School Choice Factors Influencing U.S. Domestic and International Student Pilots’ Selections of Vocational Flight Schools

As international civil aviation activities resume from the COVID-19 pandemic, along with fleet growth and high retirement rates for senior pilots, there is a concern about the industry’s capability in supplying sufficient numbers of competent professional pilots. In order to advance the industry’s recruitment, it is necessary to determine effective approaches that may attract prospective student pilots to flight schools. This study investigated how school choice factors influenced U.S. domestic student pilots’ selections of vocational, non-collegiate flight schools in comparison to international student pilots. The study data were adopted from a 2019 survey research, which included 157 domestic and 44 international participants. The participants were invited to rate how much influence various choice factors, including marketing approaches, relevant people, and institutional factors, had on their school choice decision-making. Key findings regarding marketing approaches revealed that word of mouth and media-based marketing approaches were significantly more influential for international student pilots. Whereas domestic student pilots seemed to prefer personal communication-based marketing approaches. With respect to the influence of relevant people, this study found that certain school members (i.e., flight instructors, current trainees, executive committee, and sales personnel) had a significantly higher influence on international student pilots’ school choice decisions than for domestic student pilots. In regard to institutional factors, it was found that both groups included the following factors as the key influencers: training quality, availability of flying opportunities, training costs, safety record of the programs, the overall reputation, length of time to complete program, reputation of flight instructors, scheduling flexibility, and training capacity. Moreover, international student pilots endorsed that institutional factors pertaining to school campus life had significantly more influence on their school selections than their domestic counterparts. Implications and recommendations were proposed. This study helps fill a gap in the current literature on vocational flight school choices

A Comparative Analysis of School Choice Factors Influencing Non-Collegiate Flight School Selections Between Groups of Nontraditional, Traditional, and Teenage Student Pilots

To assist with exploring strategies for effectively promoting vocational noncollegiate flight schools to diverse student markets of nontraditional student pilots, traditional student pilots, and teenage student pilots, this study compared and analyzed school choice factors of marketing approaches, relevant people, institutional features, and training program features that influenced these three groups of student pilots’ school selections. The study data was collected via a survey questionnaire, and the sample included 176 participants. There were 42 choice factor survey items, and the participants were guided to rate the level of influence of each factor on their school choice decisions. Descriptive statistics and one-way ANOVA methods were utilized to analyze the collected data. According to the key findings, all three groups highlighted the following factors as most influential on their school choice: training quality, availability of flying opportunities, training costs, safety records of the programs, reputation of flight instructors, the overall reputation, length of time to complete the program, scheduling flexibility, training capacity, and administration integrity. While the typical discrepancies of the key findings among the three groups revealed that both traditional and teenage student pilots considered relevant people of family members as having the most influence. Nontraditional student pilots deemed institutional features of geographic proximity as a key factor. Teenage student pilots emphasized institutional features of career placement as relatively more influential. The ANOVA results showed that significant differences existed in the influence of relevant people of school’s flight instructors and of family members

The Influence of Marketing Communication Approaches on Student Pilots’ Choices of Flight Schools

As the U.S. domestic commercial aviation activities have been recovering and will continue to recover from the COVID-19 pandemic over the next few years, a trend of the shortage in the regional airline pilot workforce is noted. Therefore, it is crucial to increase the reservoir of pilot candidates to sustain the industry’s pilot occupation rigor. To assist advance flight schools’ recruitment of new pilot candidates, this study examined how various marketing communication approaches influenced student pilots’ selections of flight schools. This study also further investigated how student pilots’ preferences in accessing school information differed in accordance with their different demographic profiles/market segments of residency status, types of school the participants attended, gender, annual incomes, ages, and education levels. The study sample included 201 student pilots who participated in an online survey which was conducted in 2019 examining their school choice experiences pertaining to vocational noncollegiate flight schools in California. Descriptive and inferential statistics were utilized to analyze the survey data. The findings revealed that, in general, student pilots considered contact with school flight instructors, contact with staff, and word of mouth referrals as the three most influential marketing communication approaches in their decisions in choosing a flight school. Statistically significant differences in the perceived influence of marketing communication approaches on school selections among student pilots with different demographic profiles were mostly identified between domestic students versus international students and Part 61 school students versus Part 141 school students

