Effects of Human BMP-2 on Trans-Differentiation of Myoblast Cells and Human Rhabdomyosarcoma Using an In Vitro Model System

Fibrodysplasia Ossificans Progressiva (FOP) is an autosomal dominant disease that affects one in every two million persons. It is a disease that stimulates ossification in injured muscle cells. This mutation affects the bone morphogenetic protein receptor (BMPR), which is found on the surface of skeletal muscle cells. When bone morphogenetic proteins (BMP) come into contact with these receptors it causes a cascade of events to occur that transform skeletal muscle cells into bone cells. This mutation causes these receptors to remain constitutively activated in the presence of BMP. We compared the effects of human BMP2 on mouse myoblast cells (C2C12) and rhabdomyosarcoma (RD; human muscle cancer) cells. RD cells were used as the human muscle model for the BMPR. The results confirmed that C2C12 cells increased alkaline phosphatase (ALT) levels when BMP2 was added. ALT is one of the precursors for bone growth. The RD cells unexpected displayed relatively high ALT levels without the presence of BMP2. These results demonstrate trans-differentiation in C2C12 and RD cells, confirming that myoblast cells were reprogrammed to osteoblast cells by the addition of BMP2. Trans-differentiation is being initiated by the inflammatory response and molecules that are being delivered to these injured muscle cells. This experiment was preliminary work to find specific molecules that are coupling with BMP to transform injured myoblast cells into osteoblast cells

JEDEDIAH PURDY - After Nature: A Politics of the Anthropocene

Jedediah PurdyAfter Nature: A Politics of the AnthropoceneCambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 2015. 336 p. Language: English. Hardcover. 31,50 €ISBN: 9780674368224Jedediah PurdyAfter Nature: A Politics of the AnthropoceneCambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 2015. 336 p. Idioma: inglés.Tapa dura. 31,50 €ISBN: 978067436822

The ‘Agency of Mapping’ in South Asia: Galle-Matara (Sri Lanka), Mumbai (India) and Khulna (Bangladesh)

The territories – cities and landscapes – of South Asia are under incredible transformation due to man-made and natural conditions. Globalisation is spatially leaving its imprint as cities and landscapes are progressively being built by an ever-more fragmented, piecemeal and ad-hoc project modus – funded by established and new-found fortunes of national and international developers and lenders, development aid projects and (often corrupt) governments. At the same time, ‘natural’ disasters are increasing in severity and frequency – due to climate change and the flagrant disregard of the environment in the relentless dive to impose imported terms of reference for modernisation and urbanisation. The challenges and strategic importance of realising urban design in South Asia’s contemporary context of borrowed visions, abstract land-use planning and a diminishing political will are, obviously, innumerable. How to qualitatively intervene as an urbanist in such a context? This paper will argue that an understanding of contexts, based on fieldwork, is necessary in order to project feasible urban visions and strategic urban design projects that can make more evident particular sites’ inherent qualities and creatively marry ecological, infrastructural, and urbanisation issues by solutions that cut across multiple scales and sectoral divisions. Interpretative mapping is a first step to transform a territory. An understanding of the context and the reading of sites are necessary in order to create modifications that have logic and relate to the particularities of places and situations. Three scales of mapping (territorial, urban, and tissue) will be presented. The territories/cities investigated are the southwest (Galle-Matara) coast of Sri Lanka, Mumbai, the economic engine of India, and Khulna, the third largest city in Bangladesh

Design related television : influence on the interior design profession.

