The Cost of Economic and Racial Injustice in Postsecondary Education

In partnership with the Postsecondary Value Commission, we conducted a thought experiment on the costs of inequality in the US education system. Our simulation found that the US economy misses out on $956 billion per year, along with numerous nonmonetary benefits, as a result of postsecondary attainment gaps by economic status and race/ethnicity. The Cost of Economic and Racial Injustice in Postsecondary Education finds that closing these gaps would require an initial public investment of at least$3.97 trillion, but the benefits would outweigh the costs over time. Equalizing educational attainment without increasing student debt for low-income adults could also boost GDP by a total of $764 billion annually

HIT: linking herbal active ingredients to targets

The information of protein targets and small molecule has been highly valued by biomedical and pharmaceutical research. Several protein target databases are available online for FDA-approved drugs as well as the promising precursors that have largely facilitated the mechanistic study and subsequent research for drug discovery. However, those related resources regarding to herbal active ingredients, although being unusually valued as a precious resource for new drug development, is rarely found. In this article, a comprehensive and fully curated database for Herb Ingredients’ Targets (HIT, http://lifecenter.sgst.cn/hit/) has been constructed to complement above resources. Those herbal ingredients with protein target information were carefully curated. The molecular target information involves those proteins being directly/indirectly activated/inhibited, protein binders and enzymes whose substrates or products are those compounds. Those up/down regulated genes are also included under the treatment of individual ingredients. In addition, the experimental condition, observed bioactivity and various references are provided as well for user's reference. Derived from more than 3250 literatures, it currently contains 5208 entries about 1301 known protein targets (221 of them are described as direct targets) affected by 586 herbal compounds from more than 1300 reputable Chinese herbs, overlapping with 280 therapeutic targets from Therapeutic Targets Database (TTD), and 445 protein targets from DrugBank corresponding to 1488 drug agents. The database can be queried via keyword search or similarity search. Crosslinks have been made to TTD, DrugBank, KEGG, PDB, Uniprot, Pfam, NCBI, TCM-ID and other databases

Transcranial direct current stimulation facilitates cognitive multi-task performance differentially depending on anode location and subtask

There is a need to facilitate acquisition of real world cognitive multi-tasks that require long periods of training (e.g., air traffic control, intelligence analysis, medicine). Non-invasive brain stimulation—specifically transcranial Direct Current Stimulation (tDCS)—has promise as a method to speed multi-task training. We hypothesized that during acquisition of the complex multi-task Space Fortress, subtasks that require focused attention on ship control would benefit from tDCS aimed at the dorsal attention network while subtasks that require redirection of attention would benefit from tDCS aimed at the right hemisphere ventral attention network. We compared effects of 30 min prefrontal and parietal stimulation to right and left hemispheres on subtask performance during the first 45 min of training. The strongest effects both overall and for ship flying (control and velocity subtasks) were seen with a right parietal (C4, reference to left shoulder) montage, shown by modeling to induce an electric field that includes nodes in both dorsal and ventral attention networks. This is consistent with the re-orienting hypothesis that the ventral attention network is activated along with the dorsal attention network if a new, task-relevant event occurs while visuospatial attention is focused (Corbetta et al., 2008). No effects were seen with anodes over sites that stimulated only dorsal (C3) or only ventral (F10) attention networks. The speed subtask (update memory for symbols) benefited from an F9 anode over left prefrontal cortex. These results argue for development of tDCS as a training aid in real world settings where multi-tasking is critical

Adenoviruses in Lymphocytes of the Human Gastro-Intestinal Tract

Objective: Persistent adenoviral shedding in stools is known to occur past convalescence following acute adenoviral infections. We wished to establish the frequency with which adenoviruses may colonize the gut in normal human subjects. Methods: The presence of adenoviral DNA in intestinal specimens obtained at surgery or autopsy was tested using a nested PCR method. The amplified adenoviral DNA sequences were compared to each other and to known adenoviral species. Lamina propria lymphocytes (LPLs) were isolated from the specimens and the adenoviral copy numbers in the CD4+ and CD8+ fractions were determined by quantitative PCR. Adenoviral gene expression was tested by amplification of adenoviral mRNA. Results: Intestinal tissue from 21 of 58 donors and LPLs from 21 of 24 donors were positive for the presence of adenoviral DNA. The majority of the sequences could be assigned to adenoviral species E, although species B and C sequences were also common. Multiple sequences were often present in the same sample. Forty-one non-identical sequences were identified from 39 different tissue donors. Quantitative PCR for adenoviral DNA in CD4+ and CD8+ fractions of LPLs showed adenoviral DNA to be present in both cell types and ranged from a few hundred to several million copies per million cells on average. Active adenoviral gene expression as evidenced by the presence of adenoviral messenger RNA in intestinal lymphocytes was demonstrated in 9 of the 11 donors tested

