Milk whey protein concentration and mRNA associated with β-lactoglobulin phenotype

Two common genetic variants of β-lactoglobulin (β-lg), A and B, exist as co- dominant alleles in dairy cattle (Aschaffenburg, 1968). Numerous studies have shown that cows homozygous for β-lg A have more β-lg and less α-lactalbumin (α-la) and casein in their milk than cows expressing only the B variant of β-lg (Ng-Kwai-Hang et al. 1987; Graml et al. 1989; Hill, 1993; Hill et al. 1995, 1997). These differences have a significant impact on the processing characteristics of the milk. For instance, the moisture-adjusted yield of Cheddar cheese is up to 10% higher using milk from cows of the β-lg BB phenotype compared with milk from cows expressing only the A variant (Hill et al. 1997). All these studies, however, describe compositional differences associated with β-lg phenotype in established lactation only. No information is available on the first few weeks of lactation, when there are marked changes in the concentrations of β-lg and α-la (Pérez et al. 1990)

The impact of radiotherapy on the hypothalamo-pituitary axis: old vs new radiotherapy techniques

Multimodality cancer therapy has led to remarkable improvements in survival of childhood and young adult cancer, with survival rates exceeding 85%. Such remission rates come with their own adverse sequelea or ‘late effects’. Although the cause of these late effects is multi-factorial, radiation-related adverse effects are one of the most prevalent. Hypopituitarism is a recognised complication of irradiation of brain tumours distant to the hypothalamo-pituitary (HP) axis when the axis is included within the exposed field. Much of the data concerning the development of hypopituitarism, however, relate to early forms of photon-based radiotherapy. In this narrative review, we discuss advances in individual radiotherapy techniques currently used in treating brain tumours and their theoretical benefits based primarily on dosimetric studies. Increasingly precise radiation techniques, including advances in the delivery of photons (i.e. intensity-modulated radiotherapy) and proton beam therapy, are now available options. The premise behind these newer techniques is to reduce the dose and volume of normal tissue irradiated whilst maintaining an effective radiation dose to target tissue. When treating brain tumours distant to the HP axis the expectation, based upon dosimetric studies, is that newer forms of radiotherapy will less frequently involve the HP axis in the exposed field, and where incorporated within the field it will be exposed to a lower radiotherapy dosage. Intuitively the dosimetric studies should translate into significant reductions in the prevalence of HP dysfunction. These data are promising; however, to date there are minimal robust clinical data to determine if the theoretical benefits of these newer techniques on HP dysfunction is to be realised

Dynamic instability of the major urinary protein gene family revealed by genomic and phenotypic comparisons between C57 and 129 strain mice

Targeted sequencing, manual genome annotation, phylogenetic analysis and mass spectrometry were used to characterise major urinary proteins (MUPs) and the Mup clusters of two strains of inbred mice

A core outcome set for localised prostate cancer effectiveness trials

Objective: To develop a core outcome set (COS) applicable for effectiveness trials of all interventions for localised prostate cancer. Background: Many treatments exist for localised prostate cancer, although it is unclear which offers the optimal therapeutic ratio. This is confounded by inconsistencies in the selection, definition, measurement and reporting of outcomes in clinical trials. Subjects and methods: A list of 79 outcomes was derived from a systematic review of published localised prostate cancer effectiveness studies and semi-structured interviews with 15 prostate cancer patients. A two-stage consensus process involving 118 patients and 56 international healthcare professionals (HCPs) (cancer specialist nurses, urological surgeons and oncologists) was undertaken, consisting of a three-round Delphi survey followed by a face-to-face consensus panel meeting of 13 HCPs and 8 patients. Results: The final COS included 19 outcomes. Twelve apply to all interventions: death from prostate cancer, death from any cause, local disease recurrence, distant disease recurrence/metastases, disease progression, need for salvage therapy, overall quality of life, stress urinary incontinence, urinary function, bowel function, faecal incontinence, sexual function. Seven were intervention-specific: perioperative deaths (surgery), positive surgical margin (surgery), thromboembolic disease (surgery), bothersome or symptomatic urethral or anastomotic stricture (surgery), need for curative treatment (active surveillance), treatment failure (ablative therapy), and side effects of hormonal therapy (hormone therapy). The UK-centric participants may limit the generalisability to other countries, but trialists should reason why the COS would not be applicable. The default position should not be that a COS developed in one country will automatically not be applicable elsewhere. Conclusion: We have established a COS for trials of effectiveness in localised prostate cancer, applicable across all interventions which should be measured in all localised prostate cancer effectiveness trials

The Atacama Cosmology Telescope: Cosmological parameters from three seasons of data