Efficient and specific gene knockdown by small interfering RNAs produced in bacteria

Synthetic small interfering RNAs (siRNAs) are an indispensable tool to investigate gene function in eukaryotic cells1,2 and may be used for therapeutic purposes to knockdown genes implicated in disease3. Thus far, most synthetic siRNAs have been produced by chemical synthesis. Here we present a method to produce highly potent siRNAs in E. coli. This method relies on ectopic expression of p19, a siRNA-binding protein found in a plant RNA virus4, 5. When expressed in E. coli, p19 stabilizes ~21 nt siRNA-like species produced by bacterial RNase III. Transfection of mammalian cells with siRNAs, generated in bacteria expressing p19 and a hairpin RNA encoding 200 or more nucleotides of a target gene, at low nanomolar concentrations reproducibly knocks down gene expression by ~90% without immunogenicity or off-target effects. Because bacterially produced siRNAs contain multiple sequences against a target gene, they may be especially useful for suppressing polymorphic cellular or viral genes

Preparation and evaluation of tamsulosin hydrochloride sustained-release pellets modified by two-layered membrane techniques

AbstractThe aim of the present study was to develop tamsulosin hydrochloride sustained-release pellets using two-layered membrane techniques. Centrifugal granulator and fluidized-bed coater were employed to prepare drug-loaded pellets and to employ two-layered membrane coating respectively. The prepared pellets were evaluated for physicochemical characterization, subjected to differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) and in vitro release of different pH. Different release models and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) were utilized to analyze the release mechanism of Harnual® and home-made pellets. By comparing the dissolution profiles, the ratio and coating weight gain of Eudragit® NE30D and Eudragit® L30D55 which constitute the inside membrane were identified as 18:1 and 10%–11%. The coating amount of outside membrane containing Eudragit® L30D55 was determined to be 0.8%. The similarity factors (f2) of home-made capsule and commercially available product (Harnual®) were above 50 in different dissolution media. DSC studies confirmed that drug and excipients had good compatibility and SEM photographs showed the similarities and differences of coating surface between Harnual® and self-made pellets before and after dissolution. According to Ritger-Peppas model, the two dosage form had different release mechanism

Diversity and expression of microRNAs in the filarial parasite, Brugia malayi

Human filarial parasites infect an estimated 120 million people in 80 countries worldwide causing blindness and the gross disfigurement of limbs and genitals. An understanding of RNA-mediated regulatory pathways in these parasites may open new avenues for treatment. Toward this goal, small RNAs from Brugia malayi adult females, males and microfilariae were cloned for deep-sequencing. From approximately 30 million sequencing reads, 145 miRNAs were identified in the B. malayi genome. Some microRNAs were validated using the p19 RNA binding protein and qPCR. B. malayi miRNAs segregate into 99 families each defined by a unique seed sequence. Sixty-one of the miRNA families are highly conserved with homologues in arthropods, vertebrates and helminths. Of those miRNAs not highly conserved, homologues of 20 B. malayi miRNA families were found in vertebrates. Nine B. malayi miRNA families appear to be filarial-specific as orthologues were not found in other organisms. The miR-2 family is the largest in B. malayi with 11 members. Analysis of the sequences shows that six members result from a recent expansion of the family. Library comparisons found that 1/3 of the B. malayi miRNAs are differentially expressed. For example, miR-71 is 5-7X more highly expressed in microfilariae than adults. Studies suggest that in C.elegans, miR-71 may enhance longevity by targeting the DAF-2 pathway. Characterization of B. malayi miRNAs and their targets will enhance our understanding of their regulatory pathways in filariads and aid in the search for novel therapeutics

Potentially Functional Variants of PLCE1 Identified by GWASs Contribute to Gastric Adenocarcinoma Susceptibility in an Eastern Chinese Population

