Time Efficient Team Building

Team building requires the knowledge of available tools to accomplish the tasks at hand while working in time constraints of school districts. This article reviews: a) effective team building strategies, b) applies team building to develop new knowledge, and c) makes use of total quality management tools to build teams in a limited time frame

Iga-Biome Profiles Correlate With Clinical Parkinson\u27s Disease Subtypes

BACKGROUND: Parkinson\u27s disease is a heterogeneous neurodegenerative disorder with distinctive gut microbiome patterns suggesting that interventions targeting the gut microbiota may prevent, slow, or reverse disease progression and severity. OBJECTIVE: Because secretory IgA (SIgA) plays a key role in shaping the gut microbiota, characterization of the IgA-Biome of individuals classified into either the akinetic rigid (AR) or tremor dominant (TD) Parkinson\u27s disease clinical subtypes was used to further define taxa unique to these distinct clinical phenotypes. METHODS: Flow cytometry was used to separate IgA-coated and -uncoated bacteria from stool samples obtained from AR and TD patients followed by amplification and sequencing of the V4 region of the 16 S rDNA gene on the MiSeq platform (Illumina). RESULTS: IgA-Biome analyses identified significant alpha and beta diversity differences between the Parkinson\u27s disease phenotypes and the Firmicutes/Bacteroides ratio was significantly higher in those with TD compared to those with AR. In addition, discriminant taxa analyses identified a more pro-inflammatory bacterial profile in the IgA+ fraction of those with the AR clinical subclass compared to IgA-Biome analyses of those with the TD subclass and with the taxa identified in the unsorted control samples. CONCLUSION: IgA-Biome analyses underscores the importance of the host immune response in shaping the gut microbiome potentially affecting disease progression and presentation. In the present study, IgA-Biome analyses identified a unique proinflammatory microbial signature in the IgA+ fraction of those with AR that would have otherwise been undetected using conventional microbiome analysis approaches

Iga-Biome Profiles Correlate With Clinical Parkinson\u27s Disease Subtypes

BACKGROUND: Parkinson\u27s disease is a heterogeneous neurodegenerative disorder with distinctive gut microbiome patterns suggesting that interventions targeting the gut microbiota may prevent, slow, or reverse disease progression and severity. OBJECTIVE: Because secretory IgA (SIgA) plays a key role in shaping the gut microbiota, characterization of the IgA-Biome of individuals classified into either the akinetic rigid (AR) or tremor dominant (TD) Parkinson\u27s disease clinical subtypes was used to further define taxa unique to these distinct clinical phenotypes. METHODS: Flow cytometry was used to separate IgA-coated and -uncoated bacteria from stool samples obtained from AR and TD patients followed by amplification and sequencing of the V4 region of the 16 S rDNA gene on the MiSeq platform (Illumina). RESULTS: IgA-Biome analyses identified significant alpha and beta diversity differences between the Parkinson\u27s disease phenotypes and the Firmicutes/Bacteroides ratio was significantly higher in those with TD compared to those with AR. In addition, discriminant taxa analyses identified a more pro-inflammatory bacterial profile in the IgA+ fraction of those with the AR clinical subclass compared to IgA-Biome analyses of those with the TD subclass and with the taxa identified in the unsorted control samples. CONCLUSION: IgA-Biome analyses underscores the importance of the host immune response in shaping the gut microbiome potentially affecting disease progression and presentation. In the present study, IgA-Biome analyses identified a unique proinflammatory microbial signature in the IgA+ fraction of those with AR that would have otherwise been undetected using conventional microbiome analysis approaches

