Publications by authors named "Curtin S"

This strategic plan summarizes the major accomplishments achieved in the last quinquennial by the soybean [Glycine max (L.) Merr.] genetics and genomics research community and outlines key priorities for the next 5 years (2024-2028).

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Introduction: This Data Brief presents trends in stroke death rates among people ages 45-64, in total and by sex, for 2002 to 2022. Trends are also presented for men and women by region (Northeast, Midwest, South, and West) from 2002 to 2022. For 2022, stroke death rates are presented for men and women by race and Hispanic origin within each region.

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Article Synopsis
  • Alfalfa is a key forage crop, and a study analyzed 318 Medicago species—including 244 alfalfa samples—to explore seed morphology by measuring various traits like size, shape, and color.
  • The research demonstrated significant phenotypic diversity and established correlations among the traits, leading to a genome-wide association study (GWAS) that identified several important genes linked to these characteristics.
  • Machine learning was applied to further validate the findings and discover marker-trait associations, with one marker (S7_33375673) being crucial for predicting seed color intensity, thereby enhancing the understanding of seed morphology genetics in alfalfa and related species.
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Ascochyta blights cause yield losses in all major legume crops. Spring black stem (SBS) and leaf spot disease is a major foliar disease of Medicago truncatula and Medicago sativa (alfalfa) caused by the necrotrophic fungus Ascochyta medicaginicola. This present study sought to identify candidate genes for SBS disease resistance for future functional validation.

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Medicago truncatula, model legume and alfalfa relative, has served as an essential resource for advancing our understanding of legume physiology, functional genetics, and crop improvement traits. Necrotrophic fungus, Ascochyta medicaginicola, the causal agent of spring black stem (SBS) and leaf spot is a devasting foliar disease of alfalfa affecting stand survival, yield, and forage quality. Host resistance to SBS disease is poorly understood, and control methods rely on cultural practices.

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Purpose: Throughout the world, mobility devices are usually distributed using product-based business models, where a device is provided to a user, and serviced or replaced when the user returns to the clinic with an issue. Moving to a service-based business model can provide continuous and customised support for the user, and provide the clinicians and manufacturers with better data to base their decisions on. This study reviews papers on assistive technology service-based business models and considerations in designing such a model to optimise economic and social value.

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Objectives-This report presents final 2020 data on the 10 leading causes of death in the United States by age, race and Hispanic origin, and sex. Leading causes of infant, neonatal, and postneonatal death are also presented. This report supplements "Deaths: Final Data for 2020," the National Center for Health Statistics' annual report of final mortality statistics.

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Since the mid-1970s, cancer death rates for youth in the United States have declined significantly despite a slow increase in incidence for some of the major types (1-3). A previous report with trends from 1999 through 2014 showed declines for all 5-year age groups of youth (0-4, 5-9, 10-14, 15-19) (4). This Data Brief updates that report by presenting trends in cancer death rates through 2021.

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Background: Paediatric obesity is a global public health issue. Prenatal maternal mental health is potentially implicated in the development of childhood obesity. This study examined associations between prenatal maternal cortisol, self-reported stress, anxiety and depression in the second trimester, and childhood overweight and obesity at 5 years of age.

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The maluma/takete effect refers to an association between certain language sounds (e.g., /m/ and /o/) and round shapes, and other language sounds (e.

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Background: The prosthetic socket is a key component that influences prosthesis satisfaction, with a poorly fitting prosthetic socket linked to prosthesis abandonment and reduced community participation. This paper reviews adjustable socket designs, as they have the potential to improve prosthetic fit and comfort through accommodating residual limb volume fluctuations and alleviating undue socket pressure.

Methods: Systematic literature and patent searches were conducted across multiple databases to identify articles and patents that discussed adjustable prosthetic sockets.

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and -mediated hairy root transformation (HRT) assays are key components of the plant biotechnology and functional genomics toolkit. In this report, both and HRT were optimized in soybean using the reporter. Different parameters including strain, optical density of the bacterial cell culture (OD), co-cultivation media, soybean genotype, explant age, and acetosyringone addition and concentration were evaluated.

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Three -like genes encoding putative ubiquitin-conjugating E2 enzymes of were characterized for potential roles in phosphorous (P) homeostasis and symbiotic nitrogen fixation (SNF). All three genes, , contain miR399-binding sites characteristic of genes in other plant species. Distinct spatiotemporal expression patterns and responsiveness of gene expression to P- and N-deprivation in roots and shoots indicated potential roles, especially for , in P and N homeostasis.

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Ideotype breeding is a strategy whereby traits are modeled a priori and then introduced into a model or crop species to assess their impact on yield. Thus, knowledge about the connection between genotype and phenotype is required for ideotype breeding to be deployed successfully. The growing understanding of the genetic basis of yield-related traits, combined with increasingly efficient genome engineering tools, improved transformation efficiency, and high-throughput genotyping of regenerants paves the way for the widespread adoption of ideotype breeding as a complement to conventional breeding.

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Sorghum is the fifth most important crop globally. Researching interactions between sorghum and fungal pathogens is essential to further elucidate plant defense mechanisms to biotic stress, which allows breeders to employ genetic resistance to disease. A variety of creative and useful inoculation and screening methods have been developed by sorghum pathologists to study major fungal diseases.

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Objectives: This study investigated the effect of appropriate pre-phlebotomy instructions on patients' awareness of the need to fast, their fasting status at phlebotomy, and the measurement of specific biochemical analytes and indices.

Methods: While booking their phlebotomy appointments, two-hundred outpatients, with a wide range of pre-existing medical conditions, were recruited and randomly assigned to either control or intervention groups. The control group received no instructions while the intervention group was verbally instructed to fast for precisely 12 h prior to their appointment.

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Alcohol use is a known risk factor for mortality, and the rates of alcohol induced deaths have risen over the past several years (1). Alcohol use in the United States increased during the first year of the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, which may have affected mortality rates, especially for alcohol-induced deaths (2). Understanding trends in alcohol-induced mortality, with a particular focus on differences from 2019 to 2020, may help identify groups particularly affected during the COVID-19 pandemic.

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Death rates in the United States are higher in rural than urban areas, and the difference has grown over the last 2 decades (1). Death rates for all of the 10 leading causes of death in 2019 were higher in rural than urban areas (1). In 2020, deaths due to COVID-19 became the third leading cause of death in the United States (2).

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Cross-linguistically, statements and questions broadly differ in syntactic organization. To learn the syntactic properties of each sentence type, learners might first rely on non-syntactic information. This paper analyzed prosodic differences between infant-directed -questions and statements to determine what kinds of cues might be available.

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The purpose of this report is to provide guidance to users of NCHS data in the selection of modeling options when using the NCI Joinpoint regression software to analyze trends. This report complements another report, "National Center for Health Statistics Guidelines for Analysis of Trends." Considerations are presented for selecting the modeling options, with examples illustrating the choices.

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