Rap Music as a Positive Influence on Black Youth and American Politics

This article will examine the impact of rap music on Black American youth as well as contemporary American politics with an emphasis on police brutality

Assessment of available anatomical characters for linking living mammals to fossil taxa in phylogenetic analyses

ORCID: 0000-0003-4919-8655© 2016 The Authors. Published by the Royal Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/, which permits unrestricted use, provided the original author and source are credited. The file attached is the published version of the article

Identifying the Effects of a Human Dynein Mutation on GFP-Rab7 Axonal Transport in Embryonic Mouse Neurons

The first dynein mutation found in humans that caused disease was a cytoplasmic dynein 1 heavy chain (DYNC1H1 in humans) p.His306Arg mutation, first described by Weedon et al. in 2011. This mutation caused Charcot-Marie-Tooth (CMT) subtype 2O. CMT has a prevalence of approximately 1 in 2500 people, making it the most common hereditary neuromuscular disorder. Cytoplasmic dynein 1 is used by eukaryotic cells for minus-end directed microtubule-based transport of cargo. One such cargo is Rab7, a late endosomal marker. The purpose of this study is to identify the effects of this mutation on the transport of GFP-tagged Rab7 cargo in neurons from wild type (HH), heterozygous mutant (HR), and homozygous mutant (RR) mice harboring a DYNC1HI His306Arg mutation. Mouse embryos were euthanized, dissected to collect the hippocampal and cortical brain tissues, and these tissues were digested to isolate neurons. Nucleofection was used to introduce the exogenous GFP-Rab7 gene construct. These neurons were plated and imaged at 10 days in vitro using wide-field epifluorescence microscopy to generate image stacks of fluorescent GFP-Rab7 vesicles. Kymograph analysis was performed on the image stacks using MetaMorph software to measure several characteristics of movement. Statistical analysis of the data from each of the three genotypes shows there is no significant difference in Rab-7 transport between the three genotypes

Molecular and biochemical characterisation of a Fugu nitric oxide synthase

A neuronal nitric oxide synthase (NOSl) gene was isolated from the the model vertebrate genome of the Japanese pufferfish Fugu rubripes. The Fugu NOSl gene was cloned by screening of a genomic cosmid library and PCR of genomic DNA. It was sequenced multiple times on both strands and conserved co-factor/substrate binding sites for haem, L-arginine, Ca2+/Calmodulin, FAD, FMN and NADPH were identifed. In addition, a CaM inhibitory sequence present only in constitutive isoforms was identified along with a PDZ domain specific to nNOS isoforms. At 22,203 bp the Fugu NOSl gene shows a reduction in size of -12 times when compared to the human NOSl gene. Full-length Fugu NOSl cDNA (fNOS) was isolated from the brain of another species of Japanese pufferfish, Takifugu poecilonotus, by 5' and 3' RACE and PCR. fNOS was cloned into the baculovirus-transfer vector pVL1393, sequenced and transfected into Spodoptera frugiperda clone 21 cells (Sf21) for expression studies. fNOS showed the highest amino acid identity to the mammalian and Xenopus laevis nNOS isoforms (74–75%). Amino acid identity dropped to 58% when fNOS was compared to eNOS isoforms, 54% for iNOS isoforms and 47–52% for the reported invertebrate NOS isoforms. Expression of the recombinant Fugu NOSl protein (FNOS) by pVLfNOS- infected Sf21 cells was detected by western blotting and immunocytochemical staining with a monoclonal anti-nNOS antibody. Expression of functional FNOS was greatest after 24 hours as measured by the spectrophometric conversion of oxyhaemoglobin to methaemoglobin by NO on a dual-wavelength spectrophotometer. In the presence of FAD, NADPH, and BH4, FNOS activity was dependent on the addition of L-arginine and was inhibitable by the NOS inhibitors L-NMMA, L-Thiocitrulline and 1400W. Partial purification of FNOS was achieved using a 2'5' ADP sepharose column and lOmM NADPH for elution

Stroke Severity Affects Timing: Time From Stroke Code Activation to Initial Imaging is Longer in Patients With Milder Strokes.

