Squaw Creek watershed social assessment: Values, beliefs, and perceptions of water quality and landscape change

Selected residents of three central Iowa counties were surveyed to determine their thoughts and opinions on water quality issues in the Squaw Creek watershed basin

Iowa recreational property ownership: Identification, contact and social dynamics of multiple-use perennial landcover

This research explored the opportunities for expanding the productive use of perennial landscapes in Iowa through expanded beef and dairy grazing owned recreational lands

Comparison of Perioperative Outcomes Between Holmium Laser Enucleation of the Prostate and Robot-Assisted Simple Prostatectomy

Objectives: To compare perioperative outcomes for patients undergoing holmium laser enucleation of the prostate (HoLEP) and robotic-assisted simple prostatectomy (RSP) for benign prostatic hypertrophy (BPH).Methods: Patient demographics and perioperative outcomes were compared between 600 patients undergoing HoLEP and 32 patients undergoing RSP at two separate academic institutions between 2008 and 2015.Results: Patients undergoing HoLEP and RSP had comparable ages (71 vs 71, p = 0.96) and baseline American Urological Association Symptom Scores (20 vs 24, p = 0.21). There was no difference in mean specimen weight (96 g vs 110 g, p = 0.15). Mean operative time was reduced in the HoLEP cohort (103 minutes vs 274 minutes, p < 0.001). Patients undergoing HoLEP had lesser decreases in hemoglobin, decreased transfusions rates, shorter hospital stays, and decreased mean duration of catheterization. There was no difference in the rate of complications Clavien grade 3 or greater (p = 0.33).Conclusions: HoLEP and RSP are both efficacious treatments for large gland BPH. In expert hands, HoLEP appears to have a favorable perioperative profile. Further studies are necessary to compare long-term efficacy, cost, and learning curve influences, especially as minimally invasive approaches become more widespread

Wnt Pathway in Bone Repair and Regeneration – What Do We Know So Far

Wnt signaling plays a central regulatory role across a remarkably diverse range of functions during embryonic development, including those involved in the formation of bone and cartilage. Wnt signaling continues to play a critical role in adult osteogenic differentiation of mesenchymal stem cells. Disruptions in this highly-conserved and complex system leads to various pathological conditions, including impaired bone healing, autoimmune diseases and malignant degeneration. For reconstructive surgeons, critically sized skeletal defects represent a major challenge. These are frequently associated with significant morbidity in both the recipient and donor sites. The Wnt pathway is an attractive therapeutic target with the potential to directly modulate stem cells responsible for skeletal tissue regeneration and promote bone growth, suggesting that Wnt factors could be used to promote bone healing after trauma. This review summarizes our current understanding of the essential role of the Wnt pathway in bone regeneration and repair

Finishing the euchromatic sequence of the human genome

The sequence of the human genome encodes the genetic instructions for human physiology, as well as rich information about human evolution. In 2001, the International Human Genome Sequencing Consortium reported a draft sequence of the euchromatic portion of the human genome. Since then, the international collaboration has worked to convert this draft into a genome sequence with high accuracy and nearly complete coverage. Here, we report the result of this finishing process. The current genome sequence (Build 35) contains 2.85 billion nucleotides interrupted by only 341 gaps. It covers ∼99% of the euchromatic genome and is accurate to an error rate of ∼1 event per 100,000 bases. Many of the remaining euchromatic gaps are associated with segmental duplications and will require focused work with new methods. The near-complete sequence, the first for a vertebrate, greatly improves the precision of biological analyses of the human genome including studies of gene number, birth and death. Notably, the human enome seems to encode only 20,000-25,000 protein-coding genes. The genome sequence reported here should serve as a firm foundation for biomedical research in the decades ahead

A database system for constructing, integrating, and displaying physical maps of chromosome 19

Efforts are underway at numerous sites around the world to construct physical maps of all human chromosomes. These maps will enable researchers to locate, characterize, and eventually understand the genes that control human structure and function. Accomplishing this goal will require a staggering amount of innovation and advancement of biological technology. The volume and complexity of the data already generated requires a sophisticated array of computational support to collect, store, analyze, integrate, and display it in biologically meaningful ways. The Human Genome Center at Livermore has spent the last 6 years constructing a database system to support its physical mapping efforts on human chromosome 19. Our computational support team is composed of experienced computer professionals who share a common pragmatic primary goal of rapidly supplying tools that meet the ever-changing needs of the biologists. Most papers describing computational support of genome research concentrate on mathematical details of key algorithms. However, in this paper we would like to concentrate on the design issues, tradeoffs, and consequences from the point of view of building a complex database system to support leading-edge genomic research. We introduce the topic of physical mapping, discuss the key design issues involved in our databases, and discuss the use of this data by our major tools (DNA fingerprint analysis and overlap computation, contig assembly, map integration, and database browsing.) Given the advantage of hindsight, we discuss what worked, what didn`t, and how we will evolve from here. As early pioneers in this field we hope that our experience may prove useful to others who are now beginning to design and construct similar systems