A Survey to Measure the Effects of Forced Transition to 100% Online Learning on Community Sharing, Feelings of Social Isolation, Equity, Resilience, and Learning Content During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Survey of student perceptions and experiences with online teaching during the COVID-19 pandemic.The vast majority of the 19.9 million students and 1.5 million faculty at U.S. colleges and universities have been suddenly forced to replace their physical classes with online class formats. Many instructors and students are not prepared nor used to teaching/learning virtually, causing a number of unwanted effects, including social isolation, exacerbated inequity, and potentially reduced learning. Thus, there is a critical need to determine what the effects are and how we can best address them. In the absence of such knowledge, the effects of the coronavirus may expand well beyond the illness and fatalities and cause irreparable damage to our nation’s students’ education and mental and physical wellness. It is a crucial time to react and collect pertinent data immediately. As such we have created a survey to measure and monitor the effects of forced transition to 100% online learning on community sharing, feelings of social isolation, equity, resilience, and learning content during the COVID-19 pandemic. We are sharing this survey as a Texas A&M University tech report so that other universities can use this survey to measure the effects elsewhere

How Time since Forest Fire Affects Stand Structure, Soil Physical-Chemical Properties and Soil CO2 Efflux in Hemiboreal Scots Pine Forest Fire Chronosequence?

We compared the changes in aboveground biomass and initial recovery of C pools and CO2 efflux following fire disturbances in Scots pine (Pinus sylvesteris L.) stands with different time since stand-replacing fire. The study areas are located in hemiboreal vegetation zone, in north-western Estonia, in Vihterpalu. Six areas where the last fire occurred in the year 1837, 1940, 1951, 1982, 1997, and 2008 were chosen for the study. Our results show that forest fire has a substantial effect on the C content in the top soil layer, but not in the mineral soil layers. Soil respiration showed a chronological response to the time since the forest fire and the values were lowest in the area where the fire was in the year 2008. The respiration values also followed seasonal pattern being highest in August and lowest in May and November. The CO2 effluxes were lowest on the newly burned area through the entire growing season. There was also a positive correlation between soil temperature and soil respiration values in our study areas.Peer reviewe

An Integrated Physical, Genetic and Cytogenetic Map of Brachypodium distachyon, a Model System for Grass Research

The pooid subfamily of grasses includes some of the most important crop, forage and turf species, such as wheat, barley and Lolium. Developing genomic resources, such as whole-genome physical maps, for analysing the large and complex genomes of these crops and for facilitating biological research in grasses is an important goal in plant biology. We describe a bacterial artificial chromosome (BAC)-based physical map of the wild pooid grass Brachypodium distachyon and integrate this with whole genome shotgun sequence (WGS) assemblies using BAC end sequences (BES). The resulting physical map contains 26 contigs spanning the 272 Mb genome. BES from the physical map were also used to integrate a genetic map. This provides an independent vaildation and confirmation of the published WGS assembly. Mapped BACs were used in Fluorescence In Situ Hybridisation (FISH) experiments to align the integrated physical map and sequence assemblies to chromosomes with high resolution. The physical, genetic and cytogenetic maps, integrated with whole genome shotgun sequence assemblies, enhance the accuracy and durability of this important genome sequence and will directly facilitate gene isolation

Comparative Anatomy of Chromosomal Domains with Imprinted and Non-Imprinted Allele-Specific DNA Methylation

Allele-specific DNA methylation (ASM) is well studied in imprinted domains, but this type of epigenetic asymmetry is actually found more commonly at non-imprinted loci, where the ASM is dictated not by parent-of-origin but instead by the local haplotype. We identified loci with strong ASM in human tissues from methylation-sensitive SNP array data. Two index regions (bisulfite PCR amplicons), one between the C3orf27 and RPN1 genes in chromosome band 3q21 and the other near the VTRNA2-1 vault RNA in band 5q31, proved to be new examples of imprinted DMRs (maternal alleles methylated) while a third, between STEAP3 and C2orf76 in chromosome band 2q14, showed non-imprinted haplotype-dependent ASM. Using long-read bisulfite sequencing (bis-seq) in 8 human tissues we found that in all 3 domains the ASM is restricted to single differentially methylated regions (DMRs), each less than 2kb. The ASM in the C3orf27-RPN1 intergenic region was placenta-specific and associated with allele-specific expression of a long non-coding RNA. Strikingly, the discrete DMRs in all 3 regions overlap with binding sites for the insulator protein CTCF, which we found selectively bound to the unmethylated allele of the STEAP3-C2orf76 DMR. Methylation mapping in two additional genes with non-imprinted haplotype-dependent ASM, ELK3 and CYP2A7, showed that the CYP2A7 DMR also overlaps a CTCF site. Thus, two features of imprinted domains, highly localized DMRs and allele-specific insulator occupancy by CTCF, can also be found in chromosomal domains with non-imprinted ASM. Arguing for biological importance, our analysis of published whole genome bis-seq data from hES cells revealed multiple genome-wide association study (GWAS) peaks near CTCF binding sites with ASM

