopheles gambiae

BACKGROUND: One of the many ascribed functions of CCCTC-binding factor (CTCF) in vertebrates is insulation of genes via enhancer-blocking. Insulation allows genes to be shielded from "cross-talk" with neighboring regulatory elements. As such, endogenous insulator sequences would be valuable elements to enable stable transgene expression. Recently, CTCF joined Su(Hw), Zw5, BEAF32 and GAGA factor as a protein associated with insulator activity in the fruitfly, Drosophila melanogaster. To date, no known insulators have been described in mosquitoes. RESULTS: We have identified and characterized putative CTCF homologs in the medically-important mosquitoes, Aedes aegypti and Anopheles gambiae. These genes encode polypeptides with eleven C2H2 zinc fingers that show significant similarity to those of vertebrate CTCFs, despite at least 500 million years of divergence. The mosquito CTCFs are constitutively expressed and are upregulated in early embryos and in the ovaries of blood-fed females. We have uncovered significant bioinformatics evidence that CTCF is widespread, at least among Drosophila species. Finally, we show that the An. gambiae CTCF binds two known insulator sequences. CONCLUSION: Mosquito CTCFs are likely orthologous to the widely-characterized vertebrate CTCFs and potentially also serve an insulating function. As such, CTCF may provide a powerful tool for improving transgene expression in these mosquitoes through the identification of endogenous binding sites

Effect of Different Types of Physical Activity on Activities of Daily Living in Older Adults : Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

Peer reviewedPostprin

At A Glance: What We Know about The Effects of Service-Learning on College Students, Faculty, Institutions and Communities, 1993- 2000: Third Edition

At A Glance summarizes the findings of service-learning research in higher education over the past few years and includes an annotated bibliography. It is designed to provide a quick overview of where we are in the field today and a map to the literature

At A Glance: What We Know about The Effects of Service-Learning on College Students, Faculty, Institutions and Communities, 1993- 2000: Third Edition

At A Glance summarizes the findings of service-learning research in higher education over the past few years and includes an annotated bibliography. It is designed to provide a quick overview of where we are in the field today and a map to the literature

Stepping Up Telehealth: Using telehealth to support a new model of care for type 2 diabetes management in rural and regional primary care

Our proposal is to pilot the feasibility and acceptability of a telehealth intervention to enhance care in rural general practice for people with out-of-target Type 2 Diabetes (T2D). Our research program builds on the UK Medical Research Council framework in developing a model of care intervention that is well matched to the setting of General Practice and to the experiences and priorities of patients. We undertook an exploratory qualitative study, leading to the development of a practice-based intervention that we pilot tested for feasibility and acceptability before undertaking a larger pilot and a cluster RCT. We based our work on Normalisation Process Theory (NPT), a sociological theory of implementation, which describes how new practices become incorporated into routine clinical care as a result of individual and collective work. NPT suggested that our model of care intervention would need to be patient centred and include all members of the multidisciplinary diabetes team, including Endocrinologist, RN-CDE General Practitioners (GP), and generalist Practice Nurses (PNs). All of these groups are involved in the �work� of insulin initiation.The research reported in this paper is a project of the Australian Primary Health Care Research Institute which is supported by a grant from the Australian Government Department of Health and Ageing under the Primary Health Care Research Evaluation and Development Strategy

Agriculture to energy: identifying sustainable energy solutions for developing nations [abstract]

