Operation Change Comes to Rural Appalachia

Operation Change Model Target Population: Underserved females age 45 and older who are experiencing obesity, joint pain, and limited mobility An 18-week community-based behavioral health program that integrates: structured physical activity culturally tailored education motivational interviewer-led discussions to identify and address barriers to positive chang

Microdeletion of 6q16.1 encompassing EPHA7 in a child with mild neurological abnormalities and dysmorphic features: case report

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Of the fewer than 100 cases reported within the literature of constitutional deletions involving the long arm of chromosome 6, only five have been characterized using high-resolution microarray analysis. Reported 6q deletion patients show a high incidence of mental retardation, ear anomalies, hypotonia, and postnatal growth retardation.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>We report a 16-month-old male presenting with developmental delay and dysmorphic features who was found by array-based comparative genomic hybridization (aCGH) to have a ~2.16 Mb <it>de novo </it>deletion within chromosome band 6q16.1 that encompasses only two genes. Expression studies of the mouse homologue of one of the genes, the ephrin receptor 7 gene (<it>EPHA7</it>), have shown the gene functions during murine embryogenesis to form cortical domains, determine brain size and shape, and play a role in development of the central nervous system (CNS).</p> <p>Discussion</p> <p>Our results suggest that deletion of <it>EPHA7 </it>plays a role in the neurologic and dysmorphic features, including developmental delay, hypotonia, and ear malformations, observed in some 6q deletion patients.</p

Breaking beta: deconstructing the parasite transmission function

Transmission is a fundamental step in the life cycle of every parasite but it is also one of the most challenging processes to model and quantify. In most host&ndash;parasite models, the transmission process is encapsulated by a single parameter&beta;. Many different biological processes and interactions, acting on both hosts and infectious organisms, are subsumed in this single term. There are, however, at least two undesirable consequences of this high level of abstraction. First, nonlinearities and heterogeneities that can be critical to the dynamic behaviour of infections are poorly represented; second, estimating the transmission coefficient&beta;from field data is often very difficult. In this paper, we present a conceptual model, which breaks the transmission process into its component parts. This deconstruction enables us to identify circumstances that generate nonlinearities in transmission, with potential implications for emergent transmission behaviour at individual and population scales. Such behaviour cannot be explained by the traditional linear transmission frameworks. The deconstruction also provides a clearer link to the empirical estimation of key components of transmission and enables the construction of flexible models that produce a unified understanding of the spread of both micro- and macro-parasite infectious disease agents

Getting Real Results with Ohio State University Extension’s Real Money. Real World. Program

Youth development organizations have a unique opportunity to offer programs that help young people develop financial skills they need to become successful adults. This article describes Ohio State University Extension’s Real Money. Real World. (RMRW) and the systematic approach used to evaluate its effectiveness. The RMRW curriculum includes an active, hands-on experience that gives young people the opportunity to make lifestyle and budget choices similar to those they will make as adults. The realistic simulation creates a teachable moment. The outcomes of the statewide evaluation clearly indicate the curriculum accomplishes its goals of raising awareness, changing attitudes, and motivating students to plan for behavior changes concerning financial management, education, and career choices. The article concludes with a discussion of the organizational outcomes of conducting the evaluation

Microdeletion of 6q16.1 encompassing EPHA7 in a child with mild neurological abnormalities and dysmorphic features: a case report

Abstract Background Of the fewer than 100 cases reported within the literature of constitutional deletions involving the long arm of chromosome 6, only five have been characterized using high-resolution microarray analysis. Reported 6q deletion patients show a high incidence of mental retardation, ear anomalies, hypotonia, and postnatal growth retardation. Results We report a 16-month-old male presenting with developmental delay and dysmorphic features who was found by array-based comparative genomic hybridization (aCGH) to have a ~2.16 Mb de novo deletion within chromosome band 6q16.1 that encompasses only two genes. Expression studies of the mouse homologue of one of the genes, the ephrin receptor 7 gene (EPHA7), have shown the gene functions during murine embryogenesis to form cortical domains, determine brain size and shape, and play a role in development of the central nervous system (CNS). Discussion Our results suggest that deletion of EPHA7 plays a role in the neurologic and dysmorphic features, including developmental delay, hypotonia, and ear malformations, observed in some 6q deletion patients

Surveillance, Diversity and Vegetative Compatibility Groups of Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. vasinfectum Collected in Cotton Fields in Australia (2017 to 2022)

