FOLATE CONJUGATED DENDRIMERS FOR TARGETED ANTICANCER THERAPY

Anticancer therapeutics are often limited to suboptimal doses due to their lack of selectivity for tumor cells and resultant damage to healthy tissue. These limitations motivated researchers to develop tumor-specific delivery systems for improved therapeutic efficacy and reduced unintended cytotoxicity. Polyamidoamine dendrimers offer an ideal platform for designing targeted therapeutics with tunable characteristics that optimize pharmacokinetic behavior and targeting specificity. Ligand conjugation to dendrimer provides the biochemical interaction necessary to activate tumor-specific receptors for receptor-mediated endocytosis and effective internalization of polyplexes. Tumor-specific receptors overexpressed in carcinomas, like folate receptor-alpha (FOLRα), are targeted by ligand-conjugated dendrimer to allow enhanced internalization of dendrimer and its therapeutic cargo. We examined the cellular trafficking dynamics and potential of folate-conjugated dendrimer for nucleic acid delivery in vitro. Results show folate-conjugation to G4 PAMAM dendrimer (G4FA) confers enhanced uptake in FOLRα-positive tumor cells. Cells internalize G4FA in a receptor-dependent manner with specificity for FOLRα-positive tumor cells

Pilot in-field food safety training assessment of donation gardens managed by Master Gardeners in Iowa

Lack of access to safe, healthy food is a significant concern. Many non-profit organizations, such as local food pantries, are exploring ways to increase access to fresh produce in both rural and urban areas. Due to the vulnerability of the target audience that frequents the pantries, gardeners must distribute fresh produce that is safe to eat and free of pathogens. The vulnerable population includes young children, immunocompromised people, older adults, and pregnant women. The objective of this study was to assess Master Gardeners’ (n=39) awareness, knowledge, and attitude following a pilot in-field food safety training on managing donation gardens. Each hands-on activity in the training was designed to teach gardeners the importance of reducing risk in the garden. To evaluate the training, the team adopted a three-stage process: 1) Qualitative research to learn more about Master Gardeners’ perceptions of food safety and their motivations for engaging in the volunteer activity, used to inform workshop development, 2) Pre/post measurement of changes in awareness, knowledge, and attitude at the time of the workshop, and 3) Measurement of any changes in the practice of key food safety protocols two to three months post-workshop. The evaluation results showed that knowledge increased significantly after the gardeners participated and completed hands-on activities. For example, we observed that the gardeners gained significant knowledge regarding what items were crucial in a food safety tool kit. The post-training follow-up evaluation indicated that participants made significant changes too many but not all of their practices. However, gardeners purchased items to help them implement food safety practices in donation gardens throughout Iowa

Quantifying the fertilizer value of algal meal : an evaluation of an integrated dairy-anaerobic digester-algae production facility

Algae have shown great potential as a source for renewable fuels. However, current production schemes have not been able to prove a sustainable energy return on investment due in part to the high costs of nutrient addition and the energy required for drying the biomass. Integrated algae-dairy production systems have been posited as a potential solution for algal production barriers as well as a way to capture environmentally problematic nutrients excreted by animals in concentrated animal feeding operations. As the organic food industry grows, so will the need for organic nitrogen (N) fertilizers. Algal meal, the high protein co-product of algal biodiesel production, could help meet this need. This work has two objectives: 1) to quantify the fertilizer value of algal meal relative to an organic N fertilizer, feather meal, and a conventional standard, urea; 2) to show that utilizing the fertilizer value of algal meal at $800 Mg⁻¹ will allow an integrated dairy-anaerobic digester-algae production facility to be an economically viable manure management system. A laboratory incubation was carried out to characterize carbon (C) and N mineralization of two different algal meal products. The N mineralization rate, C respiration rate, and impact on pH and soluble salts were the same for feather meal and one of the algal meals. A field trial was conducted to assess the overall crop productivity of corn grown with algal meal fertilizer, feather meal, and urea. There was no significant difference in corn ear yield or ear N uptake among any of the algal meal treatment rates (101 kg N ha⁻¹, 146 kg N ha⁻¹, 190 kg N ha⁻¹) and the high rate of feather meal or urea (190 kg N ha⁻¹) application. These results indicate that algal meal is an effective N fertilizer that should be valued relative to feather meal on a price per unit of nutrient basis. Considering environmental benefits and current policy incentives, assigning a fertilizer value of algal meal of$800 Mg⁻¹ for a 7-3-1 product adds enough income to make an integrated dairy-anaerobic digester-algae system an economically viable, sustainable farm-energy production system

Introduction to Folk Psychology: Pluralistic Approaches

This introduction to the topical collection, Folk Psychology: Pluralistic Approaches reviews the origins and basic theoretical tenets of the framework of pluralistic folk psychology. It places special emphasis on pluralism about the variety folk psychological strategies that underlie behavioral prediction and explanation beyond belief-desire attribution, and on the diverse range of social goals that folk psychological reasoning supports beyond prediction and explanation. Pluralism is not presented as a single theory or model of social cognition, but rather as a big-tent research program encompassing both revisionary and more traditionally inspired approaches to folk psychology. After reviewing the origins of pluralistic folk psychology, the papers in the current issue are introduced. These papers fall into three thematic clusters: Folk-psychological strategies beyond propositional attitude attribution ; Enculturation and regulative folk psychology ; and Defenses of pluralism

