Glycan characterization and manipulation using phospholipid additives for capillary electrophoresis

Protein glycosylation is of interest in a number of emerging fields, and plays important functional roles in cellular biology. The analysis of these molecules is nontrivial because they exhibit great complexity in both monomer makeup and linkages of these monomers. As a result, a common challenge that analytical techniques face is the separation of linkage glycan isomers. This dissertation is based on the research leading to the development of a phospholipid-capillary electrophoresis method that allows for highly efficient separations and the non-covalent incorporation of enzymes and lectins for in-capillary interactions. Glycans were removed from glycoproteins through enzymatic means, then labeled with the fluorescent tag 9- aminopyrene-1,3,6-trisulfonic acid. This label provides charge to the otherwise neutral glycan, as well as the very low limits of detection (15fM) that laser induced fluorescence detection affords. Separations efficiencies, based on hydrodynamic volume, were as high as 640,000 theoretical plates. These methods not only provide superior separations efficiencies, but also crucial structural information about the glycans themselves. This method is amenable for a wide variety of lectins/enzymes for use, and has been conducted in a number of different capillary inner diameters. The method was used to probe glycans solutions taken from MCF7 immortalized breast cancer cells, as well as glycans from the therapeutic antibody, Trastuzumab. Only microgram amounts of these proteins were need to provide the glycans necessary for analysis. These samples display a number of high and low abundance glycans that were well resolved. The identity of these glycans were confirmed with the use of glycan standards as well as a number of monomer and linkage-specific enzymes and lectins. Multiple enzymes may be used singly, or in tandem, to systematically remove glycan monomers and discern layers of information about the glycans in use

Nine-month-olds use frequency of onset clusters to segment novel words

Before their first birthday, infants have started to identify and use information about their native language, such as frequent words, transitional probabilities, and co-occurrence of segments (phonotactics), to identify viable word boundaries. These cues can then be used to segment new words from running speech. We explored whether infants are capable of detecting a novel word form using the frequency of occurrence of the onset alone to further characterize the role of phonotactics in speech segmentation. Experiment 1 shows that English-learning 9-month-olds can successfully segment a word from natural speech if the onset is legal in English (i.e., pleet) but not if the onset is illegal (i.e., tleet). Experiment 2 shows that English-learning 9-month-olds are successful at word segmentation when presented with two onset clusters that vary in statistical frequency. Infants familiarized to a high-frequency onset (i.e., trom) were successful at segmenting the target word embedded in speech, but those familiarized to the low-frequency onset (i.e., drom) were unsuccessful. Together, these results show that infants use statistical information from the speech input and that low levels of exposure to onset phonotactics alone might not be sufficient in identifying word boundaries

"A peculiar time in my life": making sense of illness and recovery with gynaecological cancer.

PURPOSE: Worldwide there are nearly 1.1 million new cases of gynaecological cancer annually. In England, uterine, ovarian and cervical cancers comprize the third most common type of new cancer in women. Research with gynaecological cancer patients within 6 months of diagnosis is rare, as is data collection that is roughly contemporaneous with treatment. Our aim was to explore the experiences of women who were, at study entry, within 6 weeks of surgery or were undergoing chemotherapy or radiotherapy. METHODS: An interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA) of data from 16 women in five focus groups was conducted in the UK, exploring women's experiences of being diagnosed with and treated for gynaecological cancer. RESULTS: Participants conceptualized their experiences temporally, from the shock of diagnosis, through their cancer treatment, to thinking about recovery. They tried to make sense of diagnosis, even with treatment being complete. In the context of the Self-Regulation Model, these women were struggling to interpret a changing and multi-faceted illness identity, and attempting to return to pre-illness levels of health. CONCLUSIONS: This study adds to this under-studied time period in cancer survivorship. The results suggest that survivors' goals may change from returning to pre-illness status to reformulating goals as survival time increases

Thresholds of size: An interpretative phenomenological analysis of childhood messages around food, body, health and weight.

This study explores the lived experiences of non-dieting, middle-aged Western women classified as ‘overweight’ or ‘obese’ on BMI charts. Qualitative research that has focused on non-weight loss experiences with this population has been rare. This study aims to allow their experiences to be heard within the mainstream health literature. Four women from aged 40-55 were interviewed about their early messages and experiences around food, body, health and weight. An interpretative phenomenological analysis was conducted. Three themes were identified: 1) family culture and body norms 2) thresholds of size and 3) action and outcome. Participants identified a range of influences upon their early body appraisal, with parents, extended family, peers and community members contributing to their understanding of what constituted as an acceptable size. The impact upon their sense of identity and emotional wellbeing is discussed. This study contributes to the role of the modelling and messages around size and value given by important others and the psychological ramifications these can have over time.n/

Breaking Bad News Training in the COVID-19 Era and Beyond.

