Ornamental plants, 1985: a summary of research

Field transplant survival of Amelanchier liners produced by tissue culture / Daniel K. Struve and R. Daniel Lineberger -- An evaluation of strawdust - an alternative growing media / Elton M. Smith and Sharon A. Treaster -- Growth of container grown nursery stock produced in composted municipal sludge amended media / Elton M. Smith and Sharon A. Treaster -- Soil temperature effects on root regeneration of scarlet oak seedlings / Daniel K. Struve arid Bruno C. Moser -- Lighting Viburnum opulus 'Nanum' cuttings to increase winter survival / Elton M. Smith and Sharon A. Treaster -- Treatments of etiolated dormant rose shoots / Elton M. Smith and Sharon A. Treaster -- Evaluation of flowering crabapple susceptibility to apple scab in Ohio – 1984 / Elton M. Smith and Sharon A. Treaster -- Tolerance of azalea, cotoneaster, and euonymus to Devrinol, Goal, and Goal Combinations / Elton M. Smith and Sharon A. Treaster -- Micropropagation of chimeral african violets / R. Daniel Lineberger and Mark Druckenbrod -- capital requirements of overwintering structures for nurseries in Ohio - 1984 / Reed D. Taylor, Daryl T. Gillette, and Elton M. Smith -- annual fixed costs of overwintering plants in nurseries differentiated by type of structure for Ohio - 1984 / Daryl T. Gillette, Reed D. Taylor, and Elton M. Smith -- Comparative costs of overwintering plants in nurseries differentiated by system for Ohio - 1984 / Reed D. Taylor, Daryl T. Gillette, and Elton M. Smit

Evaluation of the impact of a school gardening intervention on children's fruit and vegetable intake: a randomised controlled trial.

Background: Current academic literature suggests that school gardening programmes can provide an interactive environment with the potential to change children’s fruit and vegetable intake. This is the first cluster randomised controlled trial (RCT) designed to evaluate whether a school gardening programme can have an effect on children’s fruit and vegetable intake. Methods: The trial included children from 23 schools; these schools were randomised into two groups, one to receive the Royal Horticultural Society (RHS)-led intervention and the other to receive the less involved Teacher-led intervention. A 24-hour food diary (CADET) was used to collect baseline and follow-up dietary intake 18 months apart. Questionnaires were also administered to evaluate the intervention implementation. Results: A total of 641 children completed the trial with a mean age of 8.1 years (95% CI: 8.0, 8.4). The unadjusted results from multilevel regression analysis revealed that for combined daily fruit and vegetable intake the Teacher-led group had a higher daily mean change of 8 g (95% CI: −19, 36) compared to the RHS-led group -32 g (95% CI: −60, −3). However, after adjusting for possible confounders this difference was not significant (intervention effect: −40 g, 95% CI: −88, 1; p = 0.06). The adjusted analysis of process measures identified that if schools improved their gardening score by 3 levels (a measure of school gardening involvement - the scale has 6 levels from 0 ‘no garden’ to 5 ‘community involvement’), irrespective of group allocation, children had, on average, a daily increase of 81 g of fruit and vegetable intake (95% CI: 0, 163; p = 0.05) compared to schools that had no change in gardening score. Conclusions: This study is the first cluster randomised controlled trial designed to evaluate a school gardening intervention. The results have found very little evidence to support the claims that school gardening alone can improve children’s daily fruit and vegetable intake. However, when a gardening intervention is implemented at a high level within the school it may improve children’s daily fruit and vegetable intake by a portion. Improving children’s fruit and vegetable intake remains a challenging task

