211 research outputs found

    “It Hurts a Latina When They Tell Us Anything About Our Children”: Implications of Mexican-Origin Mothers' Maternal Identities, Aspirations, and Attitudes About Cultural Transmission for Childhood Obesity Prevention

    Full text link
    Background: This qualitative study explored values, attitudes, and beliefs held by Mexican-origin mothers of preschool-aged children to enhance understanding of cultural influences on behaviors associated with childhood obesity risk. Methods: During face-to-face interviews, 39 Mexican-origin mothers of preschool-aged children discussed their hopes for their children, their image of the perfect mother, Mexican and American foods, why they taught their children about these foods, and their opinions about television (TV) viewing language. Results: Participants wanted their children to become successful, ?good? people, which necessitated doing well in school. Mothers also wanted their children to know them, which required understanding the mothers' Mexican backgrounds. Mothers wanted their children to maintain Mexican values and identities. Some mothers viewed American culture as harmful. Many participants prepared their child for going to Mexico by exposing them to Mexican culture and foods. Some mothers fed their children American foods to prepare them for school. Perceptions of American foods generally reflected stereotypical unhealthy foods. TV helped teach children Spanish and English. Being a good mother was core to participants' identities; thus, hearing about child overweight made some mothers feel like failures. Conclusions: Health promotion programs may be more salient to mothers if they: underscore how a healthy weight can help children in school; teach mothers to prepare healthy American foods that their children will encounter in kindergarten; assist mothers in teaching their children about Mexico; and present information about childhood obesity in ways that reinforce what mothers are doing well, enhance mothers' self-efficacy, and allay feelings of failure.Peer Reviewedhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/140339/1/chi.2015.0011.pd

    Teratoma Generation in the Testis Capsule

    Get PDF
    Pluripotent stem cells (PSCs) have the unique characteristic that they can differentiate into cells from all three germ layers. This makes them a potentially valuable tool for the treatment of many different diseases. With the advent of induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) and continuing research with human embryonic stem cells (hESCs) there is a need for assays that can demonstrate that a particular cell line is pluripotent. Germline transmission has been the gold standard for demonstrating the pluripotence of mouse embryonic stem cell (mESC) lines1,2,3. Using this assay, researchers can show that a mESC line can make all cell types in the embryo including germ cells4. With the generation of human ESC lines5,6, the appropriate assay to prove pluripotence of these cells was unclear since human ESCs cannot be tested for germline transmission. As a surrogate, the teratoma assay is currently used to demonstrate the pluripotency of human pluripotent stem cells (hPSCs)7,8,9. Though this assay has recently come under scrutiny and new technologies are being actively explored, the teratoma assay is the current gold standard7. In this assay, the cells in question are injected into an immune compromised mouse. If the cells are pluripotent, a teratoma will eventually develop and sections of the tumor will show tissues from all 3 germ layers10. In the teratoma assay, hPSCs can be injected into different areas of the mouse. The most common injection sites include the testis capsule, the kidney capsule, the liver; or into the leg either subcutaneously or intramuscularly11. Here we describe a robust protocol for the generation of teratomas from hPSCs using the testis capsule as the site for tumor growth

    Particulate organic carbon and nitrogen export from major Arctic rivers

    Get PDF
    Author Posting. © American Geophysical Union, 2016. This article is posted here by permission of American Geophysical Union for personal use, not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in Global Biogeochemical Cycles 30 (2016): 629–643, doi:10.1002/2015GB005351.Northern rivers connect a land area of approximately 20.5 million km2 to the Arctic Ocean and surrounding seas. These rivers account for ~10% of global river discharge and transport massive quantities of dissolved and particulate materials that reflect watershed sources and impact biogeochemical cycling in the ocean. In this paper, multiyear data sets from a coordinated sampling program are used to characterize particulate organic carbon (POC) and particulate nitrogen (PN) export from the six largest rivers within the pan-Arctic watershed (Yenisey, Lena, Ob', Mackenzie, Yukon, Kolyma). Together, these rivers export an average of 3055 × 109 g of POC and 368 × 109 g of PN each year. Scaled up to the pan-Arctic watershed as a whole, fluvial export estimates increase to 5767 × 109 g and 695 × 109 g of POC and PN per year, respectively. POC export is substantially lower than dissolved organic carbon export by these rivers, whereas PN export is roughly equal to dissolved nitrogen export. Seasonal patterns in concentrations and source/composition indicators (C:N, δ13C, Δ14C, δ15N) are broadly similar among rivers, but distinct regional differences are also evident. For example, average radiocarbon ages of POC range from ~2000 (Ob') to ~5500 (Mackenzie) years before present. Rapid changes within the Arctic system as a consequence of global warming make it challenging to establish a contemporary baseline of fluvial export, but the results presented in this paper capture variability and quantify average conditions for nearly a decade at the beginning of the 21st century.National Science Foundation Grant Numbers: 0229302, 0732985; U.S. Geological Survey; Department of Indian and Northern Affairs2016-11-1

