Cucurbit Germplasm at the North Central Regional Plant Introduction Station, Ames, Iowa

There are few crops native to the United States, causing us to rely on introduced species for most of our food. The United States government recognized the importance of such introduced plants before the turn of this century, and began recording and consecutively numbering plant introductions (PI) in 1898

Length and Rapid Elongation of Pedicels of the Female Flowers of Cucumis anguria L.

Our recent work describing Cucumis zambianus Widrlechner, J.H. Kirkbr., Ghebretinsae & K.R. Reitsma, a new species from Zambia, led us to spend considerable time documenting inflorescence characteristics in this new species and comparing them to other, similar Cucumis taxa (10). Cucumis zambianus and C. anguria share a trait that is rather unusual, pedicels that are often considerably longer than the fruits they subtend. However, in C. zambianus, the pedicels are of considerable length (65-120 mm) at the time that female flowers open (10), while C. anguria is reported by some authors (but not others) to have much shorter pedicels at that developmental stage, with elongation evidently occurring rapidly (8) during the course of fruit maturity. Kirkbride (7) indicated that the pedicels of female flowers of C. anguria are initially quite short, ranging from 1.5 to 7 mm, but other authors, including Howard (3) and Jeffrey (4-6) reported much longer pedicels, from 13 to 105 mm

Subspecies Variation of Daucus carota Coastal (“Gummifer”) Morphotypes (Apiaceae) Using Genotyping-by-Sequencing

The genus Daucus is widely distributed worldwide, but with a concentration of diversity in the Mediterranean Region. The D. carota complex presents the greatest taxonomic problems in the genus. We focus on a distinctive phenotypic group of coastal morphotypes of D. carota, strictly confined to the margins to within about 0.5 km of the Mediterranean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean, which we here refer to as coastal morphotypes or D. carota subsp. “gummifer” complex. They are loosely morphologically coherent, sharing a relatively short stature, thick, broad, sometimes highly glossy leaf segments, and usually flat or convex fruiting umbels. We analyzed 288 accessions obtained from genebanks in England, France, and the USA, and an expedition to Spain in 2016, covering the Mediterranean and Atlantic coasts and Balearic Islands, where much of the gummifer complex variation occurs. Our study includes 112 accessions not examined before in this context. Genotyping-by-sequencing identified 29,041 filtered SNPs. Based on high bootstrap support from maximum likelihood and Structure analysis we highlight three main clades. The gummifer morphotypes are intercalated with members of Daucus carota subspecies carota and subspecies maximus in two of these main clades, including a clade containing accessions from Tunisia (also including D. carota subsp. capillifolius) and a clade containing accessions from western Europe (including the British Isles), southern Europe (including the Balearic Islands and the Iberian Peninsula) and Morocco. These results support five independent selections of the gummifer morphotypes in these restricted maritime environments in the Mediterranean and nearby Atlantic coasts. Daucus annuus (=Tornabenea annua) and Daucus tenuissimus (=Tornabenea tenuissima) also fall firmly within D. carota, supporting their classification as morphologically well-defined subspecies of D. carota, which are accepted here under the new combinations Daucus carota subsp. annuus and D. carota subsp. tenuissimus , respectively. Types are indicated for most of treated names, including designation of four lectotypes and three epitypes, which fix their further use.This research was partly funded by the research grant UA2004-47056131 (University of Alicante) to FMF and by the USDA

Lectotype Designation for Seven Species Names in the Daucus guttatus Complex (Apiaceae) from the Central and Eastern Mediterranean Basin

The Daucus guttatus complex includes two to four species growing from central and northern Italy to the Middle East. They are characterized by being typically annuals up to 50 cm high; with primary umbels up to 7 cm in diameter with fewer than 25(35) rays; discolored umbels frequent, bearing one to several dark colored umbellules which form different color patterns; and mericarps relatively small, ca. 2.0‐4.5 mm. The taxonomy of this complicated group has not been satisfactorily resolved to date and is the focus of current research. Seven names of species belonging to the D. guttatus complex occurring in the central and eastern Mediterranean basin are typified here: Daucus guttatus, Daucus bicolor, Daucus involucratus, Daucus setulosus, Daucus broteri, Daucus hirsutus, and Daucus speciosus. Historical data are reported to justify lectotype and/or epitype selection, and selected morphological and distributional data are used to facilitate identification. The resulting typifications will enable proper naming of clades identified in the accompanying integrated molecular and morphological study, clarifying the taxonomy of the Daucus guttatus complex

Cellular Immune Responses 6 Years Following 1, 2, or 3 Doses of Quadrivalent HPV Vaccine in Fijian Girls and Subsequent Responses to a Dose of Bivalent HPV Vaccine.

