The Ursinus Weekly, October 29, 1962

Founders Day affair Sunday features theologian McCord • Student concert series opens in Philadelphia • Cub and Key men meet at Millers • Juniors plan turnabout dance • Pi Nu welcomes seven new pledges • Improved Main Street is becoming auto speedway • Saturday\u27s Innkeepers concert delights and enchants audience • Pre-medicals hear Hudock lecture on electrocardiograph • Foreign students speak at recent reception • Young GOP meeting scheduled for Tuesday • Tense Cuban situation draws profs\u27 comments • UC represented at WAC program • Library display depicts internationality of UC • The Rail will open soon • Chamberlin will speak next week in Y program • Editorial: An alarming issue; Campus post office sets new hours • Conclusion of Dr. Miller\u27s talk on India in recent Forum program • Renovations in off-campus dorms praised by long-suffering women • Coed continues social work tale of reform school • The Weekly interviews three more foreign students • Soccermen succumb to Swarthmore, St. Joe\u27s in consecutive matches • UC suffers football defeat in Wagner heartbreaker 14-8 • Player of the week: Doubly dangerous is Degenhardt • Next week\u27s opponent: Haverford • Unbeaten Curtis I first in league • Greek gleaningshttps://digitalcommons.ursinus.edu/weekly/1279/thumbnail.jp

Resistant Starch and Starch Thermal Characteristics in Exotic Corn Lines Grown in Temperate and Tropical Environments

Corn as a food that is heated and cooled to allow starch retrogradation has higher levels of resistant starch (RS). Increasing the amount of RS can make corn an even healthier food and may be accomplished by breeding and selection, especially by using exotic germplasm. Sixty breeding lines of introgressed exotic germplasm backgrounds, selected for high yield, were grown in three tropical and temperate locations and analyzed for starch thermal characteristics and RS levels. Although actual values for all starch characteristics were within normal levels, most characteristics had significant genotypic effects, and all had significant location effects. Thermal properties of retrograded starch were more influenced by the environment than the thermal properties of raw starch, making retrograded starch traits more heritable than raw starch traits. This suggests that a breeding strategy based on retrograded starch traits will have a better chance of success than a breeding strategy based on raw starch traits. A significant genotype effect for RS levels indicates that genotypic selection to raise the level of RS and increase the healthful aspects of corn food should be successful. Significant location effects indicate that breeders using winter nurseries to accelerate their breeding progress need to be careful when making selections using RS data collected on seed grown in the tropics. A small but highly significant correlation between RS and some thermal characteristics, especially percentage of retrogradation, indicates that we may be able to select promising genotypes for RS selection based on our extensive database of thermal characteristics collected on a wide number of diverse corn lines

The transcription factor Nfix is essential for normal brain development

Background: The Nuclear Factor I (NFI) multi-gene family encodes site-specific transcription factors essential for the development of a number of organ systems. We showed previously that Nfia-deficient mice exhibit agenesis of the corpus callosum and other forebrain defects; Nfib-deficient mice have defects in lung maturation and show callosal agenesis and forebrain defects resembling those seen in Nfia-deficient animals, while Nficdeficient mice have defects in tooth root formation. Recently the Nfix gene has been disrupted and these studies indicated that there were largely uncharacterized defects in brain and skeletal development in Nfix-deficient mice. Results: Here we show that disruption of Nfix by Cre-recombinase mediated excision of the 2nd exon results in defects in brain development that differ from those seen in Nfia and Nfib KO mice. In particular, complete callosal agenesis is not seen in Nfix-/- mice but rather there appears to be an overabundance of aberrant Pax6- and doublecortin-positive cells in the lateral ventricles of Nfix-/- mice, increased brain weight, expansion of the cingulate cortex and entire brain along the dorsal ventral axis, and aberrant formation of the hippocampus. On standard lab chow Nfix-/- animals show a decreased growth rate from ~P8 to P14, lose weight from ~P14 to P22 and die at ~P22. If their food is supplemented with a soft dough chow from P10, Nfix-/- animals show a lag in weight gain from P8 to P20 but then increase their growth rate. A fraction of the animals survive to adulthood and are fertile. The weight loss correlates with delayed eye and ear canal opening and suggests a delay in the development of several epithelial structures in Nfix-/- animals. Conclusion: These data show that Nfix is essential for normal brain development and may be required for neural stem cell homeostasis. The delays seen in eye and ear opening and the brain morphology defects appear independent of the nutritional deprivation, as rescue of perinatal lethality with soft dough does not eliminate these defects