    Application of a low cost array-based technique — TAB-Array — for quantifying and mapping both 5mC and 5hmC at single base resolution in human pluripotent stem cells

    Get PDF
    Abstract5-hydroxymethylcytosine (5hmC), an oxidized derivative of 5-methylcytosine (5mC), has been implicated as an important epigenetic regulator of mammalian development. Current procedures use DNA sequencing methods to discriminate 5hmC from 5mC, limiting their accessibility to the scientific community. Here we report a method that combines TET-assisted bisulfite conversion with Illumina 450K DNA methylation arrays for a low-cost high-throughput approach that distinguishes 5hmC and 5mC signals at base resolution. Implementing this approach, termed “TAB-array”, we assessed DNA methylation dynamics in the differentiation of human pluripotent stem cells into cardiovascular progenitors and neural precursor cells. With the ability to discriminate 5mC and 5hmC, we identified a large number of novel dynamically methylated genomic regions that are implicated in the development of these lineages. The increased resolution and accuracy afforded by this approach provides a powerful means to investigate the distinct contributions of 5mC and 5hmC in human development and disease

    Seasonal and annual fluxes of nutrients and organic matter from large rivers to the Arctic Ocean and surrounding seas

    Get PDF
    Author Posting. © The Author(s), 2011. This is the author's version of the work. It is posted here by permission of Springer for personal use, not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in Estuaries and Coasts 35 (2012): 369-382, doi:10.1007/s12237-011-9386-6.River inputs of nutrients and organic matter impact the biogeochemistry of arctic estuaries and the Arctic Ocean as a whole, yet there is considerable uncertainty about the magnitude of fluvial fluxes at the pan-arctic scale. Samples from the six largest arctic rivers, with a combined watershed area of 11.3 x 106 km2, have revealed strong seasonal variations in constituent concentrations and fluxes within rivers as well as large differences among the rivers. Specifically, we investigate fluxes of dissolved organic carbon, dissolved organic nitrogen, total dissolved phosphorus, dissolved inorganic nitrogen, nitrate, and silica. This is the first time that seasonal and annual constituent fluxes have been determined using consistent sampling and analytical methods at the pan arctic scale, and consequently provide the best available estimates for constituent flux from land to the Arctic Ocean and surrounding seas. Given the large inputs of river water to the relatively small Arctic Ocean, and the dramatic impacts that climate change is having in the Arctic, it is particularly urgent that we establish the contemporary river fluxes so that we will be able to detect future changes and evaluate the impact of the changes on the biogeochemistry of the receiving coastal and ocean systems.This work was supported by the National Science Foundation through grants OPP-0229302, OPP-0519840, OPP-0732522, and OPP-0732944. Additional support was provided by the U. S. Geological Survey (Yukon River) and the Department of Indian and Northern Affairs (Mackenzie River)

    LSST Science Book, Version 2.0

    Get PDF
    A survey that can cover the sky in optical bands over wide fields to faint magnitudes with a fast cadence will enable many of the exciting science opportunities of the next decade. The Large Synoptic Survey Telescope (LSST) will have an effective aperture of 6.7 meters and an imaging camera with field of view of 9.6 deg^2, and will be devoted to a ten-year imaging survey over 20,000 deg^2 south of +15 deg. Each pointing will be imaged 2000 times with fifteen second exposures in six broad bands from 0.35 to 1.1 microns, to a total point-source depth of r~27.5. The LSST Science Book describes the basic parameters of the LSST hardware, software, and observing plans. The book discusses educational and outreach opportunities, then goes on to describe a broad range of science that LSST will revolutionize: mapping the inner and outer Solar System, stellar populations in the Milky Way and nearby galaxies, the structure of the Milky Way disk and halo and other objects in the Local Volume, transient and variable objects both at low and high redshift, and the properties of normal and active galaxies at low and high redshift. It then turns to far-field cosmological topics, exploring properties of supernovae to z~1, strong and weak lensing, the large-scale distribution of galaxies and baryon oscillations, and how these different probes may be combined to constrain cosmological models and the physics of dark energy.Comment: 596 pages. Also available at full resolution at http://www.lsst.org/lsst/sciboo
    • …
    corecore