Review of \u3ci\u3eCat Tale\u3c/i\u3e by Michael Hall

https://digitalcommons.cedarville.edu/intern_book_reviews/1090/thumbnail.jp

Review of \u3ci\u3eArchie\u3c/i\u3e by Domenica More Gordon

https://digitalcommons.cedarville.edu/intern_book_reviews/1089/thumbnail.jp

Review of \u3ci\u3eDog in Charge\u3c/i\u3e by K.L. Going

https://digitalcommons.cedarville.edu/intern_book_reviews/1091/thumbnail.jp

Review of \u3ci\u3eIf You Want to See a Whale\u3c/i\u3e by Julie Fogliano

https://digitalcommons.cedarville.edu/intern_book_reviews/1092/thumbnail.jp

Review of \u3ci\u3eThis Moose Belongs to Me\u3c/i\u3e by Oliver Jeffers

https://digitalcommons.cedarville.edu/intern_book_reviews/1094/thumbnail.jp

Review of \u3ci\u3eWhat\u27s the Time, Mr. Wolf?\u3c/i\u3e by Debi Gliori

https://digitalcommons.cedarville.edu/intern_book_reviews/1096/thumbnail.jp

Review of \u3ci\u3eTiger In My Soup\u3c/i\u3e by Kashmira Sheth

https://digitalcommons.cedarville.edu/intern_book_reviews/1095/thumbnail.jp

Quantitative characterization of all single amino acid variants of a viral capsid-based delivery vehicle

Self-assembling protein containers are promising delivery vehicles for cellular and gene therapy applications, but the ability to predict how mutations alter self-assembly and other particle properties remains a significant challenge. Here, we combine comprehensive codon mutagenesis with high-throughput sequencing to characterize the assembly-competency of all single amino acid variants of a virus-like particle. The coat protein (CP) of MS2 bacteriophage was chosen because of its potential in targeted delivery and imaging. An assembly selection revealed a high-resolution fitness landscape that challenged several conventional protein engineering assumptions. Using the same approach with additional comprehensive mutagenesis strategies and selective pressures identified several other previously-uncharacterized variants for enabling efficient chemical and post-translational modifications as well as altered stability features. For example, the wild-type CP is acid tolerant down to pH 2, but we identified a variant with a single point mutation that confers stability at neutral pH but acid-triggered disassembly. Acid sensitivity is highly desirable in targeted delivery to improve the efficiency of endosomal release. In addition to providing a blueprint of how to tune the chemical and physical properties of the MS2 CP and other structurally-related virus-like particles, these techniques can readily be applied to the systematic study of other self-assembling proteins and protein-based delivery vehicles

Review of the Accuracy of Two Pain Assessment Tools in Nonverbal Adult Patients

Intensive care units frequently have patients that are unable to verbally communicate their pain, thus negating conventional pain assessment techniques and making pain assessment difficult. Pain management is often a priority in all patients’ circumstances and therefore, assessment and reassessment are included in the plan of care. Different observational pain scales have been used in intensive care units, but often times these scales must be adapted to fit the patient’s circumstances. Pain scales that are used for nonverbal patients typically include behavioral indicators and some are adapted to incorporate physiologic indicators such as vital signs. The aim of this review is to determine if the use of the Critical-Care Pain Observation Tool (CPOT), an assessment tool that is strictly observational, leads to more accurate pain assessment scores for nonverbal adult patients in comparison to the Adult Nonverbal Pain Scale (NVPS), a tool that incorporates vital signs. A search was conducted using five databases and the key words included, but are not limited to, Critical-Care Pain Observation Tool, Adult Nonverbal Pain Scale, nonverbal patients, and pain assessment. It was found that the CPOT was more accurate in determining pain assessment scores due to a discrepancy regarding the inconsistency of vital signs

A rapid, inexpensive, and semi-quantitative method for determining pollen tube extension using fluorescence

BACKGROUND: Pollen tubes extend rapidly when pollen grains are incubated in defined media. Tube extension requires many critical functions of plant cells including molecular signaling, cytoskeleton remodeling, secretion, and cell wall synthesis. Consequently, pollen tube growth has been established as a way to conduct primary screens of chemical libraries to identify compounds that perturb key cellular processes in plants. RESULTS: Here we report a simple, inexpensive, rapid and semi-quantitative method for measurement of pollen tube growth in microtiter plates. The method relies on Congo Red binding to pollen tubes and correlates dye fluorescence to tube length. CONCLUSIONS: This method can be used in any laboratory without specialized equipment, and has the potential to enable larger screens as chemical libraries grow and to make chemical screening accessible to researchers building specialized libraries designed to probe pathways in plant biology