Epithelial acetylcholine - a new paradigm for cholinergic regulation of intestinal fluid and electrolyte transport.

Epithelial acetylcholine - a new paradigm for cholinergic regulation of intestinal fluid and electrolyte transport

Brown-Forman Corporation and the Distilleries Industry

This study showed that Brown-Forman Corporation’s (Brown-Forman) has a winning business strategy. It passes the three major tests, which are the Fit Test, Competitive Advantage Test, and Performance Test. The company’s strategy effectively addresses the company’s situation both internally and externally. The strategy takes advantage of most of the industry’s trends, mitigates the negative impacts of the industry’s driving forces, and ensures that the company meets the industry’s key success factors. It helps the company achieve sustainable competitive advantages by fully utilizing its biggest resources and capabilities. The strategy has also directly contributed to the company’s financial success and market standing. In comparison to its biggest competitor, Beam Inc. (Beam), Brown-Forman has significantly stronger financial position within the industry. Some of its biggest financial strengths include its ability to generate cash from operations, obtain high returns from invested capital, and create strong, positive cash flows for future acquisitions and shareholder return. Areas where the company could improve include developing strategies to address changes in regulatory and political environment, developing ways to guarantee a steady supply of their products’ key inputs, and utilizing strategic partnerships for distribution. The company should also consider acquiring companies like the Firefly Distillery and Bacardi to expand their product breadth and geographic reach

Evidence of late Quaternary environmental change in a continental east Antarctic lake from lacustrine sedimentary pigment distributions

A sediment core from Progress Lake, one of the oldest lacustrine sequences in East Antarctica, contains distinct zones dating from a previous interglacial (most likely Marine Isotope Stage 5e, c. 125-115 kyr BP) and the present interglacial (Marine Isotope Stage 1), separated by a transition zone representing when the lake became sub-glacial. Profiles of fossil pigments, determined using high performance liquid chromatography and liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry, show distinct differences in the photoautotrophic community during these two interglacial periods. The first was dominated by algae and purple phototrophic bacteria, with periods of photic zone euxinia indicated by pigments from anoxygenic phototrophic bacteria. Specific chlorophyll a derivatives reveal periods when grazing pressure impacted significantly on the phytoplankton community. The virtual absence of pigments in the transition zone reflects severe restriction of photoautotrophic activity, consistent with the take having become sub-glacial. Retreat of snow and ice in the late Holocene (3345 C-14 yr Bp) allowed establishment of a less diverse primary producer community, restricted to algae and cyanobacteria. Grazers were severely restricted and oxidative transformation was more important than during the previous interglacial. The pigment data provide a unique and detailed insight in to the evolution of the lake ecology over an interglacial-glacial-interglacial transition and strong evidence that the Marine Isotope Stage 5e interglacial in this region of coastal East Antarctica was several degrees warmer than at present

What do young children know about numerosity? : implications for teachers

Numerosity is the ability to count a set of objects using the correct number names in the proper order. Fuson and Hall (1983) assert that the use of cardinal words is one measure of the development of number knowledge. Using words in a cardinal context indicates that children are beginning to understand the manyiness of objects. The use of cardinal words is one of the best indicators that a child is beginning to understand counting and the underlying principles involved. Numerosity is a concept which children often, but not always, demonstrate with overt behaviors. Understanding cardinality and numerical order, develops with an understanding of numerosity Assessing numerosity skills is one of the most reliable gauges of overall mathematical development in the preschool child

Physiological concentrations of bile acids down-regulate agonist induced secretion in colonic epithelial cells

In patients with bile acid malabsorption, high concentrations of bile acids enter the colon and stimulate Cl− and fluid secretion, thereby causing diarrhoea. However, deoxycholic acid (DCA), the predominant colonic bile acid, is normally present at lower concentrations where its role in regulating transport is unclear. Thus, the current study set out to investigate the effects of physiologically relevant DCA concentrations on colonic epithelial secretory function. Cl− secretion was measured as changes in short-circuit current across voltage-clamped T84 cell monolayers. At high concentrations (0.5–1 mM), DCA acutely stimulated Cl− secretion but this effect was associated with cell injury, as evidenced by decreased transepithelial resistance (TER) and increased lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) release. In contrast, chronic (24 hrs) exposure to lower DCA concentrations (10–200 μM) inhibited responses to Ca2+ and cAMP-dependent secretagogues without altering TER, LDH release, or secretagogue-induced increases in intracellular second messengers. Other bile acids – taurodeoxycholic acid, chenodeoxycholic acid and cholic acid – had similar antisecretory effects. DCA (50 μM) rapidly stimulated phosphorylation of the epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFr) and both ERK and p38 MAPKs (mitogen-activated protein kinases). The EGFr inhibitor, AG1478, and the protein synthesis inhibitor, cycloheximide, reversed the antisecretory effects of DCA, while the MAPK inhibitors, PD98059 and SB203580, did not. In summary, our studies suggest that, in contrast to its acute prosecretory effects at pathophysiological concentrations, lower, physiologically relevant, levels of DCA chronically down-regulate colonic epithelial secretory function. On the basis of these data, we propose a novel role for bile acids as physiological regulators of colonic secretory capacity

An Attachment Model for Assessing Suicidal Risk

A model for addressing suicidal risk utilizing attachment theory is addressed. Risk factors for suicide have generally been conceptualized at the level of individual characteristics rather than relational dynamics. Combining Shneidman’s common characteristics of a suicidal person with Bowlby’s attachment theory provides for a more relational view of suicide-related behaviors and communications. Considering high rates of suicide, especially among some population groups, it is important to have a more comprehensive framework for suicidal risk from which to treat suicidal clients

