Storm and Ips typographus disturbance effects on carbon stocks, humus layer carbon fractions and microbial community composition in boreal Picea abies stands

Tree-killing forest disturbances such as storms and bark beetle outbreaks can lead to notable changes in the carbon (C) balance and functioning of forest ecosystems. In this study, the effects of a storm in 2010 followed by an outbreak of European spruce bark beetle (Ips typographus L.) on tree, litter and soil C stocks as well as humus layer C fractions and microbial community composition were examined in boreal Norway spruce (Picea abies L.) stands. Tree (aboveground), litter detritus (distinguishable twig, bark and cones) and soil (humus layer and 0-6 cm mineral soil) C stocks were quantified for undisturbed (living trees), storm disturbed (in 2010) and I. typographus disturbed (tree mortality in circa 2013-2014) plots in 2015-2016. Additional humus layer samples were collected in 2017 for determination of total microbial biomass C, ergosterol (fungal biomass indicator) and K2SO4 extractable (labile) C concentrations, as well as fungal and bacterial community composition (DNA sequencing). Ectomycorrhizal (ECM) fungal mycelial growth in topsoil was also quantified. In spite of the differing initial development and intensity of the two disturbance types, there was little difference in humus layer C and microbiology between the storm and bark beetle disturbed plot types at the time of the study. This may be due to the longer time since the disturbance at the storm disturbed plots. The shift from tree biomass to necromass C stocks was not reflected in differences in SOC stocks or humus layer extractable C concentrations between undisturbed and disturbed plot types, but the amount of litter detritus on forest floor was similar (storm) or higher (beetle) in disturbed plots in comparison to undisturbed ones. Humus layer microbial biomass C and ergosterol concentrations and ECM fungal abundance were lower on disturbed plots in comparison to undisturbed plots. The disturbed plots were also indicated to have a slightly higher abundance of some saprotrophic fungi. Differences in the effects of the two disturbance types may occur when studied at differing spatial scales and at different times after disturbance. To understand the full impact of such disturbances on forest functioning and C balance, long-term monitoring studies will be required.Peer reviewe

"We don't know what we don't know" A Qualitative Study of Medical Student Perceptions of Student Affairs

BACKGROUND/OBJECTIVE As one of the largest medical schools in the U.S. with nine regional campuses, Indiana University School of Medicine Office of Student Affairs (OSA) is designed to address students’ concerns and facilitate their personal and professional development (PPD). U.S. medical schools are evaluated on these areas using a nationally-normed graduation questionnaire of fourth-year students. This study used focus groups to better understand second-year students’ expectations, experiences, and ideas related to PPD programming and relationships with the OSA. METHODS All second-year medical students were invited to participate in a focus group in exchange for a modest meal and school-branded merchandise. The first and second author conducted seven, semi-structured focus groups (3-8 participants each) with a total of 39 students. Discussions were recorded and transcribed verbatim. Three authors used NVivo™ qualitative analysis software to perform inductive thematic analysis according to established methods. RESULTS Four themes were identified: 1. “It’s a Two-Way Street”: students expect accessibility to faculty who can affect change, and ongoing responsiveness about inquiries that have been submitted. 2. Proximally-Relevant Information: information students define as pertinent and ideas about communicating more effectively. 3. Guidance for the Future: students desire mentorship from individuals who truly understand physicians career paths. 4. In the Classroom and Beyond: students want relevant topics and formats for PPD. Participants also provided insights into existing, valuable programming. CONCLUSION/IMPACT Second-year medical students have specific needs for their development, including clinical experience, discussion of current events, and mentorship. Students expressed concern that opportunities for development are not comparable across all campuses. In their relationships with OSA, students desire easy access to voice inquiries and robust responsiveness about resolution. Results of this study can be used at institutions with a regional campus model to shape future programming for PPD and improve channels of communication with all students

Exploring Gene Functions and Phage-Host Protein Interactions in Mycobacteriophage Island3

Island3 is an I1 mycobacteriophage that infects Mycobacterium smegmatis mc²155. It has a total of 76 protein coding genes, but only 17 of these genes have functions assigned by bioinformatics. To discover the functions of the additional genes, we cloned 72 of Island3’s genes and are assaying each gene product for two functions when expressed in the host M. smegmatis: the ability to reduce growth of the host (cytotoxicity) and the ability to protect the host from infection by Island3 or another phage (defense). So far, we have assayed more than 60 of Island3’s genes and found 14 genes that exhibited cytotoxicity but none that exhibited definitive defense against phage infection. We are currently analyzing the remaining genes for cytotoxicity and defense. In addition, we are moving forward with bacterial two-hybrid assays on two of the genes that exhibited cytotoxicity, seeking to identify host proteins that interact with the cytotoxic phage gene products in an attempt to understand the mechanism of cytotoxicity.

