The rumen microbial metaproteome as revealed by SDS-PAGE

This work was supported by the RuminOmics project and funded by the European Commission (Grant Agreement No. 289319). The Rowett Institute is funded by the Rural and Environment Science and Analytical Services Division (RESAS) of the Scottish Government. The funding bodies had no role in the design of the study or collection, analysis, or interpretation of data or in writing the manuscript.Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Characterization of rat pulmonary carboxylesterase

The 1839 bp cDNA for rat pulmonary carboxylesterase was cloned by reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT PCR) from total rat lung RNA using specific primers derived from the 5\u27 and 3\u27 untranslated regions of rat hepatic cholesteryl ester hydrolase (CEH). The unique cDNA was sequenced and found to have 99% homology with hepatic CEH. This homology extends to the predicted amino acid sequences which show only six amino acid residue differences in the coding region: three conserved and three nonconserved changes. However, the catalytic activitites of the two proteins are dramatically different. While CEH hydrolyzes cholesterol oleate, the pulmonary carboxylesterase has no activity towards this substrate. The active recombinant lung carboxylesterase was purified using a baculovirus expression system. The substrate specifities were determined using p-nitrophenyl acetate, p-nitrophenyl caprylate and cholesterol oleate. Also, the KM, Vmax and pH optima were determined for each substrate. Comparison of the substrate specificities of the recombinant pulmonary carboxylesterase with the recombinant CEH further establish the critical role of the six amino acid residues in determining the differences in the catalytic activities of these two proteins. Cumulative mutations were made in the lung carboxylesterase sequence to those of the hepatic CEH sequence, in order to determine the role(s) of these six amino acid residues in conferring cholesterol oleate hydrolytic activity. These studies showed that GIn186 is vital for activity towards hydrophilic substrates, while the region around amino acid residue 500 consisting of Ser491, Lys492, Asn506 and Asn504 may be responsible for the absence of catalytic activity towards hydrophobic substrates

Ice Caps and Ice Belts: The Effects of Obliquity on Ice−Albedo Feedback

Planetary obliquity determines the meridional distribution of the annual mean insolation. For obliquity exceeding 55°, the weakest insolation occurs at the equator. Stable partial snow and ice cover on such a planet would be in the form of a belt about the equator rather than polar caps. An analytical model of planetary climate is used to investigate the stability of ice caps and ice belts over the widest possible range of parameters. The model is a non-dimensional diffusive Energy Balance Model, representing insolation, heat transport, and ice-albedo feedback on a spherical planet. A complete analytical solution for any obliquity is given and validated against numerical solutions of a seasonal model in the "deep-water" regime of weak seasonal ice line migration. Multiple equilibria and unstable transitions between climate states (ice-free, Snowball, or ice cap/belt) are found over wide swaths of parameter space, including a "Large Ice-Belt Instability" and "Small Ice-Belt Instability" at high obliquity. The Snowball catastrophe is avoided at weak radiative forcing in two different scenarios: weak albedo feedback and inefficient heat transport (favoring stable partial ice cover), or efficient transport at high obliquity (favoring ice-free conditions). From speculative assumptions about distributions of planetary parameters, three-fourths to four-fifths of all planets with stable partial ice cover should be in the form of Earth-like polar caps

Business in Nebraska #245- February 1965

Sources of County Income in Nebraska: 1950 and 1962 (Wallace C. Peterson) This is the fourth report of a preliminary character on the findings of a comprehensive research study of personal income in Nebraska\u27s 93 counties. Earlier reports in this series appeared in Business in Nebraska in June, October, and November, 1964. A Bureau Bulletin, which will contain the complete data developed in this study, as well as an explanation of the methodology used, is being prepared for publication in the Spring of 1965. Business Summary (Kim McNealy) The dollar volume of business in Nebraska for November, 1964, rose 2.0% over November, 1963, and dropped 2.9% from October, 1963. The same index for the United States rose 5.6% from November of 1963, and a small .1% from October. compared to the same month a year ago, the physical volume of business activity in Nebraska for November rose very slightly, but dropped slightly from the preceding month. Business activity in the U.S. increased 5.1% from November, 1963, and only .6% from October. The individual indicators are mixed, with life insurance sales in Nebraska registering the largest gain from a year ago. Manufacturing and other employment rose slightly from November, 1963, and October, 1964, both in Nebraska and the nation. Contemporary Business Thinking (Palmer Hoyt) It seems to me that sound business thinking in these times starts with this proposition: The greatest sin for a businessman is to fail to be contemporary. What I mean by that is that the greatest shortcoming is to fail to look realistically at the world we live in, and at its economic facts of life. Retail Trading Area Analysis (J. Timothy Wilson) The businessman in Nebraska communities faces the ever difficult problem of answering the questions: Who are my customers ? ... From where do they come? ... What are they like? and . .. What makes them my customers? With the development of the interstate highway system and the improvement of many other Nebraska highways, the small business community is increasingly faced with the prospect of losing its customers to larger centers. Never before has the customer been so mobile

Marjolin\u27s Tumor Complicating Chronic Periprosthetic Infection of a Total Knee Arthroplasty

