Single stage experimental evaluation of variable geometry guide vanes and stator blading. Part 5 - Overall performance for variable camber guide vane and stator B with radial and circumferential inlet flow distortion

Inlet flow distortion effects on single stage variable geometry guide vanes and stator

Identification and characterization of a glycosulfatase-encoding gene cluster in Bifidobacterium breve UCC2003

Bifidobacteria constitute a specific group of commensal bacteria, typically found in the gastrointestinal tract (GIT) of humans and other mammals. Bifidobacterium breve strains are numerically prevalent among the gut microbiota of many healthy breast-fed infants. In the current study, we investigated glycosulfatase activity in a bacterial nursling stool isolate, B. breve UCC2003. Two putative sulfatases were identified on the genome of B. breve UCC2003. The sulfated monosaccharide N-acetylglucosamine-6-sulfate (GlcNAc-6-S) was shown to support growth of B. breve UCC2003, while, N-acetylglucosamine-3-sulfate, N-acetylgalactosamine-3-sulfate and N-acetylgalactosamine-6-sulfate, did not support appreciable growth. Using a combination of transcriptomic and functional genomic approaches, a gene cluster, designated ats2, was shown to be specifically required for GlcNAc-6-S metabolism. Transcription of the ats2 cluster is regulated by a ROK-family transcriptional repressor. This study represents the first description of glycosulfatase activity within the Bifidobacterium genus. Bifidobacteria are saccharolytic organisms naturally found in the digestive tract of mammals and insects. Bifidobacterium breve strains utilize a variety of plant and host-derived carbohydrates which allow them to be present as prominent members of the infant gut microbiota as well as being present in the gastrointestinal tract of adults. In this study, we introduce a previously unexplored area of carbohydrate metabolism in bifidobacteria, namely the metabolism of sulfated carbohydrates. B. breve UCC2003 was shown to metabolize N-acetylglucosamine-6-sulfate (GlcNAc-6-S) through one of two sulfatase-encoding gene clusters identified on its genome. GlcNAc-6-S can be found in terminal or branched positions of mucin oligosaccharides, the glycoprotein component of the mucous layer that covers the digestive tract. The results of this study provide further evidence of this species' ability to utilize mucin-derived sugars, a trait which may provide a competitive advantage in both the infant and adult gut

Effects of N fertilization on yield for low-input production in Spanish what landraces ( Triticum tugidum L. and Triticum monococcum L.)

A core subset of Spanish durum wheat landraces was evaluated at two nitrogen levels (80 and 220 kg/ha) to identify landrace genotypes adapted to low N production. Yield differences were statistically significant between N levels and among genotypes at both levels. Fiftyone per cent of the landraces yielded significantly more at low than at high N (low-N varieties) while 26% had a positive (high-N varieties) and 23% an indifferent (indifferent-N varieties) response to N fertilizer. No significant agromorphological differences were found among low and high-N varieties at low N level that conferred some advantage to low-N varieties. In contrast, high-N varieties possessed longer grain-filling period under high N level. Phenological characters showed an important influence on yield and on the performance of the varieties within each subgroup. The traits affecting grain yield most positively, mainly the low-N varieties, were long filling period and earliness. Five entries were selected for prebreeding to low N adaptation

A quasi-experimental study to mobilize rural low-income communities to assess and improve the ecological environment to prevent childhood obesity

