Search

Here, the authors characterize the gut microbiome fermentation properties and therapeutic potential of chemically diverse synthetic glycans (SGs), showing they promote specific shifts in taxonomic and metabolite profiles, and exhibit therapeutic benefits in mouse models of colonic inflammation, together implying SGs as a potential avenue to treat disease by modulating the composition and metabolites produced by the gut microbiome.

Following injury, adult skeletal muscle undergoes a well-coordinated sequence of molecular and physiological events to promote repair and regeneration. However, a thorough understanding of the in vivo epigenomic and transcriptional mechanisms that control these reparative events is lacking. To address this, we monitored the in vivo dynamics of three histone modifications and coding and noncoding RNA expression throughout the regenerative process in a mouse model of traumatic muscle injury. We first illustrate how both coding and noncoding RNAs in tissues and sorted satellite cells are modified and regulated during various stages after trauma. Next, we use chromatin immunoprecipitation followed by sequencing to evaluate the chromatin state of cis-regulatory elements (promoters and enhancers) and view how these elements evolve and influence various muscle repair and regeneration transcriptional programs. These results provide a comprehensive view of the central factors that regulate muscle regeneration and underscore the multiple levels through which both transcriptional and epigenetic patterns are regulated to enact appropriate repair and regeneration.

We present a case study on the design and implementation of a value-based bundled package of care for patients with early-stage breast cancer treated in the private health sector in Australia. Value-based healthcare is an essential change to how we deliver healthcare, shifting the focus from paying for individual services provided to a focus on the health outcomes gained over a full cycle of care. The Australian health system has unintentionally created barriers to value-based cancer care through fragmented care pathways and complex funding arrangements where patients can unexpectedly encounter high out-of-pocket costs. A team of clinicians, service providers, health systems and funding experts, private health insurers and consumers have collaborated to design and pilot a complete bundled package of care for breast cancer patients which aims to address these challenges. With 40 patients recruited to date, early evaluation results show positive patient experience of 'joined-up' care and financial transparency. This case study provides a high-level overview of the approach taken to design and implement the Breast Cancer Bundle and the lessons learned for its expansion in both public and private settings. What is known about this topic? Enabling value-based healthcare is essential to improve healthcare, focusing on outcomes gained over a full cycle of care. Patients diagnosed with cancer frequently report care to be disjointed and the cause of financial stress, thus can particularly benefit from value-based care models. What does this paper add? This case study describes the design and implementation of a bundled package of care for patients with early-stage breast cancer treated in the private health sector in Australia. What are the implications for practitioners? Lessons learned through this process provide considerations for expansion of this model of care. This article belongs to the Special Issue: Value-based Healthcare. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Homes and Haunts: Touring Writers' Shrines and Countries Alison Booth Oxford UP, 2016, x + 333 pp. ISBN 978-0198759096, S85.00 hardcover. Alison Booth's Homes and Haunts is a complex and [...]

Wheat leaf rust (Puccinia triticina) causes significant yield losses in wheat production worldwide. Genetic resistance is a cost-effective way to reduce these losses. Among the known leaf rust (Lr) resistance genes, nearly half are from alien sources. However, their deployment into wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) cultivars has been limited, likely because of fear of potential negative effects of linked alien genes. We report here the effects of the Lr47 introgression from Triticum speltoides on agronomic and quality traits in common wheat. Five pairs of hard red spring near-isogenic lines were tested in replicated field trials from 2002 to 2004. The presence of the Lr47 introgression was associated with an overall 3.8% reduction in grain yield (220 kg ha⁻¹), but it varied significantly across genotypes and environments. The Lr47 introgression also affected several quality parameters. Lines with the alien Lr47 segment showed consistent increases in grain and flour protein concentration (4 to 5 g kg⁻¹, P < 0.01) but also highly significant decreases in flour yield (21.8 g kg⁻¹, P < 0.001) and increases in flour ash (0.14 g kg⁻¹, P < 0.01). This information will help wheat breeders make informed decisions about the deployment of Lr47 in their breeding programs. An additional round of homeologous recombination will be necessary to determine if the detrimental effects on milling parameters are pleiotropic effects of Lr47 or the result of linked genes.

Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) education in the U.S. is in transition. The recently published "A Framework for K-12 Science Education: Practices, Crosscutting Concepts, and Core Ideas" as well as the "Next Generation Science Standards" are responsive to this call and clearly articulate a vision that includes engineering practices as key components. This shift presents significant challenges to school districts owing to a stark lack of research-based engineering-focused instructional materials and corresponding teacher professional development. The purpose of this study was to investigate the impact of a professional development program on high school STEM teachers' ability to enact design-based pedagogical practices associated with the pre-selected engineering design curriculum (INSPIRES Engineering in Healthcare: A Heart-Lung System Case Study). Data were generated through evaluation of teacher practice using the Reformed Teaching Observation Protocol (RTOP). Findings demonstrated that RTOP scores were statistically significant.

Several new races of the stripe rust pathogen have become frequent throughout the wheat growing regions of the United States since 2000. These new races are virulent to most of the wheat seedling resistance genes limiting the resistance sources that can be used to combat this pathogen. High-temperature adult-plant (HTAP) stripe rust resistance has proven to be more durable than seedling resistance due to its non-race-specific nature, but its use is limited by the lack of mapping information. We report here the identification of a new HTAP resistance gene from Triticum turgidum ssp. dicoccoides (DIC) designated as Yr36. Lines carrying this gene were susceptible to almost all the stripe rust pathogen races tested at the seedling stage but showed adult-plant resistance to the prevalent races in California when tested at high diurnal temperatures. Isogenic lines for this gene were developed by six backcross generations. Field tests in two locations showed increased levels of field resistance to stripe rust and increased yields in isogenic lines carrying the Yr36 gene compared to those without the gene. Recombinant substitution lines of chromosome 6B from DIC in the isogenic background of durum cv. Langdon were used to map the Yr36 gene on the short arm of chromosome 6B completely linked to Xbarc101, and within a 2-cM interval defined by PCR-based markers Xucw71 and Xbarc136. Flanking locus Xucw71 is also closely linked to the grain protein content locus Gpc-B1 (0.3-cM). Marker-assisted selection strategies are presented to improve stripe rust resistance and simultaneously select for high or low Gpc-B1 alleles.