40 research outputs found
Sca-1 positive pancreatic progenitor cells: a replacement for transplanted islets
A major challenge in the treatment of Type I diabetes is the lack of a restorative therapy to replace lost islet mass. Islet or pancreas transplant has proven effective at curing diabetes but its use is severely limited due to donor shortage. An alternative therapy would involve transplantation of a robust, easily accessible cellular population to replace damaged islets and restore insulin secretion. We have isolated a murine pancreatic progenitor cell, using stem cell antigen 1 (Sca-1), a marker of hematopoietic stem cells. These cells are capable of in vitro expansion and differentiation into pancreatic lineage, demonstrate and maintain expression of pancreatic transcription factors, and produce basal amounts of insulin. We theorize that this cell population used, in conjunction with a bioreactor-type culture system that mimics the niche of the pancreas in vivo will generate a viable cell source that has potential for use in the treatment of diabetes
Beyond the Bayley: Neurocognitive Assessments of Development During Infancy and Toddlerhood
The use of global, standardized instruments is conventional among clinicians and researchers interested in assessing neurocognitive development. Exclusively relying on these tests for evaluating effects may underestimate or miss specific effects on early cognition. The goal of this review is to identify alternative measures for possible inclusion in future clinical trials and interventions evaluating early neurocognitive development. The domains included for consideration are attention, memory, executive function, language and socio-emotional development. Although domain-based tests are limited, as psychometric properties have not yet been well-established, this review includes tasks and paradigms that have been reliably used across various developmental psychology laboratories
Relationships between climate, radial growth and wood properties of mature loblolly pine in Hawaii and a northern and southern site in the southeastern United States
A Randomized Trial Examining the Effects of Parent Engagement on Early Language and Literacy: The Getting Ready Intervention
Language and literacy skills established during early childhood are critical for later school success. Parental engagement with children has been linked to a number of adaptive characteristics in preschoolers including language and literacy development, and family-school collaboration is an important contributor to school readiness. This study reports the results of a randomized trial of a parent engagement intervention designed to facilitate school readiness among disadvantaged preschool children, with a particular focus on language and literacy development. Participants included 217 children, 211 parents, and 29 Head Start teachers in 21 schools. Statistically significant differences in favor of the treatment group were observed between treatment and control participants in the rate of change over 2 academic years on teacher reports of childrenâs language use (d = 1.11), reading (d = 1.25), and writing skills (d = .93). Significant intervention effects on childrenâs direct measures of expressive language were identified for a subgroup of cases where there were concerns about a childâs development upon entry into preschool. Additionally, other child and family moderators revealed specific variables that influenced the treatmentâs effects
The James Webb Space Telescope Mission
Twenty-six years ago a small committee report, building on earlier studies,
expounded a compelling and poetic vision for the future of astronomy, calling
for an infrared-optimized space telescope with an aperture of at least .
With the support of their governments in the US, Europe, and Canada, 20,000
people realized that vision as the James Webb Space Telescope. A
generation of astronomers will celebrate their accomplishments for the life of
the mission, potentially as long as 20 years, and beyond. This report and the
scientific discoveries that follow are extended thank-you notes to the 20,000
team members. The telescope is working perfectly, with much better image
quality than expected. In this and accompanying papers, we give a brief
history, describe the observatory, outline its objectives and current observing
program, and discuss the inventions and people who made it possible. We cite
detailed reports on the design and the measured performance on orbit.Comment: Accepted by PASP for the special issue on The James Webb Space
Telescope Overview, 29 pages, 4 figure
Relationships between climate, radial growth and wood properties of mature loblolly pine in Hawaii and a northern and southern site in the southeastern United States
Production rates of loblolly pine (Pinus taeda L.) in favorable exotic environments indicate that full biological expression of growth potential in loblolly pine has not yet been attained in its native range. In previous work, high productivity in a loblolly pine plantation in Hawaii (HI) was hypothesized to be related to a more favorable climate conducive to year round carbon gain. To better understand the role of climate in limiting loblolly pine growth, relationships between radial growth and climate were examined in mature loblolly pine grown on two sites representing the opposite latitudinal ends of its ecological niche, Mississippi (MS) and North Carolina (NC), and on a third site in Hawaii (HI) representing a more favorable exotic environment. Raw ring widths were detrended and chronologies built for each site. At the northernmost site, ring width index (RWI) was positively correlated to February, April and July temperatures, annual mean temperature of the current and previous year, and annual maximum temperature. In MS trees, the only significant correlation between growth and climate was a positive correlation between RWI and November temperature. Growth at the MS site was likely more impacted by frequent hurricanes. In HI trees, no significant correlations between growth and temperature were observed but RWI was significantly related to precipitation during the dry season, which occurred from MayâSeptember. Potential anatomical alterations in the earlywood and latewood transition zones and timing of earlywood and latewood formation were indicated and may account for low ring specific gravity and percent latewood in HI trees. The moderate temperatures at the HI site likely supported high productivity but sensitivity to precipitation in HI trees indicates that reductions in water availability may effect loblolly pine growth even under more moderate temperatures when evaporative demand is low
Toddlers can adaptively change how they categorize: same objects, same session, two different categorical distinctions
Two experiments demonstrate that 14- to 18-month-old toddlers can adaptively change how they categorize a set of objects within a single session, and that this ability is related to vocabulary size. In both experiments, toddlers were presented with a sequential touching task with objects that could be categorized either according to some perceptually salient dimension corresponding to a taxonomic distinction (e.g. animals vs. vehicles) or to some less obvious dimension (e.g. rigid vs. deformable). In each experiment, children with larger productive vocabularies responded to both dimensions, showing evidence of sensitivity to each way of categorizing the items. Children with smaller productive vocabularies attended only to the taxonomically related categorical grouping. These experiments confirm that toddlers can adaptively shift the basis of their categorization and highlight the dynamic interaction between the child and the current task in early categorization