COVID-19 has disrupted the status quo for healthcare education. As a result, redeployed doctors and nurses are caring for patients at the end of their lives and breaking bad news with little experience or training. This article aims to understand why redeployed doctors and nurses feel unprepared to break bad news through a content analysis of their training curricula. As digital learning has come to the forefront in health care education during this time, relevant digital resources for breaking bad news training are suggested

Gender Differences and Cockpit Design

The design project reported in this paper examined female pilots’ experiences with how well or poorly cockpit design allowed them to safely accomplish their flying missions. The general aviation aircraft cockpit is not designed for female pilots, often causing them to find ways to adapt to the cockpit in order to operate the aircraft safely. Two primary focal areas for adaptations address issues with accessibility of controls and “viewability” inside and outside the cockpit. The design team used a Situation Awareness-Oriented Interface Design (SAOD) approach in preparing cockpit design recommendations for general aviation aircraft that would accommodate female pilots

Desarrollo de un currículo de compasión para el cáncer para pacientes con cáncer de mama en etapas I-III y sobrevivientes de cáncer. Orígenes, fundamentos y observaciones iniciales

Compassion is an intrinsic trait and is linked to psychological and physiological well-being. It can be trained and improved through a systematic contemplative training programme. The purpose of this paper is to present a new training programme for cancer patients and survivors (CforC) that was designed and tested in a pilot study. We review the potential benefits of CforC which include attention regulation, self-regulation, mental awareness, and acceptance of physical sensations (including pain experiences). We also consider limitations. Results of the pilot suggest that the current intervention is feasible and provides potential psychological benefits for female breast cancer patients/survivors. Future research may benefit from examining other potential effects of the CforC programme, including emotional and physical outcomes in cancer patients and survivors, and the application of the intervention to other populations of chronically ill patients.N/

11. An examination of the species-area-energy relationship driving decomposer diversity within “sponge” habitats in an estuarine bay

The species-area relationship is a well-known pattern in ecology detailing a strong positive relationship between habitat area and species richness. Alternatively, the species-energy hypothesis suggests that total energy availability drives species richness, with higher richness in systems with more energy input. While these two hypotheses are difficult to separate as they are positively related, they can be mutually exclusive. Species richness may increase with both area and energy availability independently. Here we test the relative importance of habitat area vs energy availability by placing two artificial substrates, polypropylene and cellulose sponges, with four different surface areas in two estuarine habitats. Cellulose sponges are organic and therefore should increase biodiversity by providing both protective structure and nutrition, while polypropylene sponges only provide structure. Organic sponges with large surface areas should promote more diversity than synthetic sponges with the same surface area. To test this, 40 cellulose and 40 polypropylene pre-weighed sponges of each surface area were placed in salt marshes and the open ocean of Terrebonne Bay in Louisiana. After one month, organisms were removed and categorized, and dry weight of the sponges collected. Preliminary results show that abundance was negatively related to surface area, contrary to predictions. However, organic sponges lost more mass, but supported similar abundances of organisms than polypropylene sponges. These results suggest that cellulose sponges are primarily used as nutrition as their effect should be additive if used as structure as well. This project offers important insights into the complexities that habitat diversity has on decomposer systems

Provision of ecosystem services by human-made structures in a highly impacted estuary

Water filtration is one of the most important ecosystem services provided by sessile organisms in coastal ecosystems. As a consequence of increased coastal development, human-made shoreline structures (e.g., docks and bulkheads) are now common, providing extensive surface area for colonization by filter feeders. We estimate that in a highly urbanized sub-tropical estuary, water filtration capacity supported by filter feeding assemblages on dock pilings accounts for 11.7 million liters of water h−1, or ~30% of the filtration provided by all natural oyster reef throughout the estuary. Assemblage composition, and thus filtration capacity, varied as a function of piling type, suggesting that the choice of building material has critical implications for ecosystem function. A more thorough depiction of the function of coastal ecosystems necessitates quantification of the extensive ecosystem services associated with human-made structures