Ornamental plants, 1986: a summary of research

Effects of BAY RSW 0411 growth regulator on cotoneaster and forsythia / Elton M. Smith and Sharon A. Treaster -- Evaluation of flowering crabapple susceptibility to apple scab in Ohio – 1985 / Elton M. Smith and Sharon A. Treaster -- Tolerance of woody landscape vines to Goal combinations / Elton M. Smith and Sharon A. Treaster -- Tolerance of Hosta albomarginata to napropamide and oryzalin / Elton M. Smith and Sharon A. Treaster -- An Evaluation of metribuzin slow-release herbicide tablets on woody landscape crops / Elton M. Smith, Stanley F. Gorski, and Melissa Moore -- A comparison of Armin and Ethyl Visqueen white copolymers for overwintering landscape plants / Elton M. Smith and Sharon A. Treaster -- Effects of light level upon leaf area, anatomy, and stomatal frequency of Ficus benjamina L. / John C. Peterson, Dominic J. Durkin, and John N. Sacalis -- Micropropagation of Nyssa sylvatica / Mark H. Brand and R. Daniel Lineberger -- Physical facilities and capital requirements for establishing a 200-acre field nursery in Ohio – 1985 / Harold H. Kneen, Reed D. Taylor, Elton M. Smith, David E. Hahn, and Stanley Uchida -- Production costs of operating a 200-acre field nursery in Ohio – 1985 / Reed D. Taylor, Harold H. Kneen, Stanley Uchida, Elton M. Smith, and David E. Hahn -- Comparative costs of producing plants in a 200-acre field nursery in Ohio differentiated by species of plant / Reed D. Taylor, Harold H. Kneen, Stanley Uchida, Elton M. Smith, and David E. Hah

Stable Patterns of Gene Expression Regulating Carbohydrate Metabolism Determined by Geographic Ancestry

Background: Individuals of African descent in the United States suffer disproportionately from diseases with a metabolic etiology (obesity, metabolic syndrome, and diabetes), and from the pathological consequences of these disorders (hypertension and cardiovascular disease). Methodology/Principal Findings: Using a combination of genetic/genomic and bioinformatics approaches, we identified a large number of genes that were both differentially expressed between American subjects self-identified to be of either African or European ancestry and that also contained single nucleotide polymorphisms that distinguish distantly related ancestral populations. Several of these genes control the metabolism of simple carbohydrates and are direct targets for the SREBP1, a metabolic transcription factor also differentially expressed between our study populations. Conclusions/Significance: These data support the concept of stable patterns of gene transcription unique to a geographic ancestral lineage. Differences in expression of several carbohydrate metabolism genes suggest both genetic and transcriptional mechanisms contribute to these patterns and may play a role in exacerbating the disproportionate levels o

A Critical Site in the Core of the CCR5 Chemokine Receptor Required for Binding and Infectivity of Human Immunodeficiency Virus Type 1

Like the CCR5 chemokine receptors of humans and rhesus macaques, the very homologous (∼98–99% identical) CCR5 of African green monkeys (AGMs) avidly binds β-chemokines and functions as a coreceptor for simian immunodeficiency viruses. However, AGM CCR5 is a weak coreceptor for tested macrophage-tropic (R5) isolates of human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1). Correspondingly, gp120 envelope glycoproteins derived from R5 isolates of HIV-1 bind poorly to AGM CCR5. We focused on a unique extracellular amino acid substitution at the juncture of transmembrane helix 4 (TM4) and extracellular loop 2 (ECL2) (Arg for Gly at amino acid 163 (G163R)) as the likely source of the weak R5 gp120 binding and HIV-1 coreceptor properties of AGM CCR5. Accordingly, a G163R mutant of human CCR5 was severely attenuated in its ability to bind R5 gp120s and to mediate infection by R5 HIV-1 isolates. Conversely, the R163G mutant of AGM CCR5 was substantially strengthened as a coreceptor for HIV-1 and had improved R5 gp120 binding affinity relative to the wild-type AGM CCR5. These substitutions at amino acid position 163 had no effect on chemokine binding or signal transduction, suggesting the absence of structural alterations. The 2D7 monoclonal antibody has been reported to bind to ECL2 and to block HIV-1 binding and infection. Whereas 2D7 antibody binding to CCR5 was unaffected by the G163R mutation, it was prevented by a conservative ECL2 substitution (K171R), shared between rhesus and AGM CCR5s. Thus, it appears that the 2D7 antibody binds to an epitope that includes Lys-171 and may block HIV-1 infection mediated by CCR5 by occluding an HIV-1-binding site in the vicinity of Gly-163. In summary, our results identify a site for gp120 interaction that is critical for R5 isolates of HIV-1 in the central core of human CCR5, and we propose that this site collaborates with a previously identified region in the CCR5 amino terminus to enable gp120 binding and HIV-1 infections

