No abstract

The results from this study validate the recommendation that people sensitive to allergens could select hard floorings to reduce exposure and related adverse health outcomes. The results can also be applied to exposure models to determine the overall impact of exposure to resuspension as compared with other particle sources.

This study examined persistence and decay of bacterial pathogens, fecal indicator bacteria (FIB), and emerging real-time quantitative PCR (qPCR) genetic markers for rapid detection of fecal pollution in manureamended agricultural soils. Known concentrations of transformed green fluorescent protein-expressing Escherichia coli O157:H7/pZs and red fluorescent protein-expressing Salmonella enterica serovar Typhimurium/pDs were added to laboratory-scale manure-amended soil microcosms with moisture contents of 60% or 80% field capacity and incubated at temperatures of ؊20°C, 10°C, or 25°C for 120 days. A two-stage first-order decay model was used to determine stage 1 and stage 2 first-order decay rate coefficients and transition times for each organism and qPCR genetic marker in each treatment. Genetic markers for FIB (Enterococcus spp., E. coli, and Bacteroidales) exhibited decay rate coefficients similar to that of E. coli O157:H7/pZs but not of S. enterica serovar Typhimurium/pDs and persisted at detectable levels longer than both pathogens. Concentrations of these two bacterial pathogens, their counterpart qPCR genetic markers (stx1 and ttrRSBCA, respectively), and FIB genetic markers were also correlated (r ‫؍‬ 0.528 to 0.745). This suggests that these qPCR genetic markers may be reliable conservative surrogates for monitoring fecal pollution from manure-amended land. Hostassociated qPCR genetic markers for microbial source tracking decayed rapidly to nondetectable concentrations, long before FIB, Salmonella enterica serovar Typhimurium/pDs, and E. coli O157:H7/pZs. Although good indicators of point source or recent nonpoint source fecal contamination events, these host-associated qPCR genetic markers may not be reliable indicators of nonpoint source fecal contamination events that occur weeks following manure application on land.Cultivation-based methods for fecal indicator bacteria (FIB) such as Escherichia coli and Enterococcus spp. have long been used to indicate potential public health risks associated with water impacted by human and other animal feces (53). FIB cultivation methods are simple to perform and inexpensive. However, these methods require 18 to 24 h following sampling to generate test results; this allows potential exposure of the public to fecal pathogens in the interim. Regulatory agencies, business owners, and other stakeholders have expressed interest in more rapid and specific methods to identify water quality impairment.Emerging real-time quantitative PCR (qPCR) methods designed to estimate the concentration of fecal pollution by targeting genomic DNA (gDNA) from FIB such as Bacteroidales, Enterococcus spp., and E. coli are now available and can generate test results in just a few hours after sampling (10,16,48). Some of these genetic markers can be correlated to public health risk and may soon be incorporated by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency into water quality standards in the United States (16,59). These genetic markers may also detect viable but nonculturable (VBNC) cells tha...

The NF-kB family of transcription factors regulates important biological functions including cell growth, survival and the immune response. We found that Human Papillomavirus type 16 (HPV-16) E7 and E6/E7 proteins inhibited basal and TNF-alpha-inducible NF-kB activity in human epithelial cells cultured from the cervical transformation zone, the anatomic region where most cervical cancers develop. In contrast, HPV-16 E6 regulated NF-kB in a cell type- and cell growth-dependent manner. NF-kB influenced immortalization of cervical cells by HPV16. Inhibition of NF-kB by an IkB alpha repressor mutant increased colony formation and immortalization by HPV-16. In contrast, activation of NF-kB by constitutive expression of p65 inhibited proliferation and immortalization. Our results suggest that inhibition of NF-kB by HPV-16 E6/E7 contributes to immortalization of cells from the cervical transformation zone.