Marjolin\u27s tumor is a term used to describe a malignancy developing in the setting of a chronic wound, infection, or other tissue subject to chronic inflammatory changes. These malignancies usually present after many years of chronicity, and can range from lower grade basal cell carcinomas to high-grade sarcomas. We present the case of a squamous cell carcinoma that developed within a chronic periprosthetic infection of a total knee arthroplasty of 7 years duration. The intra-articular location, association with an orthopaedic implant, and brief latency period are all unique features of this case

Application of meta-omics techniques to understand greenhouse gas emissions originating from ruminal metabolism

The Rowett Institute of Nutrition and Health is funded by the Rural and Environment Science and Analytical Services Division (RESAS) of the Scottish Government. This study was financially supported by RuminOmics (Project No. 289319 of EC 7th Framework Programme: Food, Agriculture, Fisheries and Biotechnology). Erratum to: Application of meta-omics techniques to understand greenhouse gas emissions originating from ruminal metabolism Robert J. WallaceEmail author, Timothy J. Snelling, Christine A. McCartney, Ilma Tapio and Francesco Strozzi Genetics Selection Evolution 2017 49:27, DOI: 10.1186/s12711-017-0304-7 © The Author(s) 2017, Received: 22 February 2017, Accepted: 22 February 2017, Published: 28 February 2017Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Esterification Prevents Induction of the Mitochondrial Permeability Transition by N-Acetyl Perfluorooctane Sulfonamides

N-Alkyl perfluorooctane sulfonamides have been widely used as surfactants on fabrics and papers, fire retardants, and anticorrosion agents, among many other commercial applications. The broad use, global distribution, and environmental persistence of these compounds has generated considerable interest regarding potentially toxic effects. We have previously reported that perfluorooctanesulfonamidoacetate (FOSAA) and N-ethylperfluorooctanesulfonamidoacetate (N-EtFOSAA) induce the mitochondrial permeability transition (MPT) in vitro, resulting in cytochrome c release, inhibition of respiration, and generation of reactive oxygen species. By synthesizing the corresponding methyl esters of FOSAA and N-EtFOSAA (methyl perlfuorinated sulfonamide acetates), we tested the hypothesis that the N-acetate moiety of FOSAA and N-EtFOSAA is the functional group responsible for induction of the MPT. Swelling of freshly isolated liver mitochondria from Sprague−Dawley rats was monitored spectrophotometrically and membrane potential (ΔΨ) was measured using a tetraphenylphosphonium-selective (TPP+) electrode. In the presence of calcium, 40 μM FOSAA and 7 μM N-EtFOSAA each induced mitochondrial swelling and a biphasic depolarization of membrane potential. Mitochondrial swelling and the second-phase depolarization were inhibited by cyclosporin-A or the catalyst of K+/H+ exchange nigericin, whereas the first-phase depolarization was not affected by either. In contrast, the methyl esters of FOSAA and N-EtFOSAA exhibited no depolarizing or MPT inducing activity. Results of this investigation demonstrate that the carboxylic acid moiety of the N-acetates is the active functional group, which triggers the MPT by perfluorinated sulfonamides

Characterization of Early Cortical Neural Network Development in Multiwell Microelectrode Array Plates.

We examined neural network ontogeny using microelectrode array (MEA) recordings made in multiwell MEA (mwMEA) plates over the first 12 days in vitro (DIV). In primary cortical cultures, action potential spiking activity developed rapidly between DIV 5 and 12. Spiking was sporadic and unorganized at early DIV, and became progressively more organized with time, with bursting parameters, synchrony, and network bursting increasing between DIV 5 and 12. We selected 12 features to describe network activity; principal components analysis using these features demonstrated segregation of data by age at both the well and plate levels. Using random forest classifiers and support vector machines, we demonstrated that four features (coefficient of variation [CV] of within-burst interspike interval, CV of interburst interval, network spike rate, and burst rate) could predict the age of each well recording with >65% accuracy. When restricting the classification to a binary decision, accuracy improved to as high as 95%. Further, we present a novel resampling approach to determine the number of wells needed for comparing different treatments. Overall, these results demonstrate that network development on mwMEA plates is similar to development in single-well MEAs. The increased throughput of mwMEAs will facilitate screening drugs, chemicals, or disease states for effects on neurodevelopment.EC was supported by a Wellcome Trust PhD studentship and NIHR Cambridge Biomedical Research Centre studentship. DH was supported by student services contract #EP-13-D-000108 and by a travelling fellowship from the Company of Biologists.This is the final version of the article. It first appeared from SAGE Publications via https://doi.org/10.1177/108705711664052

Archaeal abundance in post-mortem ruminal digesta may help predict methane emissions from beef cattle

The Rowett Institute of Nutrition and Health and SRUC are funded by the Rural and Environment Science and Analytical Services Division (RESAS) of the Scottish Government. The project was supported by DEFRA and DA funded Agricultural Greenhouse Gas Inventory Research Platform. Our thanks are due to the excellent support staff at the SRUC Beef Research Centre, Edinburgh, also to Graham Horgan of BioSS, Aberdeen, for conducting multivariate analysis.Peer reviewedPublisher PD

States’ Support of Non-Highway Modes of Transportation: Investigation and Synthesis

The objective of this study was to determine how Kentucky and other selected states support and assist non-highway transportation modes and to identify leading and innovative initiatives. For the purposes of this study, the non-highway modes are aviation, public transportation, rail, and waterways. This summary will briefly discuss the rationale, objectives, and methodology for this study. It also provides an overview of the outcomes of the study and the modal matrices