Track III: Energy InfrastructureOnly abstract of poster available.Many of the world's developing nations are crippled by fuel shortages. The urgent need for fuel for cooking and heating is resulting in the decimation of local forests and destruction of irreplaceable habitats. For example, deforestation and desertification are increasing rapidly in the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, and endangered gorillas are being killed by charcoal producers who are illegally converting forest trees into household fuel in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Shortages in household fuels present an immediate obstacle to developing countries necessitating short-term renewable energy solutions. However, over the long-term, developing nations must adopt sustainable, renewable energy solutions in order to keep up with increasing energy demands. Unique energy solutions are needed to complement each developing nation's specific agricultural and environmental conditions. Two algorithms for identifying sustainable energy sources from local agriculture were created and customized to individual regions of the developing nations of interest. The first algorithm focused on the identification of readily available, native and naturalized plant species capable of producing biomass for household fuel. Results of this algorithm were intended as short-term solutions to escalating household fuel shortages. A second algorithm focused on long-term renewable energy solutions by identifying native as well as nonnative plant species ideal for cultivation as energy crops in selected regions. Conversion technologies suited to developing nations for processing biomass into more readily available forms of renewable fuels were examined for both long-term and short-term energy solutions

HD 101088, An Accreting 14 AU Binary in Lower Centaurus Crux With Very Little Circumstellar Dust

We present high resolution (R=55,000) optical spectra obtained with MIKE on the 6.5 m Magellan Clay Telescope as well as Spitzer MIPS photometry and IRS low resolution (R~60) spectroscopy of the close (14 AU separation) binary, HD 101088, a member of the ~12 Myr old southern region of the Lower Centaurus Crux (LCC) subgroup of the Scorpius-Centaurus OB association. We find that the primary and/or secondary is accreting from a tenuous circumprimary and/or circumsecondary disk despite the apparent lack of a massive circumbinary disk. We estimate a lower limit to the accretion rate of > 1x10^-9 solar masses per year, which our multiple observation epochs show varies over a timescale of months. The upper limit on the 70 micron flux allows us to place an upper limit on the mass of dust grains smaller than several microns present in a circumbinary disk of 0.16 moon masses. We conclude that the classification of disks into either protoplanetary or debris disks based on fractional infrared luminosity alone may be misleading.Comment: 8 pages, 2 figures, ApJ accepte

An exploratory study of information sources and key findings on UK cocaine-related deaths.

Cocaine-related deaths have increased since the early 1990s in Europe, including the UK. Being multi-factorial, they are difficult to define, detect and record. The European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction commissioned research to: describe trends reported to Special Mortality Registries and General Mortality Registers; provide demographic and drug-use characteristic information of cases; and establish how deaths are identified and classified. A questionnaire was developed and piloted amongst all European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction Focal Point experts/Special Mortality Registries: 19 (63%) responded; nine countries provided aggregated data. UK General Mortality Registers use cause of death and toxicology to identify cocaine-related deaths. Categorisation is based on International Classification of Diseases codes. Special Mortality Registries use toxicology, autopsy, evidence and cause of death. The cocaine metabolites commonly screened for are: benzoylecgonine, ecgonine methyl ester, cocaethylene and ecgonine. The 2000s saw a generally accelerating upward trend in cases, followed by a decline in 2009. The UK recorded 2700-2900 deaths during 1998-2012. UK Special Mortality Registry data (2005-2009) indicate: 25-44 year-olds account for 74% of deaths; mean age=34 (range 15-81) years; 84% male. Cocaine overdoses account for two-thirds of cases; cocaine alone being mentioned/implicated in 23% in the UK. Opioids are involved in most (58%) cocaine overdose cases

Pharmacists in Pharmacovigilance: Can Increased Diagnostic Opportunity in Community Settings Translate to Better Vigilance?

The pharmacy profession has undergone substantial change over the last two to three decades. Whilst medicine supply still remains a central function, pharmacist’s roles and responsibilities have become more clinic and patient focused. In the community (primary care), pharmacists have become important providers of healthcare as Western healthcare policy advocates patient self-care. This has resulted in pharmacists taking on greater responsibility in managing minor illness and the delivery of public health interventions. These roles require pharmacists to more fully use their clinical skills, and often involve diagnosis and therapeutic management. Community pharmacists are now, more than ever before, in a position to identify, record and report medication safety incidents. However, current research suggests that diagnostic ability of community pharmacists is questionable and they infrequently report to local or national schemes. The aim of this paper is to highlight current practice and suggest ways in which community pharmacy can more fully contribute to patient safety