Variation in canopy duration in the perennial biofuel crop Miscanthus reveals complex associations with yield.

Energy crops can provide a sustainable source of power and fuels, and mitigate the negative effects of CO2 emissions associated with fossil fuel use. Miscanthus is a perennial C4 energy crop capable of producing large biomass yields whilst requiring low levels of input. Miscanthus is largely unimproved and therefore there could be significant opportunities to increase yield.

Gadolinium-Based Contrast Agents for Vessel Wall Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) of Atherosclerosis.

Cardiovascular disease due to atherosclerosis is the number one killer in the Western world, and threatens to become the major cause of morbidity and mortality worldwide. It is therefore paramount to develop non-invasive methods for the detection of high-risk, asymptomatic individuals before the onset of clinical symptoms or events. In the recent past, great strides have been made in the understanding of the pathological mechanisms involved in the atherosclerotic cascade down to the molecular details.

Oct4 switches partnering from Sox2 to Sox17 to reinterpret the enhancer code and specify endoderm.

How regulatory information is encoded in the genome is poorly understood and poses a challenge when studying biological processes. We demonstrate here that genomic redistribution of Oct4 by alternative partnering with Sox2 and Sox17 is a fundamental regulatory event of endodermal specification. We show that Sox17 partners with Oct4 and binds to a unique 'compressed' Sox/Oct motif that earmarks endodermal genes.

ETHNOPRED: a novel machine learning method for accurate continental and sub-continental ancestry identification and population stratification correction.

Background: Population stratification is a systematic difference in allele frequencies between subpopulations. This can lead to spurious association findings in the case-control genome wide association studies (GWASs) used to identify single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) associated with disease-linked phenotypes. Methods such as self-declared ancestry, ancestry informative markers, genomic control, structured association, and principal component analysis are used to assess and correct population stratification but each has limitations.

Influence of nutrition labelling on food portion size consumption.

Nutrition labelling is an important strategic approach for encouraging consumers to make healthier food choices. The availability of highly palatable foods labelled as 'low fat or reduced calorie' may encourage the over-consumption of these products. This study aimed to determine whether the manipulation of nutrition labelling information can influence food portion size consumption.

Impact of Miscanthus x giganteus senescence times on fast pyrolysis bio-oil quality.

In this study the impact of senescence and harvest time in Miscanthus on the quality of fast pyrolysis liquid (bio-oil) was investigated. Bio-oil was produced using a 1 kg h(-1) fast pyrolysis reactor to obtain a quantity of bio-oil comparable with existing industrial reactors. Bio-oil stability was measured using viscosity, water content, pH and heating value changes under specific conditions.

Flowering induction in the bioenergy grass Miscanthus sacchariflorus is a quantitative short-day response, whilst delayed flowering under long days increases biomass accumulation.

Miscanthus sacchariflorus is a fast-growing C(4) perennial grass that can naturally hybridize with M. sinensis to produce interspecific hybrids, such as the sterile triploid M.× giganteus.

Co-motif discovery identifies an Esrrb-Sox2-DNA ternary complex as a mediator of transcriptional differences between mouse embryonic and epiblast stem cells.

Transcription factors (TF) often bind in heterodimeric complexes with each TF recognizing a specific neighboring cis element in the regulatory region of the genome. Comprehension of this DNA motif grammar is opaque, yet recent developments have allowed the interrogation of genome-wide TF binding sites. We reasoned that within this data novel motif grammars could be identified that controlled distinct biological programs.

Arterial spin-labeling MR imaging of renal masses: correlation with histopathologic findings.

Purpose: To assess the value of arterial spin-labeling (ASL) perfusion magnetic resonance (MR) imaging in the characterization of solid renal masses by using histopathologic findings as the standard of reference.

Materials And Methods: This prospective study was compliant with HIPAA and approved by the institutional review board. Informed consent was obtained from all patients before imaging.

Single-cell mRNA profiling identifies progenitor subclasses in neurospheres.

Neurospheres are widely used to propagate and investigate neural stem cells (NSCs) and neural progenitors (NPs). However, the exact cell types present within neurospheres are still unknown. To identify cell types, we used single-cell mRNA profiling of 48 genes in 187 neurosphere cells.

Cognitive testing of the STAR-Q: insights in activity and sedentary time reporting.

Purpose: The qualitative attributes and quantitative measurement properties of physical activity questionnaires are equally important considerations in questionnaire appraisal, yet fundamental aspects such as question comprehension are not often described in the literature. Here we describe the use of cognitive interviewing to evaluate the Sedentary Time and Activity Reporting Questionnaire (STAR-Q), a self-administered questionnaire designed to assess overall activity energy expenditure and sedentary behavior.

Methods: Several rounds of one-on-one interviews were conducted by an interviewer trained in qualitative research methods.

A two-stage association study identifies methyl-CpG-binding domain protein 2 gene polymorphisms as candidates for breast cancer susceptibility.

Genome-wide association studies for breast cancer have identified over 40 single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs), a subset of which remains statistically significant after genome-wide correction. Improved strategies for mining of genome-wide association data have been suggested to address heritable component of genetic risk in breast cancer. In this study, we attempted a two-stage association design using markers from a genome-wide study (stage 1, Affymetrix Human SNP 6.

Glycine decarboxylase activity drives non-small cell lung cancer tumor-initiating cells and tumorigenesis.

Identification of the factors critical to the tumor-initiating cell (TIC) state may open new avenues in cancer therapy. Here we show that the metabolic enzyme glycine decarboxylase (GLDC) is critical for TICs in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). TICs from primary NSCLC tumors express high levels of the oncogenic stem cell factor LIN28B and GLDC, which are both required for TIC growth and tumorigenesis.