Citation: Peters, P., Gold, A., Abbott, A., Contreras, D., Keim, A., Oscarson, R., . . . Mobley, A. R. (2016). A quasi-experimental study to mobilize rural low-income communities to assess and improve the ecological environment to prevent childhood obesity. Bmc Public Health, 16, 7. doi:10.1186/s12889-016-3047-4Background: The Ecological Model of Childhood Overweight focuses on characteristics that could affect a child's weight status in relation to the multiple environments surrounding that child. A community coaching approach allows community groups to identify their own strengths, priorities and identity. Little to no research currently exists related to community-based efforts inclusive of community coaching in creating environmental change to prevent childhood obesity particularly in rural communities. Methods: A quasi-experimental study will be conducted with low-income, rural communities (n = 14) in the North Central region of the United States to mobilize capacity in communities to create and sustain an environment of healthy eating and physical activity to prevent childhood obesity. Two rural communities within seven Midwestern states (IN, KS, MI, OH, ND, SD, WI) will be randomly assigned to serve as an intervention or comparison community. Coalitions will complete assessments of their communities, choose from evidence-based approaches, and implement nutrition and physical activity interventions each year to prevent childhood obesity with emphasis on policy, system or environmental changes over four years. Only intervention coalitions will receive community coaching from a trained coach. Outcomes will be assessed at baseline, annually and project end using previously validated instruments and include coalition self-assessments, parental perceptions regarding the built environment, community, neighborhood, and early childhood environments, self-reflections from coaches and project staff, ripple effect mapping with coalitions and, final interviews of key stakeholders and coaches. A mixed-methods analysis approach will be used to evaluate if Community Coaching enhances community capacity to create and sustain an environment to support healthy eating and physical activity for young children. ANOVA or corresponding non-parametric tests will be used to analyze quantitative data relating to environmental change with significance set at P < .05. Dominant emergent themes from the qualitative data will be weaved together with quantitative data to develop a theoretical model representing how communities were impacted by the project. Discussion: This project will yield data and best practices that could become a model for community development based approaches to preventing childhood obesity in rural communities

Where the Ground Answers the Foot: Kerstin Ekman, Ecology, and the Sense of Place in a Globalized World

Kerstin Ekman has emerged as one of the important literary voices in Northern Europe challenging facile definitions of nature and inviting readers to reconsider conceptions of the local. She accomplishes this by using ecological models in her fiction that explore how human subjects exist in interdependent relationships with their environments intertwining space with experience and memory to produce constellations of significance and meaning. The materiality of the space combines with human discourse to create a sense of place situated between immediate and the distant and between the constructed and the found. In particular, her 1993 work, Händelser vid vatten [Blackwater] explores an ecological model of ontology in which all elements are intricately interconnected in myriad ways that question, among other things, the construction of place and the role of both materiality and place in an increasingly mobile, technologically mediated, and globalized world. My purpose is to consider Ekman's model(s) of ecological interdependence in dialogue with the theoretical discussions of space and place that have emerged in recent decades, particularly within the field of ecocriticism. In Ekman's work, the decidedly human propensities for naming, narrating, manipulating, and constructing space are counterbalanced by an experience of materiality and the natural environment's ultimate ambivalence to anthropocentrism. The novel's network of competing narratives, memories, definitions, and confrontation with materiality tend to frustrate the classical modernist epistemological project by lacking clear linearity, diverging, converging, and doubling back on themselves. The effect is to focus readers' attention on how space is produced as a means of understanding the diffuse subject's being in the world as part of complex material and discursive networks as well as between the constructed and the found, the subjective and the objective, the embodied and the abstract, and the local and the global

Метод проектів у процесі музично-виконавської підготовки майбутнього вчителя музики

(uk) У статті визначається сутність інтегрованого методу художньо-творчих проектів, розкривається його специфіка у процесі музично-виконавської підготовки майбутніх учителів музики.(ru) В статье определяется сущность интегрированного метода художественно-творческих проэктов, раскрывается его специфика в процессе музыкально-исполнительской подготовки будущих учителей музыки

Where the Ground Answers the Foot: Kerstin Ekman, Ecology, and the Sense of Place in a Globalized World