Cotton (Gossypium hirsutum) is a billion-dollar crop in regional New South Wales (NSW) and Queensland, Australia. Fusarium wilt (FW) caused by Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. vasinfectum (Fov) is an economically important disease. Initial disease losses of up to 90% when the disease was first detected resulted in fields being taken out of cotton production. The disease is now well-managed due to the adoption of highly resistant varieties. However, annual disease surveys recently revealed that the disease dynamic has changed in the past few seasons. With relatively mild and wet weather conditions during the 2021/22 growing season, FW was detected in eight surveyed valleys in NSW and Queensland, with the disease incidence as high as 44.5% and 98.5% in individual fields in early and late seasons, respectively. Fov is genetically distinct and evolved from local Fusarium oxysporum strains. Additionally, the pathogen was reported to evolve rapidly under continuous cotton cropping pressure. However, our knowledge of the genetic composition of the prevailing population is limited. Sequences of the translation elongation factor alpha 1 (TEF1) revealed that 94% of Fusarium isolates recovered from FW-infected cotton were clustered together with known Australian Fov and relatively distant related to overseas Fov races. All these isolates, except for nine, were further confirmed positive with a specific marker based on the Secreted in Xylem 6 (SIX6) effector gene. Vegetative compatibility group (VCG) analyses of 166 arbitrarily selected isolates revealed a predominance of VCG01111. There was only one detection of VCG01112 in the Border Rivers valley where it was first described. In this study, the exotic Californian Fov race 4 strain was not detected using a specific marker based on the unique Tfo1 insertion in the phosphate (PHO) gene. This study indicated that the prevalence and abundance of Fov across NSW and Queensland in the past five seasons was probably independent of its genetic diversity

The clustering of galaxies in the SDSS-III Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey: measuring structure growth using passive galaxies

We explore the benefits of using a passively evolving population of galaxies to measure the evolution of the rate of structure growth between z=0.25 and z=0.65 by combining data from the SDSS-I/II and SDSS-III surveys. The large-scale linear bias of a population of dynamically passive galaxies, which we select from both surveys, is easily modeled. Knowing the bias evolution breaks degeneracies inherent to other methodologies, and decreases the uncertainty in measurements of the rate of structure growth and the normalization of the galaxy power-spectrum by up to a factor of two. If we translate our measurements into a constraint on sigma_8(z=0) assuming a concordance cosmological model and General Relativity (GR), we find that using a bias model improves our uncertainty by a factor of nearly 1.5. Our results are consistent with a flat Lambda Cold Dark Matter model and with GR.Comment: Accepted for publication in MNRAS (clarifications added, results and conclusions unchanged

Biophysical characterisation of the Bcl-x pre-mRNA and binding specificity of the ellipticine derivative GQC-05 : implication for alternative splicing regulation

The BCL2L1 gene expresses two isoforms of Bcl-x protein via the use of either of two alternative 5′ splice sites (5′ss) in exon 2. These proteins have antagonistic actions, Bcl-XL being anti-apoptotic and Bcl-XS pro-apoptotic. In a number of cancers the Bcl-XL isoform is over-expressed, resulting in cancer cell survival and growth, so switching splicing to the Xs isoform could have therapeutic benefits. We have previously proposed that a putative G-quadruplex (G4) exists downstream of the XS 5′ss and shown that the ellipticine derivative GQC-05, a previously identified DNA G4-specific ligand, induces an increase in the XS/XL ratio both in vitro and in cells. Here, we demonstrate that this G4 forms in vitro and that the structure is stabilised in the presence of GQC-05. We also show that GQC-05 binds RNA non-specifically in buffer conditions, but selectively to the Bcl-x G4 in the presence of nuclear extract, highlighting the limitations of biophysical measurements taken outside of a functional environment. We also demonstrate that GQC-05 is able to shift the equilibrium between competing G4 and duplex structures towards the G4 conformation, leading to an increase in accessibility of the XS 5′ss, supporting our previous model on the mechanism of action of GQC-05

Indigenous Peoples' Rights in Data: a contribution toward Indigenous Research Sovereignty

Indigenous Peoples' right to sovereignty forms the foundation for advocacy and actions toward greater Indigenous self-determination and control across a range of domains that impact Indigenous Peoples' communities and cultures. Declarations for sovereignty are rising throughout Indigenous communities and across diverse fields, including Network Sovereignty, Food Sovereignty, Energy Sovereignty, and Data Sovereignty. Indigenous Research Sovereignty draws in the sovereignty discourse of these initiatives to consider their applications to the broader research ecosystem. Our exploration of Indigenous Research Sovereignty, or Indigenous self-determination in the context of research activities, has been focused on the relationship between Indigenous Data Sovereignty and efforts to describe Indigenous Peoples' Rights in data