Cost-benefit Analysis of a Genetic Marker on Cow-calf Operations Differentiated by Pasture and Breed

Genetic sequencing in beef cattle (Bos taurus L.) is expected to aid producers with selecting breeding stock. Using data from experimental trials conducted with Angus, Brahman, and their reciprocal cross, the single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) P450 C994G marker expression was investigated for use in selecting genetics suited to grazing endophyte-infected tall fescue (Festuca arundinacea Schreb. L.) compared to bermudagrass (Cynodon dactylon L.) pasture. The study is unique in the sense that actual cow-calf breeding failure rates (open cows were not culled) were tracked from 1991 to 1997 on herds that were bred to calf in spring and were either exposed to fungal endophyte-infected (Acremonium coenophialum L.) tall fescue grazing and hay or not. The study used the Forage and Cattle Analysis and Planning (FORCAP) decision support software to assess economic performance driven by birth weight, weaning weight, and breeding failure rate differences across treatment. Results suggest that for reciprocal cross herds primarily grazing bermudagrass pastures, the P450 C994C genotype (CC) was most favorable; whereas, the P450 G994C genotype (GC) was more profitable with tall fescue. Adding genetic market information when selecting a production strategy led to approximately $15/head in added profitability. In comparison to the prorated cost of$2.40/head over the life of a dam, the collection, interpretation, and management of genetic information under the conditions observed in this study may be worthwhile

Running to Stand Still: Challenges Economists Face with Imperfect Data

Some suggest that land application of phosphorus rich poultry litter has negatively affected area waters' recreational value. However, key data are unavailable to conduct thorough economic analysis to aid in policy development. This paper examines the challenges associated with using limited economic analyses to construct policy to address this situation.Research Methods/ Statistical Methods,

Comprehensive Collagen Crosslinking Comparison of Microfluidic Wet-Extruded Microfibers for Bioactive Surgical Suture Development

Collagen microfiber-based constructs have garnered considerable attention for ligament, tendon, and other soft tissue repairs, yet with limited clinical translation due to strength, biocompatibility, scalable manufacturing, and other challenges. Crosslinking collagen fibers improves mechanical properties; however, questions remain regarding optimal crosslinking chemistries, biocompatibility, biodegradation, long-term stability, and potential for biotextile assemble at scale, limiting their clinical usefulness. Here, we assessed over 50 different crosslinking chemistries on microfluidic wet-extruded collagen microfibers made with clinically relevant collagen to optimize collagen fibers as a biotextile yarn for suture or other medical device manufacture. The endogenous collagen crosslinker, glyoxal, provides extraordinary fiber ultimate tensile strength near 300MPa, and Young\u27s modulus of over 3GPa while retaining 50% of the initial load-bearing capacity through 6 months as hydrated. Glyoxal crosslinked collagen fibers further proved cytocompatible and biocompatible per ISO 10993-based testing, and further elicits a predominantly M2 macrophage response. Remarkably these strong collagen fibers are amenable to industrial braiding to form strong collagen fiber sutures. Collagen microfluidic wet extrusion with glyoxal crosslinking thus progress bioengineered, strong, and stable collagen microfibers significantly towards clinical use for potentially promoting efficient healing compared to existing suture materials. STATEMENT OF SIGNIFICANCE: Towards improving clinical outcomes for over 1 million ligament and tendon surgeries performed annually, we report an advanced microfluidic extrusion process for type I collagen microfiber manufacturing for biological suture and other biotextile manufacturing. This manuscript reports the most extensive wet-extruded collagen fiber crosslinking compendium published to date, providing a tremendous recourse to the field. Collagen fibers made with clinical-grade collagen and crosslinked with glyoxal, exhibit tensile strength and stability that surpasses all prior reports. This is the first report demonstrating that glyoxal, a native tissue crosslinker, has the extraordinary ability to produce strong, cytocompatible, and biocompatible collagen microfibers. These collagen microfibers are ideal for advanced research and clinical use as surgical suture or other tissue-engineered medical products for sports medicine, orthopedics, and other surgical indications

Administration of thimerosal-containing vaccines to infant rhesus macaques does not result in autism-like behavior or neuropathology

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a complex neurodevelopmental disorder. Some anecdotal reports suggest that ASD is related to exposure to ethyl mercury, in the form of the vaccine preservative, thimerosal, and/or receiving the measles, mumps, rubella (MMR) vaccine. Using infant rhesus macaques receiving thimerosal-containing vaccines (TCVs) following the recommended pediatric vaccine schedules from the 1990s and 2008, we examined behavior, and neuropathology in three brain regions found to exhibit neuropathology in postmortem ASD brains. No neuronal cellular or protein changes in the cerebellum, hippocampus, or amygdala were observed in animals following the 1990s or 2008 vaccine schedules. Analysis of social behavior in juvenile animals indicated that there were no significant differences in negative behaviors between animals in the control and experimental groups. These data indicate that administration of TCVs and/or the MMR vaccine to rhesus macaques does not result in neuropathological abnormalities, or aberrant behaviors, like those observed in ASD

The Dynamic Processing of CD46 Intracellular Domains Provides a Molecular Rheostat for T Cell Activation