Influence of the Consciousness Energy Healing Treatment on the Physicochemical, Spectral, Thermal and Behavioral Properties of Sodium Selenate

Sodium selenate is an important nutraceutical/pharmaceutical compound used for the prevention and treatment of cancer, diabetes, inflammatory diseases, etc. The objective of the current study was to investigate the impact of The Trivedi Effect® - Energy of Consciousness Healing Treatment (Biofield Energy Healing treatment) on physical, structural, thermal, and behavioral properties of sodium selenate using PXRD, PSD, FT-IR, UV-vis, TGA, and DSC analysis. Sodium selenate was divided into two parts – one part was control, while another part was treated with The Trivedi Effect® remotely by seven renowned Biofield Energy Healers and defined as The Trivedi Effect® Treated sample. The PXRD analysis showed a significant alteration of the crystallite size of the treated sample in the range of -34.41% to 33.27% compared to the control sample. However, the average crystallite size of the treated sample was significantly decreased by 7.85% compared with the control sample. The particle size of the treated sample at d10, d50, and d90 values were significantly reduced by 4.72%, 8.40%, and 32.33%, respectively compared with the control sample. Consequently, the surface area of the treated sample was significantly increased by 6.25% compared to the control sample. The control and treated FT-IR spectra indicated the presence of sharp and strong absorption bands at 886 cm-1 and 887 cm-1, respectively due to the Se=O stretching. The UV-vis spectroscopic analysis displayed that the wavelength for the maximum absorbance of the control and treated samples were at 204.6 and 204.9 nm, respectively. TGA analysis revealed that the total weight loss of the treated sample was reduced significantly by 5.64% compared with the control sample. The DSC analysis showed that the treated sample (94.63°C) had very close vaporization temperature than the control sample (94.97°C). But, the latent heat of vaporization was increased significantly in the treated sample by 7.06% compared to the control sample. Thus, The Trivedi Effect® - Energy of Consciousness Healing Treatment might lead to generate a new polymorphic form of sodium selenate, which would be more soluble, bioavailable, and thermally stable compared with the untreated sample. The Trivedi Effect® treated sodium selenate would be very useful to design better nutraceutical/pharmaceutical formulations that might offer better therapeutic response against inflammatory diseases, immunological disorders, stress, aging, infectious diseases, cancer, diabetes, heart diseases, Alzheimer’s disease, etc. https://www.trivedieffect.com/science/influence-of-the-consciousness-energy-healing-treatment-on-the-physicochemical-spectral-thermal-and-behavioral-properties-of-sodium-selenate http://www.sciencepublishinggroup.com/journal/paperinfo?journalid=224&doi=10.11648/j.ajche.20170502.1

Characterization of Physical, Structural, Thermal, and Behavioral Properties of the Consciousness Healing Treated Zinc Chloride

