The photochemical thiol-ene reaction as a versatile method for the synthesis of glutathione S-conjugates targeting the bacterial potassium efflux system Kef

Acknowledgements This work was funded by The Wellcome Trust (WT092552MA) and the Oxford University Press John Fell fund (093/380). SJC thanks St Hugh’s College, Oxford, for research support.Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Experimental Measurements of Binder Wave Speeds using Wavenumber Decomposition

Prior work has provided few wave speed measurements for the binder materials commonly used with plastic- bonded energetics. Furthermore, those measurements that have been reported are largely based upon rudimentary, \u27pitch and catch\u27 methodologies, which involve sending a pulse from one transducer to another transducer at a set distance apart and measuring the time of flight. Given this, a more rigorous method for determining longitudinal and shear wave speeds in this important class of materials was desired. In this work, material wave speeds are recovered by measuring the vibrational response of a 2D line across the surface of a beam in response to a mechanical excitation and analyzing the data in the frequency-wavenumber domain

What's in it for Me and My Agency? A Survey on the Benefits of Engaging Volunteers with Disabilities

In 1998, the Association for Volunteer Administration adopted a formal Statement of Inclusiveness (AVA Board of Directors, 1999) that defines diversity in its broadest terms, and proclaimed the value of inclusiveness in volunteering and throughout the profession. This followed a 1995 process that identified professional ethics in volunteer administration. Among the professional ethics identified were citizenship and respect

Teaming Up for Inclusive Volunteering: A Case Study of a Volunteer Program for Youth with and without Disabilities

Volunteerism is a recreational activity that may hold the key to greater social inclusion for individuals with disabilities into our communities. Facilitating inclusive volunteering opportunities for youth with and without disabilities has a potential scope of impact that must not be ignored, including benefits to the youth and our communities. A case study of an inclusive youth volunteer program is described. Out-comes for participants included increased knowledge of volunteerism, increased social interaction, and psychosocial outcomes such as increased belief in self and increased sense of responsibility. The feasibility and sustainability of inclusive volunteer programs, as well as future programming and research needs are also discussed

Engaging Volunteers with Disabilities: A Qualitative Study

Many volunteer administrators often wonder what they can do to increase their volunteer base and improve the efficiency, longevity, and morale of their current volunteers and staff. One virtually untapped, and certainly underutilized, population from which new volunteers may be recruited comprises individuals with disabilities. Volunteer coordinators with limited-to-no experience engaging volunteers with disabilities may be concerned, however, that increased time and money to supervise may be required, or special accommodations may be needed, to engage this population. These concerns are commonly cited by volunteer coordinators as barriers to successfully engaging volunteers with disabilities (CSV's Retired and Senior Volunteer Programme, 2000; Graff & Vedell, 2003; Miller, Schleien, & Bedini, 2003). Nevertheless, many agencies have deemed these barriers worthy of addressing and overcoming

Community for all: The therapeutic recreation practitioner’s role in inclusive volunteering

Participation in volunteerism has great potential in helping individuals reach their desired goals such as improving self-esteem, sense of purpose, social connectedness, happiness, quality of life, and community inclusion. A rationale for the facilitation of inclusive volunteering is discussed, including the current status of volunteering, the multitude of benefits that can be reaped from volunteerism, and a synopsis of the literature on individuals with disabilities as volunteers. Additionally, we review the vital role that therapeutic recreation practitioners could play in assisting individuals with disabilities to incorporate volunteering into their leisure repertoires

A comparison of massively parallel nucleotide sequencing with oligonucleotide microarrays for global transcription profiling

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>RNA-Seq exploits the rapid generation of gigabases of sequence data by Massively Parallel Nucleotide Sequencing, allowing for the mapping and digital quantification of whole transcriptomes. Whilst previous comparisons between RNA-Seq and microarrays have been performed at the level of gene expression, in this study we adopt a more fine-grained approach. Using RNA samples from a normal human breast epithelial cell line (MCF-10a) and a breast cancer cell line (MCF-7), we present a comprehensive comparison between RNA-Seq data generated on the Applied Biosystems SOLiD platform and data from Affymetrix Exon 1.0ST arrays. The use of Exon arrays makes it possible to assess the performance of RNA-Seq in two key areas: detection of expression at the granularity of individual exons, and discovery of transcription outside annotated loci.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>We found a high degree of correspondence between the two platforms in terms of exon-level fold changes and detection. For example, over 80% of exons detected as expressed in RNA-Seq were also detected on the Exon array, and 91% of exons flagged as changing from Absent to Present on at least one platform had fold-changes in the same direction. The greatest detection correspondence was seen when the read count threshold at which to flag exons Absent in the SOLiD data was set to <it>t</it><1 suggesting that the background error rate is extremely low in RNA-Seq. We also found RNA-Seq more sensitive to detecting differentially expressed exons than the Exon array, reflecting the wider dynamic range achievable on the SOLiD platform. In addition, we find significant evidence of novel protein coding regions outside known exons, 93% of which map to Exon array probesets, and are able to infer the presence of thousands of novel transcripts through the detection of previously unreported exon-exon junctions.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>By focusing on exon-level expression, we present the most fine-grained comparison between RNA-Seq and microarrays to date. Overall, our study demonstrates that data from a SOLiD RNA-Seq experiment are sufficient to generate results comparable to those produced from Affymetrix Exon arrays, even using only a single replicate from each platform, and when presented with a large genome.</p

Engaging Volunteers with Disabilities: A Qualitative Study

The authors outline the benefits to engaging volunteers with disabilities. They discuss their research study focused on the qualitative benefits of such engagement for both volunteers and volunteer administrators