Hierarchies of loss: a critique of disenfranchised grief.

Two aspects of the concept of disenfranchised grief are examined: its binary assumption that grief is either enfranchised or disenfranchised; and its emancipatory agenda that grief should not be socially regulated. Focusing on the mourner's relationship to the deceased, we argue that social norms about the legitimacy of bereavement are not binary (yes-no), but are scalar or hierarchical, or even more complex still. We report on a tool for identifying hierarchies of loss, and describe the hierarchy identified by this tool in one British study.

Choline supplementation and measures of choline and betaine status: a randomised, controlled trial in postmenopausal women.

Choline is an essential nutrient and can also be obtained by de novo synthesis via an oestrogen responsive pathway. Choline can be oxidised to the methyl donor betaine, with short-term supplementation reported to lower plasma total homocysteine (tHcy); however, the effects of longer-term choline supplementation are less clear. We investigated the effect of choline supplementation on plasma concentrations of free choline, betaine and tHcy and B-vitamin status in postmenopausal women, a group more susceptible to low choline status.

Screening ethnically diverse human embryonic stem cells identifies a chromosome 20 minimal amplicon conferring growth advantage.

The International Stem Cell Initiative analyzed 125 human embryonic stem (ES) cell lines and 11 induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cell lines, from 38 laboratories worldwide, for genetic changes occurring during culture. Most lines were analyzed at an early and late passage. Single-nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) analysis revealed that they included representatives of most major ethnic groups.

Outcomes of patients undergoing percutaneous biliary drainage to reduce bilirubin for administration of chemotherapy.

Purpose: To describe outcomes in patients undergoing percutaneous biliary drainage to reduce total serum bilirubin level for administration of chemotherapy.

Materials And Methods: A total of 647 consecutive patients underwent percutaneous biliary drainage between September 2001 and December 2008. In 168, the indication for biliary drainage was to decrease total serum bilirubin level to permit administration of chemotherapy.

Reduced resolution transit delay prescan for quantitative continuous arterial spin labeling perfusion imaging.

Arterial spin labeling perfusion MRI can suffer from artifacts and quantification errors when the time delay between labeling and arrival of labeled blood in the tissue is uncertain. This transit delay is particularly uncertain in broad clinical populations, where reduced or collateral flow may occur. Measurement of transit delay by acquisition of the arterial spin labeling signal at many different time delays typically extends the imaging time and degrades the sensitivity of the resulting perfusion images.

Hours spent and energy expended in physical activity domains: results from the Tomorrow Project cohort in Alberta, Canada.

Background: Knowledge of adult activity patterns across domains of physical activity is essential for the planning of population-based strategies that will increase overall energy expenditure and reduce the risk of obesity and related chronic diseases. We describe domain-specific hours of activity and energy expended among participants in a prospective cohort in Alberta, Canada.

Methods: The Past Year Total Physical Activity Questionnaire was completed by 15,591 Tomorrow Project® participants, between 2001 and 2005 detailing physical activity type, duration, frequency and intensity.

Arterial spin labeling MR imaging for characterisation of renal masses in patients with impaired renal function: initial experience.

Objectives: To retrospectively evaluate the feasibility of arterial spin labeling (ASL) magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) for the assessment of vascularity of renal masses in patients with impaired renal function.

Methods: Between May 2007 and November 2008, 11/67 consecutive patients referred for MRI evaluation of a renal mass underwent unenhanced ASL-MRI due to moderate-to-severe chronic or acute renal failure. Mean blood flow in vascularised and non-vascularised lesions and the relation between blood flow and final diagnosis of malignancy were correlated with a 2-sided homogeneous variance t-test and the Fisher Exact Test, respectively.

Case-control study of dietary patterns and endometrial cancer risk.

Dietary patterns, rather than intakes of specific foods or nutrients, may influence risk of endometrial cancer (EC). This population-based case-control study in Canada (2002-2006) included incident EC cases (n = 506) from the Alberta Cancer Registry and controls frequency age-matched to cases (n = 981). Past-year dietary patterns were defined using factor analysis of food frequency questionnaire data.

A simple noniterative principal component technique for rapid noise reduction in parallel MR images.

The utilization of parallel imaging permits increased MR acquisition speed and efficiency; however, parallel MRI usually leads to a deterioration in the signal-to-noise ratio when compared with otherwise equivalent unaccelerated acquisitions. At high accelerations, the parallel image reconstruction matrix tends to become dominated by one principal component. This has been utilized to enable substantial reductions in g-factor-related noise.

Abuse potential and psychoactive effects of δ-9-tetrahydrocannabinol and cannabidiol oromucosal spray (Sativex), a new cannabinoid medicine.

Introduction: There is a growing consensus that cannabis dependence is a substantial and underappreciated problem. The key component responsible for the euphoric effects of cannabis and its dependence potential is δ-9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC). THC-containing cannabinoid medicines theoretically pose a risk of abuse and dependence.

Sensitivity calibration with a uniform magnetization image to improve arterial spin labeling perfusion quantification.

Quantification of perfusion with arterial spin labeling MRI requires a calibration of the imaging sensitivity to water throughout the imaged volume. Since this sensitivity is affected by coil loading and other interactions between the subject and the scanner, the sensitivity must be calibrated in the subject at the time of scan. Conventional arterial spin labeling perfusion quantification assumes a uniform proton density and acquires a proton density reference image to serve as the calibration.