Interior design is commonly thought to be in the domain of the home, interior design business, or architectural firm. With the emergence of the lifestyle programming genre on television since the early 1990's, interior design is now a part of many design related television programs. The emergence of these programs and entire networks devoted to interior design related programming leads to questions regarding its purpose and impact on the profession of interior design. The purpose of this research is to examine what effect, if any, interior design related television programming has had on the practice of interior design as seen by interior design professionals

Early twentieth-century avant-garde book design: an agentive vehicle for social change

The increasing dominance of visual communication puts pressure on professional communicators and students of rhetoric to understand the nature of the scopic regime and how competing ways of seeing affect communication networks and the societies they serve. This document focuses on the attempts of the early twentieth-century avant gardists to profoundly shift social realities by challenging the scopic regime of their time through book design. Their attempts to seize agency through aesthetics failed to directly enact a new social order, but the avant gardists succeeded in establishing the necessary visual grammars for new ways of visually presenting information, including the International Style. This current (and global) scopic regime embraces a particular relationship among text, image, and reader that allows us to cope with the cacophony of information and objects. To understand the International Style and other competing ways of visual communication, one must understand the major movement that came before: the Avant-Garde, which itself included movements we now call New Typography, Suprematist, and Constructivist. Principally building upon Richard Lanham\u27s assertion that we live in a economy of attention, Karlyn Kohrs Campbell\u27s notion of agency as promiscuous, Anthony Giddens\u27s work on the duality of social structures, and Martin Jay\u27s conception of the scopic regime, this document traces the work of key avant-gardists and in so doing adumbrates how book design has combined and continues to combine aesthetics with social action

EFFECT OF POTATO-BASED AND PREPACKAGED SPORTS SUPPLEMENT PRODUCTS ON MUSCLE GLYCOGEN RECOVERY AND EXERCISE PERFORMANCE IN TRAINED MALES AND FEMALES

Purpose Research has elucidated the impact of post exercise carbohydrate nutrition and environmental conditions on muscle glycogen re-synthesis. However, research has minimally considered the implications of glycogen recovery in females and has focused on commercial sport nutrition products. The purpose of this study was to determine the effects of varied mixed macronutrient feedings on glycogen recovery and subsequent exercise performance in both sexes. Methods 8 males and 8 females participated in a crossover study. Subjects completed a 90-minute cycling glycogen depletion trial then rested for 4 hours. Two carbohydrate feedings (1.6 g . kg-1) of either sport supplements or potato-based products were delivered at 0 and 2 hours post exercise. Muscle biopsies and blood samples (glucose, insulin) were collected during the recovery. Afterwards, subjects completed a 20km cycling time trial. Results There was no difference between sexes or trials for glycogen recovery rates (male: 7.9 ± 2.7, female: 8.2 ± 2.7, potato-based: 8.0 ± 2.5, sport supplement: 8.1 ± 3.1 mM . kg wet wt-1 hr-1, p \u3e 0.05). Time trial performance was not different between diets (38.3 ± 4.4 and 37.8 ± 3.9 minutes for potato and sport supplement, respectively, p \u3e 0.05). Conclusions These results indicate that food items, such as potato-based products, can be as effective as commercially marketed sports supplements when developing glycogen recovery oriented menus and that carbohydrate dose feedings (g . kg- 1) can be applied to both males and females

The Last Standing Bear: a documentary film on the life and work of Charles Jonkel

The Last Standing Bear: The life and work of Charles Jonkel is a documentary film about Dr. Charles Jonkel, a pioneer of polar bear biology, and his contributions to science, conservation and community. Jonkel was among the first scientists to capture and handle black bears and polar bears, was instrumental in developing international conservation and management strategies for polar bears, and has influenced generations of biologists, conservationists, activists, and students through his scientific research, teaching, advocacy, and character. The Last Standing Bear attempts to interpret Jonkel’s contribution to science, conservation, and community. Using direct cinema, the film examines Jonkel’s life and work through his own words, interviews with colleagues, students, friends, and family, and archival 16mm and Superâ€8 film footage of Jonkel’s polar bear research with the Canadian Wildlife Service. While Jonkel’s accomplishments are wide and varied, the film presents his life and work in relation to his affinity with the polar bear. This thesis presents the script, an analysis of the film and its process, and the opening and closing scenes of the film

Status Update: Actively Engaging Our Friends

Social media do not wait for the communications office to open - but do offer informed universities unique brand-building opportunities, explain Alan Ruby and Shannon Kelly