Passive fetal heart rate monitoring apparatus and method with enhanced fetal heart beat discrimination

An apparatus for acquiring signals emitted by a fetus, identifying fetal heart beats and determining a fetal heart rate. Multiple sensor signals are outputted by a passive fetal heart rate monitoring sensor. Multiple parallel nonlinear filters filter these multiple sensor signals to identify fetal heart beats in the signal data. A processor determines a fetal heart rate based on these identified fetal heart beats. The processor includes the use of a figure of merit weighting of heart rate estimates based on the identified heart beats from each filter for each signal. The fetal heart rate thus determined is outputted to a display, storage, or communications channel. A method for enhanced fetal heart beat discrimination includes acquiring signals from a fetus, identifying fetal heart beats from the signals by multiple parallel nonlinear filtering, and determining a fetal heart rate based on the identified fetal heart beats. A figure of merit operation in this method provides for weighting a plurality of fetal heart rate estimates based on the identified fetal heart beats and selecting the highest ranking fetal heart rate estimate

Passive fetal heart rate monitoring apparatus and method with enhanced fetal heart beat discrimination

An apparatus for acquiring signals emitted by a fetus, identifying fetal heart beats and determining a fetal heart rate is presented. Multiple sensor signals are outputted by a passive fetal heart rate monitoring sensor. Multiple parallel nonlinear filters filter these multiple sensor signals to identify fetal heart beats in the signal data. A processor determines a fetal heart rate based on these identified fetal heart beats. The processor includes the use of a figure of merit weighting of heart rate estimates based on the identified heart beats from each filter for each signal. The fetal heart rate thus determined is outputted to a display, storage, or communications channel. A method for enhanced fetal heart beat discrimination includes acquiring signals from a fetus, identifying fetal heart beats from the signals by multiple parallel nonlinear filtering, and determining a fetal heart rate based on the identified fetal heart beats. A figure of merit operation in this method provides for weighting a plurality of fetal heart rate estimates based on the identified fetal heart beats and selecting the highest ranking fetal heart rate estimate

Cloning and functional analysis of a fructosyltransferase cDNA for synthesis of highly polymerized levans in timothy (Phleum pratense L.)

Variation in the structures of plant fructans and their degree of polymerization (DP) can be explained as the result of diverse combinations of fructosyltransferases (FTs) with different properties. Although FT genes have been isolated in a range of plant species, sucrose:fructan 6-fructosyltransferase (6-SFT) cDNAs have only been functionally characterized in a few species such as wheat. A novel FT cDNA possessing 6-SFT activity has been identified and characterized from the temperate forage grass, timothy (Phleum pratense L.). The cDNA of an FT homolog, PpFT1, was isolated from cold-acclimated timothy. A recombinant PpFT1 protein expressed in Pichia pastoris showed 6-SFT/sucrose:sucrose 1-fructosyltransferase (1-SST) activity and produced linear β(2,6)-linked levans from sucrose with higher DPs than present in graminans formed in vitro by wheat 6-SFT (Wft1). PpFT1 and Wft1 showed remarkably different acceptor substrate specificities: PpFT1 had high affinity for 6-kestotriose to produce levans and low affinity for 1-kestotriose, whereas Wft1 preferentially used 1-kestotriose as an acceptor. The affinity of the PpFT1 recombinant enzyme for sucrose as a substrate was lower than that of the Wft1 recombinant enzyme. It is also confirmed that timothy seedlings had elevated levels of PpFT1 transcripts during the accumulation of fructans under high sucrose and cold conditions. Our results suggest that PpFT1 is a novel cDNA with unique enzymatic properties that differ from those of previously cloned plant 6-SFTs, and is involved in the synthesis of highly polymerized levans in timothy

Towards a better understanding of the generation of fructan structure diversity in plants: molecular and functional characterization of a sucrose:fructan 6-fructosyltransferase (6-SFT) cDNA from perennial ryegrass (Lolium perenne)

The main storage compounds in Lolium perenne are fructans with prevailing β(2–6) linkages. A cDNA library of L. perenne was screened using Poa secunda sucrose:fructan 6-fructosyltransferase (6-SFT) as a probe. A full-length Lp6-SFT clone was isolated as shown by heterologous expression in Pichia pastoris. High levels of Lp6-SFT transcription were found in the growth zone of elongating leaves and in mature leaf sheaths where fructans are synthesized. Upon fructan synthesis induction, Lp6-SFT transcription was high in mature leaf blades but with no concomitant accumulation of fructans. In vitro studies with the recombinant Lp6-SFT protein showed that both 1-kestotriose and 6G-kestotriose acted as fructosyl acceptors, producing 1- and 6-kestotetraose (bifurcose) and 6G,6-kestotetraose, respectively. Interestingly, bifurcose formation ceased and 6G,6-kestotetraose was formed instead, when recombinant fructan:fructan 6G-fructosyltransferase (6G-FFT) of L. perenne was introduced in the enzyme assay with sucrose and 1-kestotriose as substrates. The remarkable absence of bifurcose in L. perenne tissues might be explained by a higher affinity of 6G-FFT, as compared with 6-SFT, for 1-kestotriose, which is the first fructan formed. Surprisingly, recombinant 6-SFT from Hordeum vulgare, a plant devoid of fructans with internal glucosyl residues, also produced 6G,6-kestotetraose from sucrose and 6G-kestotriose. In the presence of recombinant L. perenne 6G-FFT, it produced 6G,6-kestotetraose from 1-kestotriose and sucrose, like L. perenne 6-SFT. Thus, we demonstrate that the two 6-SFTs have close catalytic properties and that the distinct fructans formed in L. perenne and H. vulgare can be explained by the presence of 6G-FFT activity in L. perenne and its absence in H. vulgare

