The Relationship between BMI & Mandated Physical Education Requirements of Elementary Schools

The physical activity policies of elementary schools in Arkansas and correlations between physical activity requirements and body mass index have been studied. Examination of the policies at the individual school, district, or state level were noted. The statewide BMI database was consulted. Interviews with physical education teachers was conducted to assess policy implementation. Results may provide schools and policy makers with insight on future physical activity policies

A sequential direct arylation/Suzuki-Miyaura cross-coupling transformation of unprotected 2 '-deoxyadenosine affords a novel class of fluorescent analogues

Novel rigid 8-biaryl-2'-deoxyadenosines with tuneable fluorescent properties can be accessed by an efficient sequential catalytic Pd-0-coupling approach

Evolution to Autonomy

Since both modern moral theory and evolutionary theory arose in the shadow of Newtonian and Humean conceptions of nature, debates about evolutionary ethics have typically been vexed by deeper problems with the nature of evolution itself as well as meta-ethical questions about the link between facts and values. Humean skepticism and mechanistic selectionism have recently coincided in postmodern attacks on essentialism,on meta-narratives of progress, on models of human nature, and on moral collectivism. Against this most recent wave of skepticism, however, contemporary reconstructions of evolution in light of complex systems science suggest useful ways of reinterpreting both evolutionary causation, the biology of human nature, and their implications for ethics

Icelandic Threat Perceptions

Since World War II, Iceland\u27s foreign policy has been designed to maintain her freedom of action and to remain independent of external domination, not unusual goals for a NATO nation. lceland\u27s view of the threats to her independence, and the priorities she assigns to those threats, however, are not coincident with what most Americans would believe them to be. It is thus especially important that those views be understood

Rapid Uplift Of Southern Alaska Caused By Recent Ice Loss

Thesis (Ph.D.) University of Alaska Fairbanks, 2003Changing surface loads, such as melting glaciers, can induce deformation of the Earth's crust. The speed of the Earth's response to load changes and the pattern of deformation they cause can be used to infer material properties of the lithosphere and mantle. Rapid uplift of southern Alaska has been measured with tide gauges, Global Positioning System (GPS) measurements and studies of raised shorelines. With multiple sites uplifting at rates in excess of 25 mm/yr, these measurements reveal the world's fastest regional uplift. Southern Alaska has over 75000 km2 of glaciers, the rapid melting of which is contributing more to global sea level rise than Greenland. Southern Alaska also has intense tectonic activity, and uplift driven by tectonics has been suggested to be comparable with that driven by glacial unloading. The majority of the uplift measurements examined here are located along the strike-slip portion of the Pacific - North America plate boundary. GPS measurements show little compressional strain associated with tectonic forcing. Tide gauges indicate long term linear uplift rates within the strike-slip regime, contrasting with tectonically influenced non-linear uplift to the northwest, where the Pacific Plate subducts beneath North America. Dating of raised shorelines within southeast Alaska show that the rapid uplift there began simultaneously with glacial unloading ~1790 AD. These observations indicate that the tectonic contribution to the uplift in southeast Alaska is small. Multiple independent studies are used here to constrain the load changes in southern Alaska over the past ~1000--2000 yrs. A detailed model of the advance, standstill and retreat phases of the Little Ice Age glaciation is used as input to a simple viscoelastic Earth model. This model can match the pattern and magnitude of the region's uplift observations with a low degree of misfit, verifying that the region's uplift can be entirely attributed to glacial isostatic rebound. Furthermore, the uplift observations require at the 95% confidence level a three-layer Earth model consisting of a 50+30-25 km thick elastic lithosphere, an asthenosphere with viscosity eta A = (1.4 +/- 0.3) x 1019 Pa s and thickness 110+20-15 km, overlaying a viscous upper mantle half-space (etaum = 4 x 1020 Pa s)

Nitroheterocyclic drug resistance mechanisms in <i>Trypanosoma brucei</i>

OBJECTIVES: The objective of this study was to identify the mechanisms of resistance to nifurtimox and fexinidazole in African trypanosomes. METHODS: Bloodstream-form Trypanosoma brucei were selected for resistance to nifurtimox and fexinidazole by stepwise exposure to increasing drug concentrations. Clones were subjected to WGS to identify putative resistance genes. Transgenic parasites modulating expression of genes of interest were generated and drug susceptibility phenotypes determined. RESULTS: Nifurtimox-resistant (NfxR) and fexinidazole-resistant (FxR) parasites shared reciprocal cross-resistance suggestive of a common mechanism of action. Previously, a type I nitroreductase (NTR) has been implicated in nitro drug activation. WGS of resistant clones revealed that NfxR parasites had lost >100 kb from one copy of chromosome 7, rendering them hemizygous for NTR as well as over 30 other genes. FxR parasites retained both copies of NTR, but lost >70 kb downstream of one NTR allele, decreasing NTR transcription by half. A single knockout line of NTR displayed 1.6- and 1.9-fold resistance to nifurtimox and fexinidazole, respectively. Since NfxR and FxR parasites are ∼6- and 20-fold resistant to nifurtimox and fexinidazole, respectively, additional factors must be involved. Overexpression and knockout studies ruled out a role for a putative oxidoreductase (Tb927.7.7410) and a hypothetical gene (Tb927.1.1050), previously identified in a genome-scale RNAi screen. CONCLUSIONS: NTR was confirmed as a key resistance determinant, either by loss of one gene copy or loss of gene expression. Further work is required to identify which of the many dozens of SNPs identified in the drug-resistant cell lines contribute to the overall resistance phenotype

The critical role of mode of action studies in kinetoplastid drug discovery

Understanding the target and mode of action of compounds identified by phenotypic screening can greatly facilitate the process of drug discovery and development. Here, we outline the tools currently available for target identification against the neglected tropical diseases, human African trypanosomiasis, visceral leishmaniasis and Chagas’ disease. We provide examples how these tools can be used to identify and triage undesirable mechanisms, to identify potential toxic liabilities in patients and to manage a balanced portfolio of target-based campaigns. We review the primary targets of drugs that are currently in clinical development that were initially identified via phenotypic screening, and whose modes of action affect protein turnover, RNA trans-splicing or signalling in these protozoan parasites.<br/