Exploring the chemical link between local ellipticals and their high-redshift progenitors

We present Keck/MOSFIRE K-band spectroscopy of the first mass-selected sample of galaxies at $z\sim2.3$. Targets are selected from the 3D-HST Treasury survey. The six detected galaxies have a mean [NII]$\lambda$6584/H$\alpha$ ratio of $0.27\pm0.01$, with a small standard deviation of 0.05. This mean value is similar to that of UV-selected galaxies of the same mass. The mean gas-phase oxygen abundance inferred from the [NII]/H$\alpha$ ratios depends on the calibration method, and ranges from 12+log(O/H)$_{gas}=8.57$ for the {Pettini} & {Pagel} (2004) calibration to 12+log(O/H)$_{gas}= 8.87$ for the {Maiolino} {et~al.} (2008) calibration. Measurements of the stellar oxygen abundance in nearby quiescent galaxies with the same number density indicate 12+log(O/H)$_{stars}= 8.95$, similar to the gas-phase abundances of the $z\sim2.3$ galaxies if the {Maiolino} {et~al.} (2008) calibration is used. This suggests that these high-redshift star forming galaxies may be progenitors of today's massive early-type galaxies. The main uncertainties are the absolute calibration of the gas-phase oxygen abundance and the incompleteness of the $z\sim2.3$ sample: the galaxies with detected H$\alpha$ tend to be larger and have higher star formation rates than the galaxies without detected H$\alpha$, and we may still be missing the most dust-obscured progenitors.Comment: 7 pages, 5 figures. Accepted for publication in ApJ

Information transfer through disordered media by diffuse waves

We consider the information content h of a scalar multiple-scattered, diffuse wave field $\psi(\vec{r})$ and the information capacity C of a communication channel that employs diffuse waves to transfer the information through a disordered medium. Both h and C are shown to be directly related to the mesoscopic correlations between the values of $\psi(\vec{r})$ at different positions $\vec{r}$ in space, arising due to the coherent nature of the wave. For the particular case of a communication channel between two identical linear arrays of $n \gg 1$ equally-spaced transmitters/receivers (receiver spacing a), we show that the average capacity $\propto n$ and obtain explicit analytic expressions for $/n$ in the limit of $n \to \infty$ and $k \ell \to \infty$, where $k= 2\pi/ \lambda$, $\lambda$ is the wavelength, and $\ell$ is the mean free path. Modification of the above results in the case of finite but large n and $k \ell$ is discussed as well.Comment: REVTeX 4, 12 pages, 7 figure

Parenting interventions for male young offenders: a review of the evidence on what works

Approximately one in four incarcerated male young offenders in the UK is an actual or expectant father. This paper reviews evidence on the effectiveness of parenting interventions for male young offenders. We conducted systematic searches across 20 databases and consulted experts. Twelve relevant evaluations were identified: 10 from the UK, of programmes for incarcerated young offenders, and two from the US, of programmes for young parolees. None used experimental methods or included a comparison group. They suggest that participants like the courses, find them useful, and the interventions may improve knowledge about, and attitudes to, parenting. Future interventions should incorporate elements of promising parenting interventions with young fathers in the community, for example, and/or with older incarcerated parents. Young offender fathers have specific developmental, rehabilitative, and contextual needs. Future evaluations should collect longer-term behavioural parent and child outcome data and should use comparison groups and, ideally, randomization

Redox-neutral organocatalytic Mitsunobu reactions

Nucleophilic substitution reactions of alcohols are amongst the most fundamental and strategically important transformations in organic chemistry. For over half a century these reactions have been achieved using stoichiometric, and often hazardous, reagents to activate the otherwise unreactive alcohols. Here we demonstrate that a specially designed phosphine oxide promotes nucleophilic substitution reactions of primary and secondary alcohols within a redoxneutral catalysis manifold that produces water as the sole by-product. The scope of the catalytic coupling process encompasses a range of acidic pronucleophiles that allow stereospecific construction of carbon-oxygen and carbon-nitrogen bonds

Multiple courses of stereotactic re-irradiation in recurrent oligodendroglioma: a case report

INTRODUCTION: High grade gliomas are an insidious disease associated with an extremely poor prognosis. The role of re-irradiation for recurrent gliomas is unclear but several retrospective studies have indicated mild toxicity and modest outcomes with this regimen. With subsequent progression, it is unclear what options remain and more radiotherapy is rarely offered for fear of surpassing normal central nervous system tissue tolerance and causing significant side effects without significant benefit. CASE PRESENTATION: In this report, we describe a 37-year-old Caucasian male initially diagnosed with a grade IV oligodendroglioma, who received multiple courses of re-irradiation and experienced a survival of 10 years with minimal cognitive or neurologic deficits. CONCLUSION: Significant toxicity with multiple courses of radiation does not always occur. Re-irradiation should be considered in a salvage setting