Conference on Best Practices for Managing \u3cem\u3eDaubert\u3c/em\u3e Questions

This article is a transcript of the Philip D. Reed Lecture Series Conference on Best Practices for Managing Daubert Questions, held on October 25, 2019, at Vanderbilt Law School under the sponsorship of the Judicial Conference Advisory Committee on Evidence Rules. The transcript has been lightly edited and represents the panelists’ individual views only and in no way reflects those of their affiliated firms, organizations, law schools, or the judiciary

Sucrose helps regulate cold acclimation of Arabidopsis thaliana

A test was carried out to see if sucrose could regulate cold-acclimation-associated gene expression in Arabidopsis. In plants and excised leaves, sucrose caused an increase in GUS activity, as a reporter for the activity of the cold-responsive COR78 promoter. This increase was transient at 21 °C but lasted for at least 4 d at 4 °C in continuous darkness. However, at 4 °C with a 16 h photoperiod, GUS activity was similarly high with solutions lacking sucrose or with different concentrations of sucrose. In peeled lower epidermis in the cold dark environment, 40 mM sucrose increased COR78 transcript abundance to substantially above that in the controls, but sorbitol had no effect. Similarly to the cold and dark conditions, sucrose increased COR78 transcript abundance in the epidermis in the warm light and warm dark environments, but not in a cold light environment. Sucrose had much less effect on COR78 transcript abundance in leaves without the lower epidermis. Thus sucrose regulates expression of COR78, possibly mainly in the epidermis, at the level of transcription. Furthermore, 40 mM sucrose at 4 °C for 24 h in constant darkness was sufficient to give the same GUS activity as in fully acclimated plants of the same age in a 16 h photoperiod, although by 48 h, GUS activity had become intermediate between control and fully cold-acclimated plants. Thus sucrose has a regulatory role in the acclimation of whole plants to cold and this may be important during diurnal dark periods

Fructan and its relationship to abiotic stress tolerance in plants

Numerous studies have been published that attempted to correlate fructan concentrations with freezing and drought tolerance. Studies investigating the effect of fructan on liposomes indicated that a direct interaction between membranes and fructan was possible. This new area of research began to move fructan and its association with stress beyond mere correlation by confirming that fructan has the capacity to stabilize membranes during drying by inserting at least part of the polysaccharide into the lipid headgroup region of the membrane. This helps prevent leakage when water is removed from the system either during freezing or drought. When plants were transformed with the ability to synthesize fructan, a concomitant increase in drought and/or freezing tolerance was confirmed. These experiments indicate that besides an indirect effect of supplying tissues with hexose sugars, fructan has a direct protective effect that can be demonstrated by both model systems and genetic transformation

Transcriptional responses of winter barley to cold indicate nucleosome remodelling as a specific feature of crown tissues

We report a series of microarray-based comparisons of gene expression in the leaf and crown of the winter barley cultivar Luxor, following the exposure of young plants to various periods of low (above and below zero) temperatures. A transcriptomic analysis identified genes which were either expressed in both the leaf and crown, or specifically in one or the other. Among the former were genes responsible for calcium and abscisic acid signalling, polyamine synthesis, late embryogenesis abundant proteins and dehydrins. In the crown, the key organ for cereal overwintering, cold treatment induced transient changes in the transcription of nucleosome assembly genes, and especially H2A and HTA11, which have been implicated in cold sensing in Arabidopsis thaliana. In the leaf, various heat-shock proteins were induced. Differences in expression pattern between the crown and leaf were frequent for genes involved in certain pathways responsible for osmolyte production (sucrose and starch, raffinose, γ-aminobutyric acid metabolism), sugar signalling (trehalose metabolism) and secondary metabolism (lignin synthesis). The action of proteins with antifreeze activity, which were markedly induced during hardening, was demonstrated by a depression in the ice nucleation temperature

Single-nucleotide polymorphisms in the RB1 gene and association with breast cancer in the British population

A substantial proportion of the familial risk of breast cancer may be attributable to genetic variants each contributing a small effect. pRb controls the cell cycle and polymorphisms within it are candidates for such low penetrance susceptibility alleles, since the gene has been implicated in several human tumours, particularly breast cancer. The purpose of this study was to determine whether common variants in the RB1 gene are associated with breast cancer risk. We assessed 15 tagging single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) using a case–control study design (n⩽4474 cases and n⩽4560 controls). A difference in genotype frequencies was found between cases and controls for rs2854344 in intron 17 (P-trend=0.007) and rs198580 in intron 19 (P-trend=0.018). Carrying the minor allele of these SNPs appears to confer a protective effect on breast cancer risk (odd ratio (OR)=0.86 (0.76–0.96) for rs2854344 and OR=0.80 (0.66–0.96) for rs198580). However, after adjusting for multiple testing these associations were borderline with an adjusted P-trend=0.068 for the most significant SNP (rs2854344). The RB1 gene is not known to contain any coding SNPs with allele frequencies ⩾5% but several intronic variants are in perfect linkage disequilibrium with the associated SNPs. Replication studies are needed to confirm the associations with breast cancer