Ornamental plants, 1983: a summary of research

Capital requirements for establishing container nurseries in Ohio - 1982 / Harold H. Kneen, Reed D. Taylor, David E. Hahn, and Elton M. Smith -- Production costs of operating container nurseries in Ohio - 1982 / Harold H. Kneen, Reed D. Taylor, David E. Hahn, and Elton M. Smith -- Pigmented polyethylene films for nursery crop storage / John A. Wynstra and Elton M. Smith -- Micropropagation of Ajuga reptans 'Burgundy Glow' / R. Daniel Lineberger and Audrey Wanstreet -- Effects of fertilizer in the propagation medium and extended photoperiod on growth of Acer rubrum 'Red Sunset' cuttings / Steven M. Still and Bryce H. Lane -- Area of weed control from a single herbicide tablet / M. A. Ruizzo, E. M. Smith, and S. F. Gorske -- Slow release herbicide formulations for container grown landscape crops / M. A. Ruizzo, E. M. Smith, and S. F. Gorske -- Effects of pre-emergence herbicides on selected herbaceous perennials / Elton M. Smith, Gary Gibson, and Sharon A. Treaster -- Controlling weeds in garden lily, gladiolus, and dahlia with pre-emergence herbicides / Elton M. Smith and Sharon A. Treaster -- Root pruning landscape plants produced on sand capillary beds / Elton M. Smith and Sharon A. Treaster -- Genetic variation in wound response among cultivars of Acer platanoides L. / Peter W. Gallagher and T. Davis Sydnor -- A preliminary host preference study for fall webworm (Hyphantria cunea Drury) / T. Davis Sydnor and Daniel Herms -- Evaluation of flowering crabapple susceptibility to apple scab in Ohio - 1982 / Elton M. Smit

Mineralogy of volcanic rocks in Gusev Crater, Mars: Reconciling Mössbauer, Alpha Particle X-ray Spectrometer, and Miniature Thermal Emission Spectrometer spectra

Complete sets of mineral abundances for relatively unaltered volcanic or volcaniclastic rocks in Gusev Crater have been determined by modeling Mössbauer subspectral areas as mineral weight percentages, and combining those percentages with the proportions of iron-free minerals not detected by Mössbauer (normative plagioclase, apatite, and chromite, as calculated from Alpha Particle X-Ray Spectrometer (APXS) chemical analyses). Comparisons of synthetic thermal emission spectra calculated for these mineral modes with measured Miniature Thermal Emission Spectrometer (Mini-TES) spectra for the same rock classes show either good agreements or discrepancies that we attribute to sodic plagioclase compositions or unmodeled sulfate, glass, or pigeonite. The normative compositions of olivine, pyroxene, and feldspar calculated from APXS data are consistent with spectroscopic constraints on mineral compositions. Systematic variations between olivine abundances in APXS norms (which sample tens of micrometers depth) and olivine proportions measured by Mössbauer (which sample hundreds of micrometers depth) support the hypothesis that dissolution of olivine by acidic fluids has occurred on weathered rock surfaces

Tobacco use induces anti-apoptotic, proliferative patterns of gene expression in circulating leukocytes of Caucasian males

Abstract Background Strong epidemiologic evidence correlates tobacco use with a variety of serious adverse health effects, but the biological mechanisms that produce these effects remain elusive. Results We analyzed gene transcription data to identify expression spectra related to tobacco use in circulating leukocytes of 67 Caucasian male subjects. Levels of cotinine, a nicotine metabolite, were used as a surrogate marker for tobacco exposure. Significance Analysis of Microarray and Gene Set Analysis identified 109 genes in 16 gene sets whose transcription levels were differentially regulated by nicotine exposure. We subsequently analyzed this gene set by hyperclustering, a technique that allows the data to be clustered by both expression ratio and gene annotation (e.g. Gene Ontologies). Conclusion Our results demonstrate that tobacco use affects transcription of groups of genes that are involved in proliferation and apoptosis in circulating leukocytes. These transcriptional effects include a repertoire of transcriptional changes likely to increase the incidence of neoplasia through an altered expression of genes associated with transcription and signaling, interferon responses and repression of apoptotic pathways