Associations among salivary cortisol, melatonin, catecholamines, sleep quality and stress in women with breast cancer and healthy controls

Dysregulations in several biological systems in breast cancer patients have been reported, including abnormalities in endocrine and sympathetic nervous system indices, as well as psychological disturbances and sleep disorders. The purpose of this exploratory study was to compare women with breast cancer to healthy control women on measures of salivary cortisol, urinary catecholamines, overnight urinary melatonin, and self-reported sleep quality, symptoms of stress, depression, anxiety and mood disturbance, to determine if discernable patterns of dysregulations across systems were apparent. Thirty-three women were tested in each group, with an average age of approximately 52 years, primarily Caucasian and welleducated. Forty percent of the women with breast cancer had stage 2 disease and they were an average of 1.36 years post-diagnosis. Women with breast cancer had significantly higher levels of disturbance on all the psychological indices, but there were no differences between groups on any of the biological measures, with the exception that the control women had higher dopamine values than the participants with breast cancer. None of the psychological scores were correlated with the biological measures. These results are consistent with other studies of early-stage breast cancer and highlight the importance of considering disease characteristics when investigating endocrine and sympathetic nervous system functioning. KEY WORDS: breast cancer; cortisol; melatonin; catecholamines; stress; depression; anxiety. Women with breast cancer have been documented to have dysregulation in several important circadian systems, including hormonal, sleep and autonomic rhythm

Thermal Starch Properties in Corn Belt and Exotic Corn Inbred Lines and Their Crosses

More knowledge is needed about variability of starch functional traits in adapted and exotic germplasm and possible genetic effects of these traits before conducting rigorous inheritance studies and breeding programs for starch quality. We studied and compared the range of variability for starch functional traits in a set of Corn Belt inbred lines with a set of exotic inbred lines from Argentina, Uruguay, and South Africa. Reciprocal hybrids of some of the lines within each set were compared with their parents. Functional traits were examined by using differential scanning calorimetry on starch extracted from single kernels of genotypes. The set of Corn Belt lines had a wider range of values for most traits than did the set of exotic lines. For both sets of lines, the maximum value for peak height index was as high as that previously reported for the waxy endosperm mutant. Although the Corn Belt lines exhibited a wider range of values for range of retrogradation than the exotic lines, the exotic lines showed a wider range of values for percentage retrogradation. Hybrid values were not consistently higher, lower, midpoint, or similar with respect to the values of their parents. This was true regardless of germplasm type or functional trait. Reciprocal cross values showed trends suggesting reciprocal differences, although there was no trend suggesting greater effect of the female parent. These traits seem to be controlled by many modifying effects in addition to major effects. Results indicate that sufficient variability exists in Corn Belt germplasm to conduct breeding and inheritance studies effectively and that there should be potential for breeding for functional traits

Illinois Homeowners and Wildlife Report

We conducted a mail survey designed to replicate the 2000 study “Attitudes of Homeowners in the Greater Chicago Metropolitan Region (GCMR) Toward Nuisance Wildlife.” The purpose of this study was to determine homeowners’ attitudes toward wildlife around their home, extent and types of wildlife damages experienced,and interactions with and preferences for management actions related to coyotes. A stratified random sample of 5,000 homeowners in the Greater Chicago Metropolitan Region was selected for this study. A total of 1,624 questionnaires (34%) were received. Forty percent of residents responded they fed wildlife on their property during the 12 months prior to the study, and 71% of those respondents were actively feeding wildlife at the time of the survey. Most wildlife feeding was done all year (56%), whereas fewer respondents fed wildlife during winter (22%), spring,summer,and fall (16% for each, respectively) only. Respondents (45%) were not sure if their neighbors were feeding wildlife. Approximately one-third(35%) of homeowners planted flowers, shrubs,provided water or nest boxes on property to specifically benefit wildlife.About 80% of homeowners enjoyed most or all wildlife species around their home, and the same proportion felt wildlife was not a threat or was only as light threat to their home or property. Seeing wildlife on a daily basis was important for 80% of respondents. Problems with wildlife were experienced by 54% of survey respondents, with digging or burrowing being the most frequent problem reported (52%), and45%of respondents had damage to shrubs, yard, or landscaping. Raccoons, skunk, and squirrels were the wildlife species identified to cause the greatest problems to residents.Half (50%) of respondents took action themselves to correct the problem, and a majority (51%) spent less than $50 on the problem during the 12 months prior to this study. Of the residents who hired private professional services (14%), most (65%) rated the services provided as “Good” or “Excellent.” A minority of residents (9%) received information about preventing wildlife damage, or requested information(5%) about wildlife from the Illinois Department of Natural Resources. Of those who did request information from the IDNR, a majority (72%) rated the information provided as “Good” or “Excellent.” Most (69%) survey respondents had not visited the University of Illinois Extension website “Living with Wildlife in Illinois.”A majority(68%)of survey respondents were aware of coyotes in their current community;62% of respondents or their family members observed a coyote in their current community and 55% saw one in a forest preserve. There was no or slight concern for homeowners ’perceived risks of coyotes in their community. When given the options to let the coyote live or to“trap and destroy,” most survey respondents preferred to let coyotes live regardless of frequency or location of coyote situation. Only when a coyote made a den on one’s property did 49% of respondents favor the “trap and destroy” option.unpublishednot peer reviewedOpe

