Using Poultry to Enhance Food Security in Stann Creek, Belize

Food insecurity is a growing issue in developing and developed countries alike, and in countries like Belize, the prevalence of hunger has soared in recent years. Not having access to diets with sufficient calories and nutrients leads to a host of developmental issues, including stunting and cognitive delays. The purpose of this work was to create an all-encompassing manual for small-scale poultry production in order to provide nourishment for the students and staff of a school in Belize. After determining that the best way to meet the school’s needs was through dual-purpose birds, background research was conducted to determine small-scale poultry facilities in developing countries. This involved designing the layout for the poultry houses (one for layers and one for broilers) given the space available, as well as sourcing materials both locally and abroad. The manual was written to include background information and step-by-step instructions for constructing the houses and caring for the birds. The researchers anticipate that this farm will positively impact the lives of the students and faculty of the school, in that they will have access to poultry meat and eggs, which will increase physical and cognitive performance, provide hands-on education, and incentivize students to finish their schooling rather than quitting to work to provide for their families

Kitchen-Sink Enlightenment: A Review of “Grace for Amateurs”

Excerpt: Here’s an honest admission: Several times while reading Lily Burana’s new book Grace for Amateurs: Field Notes on a Journey Back to Faith, I consulted the copyright page, confirming again that Grace for Amateurs was really published by Thomas Nelson, the notoriously evangelical (and, in my mind, notoriously traditional) press. After all, it wasn’t that long ago that Thomas Nelson asked another writer to remove the word “vagina” from her book, well aware that Christian readers would balk at language so closely associated with women and S-E-X. Would this same publisher be willing to support a memoir as edgy and progressive as Burana’s

Binding of His-tagged fluorophores to lipid bilayers and giant vesicles

His-tagged molecules can be attached to lipid bilayers via certain anchor lipids, a method that has been widely used for the biofunctionalization of membranes and vesicles. To measure the coverage by the membrane-bound molecules, it is useful to study molecules that are fluorescent as well. Here, we use two such molecules, green fluorescence protein (GFP) and green-fluorescent fluorescin isothiocyanate (FITC), both of which are tagged with a chain of six histidines that bind to achor lipids within the bilayers. This His-tag is much smaller in size than the GFP molecule but somewhat larger than the FITC dye. The lipid bilayers form giant unilamellar vesicles (GUVs), the behavior of which can be directly observed in the optical microscope. Several protocols for the preparation of GUVs have been developed. We apply and compare three well-established protocols based on polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) hydrogel swelling, electroformation on platinum wires, and electroformation on indium tin oxide (ITO) glass. For the same nanomolar concentration in the exterior solution, the coverage by His-tagged FITC is much lower than the one by His-tagged GFP. However, for both GFP and FITC, we find that the binding of the His-tagged molecules to the anchor lipids depends strongly on the preparation method. The highest binding affinitiy is obtained for electroformation on platinum wires. PVA gel swelling gives rise to a somewhat smaller binding affinity whereas electroformation on ITO glass leads to essentially no binding. Furthermore, the binding affinitiy is also observed to depend on the pH of the aqueous solution, with a relatively weak and strong pH-dependence for His-tagged GFP and His-tagged FITC, respectively

Nafld epidemiology, emerging pharmacotherapy, liver transplantation implications and the trends in the United States

© 2020 Authors. Nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is a hepatic mani-festation of metabolic syndrome. The spread of obesity worldwide in pandemic proportions has led to a rapid rise of NAFLD in developed and developing countries alike. There are no approved pharmacological agents to treat steatohepatitis or advanced fibrosis but obeticholic acid recently has shown some promise in phase III trial. Currently, NAFLD is the number one etiology for simultaneous liver and kidney transplantation in the USA, second most common indication for liver transplantation (LT) and projected to become number one very soon. LT for NAFLD poses unique challenges, as these patients are generally older, obese and more likely to have a number of metabolic risk factors. Bariatric surgery is an option and can be considered if a structured weight loss program does not achieve the sustained weight loss goal. Comprehensive cardiovascular risk assessment and aggres-sive management of comorbid conditions are crucial in the LT evaluation process to improve post-transplant survival. Re-current nonalcoholic steatohepatitis after LT is not uncom-mon, and thus warrants primary and secondary prevention strategies through a multidisciplinary approach. Prevalence of NAFLD in a donor population is a unique and growing concern that limits the access to quality liver grafts

Microstructured blood vessel surrogates reveal structural tropism of motile malaria parasites

Plasmodium sporozoites, the highly motile forms of the malaria parasite, are transmitted naturally by mosquitoes and traverse the skin to find, associate with, and enter blood capillaries. Research aimed at understanding how sporozoites select blood vessels is hampered by the lack of a suitable experimental system. Arrays of uniform cylindrical pillars can be used to study small cells moving in controlled environments. Here, an array system displaying a variety of pillars with different diameters and shapes is developed in order to investigate how Plasmodium sporozoites associate to the pillars as blood vessel surrogates. Investigating the association of sporozoites to pillars in arrays displaying pillars of different diameters reveals that the crescent-shaped parasites prefer to associate with and migrate around pillars with a similar curvature. This suggests that after transmission by a mosquito, malaria parasites may use a structural tropism to recognize blood capillaries in the dermis in order to gain access to the blood stream

Palladium nanoparticles by electrospinning from poly(acrylonitrile-co-acrylic acid)-PdCl2 solutions. Relations between preparation conditions, particle size, and catalytic activity