Using Recurrent Neural Networks in a Distributed Computing Environment for Predicting Time-Variant Data

By applying the concepts of machine learning, the aim is to create a program that utilizes neural networks to analyze the wait times at various Florida theme parks. These parks include SeaWorld, Busch Gardens, both Universal parks, and all four Walt Disney World parks. The project hinges on a distributed computing architecture that divides the work as assigned by a master, rather than strictly parallelizing the code. The technology used throughout this project is hosted on Amazon Web Services, utilizing their Relational Database Service and Sagemaker platforms. MySQL, Python, and Tensorflow are the core software technologies running on this infrastructure. Each of these programs plays a role in creating a complete solution towards creating a recurrent neural network that delivers a list of wait times synthesized for the following hour that users can benefit from in real time. For our analysis of the network\u27s validity, we will create a statistical distribution for the error present in each ride’s prediction. This will be performed on a testing data set, which is composed of twenty percent of the overall data chosen at random

Peer assessment of outpatient consultation letters – feasibility and satisfaction

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Written correspondence is one of the most important forms of communication between health care providers, yet there is little feedback provided to specialists. The objective of this study was to determine the feasibility and satisfaction of a peer assessment program on consultation letters and to determine inter-rater reliability between family physicians and specialists.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>A rating scale of nine 5-point Likert scale items including specific content, style items, education value of the letter and an overall rating was developed from a previous validated tool.</p> <p>Nine Internal Medicine specialists/subspecialists from two tertiary care centres submitted 10 letters with patient and physician identifiers removed. Two Internal Medicine specialists, and 2 family physicians from the other centre rated each letter (to protect writer anonymity). A satisfaction survey was sent to each writer and rater after collation of the results. A follow-up survey was sent 6–8 months later.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>There was a high degree of satisfaction with the process and feedback. The rating scale information was felt to be useful and appropriate for evaluating the quality of consultation letters by 6/7 writers. 5/7 seven writers felt that the feedback they received resulted in immediate changes to their letters. Six months later, 6/9 writers indicated they had maintained changes in their letters.</p> <p>Raters rank ordered letters similarly (Cronbach's alpha 0.57–0.84) but mean scores were highly variant. At site 1 there were significant differences in scoring brevity (p < 0.01) between family physician and specialist raters; whereas, at site 2 there were differences in scoring of history (p < 0.01), physical examination (p < 0.01) and educational value (p < 0.01) of the letter.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Most participants found peer assessment of letters feasible and beneficial and longstanding changes occurred in some individuals. Family physicians and specialists appear to have different expectations on some items. Further studies on reliability and validity, with a larger sample, are required before high stakes professional assessments include consultation letters.</p

Manifestation Determinations: How Do Iowa\u27s AEA Adopted Procedures Compare To Federal And State Requirements And Expert Guidelines?

Due to the qualitative nature of manifestation determinations there is variation is how manifestation determinations are applied across situations and settings. In addition, IEP teams remain uncertain and uniformed regarding conducting manifestation determinations. This study investigate how Iowa\u27s Area Education Agencies (AEAs) adopted procedures compare with federal and state requirements and expert guidelines. The reliability of manifestation determinations may be improved when AEA\u27s adopt procedures are consistent with federal and state requirements, and expert guidelines. Tue information gleaned from this document review may also be of value to AEA\u27s in establishing their own procedures for manifestation determinations. The study utilizes manifestation determination guidelines from 12 of Iowa\u27s 15 AEAs. Tue instrument used to conduct this quantitative document analysis contained 14 items. Items 1-8 represented federal (and state) requirements, while Items 9-14 represented expert guidelines for conducting manifestation determinations. Inter-rater reliability was established at 95% overall. The analysis used descriptive statistics to compare the adopted procedures to federal requirements and expert guidelines. The overall match range for was 5/14-10/14 (36%-71%) for the 12 AEAs. The match range for the Items 1-8 was 5/8-8/8 (63%-100%). When the items were analyzed the match range for Items 1-8 was 2/12-12 (17%- 100%). Items 9-14 had a match range of 1/12-0/12 (8%-0%)

Entometabolomics: applications of modern analytical techniques to insect studies

Metabolomic analyses can reveal associations between an organism's metabolome and further aspects of its phenotypic state, an attractive prospect for many life-sciences researchers. The metabolomic approach has been employed in some, but not many, insect study systems, starting in 1990 with the evaluation of the metabolic effects of parasitism on moth larvae. Metabolomics has now been applied to a variety of aspects of insect biology, including behaviour, infection, temperature stress responses, CO2 sedation, and bacteria–insect symbiosis. From a technical and reporting standpoint, these studies have adopted a range of approaches utilising established experimental methodologies. Here, we review current literature and evaluate the metabolomic approaches typically utilised by entomologists. We suggest that improvements can be made in several areas, including sampling procedures, the reduction in sampling and equipment variation, the use of sample extracts, statistical analyses, confirmation, and metabolite identification. Overall, it is clear that metabolomics can identify correlations between phenotypic states and underlying cellular metabolism that previous, more targeted, approaches are incapable of measuring. The unique combination of untargeted global analyses with high-resolution quantitative analyses results in a tool with great potential for future entomological investigations