Linking species concepts to natural product discovery in the post-genomic era

A widely accepted species concept for bacteria has yet to be established. As a result, species designations are inconsistently applied and tied to what can be considered arbitrary metrics. Increasing access to DNA sequence data and clear evidence that bacterial genomes are dynamic entities that include large numbers of horizontally acquired genes have added a new level of insight to the ongoing species concept debate. Despite uncertainties over how to apply species concepts to bacteria, there is clear evidence that sequence-based approaches can be used to resolve cohesive groups that maintain the properties of species. This cohesion is clearly evidenced in the genus Salinispora, where three species have been discerned despite very close relationships based on 16S rRNA sequence analysis. The major phenotypic differences among the three species are associated with secondary metabolite production, which occurs in species-specific patterns. These patterns are maintained on a global basis and provide evidence that secondary metabolites have important ecological functions. These patterns also suggest that an effective strategy for natural product discovery is to target the cultivation of new Salinispora taxa. Alternatively, bioinformatic analyses of biosynthetic genes provide opportunities to predict secondary metabolite novelty and reduce the redundant isolation of well-known metabolites. Although much remains to be learned about the evolutionary relationships among bacteria and how fundamental units of diversity can be resolved, genus and species descriptions remain the most effective method of scientific communication

Polymeric human Fc-fusion proteins with modified effector functions

The success of Fc-fusion bio-therapeutics has spurred the development of other Fc-fusion products for treating and/or vaccinating against a range of diseases. We describe a method to modulate their function by converting them into well-defined stable polymers. This strategy resulted in cylindrical hexameric structures revealed by tapping mode atomic force microscopy (AFM). Polymeric Fc-fusions were significantly less immunogenic than their dimeric or monomeric counterparts, a result partly owing to their reduced ability to interact with critical Fc-receptors. However, in the absence of the fusion partner, polymeric IgG1-Fc molecules were capable of binding selectively to FcγRs, with significantly increased affinity owing to their increased valency, suggesting that these reagents may prove of immediate utility in the development of well-defined replacements for intravenous immunoglobulin (IVIG) therapy. Overall, these findings establish an effective IgG Fc-fusion based polymeric platform with which the therapeutic and vaccination applications of Fc-fusion immune-complexes can now be explored

Uncovering Genes with Divergent mRNA-Protein Dynamics in Streptomyces coelicolor

Many biological processes are intrinsically dynamic, incurring profound changes at both molecular and physiological levels. Systems analyses of such processes incorporating large-scale transcriptome or proteome profiling can be quite revealing. Although consistency between mRNA and proteins is often implicitly assumed in many studies, examples of divergent trends are frequently observed. Here, we present a comparative transcriptome and proteome analysis of growth and stationary phase adaptation in Streptomyces coelicolor, taking the time-dynamics of process into consideration. These processes are of immense interest in microbiology as they pertain to the physiological transformations eliciting biosynthesis of many naturally occurring therapeutic agents. A shotgun proteomics approach based on mass spectrometric analysis of isobaric stable isotope labeled peptides (iTRAQ™) enabled identification and rapid quantification of approximately 14% of the theoretical proteome of S. coelicolor. Independent principal component analyses of this and DNA microarray-derived transcriptome data revealed that the prominent patterns in both protein and mRNA domains are surprisingly well correlated. Despite this overall correlation, by employing a systematic concordance analysis, we estimated that over 30% of the analyzed genes likely exhibited significantly divergent patterns, of which nearly one-third displayed even opposing trends. Integrating this data with biological information, we discovered that certain groups of functionally related genes exhibit mRNA-protein discordance in a similar fashion. Our observations suggest that differences between mRNA and protein synthesis/degradation mechanisms are prominent in microbes while reaffirming the plausibility of such mechanisms acting in a concerted fashion at a protein complex or sub-pathway level

DETERMINATION OF TYPES OF INDIVIDUALS IN APHIDS, ROTIFERS AND CLADOCERA 1

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/72827/1/j.1469-185X.1929.tb00888.x.pd