Zinc chloride is an important pharmaceutical/nutraceutical compound used as a source of zinc. The objective of the current study was to investigate the impact of The Trivedi Effect®-Energy of Consciousness Healing Treatment (Biofield Energy Treatment) on physical, structural, thermal, and behavioral properties of zinc chloride using PXRD, PSD, FT-IR, UV-vis, and DSC analysis. Zinc chloride was divided into two parts – one part was control, while another part was treated with The Trivedi Effect® remotely by seven renowned Biofield Energy Healers and defined as The Trivedi Effect® Treated sample. A significant alteration of the crystallite size and relative intensities of the PXRD peaks was observed in The Trivedi Effect® treated sample compared with the control sample. A sharp peak at 2θ equal to 16.58° was observed in the control sample, but it was disappeared in the treated sample. The average crystallite size of the treated sample was significantly reduced by 21.31% compared with the control sample. The particle size values at d10, d50, and d90 were significantly decreased by 8.15%, 6.28%, and 5.26%, respectively in the treated sample compared with the control sample. The surface area of the treated sample was significantly increased by 7.14% compared with the control sample. The FT-IR spectroscopic analysis revealed that Zn-Cl stretching in the control and treated sample were found at 510 cm-1 and 511 cm-1, respectively. The UV-vis analysis exhibited that wavelength of the maximum absorbance (λmax) of both the control and treated samples was at 196 nm. The DSC analysis exhibited that the melting and decomposition temperature were decreased by 0.29% and 0.28%, respectively in the treated zinc chloride compared to the control sample. The latent heat of fusion of the treated sample (370.48 J/g) was increased significantly by 97.71% compared with the control sample (187.39 J/g). This results indicated that zinc chloride need more heat energy to undergo the process of melting after Biofield Energy Treatment. The enthalpy of decomposition of the treated sample was significantly decreased by 15.40% compared with the control sample. The current study anticipated that The Trivedi Effect®-Energy of Consciousness Healing Treatment might lead to produce a new polymorphic form of zinc chloride, which would be more soluble, bioavailable and latent heat of fusion compared with the untreated compound. Hence, the treated zinc chloride would be very useful to design better nutraceutical/pharmaceutical formulations that might offer better therapeutic response against inflammatory diseases, immunological disorders, aging, stress, cancer, etc. https://www.trivedieffect.com/science/characterization-of-physical-structural-thermal-and-behavioral-properties-of-the-consciousness-healing-treated-zinc-chloride http://www.sciencepublishinggroup.com/journal/paperinfo?journalid=206&doi=10.11648/j.wjac.20170202.1

Characterization of Physicochemical, Thermal, Structural, and Behavioral Properties of Magnesium Gluconate After Treatment with the Energy of Consciousness

Magnesium gluconate is a potent antioxidant and widely used for the prevention and treatment of hypomagnesia. The current research was aimed to investigate the impact of The Trivedi Effect® - Energy of Consciousness Healing Treatment on magnesium gluconate for the change in the physicochemical, structural, thermal and behavioral properties using PXRD, PSD, FT-IR, UV-vis spectroscopy, TGA, and DSC analysis. Magnesium gluconate was divided into two parts – one part was control without any Biofield Energy Treatment, while another part was treated with The Trivedi Effect® - Energy of Consciousness Healing Treatment remotely by seven renowned Biofield Energy Healers and defined as The Trivedi Effect® Treated sample. The PXRD analysis exhibited that the crystallite size of the treated sample was remarkably changed from - 24.96% to 99.98% compared with the control sample. The average crystallite size was significantly increased by 7.79% in the treated sample compared with the control sample. PSD analysis revealed that the particle sizes in The Trivedi Effect® Treated sample at d10, d50 and d90 values were decreased by 5.36%, 11.35% and 0.90%, respectively compared with the control sample. The surface area analysis revealed that surface area of the Biofield Energy Treated sample was significantly increased by 7.48% compared with the control sample. The FT-IR and UV-vis analysis showed that structure of the magnesium gluconate remained the same in both the treated and control samples. The TGA analysis revealed four steps thermal degradation of both the samples and the total weight loss of Biofield Energy Treated sample was increased by 0.12% compared with the control sample. The DSC analysis demonstrated that the melting temperature of the Biofield Energy Treated sample (171.29°C) was increased by 0.18% compared with the control sample (170.99°C). The latent heat of fusion was significantly increased by 27.09% in the treated sample compared with the control sample. The current study revealed that The Trivedi Effect® - Energy of Consciousness Healing Treatment (Biofield Energy Healing Treatment) might lead to a new polymorphic form of magnesium gluconate, which would be more soluble, bioavailable, and thermally stable compared with the untreated compound. The Biofield Treated sample could be more stable during manufacturing, delivery or storage conditions than the untreated sample. Hence, The Trivedi Effect® Treated magnesium gluconate would be very useful to design better nutraceutical and/or pharmaceutical formulations that might offer better therapeutic responses against inflammatory diseases, immunological disorders, stress, aging, and other chronic infections. Source: https://www.trivedieffect.com/science/characterization-of-physicochemical-thermal-structural-and-behavioral-properties-of-magnesium-gluconate-after-treatment-with-the-energy-of-consciousness http://www.sciencepublishinggroup.com/journal/paperinfo?journalid=330&doi=10.11648/j.ijpc.20170301.1

Effect of the Energy of Consciousness (The Trivedi Effect®) on the Structural Properties and Isotopic Abundance Ratio of Magnesium Gluconate Using LC-MS and NMR Spectroscopy