Adequate termination of an immune response is as important as the induction of an appropriate response. CD46, a regulator of complement activity, promotes T cell activation and differentiation towards a regulatory Tr1 phenotype. This Tr1 differentiation pathway is defective in patients with MS, asthma and rheumatoid arthritis, underlying its importance in controlling T cell function and the need to understand its regulatory mechanisms. CD46 has two cytoplasmic tails, Cyt1 and Cyt2, derived from alternative splicing, which are co-expressed in all nucleated human cells. The regulation of their expression and precise functions in regulating human T cell activation has not been fully elucidated.Here, we first report the novel role of CD46 in terminating T cell activation. Second, we demonstrate that its functions as an activator and inhibitor of T cell responses are mediated through the temporal processing of its cytoplasmic tails. Cyt1 processing is required to turn T cell activation on, while processing of Cyt2 switches T cell activation off, as demonstrated by proliferation, CD25 expression and cytokine secretion. Both tails require processing by Presenilin/γSecretase (P/γS) to exert these functions. This was confirmed by expressing wild-type Cyt1 and Cyt2 tails and uncleavable mutant tails in primary T cells. The role of CD46 tails was also demonstrated with T cells expressing CD19 ectodomain-CD46 C-Terminal Fragment (CTF) fusions, which allowed specific triggering of each tail individually.We conclude that CD46 acts as a molecular rheostat to control human T cell activation through the regulation of processing of its cytoplasmic tails

Guidelines for the use and interpretation of assays for monitoring autophagy (4th edition)1.

In 2008, we published the first set of guidelines for standardizing research in autophagy. Since then, this topic has received increasing attention, and many scientists have entered the field. Our knowledge base and relevant new technologies have also been expanding. Thus, it is important to formulate on a regular basis updated guidelines for monitoring autophagy in different organisms. Despite numerous reviews, there continues to be confusion regarding acceptable methods to evaluate autophagy, especially in multicellular eukaryotes. Here, we present a set of guidelines for investigators to select and interpret methods to examine autophagy and related processes, and for reviewers to provide realistic and reasonable critiques of reports that are focused on these processes. These guidelines are not meant to be a dogmatic set of rules, because the appropriateness of any assay largely depends on the question being asked and the system being used. Moreover, no individual assay is perfect for every situation, calling for the use of multiple techniques to properly monitor autophagy in each experimental setting. Finally, several core components of the autophagy machinery have been implicated in distinct autophagic processes (canonical and noncanonical autophagy), implying that genetic approaches to block autophagy should rely on targeting two or more autophagy-related genes that ideally participate in distinct steps of the pathway. Along similar lines, because multiple proteins involved in autophagy also regulate other cellular pathways including apoptosis, not all of them can be used as a specific marker for bona fide autophagic responses. Here, we critically discuss current methods of assessing autophagy and the information they can, or cannot, provide. Our ultimate goal is to encourage intellectual and technical innovation in the field

Running to Stand Still: Challenges Economists Face with Imperfect Data

Some suggest that land application of phosphorus rich poultry litter has negatively affected area waters' recreational value. However, key data are unavailable to conduct thorough economic analysis to aid in policy development. This paper examines the challenges associated with using limited economic analyses to construct policy to address this situation

Thermotolerant Guard Cell Protoplasts of Tree Tobacco Do Not Require Exogenous Hormones to Survive in Culture and Are Blocked from Reentering the Cell Cycle at the G1-to-S Transition.

When guard cell protoplasts (GCPs) of tree tobacco [Nicotiana glauca (Graham)] are cultured at 32°C with an auxin (1-napthaleneacetic acid) and a cytokinin (6-benzylaminopurine), they reenter the cell cycle, dedifferentiate, and divide. GCPs cultured similarly but at 38°C and with 0.1 µM ± -cis,trans-abscisic acid (ABA) remain differentiated. GCPs cultured at 38°C without ABA dedifferentiate partially but do not divide. Cell survival after 1 week is 70% to 80% under all of these conditions. In this study, we show that GCPs cultured for 12 to 24 h at 38°C accumulate heat shock protein 70 and develop a thermotolerance that, upon transfer of cells to 32°C, enhances cell survival but inhibits cell cycle reentry, dedifferentiation, and division. GCPs dedifferentiating at 32°C require both 1-napthaleneacetic acid and 6-benzylaminopurine to survive, but thermotolerant GCPs cultured at 38°C ± ABA do not require either hormone for survival. Pulse-labeling experiments using 5-bromo-2-deoxyuridine indicate that culture at 38°C ± ABA prevents dedifferentiation of GCPs by blocking cell cycle reentry at G1/S. Cell cycle reentry at 32°C is accompanied by loss of a 41-kD polypeptide that cross-reacts with antibodies to rat (Rattus norvegicus) extracellular signal-regulated kinase 1; thermotolerant GCPs retain this polypeptide. A number of polypeptides unique to thermotolerant cells have been uncovered by Boolean analysis of two-dimensional gels and are targets for further analysis. GCPs of tree tobacco can be isolated in sufficient numbers and with the purity required to study plant cell thermotolerance and its relationship to plant cell survival, growth, dedifferentiation, and division in vitro

Accelerated seed dispersal along linear disturbances in the Canadian oil sands region

Abstract Habitat fragmentation is typically seen as inhibiting movement via erosion in connectivity, although some patterns of early-phase disturbance, such as narrow linear disturbances in otherwise undisturbed forests, may actually facilitate the dispersal of certain species. Such features are common in Alberta’s oil sands region as legacies from seismic hydrocarbon exploration used to map oil reserves. Many of the ecological implications of these disturbances are unknown. Here, we investigate the effect of these forest dissections by experimentally testing dispersal patterns along seismic lines compared with adjacent forests using two proxy materials for wind-dispersed seeds, Typha latifolia seed and goose down feathers. We found that wind speeds were up to seven times higher and 95th percentile seed dispersal distances nearly four times farther on seismic lines compared with undisturbed forests and the corresponding effect of these features on seed dispersal distances can be substantial, potentially facilitating future changes in composition and ecological processes in boreal forests. This raises important considerations for native and invasive species, particularly in the context of climate change and the associated importance of seed movement and migration