Virtual teaching kitchen classes and cardiovascular disease prevention counselling among medical trainees

Background: Hands-on culinary medicine education for medical trainees has emerged as a promising tool for cardiovascular health promotion. Purpose: To determine whether virtual culinary medicine programming associates with Mediterranean diet (MedDiet) adherence and lifestyle medicine competencies among medical trainees across the USA. Method: A total of 1433 medical trainees across 19 sites over a 12-month period were included. The Cooking for Health Optimisation with Patients-Medical Trainees survey composed of 61 questions regarding demographics, nutritional attitudes, dietary habits including MedDiet score and lifestyle medicine counselling competencies. Multivariable logistic regression assessed the association of virtual culinary medicine education with MedDiet intake and nutritional attitudes. Results: There were 519 medical trainees who participated in virtual culinary medicine education and 914 medical trainees who participated in their standard nutrition curricula. More than one-half of participants were women (n=759) and the mean age was 27 years old. Compared with students enrolled in traditional nutrition curricula, participants in virtual culinary medicine education were 37% more likely to adhere to MedDiet guidelines for fruit intake (OR 1.37, 95% CI 1.03 to 1.83, p=0.03). Virtual culinary medicine education was associated with higher proficiency in lifestyle medicine counselling categories, notably recommendations involving fibre (OR 4.03; 95% CI 3.05 to 5.34), type 2 diabetes prevention (OR 4.69; 95% CI 3.51 to 6.27) and omega fatty acids (OR 5.21; 95% CI 3.87 to 7.02). Virtual culinary medicine education had a similar, although higher magnitude association with MedDiet counselling competency (OR 5.73, 95% CI 4.26 to 7.70) when compared with historical data previously reported using hands-on, in-person culinary medicine courseware (OR 4.97, 95% CI 3.89 to 6.36). Conclusions: Compared with traditional nutritional educational curricula, virtual culinary medicine education is associated with higher MedDiet adherence and lifestyle medicine counselling competencies among medical trainees. Both virtual and hands-on culinary medicine education may be useful for cardiovascular health promotion

A Survey to Measure the Effects of Forced Transition to 100% Online Learning on Community Sharing, Feelings of Social Isolation, Equity, Resilience, and Learning Content During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Survey of student perceptions and experiences with online teaching during the COVID-19 pandemic.The vast majority of the 19.9 million students and 1.5 million faculty at U.S. colleges and universities have been suddenly forced to replace their physical classes with online class formats. Many instructors and students are not prepared nor used to teaching/learning virtually, causing a number of unwanted effects, including social isolation, exacerbated inequity, and potentially reduced learning. Thus, there is a critical need to determine what the effects are and how we can best address them. In the absence of such knowledge, the effects of the coronavirus may expand well beyond the illness and fatalities and cause irreparable damage to our nation’s students’ education and mental and physical wellness. It is a crucial time to react and collect pertinent data immediately. As such we have created a survey to measure and monitor the effects of forced transition to 100% online learning on community sharing, feelings of social isolation, equity, resilience, and learning content during the COVID-19 pandemic. We are sharing this survey as a Texas A&M University tech report so that other universities can use this survey to measure the effects elsewhere

Current and future Burden of Communicable Diseases in the European Union and EEA/EFTA countries (BCoDE). Methodology protocol

Mangen M-J, Gibbons C, Kretzschmar M, et al. Current and future Burden of Communicable Diseases in the European Union and EEA/EFTA countries (BCoDE). Methodology protocol. ECDC Technical Report. Stockholm: ECDC; 2011