Intervertebral disc (IVD) degeneration and trauma is a major socio-economic burden and the focus of cell-based regenerative medicine approaches. Despite numerous ongoing clinical trials attempting to replace ailing IVD cells with mesenchymal stem cells, a solid understanding of the identity and nature of cells in a healthy mature IVD is still in need of refinement. Although anatomically simple, the IVD is comprised of heterogeneous cell populations. Therefore, methods involving cell pooling for RNA profiling could be misleading. Here, by using RNA in situ hybridization and z proportion test, we have identified potential novel biomarkers through single cell assessment. We quantified the proportion of RNA transcribing cells for 50 genetic loci in the outer annulus fibrosus (AF) and nucleus pulposus (NP) in coccygeal bovine discs isolated from tails of four skeletally mature animals. Our data reconfirm existing data and suggest 10 novel markers such as Lam1 and Thy1 in the outer AF and Gli1, Gli3, Noto, Scx, Ptprc, Sox2, Zscan10 and LOC101904175 in the NP, including pluripotency markers, that indicate stemness potential of IVD cells. These markers could be added to existing biomarker panels for cell type characterization. Furthermore, our data once more demonstrate heterogeneity in cells of the AF and NP, indicating the need for single cell assessment by methods such as RNA in situ hybridization. Our work refines the molecular identity of outer AF and NP cells, which can benefit future regenerative medicine and tissue engineering strategies in humans.

Background Until recently many researchers have examined energy and fatigue as opposite ends of a bipolar spectrum rather than two separate unipolar moods. Studies have also focused on a single variable to study these mood states rather than examining multiple variables simultaneously. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to identify factors predicting feelings of energy and fatigue while simultaneously examining multiple domains related to these mood states in graduate health sciences students. Methods Seventy‐seven subjects were recruited from a Physician Assistant, Physical Therapy and Occupational Therapy program at a small school in Northern New York. Subjects completed a series of surveys to measure mood, diet, mental work load intensity on school days and non‐school days, and physical activity. Subjects also completed the Trail‐making Test Part B task on an iPad and their Resting Metabolic Rate (RMR) and muscle oxygen consumption mVO2 was measured. A backwards linear regression was used to determine the relationship between energy, fatigue and multiple variables. Results The predictor variables accounted for 46.1% and 22.7% of the variance in fatigue and energy, respectively. More fatigue was associated with worse sleep quality, more time spent sitting and higher perceived intensity of mental workload on non‐school days. More energy was associated with better sleep quality, higher muscle oxygen saturation, lower RMR, and faster psychomotor performance. Conclusion The results of this study indicate that energy and fatigue are separate constructs that are predicted with different accuracy by different variables. Our results indicate that small lifestyle changes may be necessary to improve feelings of fatigue but comprehensive interventions may be necessary to improve feelings of energy. This study provides new insight into a multi‐domain approach to predicting energy and fatigue. Support or Funding Information There was no funding for this study This abstract is from the Experimental Biology 2019 Meeting. There is no full text article associated with this abstract published in The FASEB Journal.

We present a psychometric scale that assesses risk-taking in 10 evolutionary content domains: between-group competition, within-group competition, status-power, environmental exploration, food selection, food acquisition, parent-offspring conflict, kinship, mate attraction, and mate retention. We report on three studies that evaluate the scale’s validity and consistency for a sample of 1,326 participants who rated their likelihood of engagement in, the perceived riskiness of, and the benefit associated with various risky activities. Behaviors were framed as modern-day analogues of qualitatively similar actions in recurring problem domains of the ancestral environment that were potentially beneficial but also potentially costly to survival and reproductive success. As expected, respondents’ degree of risk-taking was not consistently risk-averse or risk-seeking across content domains, and a set of eight life-history variables had domain-specific effects on risk-taking propensity. In most domains, men were significantly more risk-seeking than women, but in 2 of the 10 domains—food selection and kinship risks—women were more risk-prone than men. Participants who reported not being married or in a committed relationship scored significantly higher in the domains of mate attraction and mate retention. Age, reproductive goal-setting, parental status, number of siblings, and birth order also affected the formation of risk thresholds.

No abstract