Landowner and Natural Resources Professional Perceptions of Silvopasture in Central and North-Central Minnesota

Silvopasture is an agroforestry practice that combines trees, forage, and livestock in an intensively managed system. We surveyed landowners and natural resources professionals in Minnesota to determine their perceptions of silvopasture. Although most respondents had heard of silvopasture, few knew a lot about it. We concluded that there is a need for more educational programming that expands the knowledge of and provides technical assistance to landowners and natural resources professionals who want to add silvopasture to their management toolboxes

Finishing the euchromatic sequence of the human genome

The sequence of the human genome encodes the genetic instructions for human physiology, as well as rich information about human evolution. In 2001, the International Human Genome Sequencing Consortium reported a draft sequence of the euchromatic portion of the human genome. Since then, the international collaboration has worked to convert this draft into a genome sequence with high accuracy and nearly complete coverage. Here, we report the result of this finishing process. The current genome sequence (Build 35) contains 2.85 billion nucleotides interrupted by only 341 gaps. It covers ∼99% of the euchromatic genome and is accurate to an error rate of ∼1 event per 100,000 bases. Many of the remaining euchromatic gaps are associated with segmental duplications and will require focused work with new methods. The near-complete sequence, the first for a vertebrate, greatly improves the precision of biological analyses of the human genome including studies of gene number, birth and death. Notably, the human enome seems to encode only 20,000-25,000 protein-coding genes. The genome sequence reported here should serve as a firm foundation for biomedical research in the decades ahead

The utility of Apc-mutant rats in modeling human colon cancer

Prior to the advent of genetic engineering in the mouse, the rat was the model of choice for investigating the etiology of cancer. Now, recent advances in the manipulation of the rat genome, combined with a growing recognition of the physiological differences between mice and rats, have reignited interest in the rat as a model of human cancer. Two recently developed rat models, the polyposis in the rat colon (Pirc) and Kyoto Apc Delta (KAD) strains, each carry mutations in the intestinal-cancer-associated adenomatous polyposis coli (Apc) gene. In contrast to mouse models carrying Apc mutations, in which cancers develop mainly in the small intestine rather than in the colon and there is no gender bias, these rat models exhibit colonic predisposition and gender-specific susceptibility, as seen in human colon cancer. The rat also provides other experimental resources as a model organism that are not provided by the mouse: the structure of its chromosomes facilitates the analysis of genomic events, the size of its colon permits longitudinal analysis of tumor growth, and the size of biological samples from the animal facilitates multiplexed molecular analyses of the tumor and its host. Thus, the underlying biology and experimental resources of these rat models provide important avenues for investigation. We anticipate that advances in disease modeling in the rat will synergize with resources that are being developed in the mouse to provide a deeper understanding of human colon cancer

The surgical safety checklist and patient outcomes after surgery: a prospective observational cohort study, systematic review and meta-analysis

© 2017 British Journal of Anaesthesia Background: The surgical safety checklist is widely used to improve the quality of perioperative care. However, clinicians continue to debate the clinical effectiveness of this tool. Methods: Prospective analysis of data from the International Surgical Outcomes Study (ISOS), an international observational study of elective in-patient surgery, accompanied by a systematic review and meta-analysis of published literature. The exposure was surgical safety checklist use. The primary outcome was in-hospital mortality and the secondary outcome was postoperative complications. In the ISOS cohort, a multivariable multi-level generalized linear model was used to test associations. To further contextualise these findings, we included the results from the ISOS cohort in a meta-analysis. Results are reported as odds ratios (OR) with 95% confidence intervals. Results: We included 44 814 patients from 497 hospitals in 27 countries in the ISOS analysis. There were 40 245 (89.8%) patients exposed to the checklist, whilst 7508 (16.8%) sustained ≥1 postoperative complications and 207 (0.5%) died before hospital discharge. Checklist exposure was associated with reduced mortality [odds ratio (OR) 0.49 (0.32–0.77); P\u3c0.01], but no difference in complication rates [OR 1.02 (0.88–1.19); P=0.75]. In a systematic review, we screened 3732 records and identified 11 eligible studies of 453 292 patients including the ISOS cohort. Checklist exposure was associated with both reduced postoperative mortality [OR 0.75 (0.62–0.92); P\u3c0.01; I2=87%] and reduced complication rates [OR 0.73 (0.61–0.88); P\u3c0.01; I2=89%). Conclusions: Patients exposed to a surgical safety checklist experience better postoperative outcomes, but this could simply reflect wider quality of care in hospitals where checklist use is routine