Arkansas Cotton Variety Test 2016

The primary goal of the Arkansas Cotton Variety Test is to provide unbiased data regarding the agronomic performance of cotton varieties and advanced breeding lines in the major cotton-growing areas of Arkansas

Arkansas Cotton Variety Test 2015

The primary goal of the Arkansas Cotton Variety Test is to provide unbiased data regarding the agronomic performance of cotton varieties and advanced breeding lines in the major cotton-growing areas of Arkansas. This information helps seed companies establish marketing strategies and assists producers in choosing varieties to plant. These annual evaluations will then facilitate the inclusion of new, improved genetic material in Arkansas cotton production

Effects of long-term soluble vs. insoluble dietary fiber intake on high-fat diet-induced obesity in C57BL/6J mice

Although most of the proposed beneficial effects of fiber consumption have been attributed to viscous and gel-forming properties of soluble fiber, it is mainly insoluble cereal fiber and whole grains that are strongly associated with reduced diabetes risk in prospective cohort studies, indicating that other unknown mechanisms are likely to be involved. We performed a long-term study investigating potential protective effects of adding soluble guar fiber (10% w/w) vs. insoluble cereal fiber (10% w/w) to an isoenergetic and macronutrient matched high-fat diet in obesity-prone C57BL/6J mice. After 45 weeks, mice fed soluble vs. insoluble fiber showed both significantly increased body weight (41.8±3.0 vs. 33.6±1.5 g, P=.03) and elevated markers of insulin resistance. In mice fed soluble fiber, energy loss via the feces was significantly lower and colonic fermentation with production of short chain fatty acids (SCFA) was markedly increased. Gene expression analysis in white adipose tissue showed significantly increased levels of the fatty acid target G-protein coupled receptor-40 in soluble fiber-fed mice. Liver gene expression in the insoluble fiber group showed a pattern consistent with increased fatty acid oxidation. The present results show that soluble vs insoluble dietary fiber added to a high-fat, Western-style diet differently affected body weight and estimates of insulin sensitivity in obesity-prone mice. Soluble fiber intake with increased SCFA production significantly contributed to digested energy, thereby potentially outweighing the well known short-term beneficial effects of soluble fiber consumption

Arkansas Cotton Variety Test 2014

The primary goal of the Arkansas Cotton Variety Test is to provide unbiased data regarding the agronomic performance of cotton varieties and advanced breeding lines in the major cotton-growing areas of Arkansas. This information helps seed companies establish marketing strategies and assists producers in choosing varieties to plant

Collective nostalgia: a group-level emotion that confers unique benefits on the group

This research established collective nostalgia as a group-level emotion and ascertained the benefits it confers on the group. In Study 1, participants who reflected on a nostalgic event they had experienced together with ingroup members (collective nostalgia) evaluated the ingroup more positively and reported stronger intentions to approach (and not avoid) ingroup members than those who recalled a nostalgic event they had experienced individually (personal nostalgia), those who reflected on a lucky event they had experienced together with ingroup members (collective positive), and those who did not recall an event (no recall). In Study 2, collective (vs. personal) nostalgia strengthened behavioral intentions to support the ingroup more so than did recalling an ordinary collective (vs. personal) event. Increased collective self-esteem mediated this effect. In Study 3, collective nostalgia (compared with recall of an ordinary collective event) led participants to sacrifice money in order to punish a transgression perpetrated against an ingroup member. This effect of collective nostalgia was more pronounced when social identification was high (compared with low). Finally, in Study 4, collective nostalgia converged toward the group average (i.e., was socially shared) when participants thought of themselves in terms of their group membership. The findings underscore the viability of studying nostalgia at multiple levels of analysis and highlight the significance of collective nostalgia for understanding group-level attitudes, global action tendencies, specific behavioral intentions, and behavior

Systematic status of Plectroctena mandibularis Smith and P. conjugata Santschi (Hymenoptera: Formicidae: Ponerini)

Plectroctena mandibularis Smith is the type species of Plectroctena F. Smith. Because there has been some doubt about its distinctness from P. conjugata, several techniques were used to assess the systematic status of the two species. Most crucially, several colony series contained workers of both phenotypes, and where these series included queens or males, the distinguishing feature of these specimens was not consistently related to those of the workers. Queens, males and workers did not manifest qualitative differences between the taxa, and morphological variation was continuous between the two. The putative morphological basis (funicular index) for distinguishing workers of the taxa arose from allometric variation. Putatively diagnostic colour variation in males was related to latitude, but no simple pattern of morphological variation could be correlated with geographical distribution. Plectroctena conjugata is therefore considered a junior synonym of P. mandibularis

RpfC (Rv1884) atomic structure shows high structural conservation within the resuscitation promoting factor catalytic domain

We report the first structure of the catalytic domain of RpfC (Rv1884), one of theresuscitation-promoting factors (RPFs) from Mycobacterium tuberculosis. The structure was solved using molecular replacement, once the space group had been correctly identified as twinned P21 rather than the apparent C2221 by searching for anomalous scattering sites in P1. The structure displays a very high degree of structural conservation with the structures of the catalytic domains of RpfB (Rv1009) and RpfE (Rv2450) already published. This structural conservation highlights the importance of the versatile domain composition of the RPF family

Reconstituted high-density lipoproteins promote wound repair and blood flow recovery in response to ischemia in aged mice

Background: The average population age is increasing and the incidence of age-related vascular complications is rising in parallel. Impaired wound healing and disordered ischemia-mediated angiogenesis are key contributors to age-impaired vascular complications that can lead to amputation. High-density lipoproteins (HDL) have vasculo-protective properties and augment ischemia-driven angiogenesis in young animals. We aimed to determine the effect of reconstituted HDL (rHDL) on aged mice in a murine wound healing model and the hindlimb ischemia (HLI) model. Methods: Murine wound healing model—24-month-old aged mice received topical application of rHDL (50 μg/wound/ day) or PBS (vehicle control) for 10 days following wounding. Murine HLI model—Femoral artery ligation was performed on 24-month-old mice. Mice received rHDL (40 mg/kg) or PBS, intravenously, on alternate days, 1 week pre-surgery and up to 21 days post ligation. For both models, blood flow perfusion was determined using laser Doppler perfusion imaging. Mice were sacrificed at 10 (wound healing) or 21 (HLI) days post-surgery and tissues were collected for histological and gene analyses. Results: Daily topical application of rHDL increased the rate of wound closure by Day 7 post-wounding (25 %, p < 0.05). Wound blood perfusion, a marker of angiogenesis, was elevated in rHDL treated wounds (Days 4–10 by 22–25 %, p < 0. 05). In addition, rHDL increased wound capillary density by 52.6 %. In the HLI model, rHDL infusions augmented blood flow recovery in ischemic limbs (Day 18 by 50 % and Day 21 by 88 %, p < 0.05) and prevented tissue necrosis and toe loss. Assessment of capillary density in ischemic hindlimb sections found a 90 % increase in rHDL infused animals. In vitro studies in fibroblasts isolated from aged mice found that incubation with rHDL was able to significantly increase the key pro-angiogenic mediator vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) protein (25 %, p < 0.05). Conclusion: rHDL can promote wound healing and wound angiogenesis, and blood flow recovery in response to ischemia in aged mice. Mechanistically, this is likely to be via an increase in VEGF. This highlights a potential role for HDL in the therapeutic modulation of age-impaired vascular complications