Kerstin Ekman has emerged as one of the important literary voices in Northern Europe challenging facile definitions of nature and inviting readers to reconsider conceptions of the local. She accomplishes this by using ecological models in her fiction that explore how human subjects exist in interdependent relationships with their environments intertwining space with experience and memory to produce constellations of significance and meaning. The materiality of the space combines with human discourse to create a sense of place situated between immediate and the distant and between the constructed and the found. In particular, her 1993 work, Händelser vid vatten [Blackwater] explores an ecological model of ontology in which all elements are intricately interconnected in myriad ways that question, among other things, the construction of place and the role of both materiality and place in an increasingly mobile, technologically mediated, and globalized world. My purpose is to consider Ekman's model(s) of ecological interdependence in dialogue with the theoretical discussions of space and place that have emerged in recent decades, particularly within the field of ecocriticism. In Ekman's work, the decidedly human propensities for naming, narrating, manipulating, and constructing space are counterbalanced by an experience of materiality and the natural environment's ultimate ambivalence to anthropocentrism. The novel's network of competing narratives, memories, definitions, and confrontation with materiality tend to frustrate the classical modernist epistemological project by lacking clear linearity, diverging, converging, and doubling back on themselves. The effect is to focus readers' attention on how space is produced as a means of understanding the diffuse subject's being in the world as part of complex material and discursive networks as well as between the constructed and the found, the subjective and the objective, the embodied and the abstract, and the local and the global

Dissociation constants and thermodynamic properties of amino acids used in CO2 absorption from (293 to 353) K

The second dissociation constants of the amino acids βalanine, taurine, sarcosine, 6-aminohexanoic acid, DL-methionine, glycine, L-phenylalanine, and L-proline and the third dissociation constants of L-glutamic acid and L-aspartic acid have been determined from electromotive force measurements at temperatures from (293 to 353) K. Experimental results are reported and compared to literature values. Values of the standard state thermodynamic properties are derived from the experimental results and compared to the values of commercially available amines used as absorbents for CO 2 capture.

Trauma-Informed Care in the Emergency Department

Introduction: This project aims to analyze the effectiveness of trauma-informed care (TIC) education on attitudes of registered nurses (RNs) and psychiatric associates (PAs) towards TIC. The purpose of this project was to educate ED (emergency department) RNs and PAs on the effects of trauma and increase attitudes towards implementing a TIC approach to care for mental health (MH) patients in the ED. Method: This project followed a pre–post-survey design with quantitative data. Participants included RNs and PAs newly hired to the ED, and/or if they had no previous TIC education. Data were collected utilizing a 10-question Likert scale survey. Results: A total of 10 ED staff participated in the TIC education and the pre-and post-survey. This study found a significant increase in attitudes towards a TIC approach after the educational sessions, rising from an average of 5.3 to 5.9 (p-value = 0.017). Evaluation: The Attitudes Related to Trauma-Informed Care (ARTIC) 10 scale was utilized for pre-and post-assessments to evaluate the effectiveness of the TIC education, measuring the attitudes of RNs and PAs towards TIC; ARTIC-10 includes 10 Likert scale questions that assess the participants’ attitudes towards a TIC approach

Synthesis of a Glucuronic Acid-Containing Thioglycoside Trisaccharide Building Block and Its Use in the Assembly of Cryptococcus Neoformans Capsular Polysaccharide Fragments

As part of an ongoing project aimed at identifying protective capsular polysaccharide epitopes for the development of vaccine candidates against the fungal pathogen Cryptococcus neoformans, the synthesis and glycosylation properties of a naphthalenylmethyl (NAP) orthogonally protected trisaccharide thioglycoside, a common building block for construction of serotype B and C capsular polysaccharide structures, were investigated. Et (benzyl 2,3,4-tri-O-benzyl-β-D-glucopyranosyl- uronate)-(1→2)-[2,3,4-tri-O-benzyl-β-D-xylopyranosyl-(1→4)]-6-O-benzyl-3-O-(2-naphthalenylmethyl)-1-thio-α-D-mannopyranoside was prepd. and used both as a donor and an acceptor in glycosylation reactions to obtain spacer equipped hexa- and heptasaccharide structures suitable either for continued elongation or for deprotection and printing onto a glycan array or conjugation to a carrier protein. The glycosylation reactions proceeded with high yields and α-selectivity, proving the viability of the building block approach also for construction of 4-O-xylosyl-contg. C. neoformans CPS structures