We present constraints on cosmological and astrophysical parameters from high-resolution microwave background maps at 148 GHz and 218 GHz made by the Atacama Cosmology Telescope (ACT) in three seasons of observations from 2008 to 2010. A model of primary cosmological and secondary foreground parameters is fit to the map power spectra and lensing deflection power spectrum, including contributions from both the thermal Sunyaev-Zeldovich (tSZ) effect and the kinematic Sunyaev-Zeldovich (kSZ) effect, Poisson and correlated anisotropy from unresolved infrared sources, radio sources, and the correlation between the tSZ effect and infrared sources. The power ell^2 C_ell/2pi of the thermal SZ power spectrum at 148 GHz is measured to be 3.4 +\- 1.4 muK^2 at ell=3000, while the corresponding amplitude of the kinematic SZ power spectrum has a 95% confidence level upper limit of 8.6 muK^2. Combining ACT power spectra with the WMAP 7-year temperature and polarization power spectra, we find excellent consistency with the LCDM model. We constrain the number of effective relativistic degrees of freedom in the early universe to be Neff=2.79 +\- 0.56, in agreement with the canonical value of Neff=3.046 for three massless neutrinos. We constrain the sum of the neutrino masses to be Sigma m_nu < 0.39 eV at 95% confidence when combining ACT and WMAP 7-year data with BAO and Hubble constant measurements. We constrain the amount of primordial helium to be Yp = 0.225 +\- 0.034, and measure no variation in the fine structure constant alpha since recombination, with alpha/alpha0 = 1.004 +/- 0.005. We also find no evidence for any running of the scalar spectral index, dns/dlnk = -0.004 +\- 0.012.Comment: 26 pages, 22 figures. This paper is a companion to Das et al. (2013) and Dunkley et al. (2013). Matches published JCAP versio

Towards an Intelligent Tutor for Mathematical Proofs

Computer-supported learning is an increasingly important form of study since it allows for independent learning and individualized instruction. In this paper, we discuss a novel approach to developing an intelligent tutoring system for teaching textbook-style mathematical proofs. We characterize the particularities of the domain and discuss common ITS design models. Our approach is motivated by phenomena found in a corpus of tutorial dialogs that were collected in a Wizard-of-Oz experiment. We show how an intelligent tutor for textbook-style mathematical proofs can be built on top of an adapted assertion-level proof assistant by reusing representations and proof search strategies originally developed for automated and interactive theorem proving. The resulting prototype was successfully evaluated on a corpus of tutorial dialogs and yields good results.Comment: In Proceedings THedu'11, arXiv:1202.453

Darwin Core: An Evolving Community-Developed Biodiversity Data Standard

Biodiversity data derive from myriad sources stored in various formats on many distinct hardware and software platforms. An essential step towards understanding global patterns of biodiversity is to provide a standardized view of these heterogeneous data sources to improve interoperability. Fundamental to this advance are definitions of common terms. This paper describes the evolution and development of Darwin Core, a data standard for publishing and integrating biodiversity information. We focus on the categories of terms that define the standard, differences between simple and relational Darwin Core, how the standard has been implemented, and the community processes that are essential for maintenance and growth of the standard. We present case-study extensions of the Darwin Core into new research communities, including metagenomics and genetic resources. We close by showing how Darwin Core records are integrated to create new knowledge products documenting species distributions and changes due to environmental perturbations

A double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled trial of prostaglandin E 1 in liver transplantation

A double-blind placebo-controlled trial of intravenous prostaglandin PGE 1 (40 Μg/h) was conducted in adult orthotopic liver transplant recipients. Infusion was started intraoperatively and continued for up to 21 days. Patients were followed up for 180 days postoperatively. Among 172 patients eligible for treatment in the study, 160 could be evaluated (78 PGE 1 ; 82 placebo). Patient and graft survival were similar (PGE 1 : 16 deaths, 9 retransplantations [7 survivors]; controls: 15 deaths, 6 retransplantations [3 survivors]). In patients with surviving grafts, however, PGE 1 administration resulted in a 23% shorter mean duration of hospitalization following transplantation (PGE 1 : 24.4 days; controls: 31.8 days; P = .02) and 40% shorter length of time postoperatively in the intensive care unit (PGE 1 : 8.2 days; controls 13.7 days; P = .05). Reduced needs for renal support ( P = .03) or surgical intervention other than retransplantation ( P = .02) were also noted with PGE 1 use. Further, PGE 1 administration resulted in a trend toward improved survival rates in patients with mild renal impairment (preoperative serum creatinine 1.5 mg percent or greater; P = .08). Neither the incidence of acute cellular rejection nor of primary nonfunction was significantly different in the two groups. Phlebitis was the only complication that was more common during PGE 1 administration, (PGE 1 : 9; controls: 4). These results suggest that PGE 1 use in hepatic allograft recipients reduces morbidity and may result in sizable cost reductions. (H EPATOLOGY 1995;21:366–372.)Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/38409/1/1840210216_ftp.pd