The LTAR Grazing Land Common Experiment at Walnut Gulch Experimental Watershed.

The Walnut Gulch Experimental Watershed (WGEW) Long-Term Agroecosystem Research (LTAR) network common experiment addresses the aspirational practice of brush management (BM) to reverse the prevailing condition of woody plant encroachment (WPE) and increase perennial native grass production. Across the western United States, the decision to implement BM includes consideration of management objectives, cost, and the expected impact on a diverse suite of ecosystem services. Maintaining or restoring grass cover will help meet the LTAR sustainable production, economic, and social goals, and averting degradation will meet environmental goals.

Global application of an unoccupied aerial vehicle photogrammetry protocol for predicting aboveground biomass in non-forest ecosystems.

Non-forest ecosystems, dominated by shrubs, grasses and herbaceous plants, provide ecosystem services including carbon sequestration and forage for grazing, and are highly sensitive to climatic changes. Yet these ecosystems are poorly represented in remotely sensed biomass products and are undersampled by in situ monitoring. Current global change threats emphasize the need for new tools to capture biomass change in non-forest ecosystems at appropriate scales.

Premature delivery in the domestic sow in response to in utero delivery of AAV9 to fetal piglets.

Numerous pediatric neurogenetic diseases may be optimally treated by in utero gene therapy (IUGT); but advancing such treatments requires animal models that recapitulate developmental physiology relevant to humans. One disease that could benefit from IUGT is the autosomal recessive motor neuron disease spinal muscular atrophy (SMA). Current SMA gene-targeting therapeutics are more efficacious when delivered shortly after birth, however postnatal treatment is rarely curative in severely affected patients.

Tryptophan Metabolites Are Associated With Symptoms and Nigral Pathology in Parkinson's Disease.

Background: The objective of this study was to determine whether neurotoxic kynurenine metabolites, induced by inflammation, in plasma and cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) are associated with symptom severity and nigral pathology in Parkinson's disease (PD).

Methods: Clinical and MRI data were obtained from 97 PD and 89 controls. We used ultra-performance liquid chromatography to quantify kynurenine metabolites and high-sensitivity multiplex assays to quantify inflammation in plasma and CSF.