Magnesium gluconate has the wide application for the prevention and treatment of hypomagnesemia. The objective of the current study was to investigate the effect of The Trivedi Effect® - Energy of Consciousness Healing Treatment (Biofield Energy Healing Treatment) on magnesium gluconate for the change in the structural properties and isotopic abundance ratio (PM+1/PM) using LC-MS and NMR spectroscopy. Magnesium gluconate was divided into two parts – one part was control, and another part was treated with The Trivedi Effect® - Biofield Energy Healing Treatment remotely by seven renowned Biofield Energy Healers and defined as The Trivedi Effect® Treated sample. The LC-MS analysis of both the control and treated samples revealed the presence of the mass of the protonated magnesium gluconate at m/z 415 at the retention time of 1.53 minutes with almost similar fragmentation pattern. The relative peak intensities of the fragment ions of the treated sample were significantly altered compared with the control sample. The proton and carbon signals for CH, CH2 and CO groups in the proton and carbon NMR spectra were observed almost similar for the control and the treated samples. The isotopic abundance ratio analysis revealed that the percentage of the isotopic abundance ratio of PM+1/PM (2H/1H or 13C/12C or 17O/16O or 25Mg/24Mg) was significantly increased in treated sample by 80.38%, compared with the control sample. Briefly, 13C, 2H, 17O, and 25Mg contributions from (C12H23MgO14)+ to m/z 416; 18O and 26Mg contributions from (C12H23MgO14)+ to m/z 417 in the treated sample were significantly increased compared with the control sample. Thus, the treated magnesium gluconate could be valuable for designing better pharmaceutical and/or nutraceutical formulations through its changed physicochemical and thermal properties, which might be providing better therapeutic response against various diseases such as diabetes mellitus, allergy, aging, inflammatory diseases, immunological disorders, and other chronic infections. The Trivedi Effect® treated magnesium gluconate might be supportive to design the novel potent enzyme inhibitors using its kinetic isotope effects. Source: https://www.trivedieffect.com/science/effect-of-the-energy-of-consciousness-the-trivedi-effect-on-the-structural-properties-and-isotopic-abundance-ratio-of-magnesium-gluconate-using-lc-ms-and-nmr-spectroscopy http://www.sciencepublishinggroup.com/journal/paperinfo?journalid=110&doi=10.11648/j.ab.20170501.1

New genetic loci link adipose and insulin biology to body fat distribution.

Body fat distribution is a heritable trait and a well-established predictor of adverse metabolic outcomes, independent of overall adiposity. To increase our understanding of the genetic basis of body fat distribution and its molecular links to cardiometabolic traits, here we conduct genome-wide association meta-analyses of traits related to waist and hip circumferences in up to 224,459 individuals. We identify 49 loci (33 new) associated with waist-to-hip ratio adjusted for body mass index (BMI), and an additional 19 loci newly associated with related waist and hip circumference measures (P < 5 × 10(-8)). In total, 20 of the 49 waist-to-hip ratio adjusted for BMI loci show significant sexual dimorphism, 19 of which display a stronger effect in women. The identified loci were enriched for genes expressed in adipose tissue and for putative regulatory elements in adipocytes. Pathway analyses implicated adipogenesis, angiogenesis, transcriptional regulation and insulin resistance as processes affecting fat distribution, providing insight into potential pathophysiological mechanisms

Evidence of Inbreeding Depression on Human Height

WOS:000306840400001Peer reviewe

Genetic signature of histiocytic sarcoma revealed by a sleeping beauty transposon genetic screen in mice.

Histiocytic sarcoma is a rare, aggressive neoplasm that responds poorly to therapy. Histiocytic sarcoma is thought to arise from macrophage precursor cells via genetic changes that are largely undefined. To improve our understanding of the etiology of histiocytic sarcoma we conducted a forward genetic screen in mice using the Sleeping Beauty transposon as a mutagen to identify genetic drivers of histiocytic sarcoma. Sleeping Beauty mutagenesis was targeted to myeloid lineage cells using the Lysozyme2 promoter. Mice with activated Sleeping Beauty mutagenesis had significantly shortened lifespan and the majority of these mice developed tumors resembling human histiocytic sarcoma. Analysis of transposon insertions identified 27 common insertion sites containing 28 candidate cancer genes. Several of these genes are known drivers of hematological neoplasms, like Raf1, Fli1, and Mitf, while others are well-known cancer genes, including Nf1, Myc, Jak2, and Pten. Importantly, several new potential drivers of histiocytic sarcoma were identified and could serve as targets for therapy for histiocytic sarcoma patients