Catalytic palladium (Pd) nanoparticles on electrospun copolymers of acrylonitrile and acrylic acid (PAN-AA) mats were produced via reduction of PdCl2 with hydrazine. Fiber mats were electrospun from homogeneous solutions of PAN-AA and PdCl2 in dimethylformamide (DMF). Pd cations were reduced to Pd metals when fiber mats were treated in an aqueous hydrazine solution at room temperature. Pd atoms nucleate and form small crystallites whose sizes were estimated from the peak broadening of X-ray diffraction peaks. Two to four crystallites adhere together and form agglomerates. Agglomerate sizes and fiber diameters were determined by scanning and transmission electron microscopy. Spherical Pd nanoparticles were dispersed homogeneously on the electrospun nanofibers. The effects of copolymer composition and amount of PdCl2 on particle size were investigated. Pd particle size mainly depends on the amount of acrylic acid functional groups and PdCl2 concentration in the spinning solution. Increasing acrylic acid concentration on polymer chains leads to larger Pd nanoparticles. In addition, Pd particle size becomes larger with increasing PdCl2 concentration in the spinning solution. Hence, it is possible to tune the number density and the size of metal nanoparticles. The catalytic activity of the Pd nanoparticles in electrospun mats was determined by selective hydrogenation of dehydrolinalool (3,7-dimethyloct-6- ene-1-yne-3-ol, DHL) in toluene at 90 °C. Electrospun fibers with Pd particles have 4.5 times higher catalytic activity than the current Pd/Al2O3 catalyst

Роль хемокинов в рекрутировании клеток-предшественников в опухолевую нишу при раке молочной железы

Развитие первичной опухоли сопровождается формированием опухолевой ниши, котораясоздает благоприятные условия для выживания и пролиферации раковых клеток. Одним из ключевых элементов эволюции опухолевой ниши является рекрутирование костномозговых клеток-предшественников, включая клетки-предшественники макрофагов, мезенхимальные столовые клетки, эндотелиальные и гемопоэтические клетки-предшественники. Миграция упомянутых клеток в опухоль регулируется рядом хемокинов, в том числе CCL2, CXCL12, MSP (macrophage stimulating protein) и MIF (macrophage inhibitory factor). Целью настоящего исследования являлось изучение параметров опухолевой ниши при раке молочной железы. Исследование включало 24 больных с инвазивной карциномой неспецифического типа молочной железы. В суспензии опухолевых клеток методом проточной цитофлюориметрии определяли содержание клеток-предшественников. Концентрацию хемокинов CCL2, CXCL12, MSP и MIF в венозной крови больных оценивали с помощью твердофазного иммуноферментного анализа. Достоверных различий в содержании исследованных клеточных популяций, а также концентрации изученных хемокинов между пациентами, разделенными на группы взависимости от наличия или отсутствия лимфогенных метастазов и неоадъювантного лечения, обнаружено не было. В то же время, установлена прямая корреляционная связь между содержанием гемопоэтических клеток-предшественников в опухоли и концентрацией CXCL12 и MIF в крови

Sampling Local Fungal Diversity in an Undergraduate Laboratory using DNA Barcoding

Traditional methods for fungal species identification require diagnostic morphological characters and are often limited by the availability of fresh fruiting bodies and local identification resources. DNA barcoding offers an additional method of species identification and is rapidly developing as a critical tool in fungal taxonomy. As an exercise in an undergraduate biology course, we identified 9 specimens collected from the Hendrix College campus in Conway, Arkansas, USA to the genus or species level using morphology. We report that DNA barcoding targeting the internal transcribed spacer (ITS) region supported several of our taxonomic determinations and we were able to contribute 5 ITS sequences to GenBank that were supported by vouchered collection information. We suggest that small-scale barcoding projects are possible and that they have value for documenting fungal diversity

Association Between Modifiable Risk Factors and Pharmaceutical Expenditures Among Adults With Atherosclerotic Cardiovascular Disease in the United States: 2012–2013 Medical Expenditures Panel Survey

Background Atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease (ASCVD) causes most deaths in the United States and accounts for the highest healthcare spending. The association between the modifiable risk factors (MRFs) of ASCVD and pharmaceutical expenditures are largely unknown. Methods and Results We examined the association between MRFs and pharmaceutical expenditures among adults with ASCVD using the 2012 and 2013 Medical Expenditure Panel Survey. A 2‐part model was used while accounting for the survey\u27s complex design to obtain nationally representative results. All costs were adjusted to 2013 US dollars using the gross domestic product deflator. The annual total pharmaceutical expenditure among those with ASCVD was $71.6 billion, 33$519 [95% confidence interval (CI), $12–918; P=0.011]), dyslipidemia ($631 [95% CI, $168–1094; P=0.008]), hypertension: ($1078 [95% CI, $697–1460; P\u3c0.001)], and diabetes mellitus ($2006 [95% CI, $1470–2542]). Compared with those with optimal MRFs (0–1), those with average MRFs (2–3) spent an average of$1184 (95% CI, $805–1564; P\u3c0.001) more on medications, and those with poor MRFs (≥4) spent$2823 (95% CI, $2338–3307; P\u3c0.001) more. Conclusions Worsening MRFs were proportionally associated with higher annual pharmaceutical expenditures among patients with established ASCVD regardless of non‐ASCVD comorbidity. In‐depth studies of the roles played by other factors in this association can help reduce medication‐related expenditures among ASCVD patients