Timing is Everything: PTTH Mediated DHR4 Nucleocytoplasmic Trafficking Sets the Tempo of Drosophila Steroid Production

During development, multicellular organisms must become sexually mature in order to reproduce. The developmental timing of this transition is controlled by pulses of steroid hormones, but how these pulses are generated have remained unclear? A recent paper shows that in Drosophila larvae, nucleocytoplasmic trafficking of DHR4, a nuclear receptor, in response to prothoracicotropic hormone signaling, is critical for producing the correct temporal pulses of steroid hormones that coordinate the juvenile–adult transition

Transportation Active Safety Institute

poster abstractSince its founding in February 2006, the mission of the Transportation Active Safety Institute (TASI) has been to advance the use of active safety systems to reduce vehicle crashes and save lives. TASI was one of 10 centers awarded IUPUI Signature Center funding (second round) in January, 2008. With core faculty drawn from ten departments representing eight schools at IUPUI, IUB and PUWL, the Transportation Active Safety Institute (TASI) is an interdisciplinary center for advanced transportation safety research and development on the IUPUI campus. Partnership with industry, government, and non-profit agencies ensures that university research activities complement existing technologies and address existing and future needs. TASI aims to provide a neutral forum for pre-competitive discussion and development of standards and test methodologies for establishing objective benefits of active-safety systems. TASI has established a driving simulator laboratory for research into driver behavior and for testing active safety system performance. The state-of-the-art DriveSafety DS-600c Driving Simulator is providing a flexible and realistic driving environment for industry, government, and internally sponsored research. This reconfigurable platform allows TASI to test various sensors and driver interfaces, in order to determine effective and convenient solutions to challenges in enhancing safety. Faculty members, research staff and graduate students have been working on several funded research projects such as human factors for semi-autonomous driving systems, intelligent human vehicle interfaces, real vehicle testing for crash-imminent braking system (autonomous braking system), distracted and impaired driving assessment, teen and older driver safety research, dealing with uncertainty in autonomous braking system, etc. TASI has also established an active dialog with other vehicle safety centers around the world through our “Global Academic Network for Active Safety.” Currently, global academic partners include Center for Automotive Research at the Ohio State University, National Advanced Driving Simulator at University of Iowa, University of Wisconsin, Tsinghua University in China, and Chalmers University of Technology in Sweden

Pilot scale implementation of a single-use, high intensity, integrated process system

Pfizer and Boehringer Ingelheim are developing pilot scale systems with entirely single-use flow paths that are fully integrated end-to-end under a single control system from bioreactor through downstream processing. These prototype systems are designed to run continuous processing from the bioreactor to downstream, and periodic processing to the end of the downstream system. This presentation shows the evolution of the systems including some novel single use technologies, details of some high-intensity run results, and offers future single use improvement ideas

Stress, burnout, depression and work satisfaction among UK anaesthetic trainees:a qualitative analysis of in-depth participant interviews in the Satisfaction and Wellbeing in Anaesthetic Training study

Anaesthetists experience unique stressors. Recent evidence suggests a high prevalence of stress and burnout in trainee anaesthetists. There has been no in-depth qualitative analysis to explore this further. We conducted semi-structured interviews to explore contributory and potentially protective factors in the development of perceived stress, burnout, depression and low work-satisfaction. We sampled purposively among participants in the Satisfaction and Wellbeing in Anaesthetic Training study, reaching data saturation at 12 interviews. Thematic analysis identified three overarching themes: (1) factors enabling work-satisfaction; (2) stressors of being an anaesthetic trainee; (3) suggestions for improving working conditions. Factors enabling work-satisfaction were: patient contact; the privilege of enabling good patient outcomes; and strong support at home and work. Stressors were: demanding non-clinical workloads; exhaustion from multiple commitments; a ‘love/hate’ relationship as trainees value clinical work but find the training burden immense; feeling ‘on edge’, even unsafe at work; and the changing way society sees doctors. Suggested recommendations for improvement include: having contracted hours allowed for non-clinical work; individuals taking responsibility for self-care in and out of work; cultural acceptance that doctors can struggle; and embedding wellbeing support more deeply in organisations and the specialty. Nearly all trainees discussed feeling some levels of burnout, which were high and distressing for some, and high levels of perceived stress. Yet trainees also experienced distinct elements of work-satisfaction and support. Our study provides a foundation for further work to inform organisational and cultural changes to help translate anaesthetic trainees’ passion for their work, into a manageable and satisfactory career

Diet quality, liveweight change and responses to N supplements by cattle grazing Astrebla spp. (Mitchell grass) pastures in the semi-arid tropics in north-western Queensland, Australia