BACKGROUND: Recent genome-wide association studies (GWAS) have found a single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP, rs2274223 A>G) in PLCE1 to be associated with risk of gastric adenocarcinoma. In the present study, we validated this finding and also explored the risk associated with another unreported potentially functional SNP (rs11187870 G>C) of PLCE1 in a hospital-based case-control study of 1059 patients with pathologically confirmed gastric adenocarcinoma and 1240 frequency-matched healthy controls. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: We determined genotypes of these two SNPs by the Taqman assay and used logistic regression models to estimate odds ratios (ORs) and 95% confidence intervals (95% CI). We found that a significant higher gastric adenocarcinoma risk was associated with rs2274223 variant G allele (adjusted OR = 1.35, 95% CI = 1.14-1.60 for AG+GG vs. AA) and rs11187870 variant C allele (adjusted OR = 1.26, 95% CI = 1.05-1.50 for CG+CC vs. GG). We also found that the number of combined risk alleles (i.e., rs2274223G and rs11187870C) was associated with risk of gastric adenocarcinoma in an allele-dose effect manner (P(trend) = 0.0002). Stratification analysis indicated that the combined effect of rs2274223G and rs11187870C variant alleles was more evident in subgroups of males, non-smokers, non-drinkers and patients with gastric cardia adenocarcinoma. Further real-time PCR results showed that expression levels of PLCE1 mRNA were significantly lower in tumors than in adjacent noncancerous tissues (0.019±0.002 vs. 0.008±0.001, P<0.05). CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCES: Our results further confirmed that genetic variations in PLCE1 may contribute to gastric adenocarcinoma risk in an eastern Chinese population

Polyphenol-rich oolong tea alleviates obesity and modulates gut microbiota in high-fat diet-fed mice

Obesity is a major public health issue worldwide. Oolong tea (OT), which is partially fermented from Camellia sinensis leaves, has proven health benefits and potential preventive applications in multiple studies. However, research on the role of OT in obesity prevention and potential mechanisms is still limited. The purpose of this study was to investigate the modulatory effects of OT intervention on high-fat diet (HFD)-induced obesity and gut microbiota dysbiosis using an obese mouse model. Our results showed that 8-week OT supplementation with 93.94% polyphenols significantly decreased body weight gain, adipose tissue mass, and serum levels of triglyceride (2.60 mmol/L), cholesterol (5.49 mmol/L), and low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (0.61 mmol/L) in HFD-fed mice. Meanwhile, OT intervention was observed to improve fat accumulation, hepatic damage, glucose intolerance, and endotoxemia and alleviate inflammation by decreasing the levels of pro-inflammatory factors. OT also upregulated the expression of genes including Srebf1, Ppara, Lxra, Pgc1a, and Hsl and downregulated the expression of genes including Leptin, Il-6, and Il-1b. In addition, the gut dysbiosis characterized by decreased flora diversity and increased Firmicutes/Bacteroidetes ratio in obese mice was recovered by OT intervention. Certain differentially abundant microbes caused by HFD feeding, including Enterococcus, Intestinimonas, Blautia, and Bilophila, were also improved by OT treatment. This study demonstrated that OT, as a novel resource of dietary polyphenols, exhibited a protective effect on HFD-induced obesity and gut microbiota disorder

GWAS Identifies Novel Susceptibility Loci on 6p21.32 and 21q21.3 for Hepatocellular Carcinoma in Chronic Hepatitis B Virus Carriers

Genome-wide association studies (GWAS) have recently identified KIF1B as susceptibility locus for hepatitis B virus (HBV)–related hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). To further identify novel susceptibility loci associated with HBV–related HCC and replicate the previously reported association, we performed a large three-stage GWAS in the Han Chinese population. 523,663 autosomal SNPs in 1,538 HBV–positive HCC patients and 1,465 chronic HBV carriers were genotyped for the discovery stage. Top candidate SNPs were genotyped in the initial validation samples of 2,112 HBV–positive HCC cases and 2,208 HBV carriers and then in the second validation samples of 1,021 cases and 1,491 HBV carriers. We discovered two novel associations at rs9272105 (HLA-DQA1/DRB1) on 6p21.32 (OR = 1.30, P = 1.13×$10^{−19}$) and rs455804 (GRIK1) on 21q21.3 (OR = 0.84, P = 1.86×$10^{−8}$), which were further replicated in the fourth independent sample of 1,298 cases and 1,026 controls (rs9272105: OR = 1.25, P = 1.71×$10^{−4}$; rs455804: OR = 0.84, P = 6.92×$10^{−3}$). We also revealed the associations of HLA-DRB1*0405 and 0901*0602, which could partially account for the association at rs9272105. The association at rs455804 implicates GRIK1 as a novel susceptibility gene for HBV–related HCC, suggesting the involvement of glutamate signaling in the development of HBV–related HCC