BACKGROUND: This study examined the cellular immunity of 0, 1, 2, and 3 doses of Gardasil vaccine (4vHPV) in girls after 6 years and their responses to a subsequent dose of Cervarix vaccine (2vHPV). METHODS: A subset of girls (n = 59) who previously received 0, 1, 2, or 3 doses of 4vHPV 6 years earlier were randomly selected from a cohort study of Fijian girls (age 15-19 years). Blood was collected before and 28 days after a dose of 2vHPV. The HPV16- and HPV18-specific cellular immune response was determined by IFNγ-ELISPOT and by measurement of cytokines in peripheral blood mononuclear cell supernatants. RESULTS: Six years after 4vHPV vaccination, HPV18-specific responses were significantly lower in the 1- (1D) or 2-dose (2D) recipients compared with 3-dose recipients (2D: IFNγ-ELISPOT: P = .008; cytokines, IFNγ: P = .002; IL-2: P = .022; TNFα: P = .016; IL-10: P = .018; 1D: IL-2: P = .031; IL-10: P = .014). These differences were no longer significant post-2vHPV. No significant differences in HPV16 responses (except IL-2, P < .05) were observed between the 2- or 1-dose recipients and 3-dose recipients. CONCLUSIONS: These data suggest that cellular immunity following reduced-dose schedules was detectable after 6 years, although the responses were variable between HPV types and dosage groups. The clinical significance of this is unknown. Further studies on the impact of reduced dose schedules are needed, particularly in high-disease burden settings

High Quality Care and Ethical Pay-for-Performance: A Society of General Internal Medicine Policy Analysis

BACKGROUND: Pay-for-performance is proliferating, yet its impact on key stakeholders remains uncertain. OBJECTIVE: The Society of General Internal Medicine systematically evaluated ethical issues raised by performance-based physician compensation. RESULTS: We conclude that current arrangements are based on fundamentally acceptable ethical principles, but are guided by an incomplete understanding of health-care quality. Furthermore, their implementation without evidence of safety and efficacy is ethically precarious because of potential risks to stakeholders, especially vulnerable patients. CONCLUSION: We propose four major strategies to transition from risky pay-for-performance systems to ethical performance-based physician compensation and high quality care. These include implementing safeguards within current pay-for-performance systems, reaching consensus regarding the obligations of key stakeholders in improving health-care quality, developing valid and comprehensive measures of health-care quality, and utilizing a cautious evaluative approach in creating the next generation of compensation systems that reward genuine quality

Factor Xa Generation by Computational Modeling: An Additional Discriminator to Thrombin Generation Evaluation

Factor (f)Xa is a critical enzyme in blood coagulation that is responsible for the initiation and propagation of thrombin generation. Previously we have shown that analysis of computationally generated thrombin profiles is a tool to investigate hemostasis in various populations. In this study, we evaluate the potential of computationally derived time courses of fXa generation as another approach for investigating thrombotic risk. Utilizing the case (n = 473) and control (n = 426) population from the Leiden Thrombophilia Study and each individual's plasma protein factor composition for fII, fV, fVII, fVIII, fIX, fX, antithrombin and tissue factor pathway inhibitor, tissue factor-initiated total active fXa generation was assessed using a mathematical model. FXa generation was evaluated by the area under the curve (AUC), the maximum rate (MaxR) and level (MaxL) and the time to reach these, TMaxR and TMaxL, respectively. FXa generation was analyzed in the entire populations and in defined subgroups (by sex, age, body mass index, oral contraceptive use). The maximum rates and levels of fXa generation occur over a 10- to 12- fold range in both cases and controls. This variation is larger than that observed with thrombin (3–6 fold) in the same population. The greatest risk association was obtained using either MaxR or MaxL of fXa generation; with an ∼2.2 fold increased risk for individuals exceeding the 90th percentile. This risk was similar to that of thrombin generation(MaxR OR 2.6). Grouping defined by oral contraceptive (OC) use in the control population showed the biggest differences in fXa generation; a >60% increase in the MaxR upon OC use. FXa generation can distinguish between a subset of individuals characterized by overlapping thrombin generation profiles. Analysis of fXa generation is a phenotypic characteristic which may prove to be a more sensitive discriminator than thrombin generation among all individuals