Experiments during 4 years examined the diets selected, growth, and responses to N supplements by Bos indicus-cross steers grazing summer-rainfall semi-arid C4 Astrebla spp. (Mitchell grass) rangelands at a site in north-western Queensland, Australia. Paddock groups of steers were not supplemented (T-NIL), or were fed a non-protein N (T-NPN) or a cottonseed meal (T-CSM) supplement. In Experiment 1, young and older steers were measured during the late dry season (LDS) and the rainy season (RS), while steers in Experiments 2–4 were measured through the annual cycle. Because of severe drought the measurements during Experiment 3 annual cycle were limited to T-NIL steers. Pasture availability and species composition were measured twice annually. Diet was measured at 1–2 week intervals using near infrared spectroscopy of faeces (F.NIRS). Annual rainfalls (1 July–30 June) were 42–68% of the long-term average (471 mm), and the seasonal break ranged from 17 December to 3 March. There was wide variation in pasture, diet (crude protein (CP), DM digestibility (DMD), the CP to metabolisable energy (CP/ME) ratio) and steer liveweight change (LWC) within and between annual cycles. High diet quality and steer liveweight (LW) gain during the RS declined progressively through the transition season (TS) and early dry season (EDS), and often the first part of the LDS. Steers commenced losing LW as the LDS progressed. In Experiments 1 and 2 where forbs comprised ≤15 g/kg of the pasture sward, steers selected strongly for forbs so that they comprised 117–236 g/kg of the diet. However, in Experiments 3 and 4 where forbs comprised substantial proportions of the pasture (173–397 g/kg), there were comparable proportions in the diet (300–396 g/kg). With appropriate stocking rates the annual steer LW gains were acceptable (121–220 kg) despite the low rainfall. The N supplements had no effect on steer LW during the TS and the EDS, but usually reduced steer LW loss by 20–30 kg during the LDS. Thus during low rainfall years in Mitchell grass pastures there were substantial LW responses by steers to N supplements towards the end of the dry season when the diet contained c. <58 g CP/kg or c. <7.0 g CP/MJ ME

Dissociative symptomatology mediates the relation between posttraumatic stress disorder severity and alcohol-related problems

Background: Up to 50% of individuals with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) endorse problematic alcohol use. Typically, these individuals present with more complex and often more severe PTSD symptoms than those who do not report problematic alcohol use. Emerging literature suggests that heightened symptoms of dissociation are likewise associated with greater PTSD symptom severity. Despite this knowledge, the role of dissociation in the relation between PTSD severity and alcohol-related problems has yet to be examined. Here, we explore the mediating role of dissociative symptomatology on the association between PTSD severity and alcohol-related problems within a PTSD treatment-seeking sample. Methods: Structural equation modeling was used to test the mediating role of dissociative symptomatology between PTSD severity and alcohol-related problems. Participants [N = 334; mean age (SD) = 44.29 (9.77), 50% female] were drawn from a clinical intake battery database for PTSD in-patient treatment services at Homewood Health Care, Guelph, ON, Canada. A subset of battery measures assessing PTSD severity, dissociative symptomatology, and alcohol-related problems were submitted to analysis. Results: A significant positive association emerged between PTSD severity and alcohol-related problems (β = 0.127, p \u3c 0.05) in the absence of dissociative symptomatology. Critically, however, when added to this model, dissociative symptomatology (six unique facets of dissociation assessed by the Multiscale Dissociation Inventory) mediated the relation between PTSD severity and alcohol-related problems. Specifically, greater PTSD severity was associated with greater dissociative symptomatology (β = 0.566, p \u3c 0.0001), which was in turn associated with greater alcohol-related problems (β = 0.184, p \u3c 0.05). Conclusions: These results suggest that dissociative symptomatology plays a key role in explaining the relation between PTSD severity and alcohol-related problems. Future studies should examine the impact of targeting dissociative symptomatology specifically in treating individuals with PTSD who endorse alcohol-related problems

Adverse Childhood Experiences and Hospital-Treated Self-Harm

Adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) have been implicated in a range of negative health outcomes in adulthood, including increased suicide mortality. In this study, we explored the relationship between ACEs and hospital-treated self-harm. Specifically, we investigated whether those who had a history of repeat self-harm reported more ACEs than those who had self-harmed for the first time. Patients (n = 189) admitted to two hospitals in Glasgow (UK) following first-time (n = 41) or repeated (n = 148) self-harm completed psychosocial measures. Univariate analyses revealed that those presenting with repeat self-harm reported higher depressive symptoms, anxiety symptoms, intent to die, and ACEs, and lower dependent attachment style. However, only ACEs, along with female gender and depressive symptoms, significantly differentiated between the repeat self-harm group and the first-time self-harm group in the multivariate model. Controlling for all other psychosocial variables, participants who reported 4+ ACEs were significantly more likely to be in the repeat self-harm group as compared to those who experienced 0–3 ACEs. This finding highlights the pernicious effect of exposure to multiple ACEs. Further research is urgently required to better understand the mechanisms that explain this relationship. Clinicians should be aware of the extent of the association between ACEs and repeat self-harm