Optimizing the time it takes to get a potential stroke patient to imaging is essential in a rapid stroke response. At our hospital, door-to-imaging time is comprised of 2 time periods: the time before a stroke is recognized, followed by the period after the stroke code is called during which the stroke team assesses and brings the patient to the computed tomography scanner. To control for delays due to triage, we isolated the time period after a potential stroke has been recognized, as few studies have examined the biases of stroke code responders. This code-to-imaging time (CIT) encompassed the time from stroke code activation to initial imaging, and we hypothesized that perception of stroke severity would affect how quickly stroke code responders act. In consecutively admitted ischemic stroke patients at The Mount Sinai Hospital emergency department, we tested associations between National Institutes of Health Stroke Scale scores (NIHSS), continuously and at different cutoffs, and CIT using spline regression, t tests for univariate analysis, and multivariable linear regression adjusting for age, sex, and race/ethnicity. In our study population, mean CIT was 26 minutes, and mean presentation NIHSS was 8. In univariate and multivariate analyses comparing CIT between mild and severe strokes, stroke scale scores4

Noise-robust preparation contextuality shared between any number of observers via unsharp measurements

Multiple observers who independently harvest nonclassical correlations from a single physical system share the system's ability to enable quantum correlations. We show that any number of independent observers can share the preparation contextual outcome statistics enabled by state ensembles in quantum theory. Furthermore, we show that even in the presence of any amount of white noise, there exists quantum ensembles that enable such shared preparation contextuality. The findings are experimentally realised by applying sequential unsharp measurements to an optical qubit ensemble which reveals three shared demonstrations of preparation contextuality.Comment: H. A. and N. W. contributed equally to this wor

Preseason Lower Extremity Functional Test Scores Are Not Associated With Lower Quadrant Injury - A Validation Study With Normative Data on 395 Division III Athletes

Background: Preseason performance on the lower extremity functional test (LEFT), a timed series of agility drills, has been previously reported to be associated with future risk of lower quadrant (LQ = low back and lower extremities) injury in Division III (D III) athletes.Validation studies are warranted to confirm or refute initial findings. Hypothesis/Purpose: The primary purpose of this study was to examine the ability of the LEFT to discriminate injury occurrence in D III athletes, in order to validate or refute prior findings. It was hypothesized that female and male D III athletes slower at completion of the LEFT would be at a greater risk for a non-contact time-loss injury during sport. Secondary purposes of this study are to report other potential risk factors based on athlete demographics and to present normative LEFT data based on sport participation. Methods: Two hundred and six (females = 104; males = 102) D III collegiate athletes formed a validation sample. Athletes in the validation sample completed a demographic questionnaire and performed the LEFT at the start of their sports preseason. Athletic trainers tracked non-contact time-loss LQ injuries during the season. A secondary analysis of risk based on preseason LEFT performance was conducted for a sample (n = 395) that consisted of subjects in the validation sample (n = 206) as well as athletes from a prior LEFT related study (n = 189). Study Design: Prospective cohort Results: Male athletes in the validation sample completed the LEFT [98.6 (± 8.1) seconds] significantly faster than female athletes [113.1 (± 10.4) seconds]. Male athletes, by sport, also completed the LEFT significantly faster than their female counterparts who participated in the same sport. There was no association between preseason LEFT performance and subsequent injury, by sex, in either the validation sample or the combined sample. Females who reported starting primary sport participation by age 10 were two times (OR = 2.4, 95% CI: 1.2, 4.9; p = 0.01) more likely to experience a non-contact time-loss LQ injury than female athletes who started their primary sport at age 11 or older. Males who reported greater than three hours per week of plyometric training during the six-week period prior to the start of the preseason were four times more likely (OR = 4.0, 95% CI: 1.1, 14.0; p = 0.03) to experience a foot or ankle injury than male athletes who performed three or less hours per week. Conclusions: The LEFT could not be validated as a preseason performance measure to predict future sports injury risk. The data presented in this study may aid rehabilitation professionals when evaluating an injured athlete’s ability to return to sport by comparing their LEFT score to population norms