Intragenic copy number variation within filaggrin contributes to the risk of atopic dermatitis with a dose-dependent effect

Loss-of-function variants within the filaggrin gene (FLG) increase the risk of atopic dermatitis. FLG also demonstrates intragenic copy number variation (CNV), with alleles encoding 10, 11, or 12 filaggrin monomers; hence, CNV may affect the amount of filaggrin expressed in the epidermis. A total of 876 Irish pediatric atopic dermatitis cases were compared with 928 population controls to test the hypothesis that CNV within FLG affects the risk of atopic dermatitis independently of FLG-null mutations. Cases and controls were screened for CNV and common FLG-null mutations. In this population the 11-repeat allele was most prevalent (allele frequency 51.5%); the 10-repeat allele frequency was 33.9% and the 12-repeat allele frequency was 14.6%. Having excluded FLG mutation carriers, the control group had a significantly higher number of repeats than cases (χ2P=0.043), and the odds ratio of disease was reduced by a factor of 0.88 (95% confidence interval 0.78–0.98, P=0.025) for each additional unit of copy number. Breakdown products of filaggrin were quantified in tape-stripped stratum corneum from 31 atopic dermatitis patients and urocanic acid showed a positive correlation with total copy number. CNV within FLG makes a significant, dose-dependent contribution to atopic dermatitis risk, and therefore treatments to increase filaggrin expression may have therapeutic utility

The Vehicle, November 1960, Vol. 3 no. 1

CONTENTS To the ReaderStaffpage 2 N’ = N : 1Donald C. Blairpage 3 ConsistencyDonald C. Blairpage 3 Unto MeLinda Kay Campbellpage 4 The Meek Shall InheritE. J. B. page 5 The Infinite QuestLarry W. Dudleypage 6 Dreamer’s DawnMike Hindmanpage 7 BirthNancy Coepage 7 The Lost DutchmanDonald C. Blairpage 8 W. E. Noonan IRobert S. Hodgepage 8 A Soldier’s OrdealDonald E. Shephardsonpage 9 Personal PossessionMary Beilpage 11 Thine The GloryDonald C. Blairpage 12 The ThornJan Holstlawpage 13 A Lord’s Day MorningLinda Campbellpage 14 Observations of a 6-Year-OldTom McPeakpage 15 Jewels of TimeJudith Jerintspage 16 LavenderE. J. B. page 16https://thekeep.eiu.edu/vehicle/1008/thumbnail.jp

Filaggrin loss-of-function mutations and atopic dermatitis as risk factors for hand eczema in apprentice nurses:part II of a prospective cohort study

BACKGROUND/OBJECTIVES: Environmental exposure and personal susceptibility both contribute to the development of hand eczema. In this study, we investigated the effect of loss-of-function mutations in the filaggrin gene (FLG), atopic dermatitis and wet work exposure on the development of hand eczema in apprentice nurses. METHODS: Dutch apprentice nurses were genotyped for the four most common FLG mutations; atopic dermatitis and hand eczema history were assessed by questionnaire. Exposure and hand eczema during traineeships were assessed with diary cards. RESULTS: The prevalence of hand eczema during traineeships was higher among subjects with a history of hand eczema reported at inclusion. Hand washing during traineeships and at home increased the risk of hand eczema. After adjustment for the effects of exposure and FLG mutations, an odds ratio of 2.5 (90% confidence interval 1.7–3.7) was found for a history of atopic dermatitis. In this study, an increased risk of hand eczema conferred by FLG mutations could not be shown, but subjects with concomitant FLG mutations and atopic dermatitis showed the highest risk of hand eczema during traineeships. CONCLUSION: A history of atopic dermatitis, a history of hand eczema and wet work exposure were the most important factors increasing the risk of hand eczema during traineeships