Data reproducibility from an inertial kinetic exercise machine.

An inertial kinetic exercise (IKE, Oconomowoc, WI, USA) machine was created that permits high-velocity workouts suited for injury rehabilitation and speed development in athletes. In addition, its design does not entail the movement of resistance against Earth's gravitational pull. Thus, the design and operation associated with the IKE may be incorporated into novel environments such as space flight.

beta(2)-Adrenergic agonist administration and strength training.

beta(2)-Adrenergic agonists (beta(2)AA) produce myriad effects throughout the human body. Prescribed concurrently with theophylline for the bronchodilatory effects they offer in the treatment of asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, beta(2)AA actions include many beneficial and adverse changes when administered to animals at supraphysiological doses. Beneficial changes include improved musculoskeletal health and function, which can be maintained because adverse changes are reduced if oral beta(2)AA are given at therapeutic dosages in humans with concurrent resistive exercise administration.

Inhibition of Abeta aggregation and neurotoxicity by the 39-kDa receptor-associated protein.

Aggregation of beta-amyloid protein (Abeta) to form oligomers is considered to be a key step in generating neurotoxicity in the Alzheimer's disease brain. Agents that bind to Abeta and inhibit oligomerization have been proposed as Alzheimer's disease therapeutics. In this study, we investigated the binding of fluorescein-labeled Abeta(1-42) (FluoAbeta(1-42)) to SH-SY5Y neuroblastoma cells and examined the effect of the 39-kDa receptor-associated protein (RAP), on the Abeta cell interaction.

Data reliability from an instrumented vertical jump platform.

A Vertec jump measurement and training system measures vertical jump heights but not additional variables that would reveal how the performance was achieved. Technology advances to equipment now include additional variables that elucidate how jump performance is achieved. However, acceptance of new jump-related equipment is predicated on the reliability of the vertical heights it measures in relation to those assessed by the Vertec.

Awareness and impact of the 'Bubblewrap' advertising campaign among Aboriginal smokers in Western Australia.

Background: Antismoking mass media campaigns have been shown to reduce smoking prevalence in the mainstream community, however there is little published research on their effect on Aboriginal Australian smokers.

Objectives: To evaluate the awareness and impact of a mainstream mass media advertising campaign (the 'Bubblewrap' campaign) on Aboriginal smokers in the state of Western Australia.

Methods: A personal intercept survey was conducted in July 2008 across three sites (the Perth metropolitan area and the non-metropolitan towns of Kalgoorlie and Broome).

Determinants of national fire plan fuels treatment expenditures: a revealed preference analysis for northern New Mexico.

The accumulation of fire fuels in forests throughout the world contributes significantly to the severity of wildfires. To combat the threat of wildfire, especially in the wildland-urban interface (WUI), US federal land management agencies have implemented a number of forest restoration and wildfire risk reduction programs. In the spirit of revealed preference analyses, the objective of this study is to investigate the pattern and determinants of National Fire Plan (NFP) expenditures for fuel reduction treatments in northern New Mexico (USA).

Hematopoietic stem cell transplantation for pediatric patients with primary immunodeficiency diseases at All Children's Hospital/University of South Florida.

We retrospectively analyzed the transplantation outcomes of 31 patients with primary immunodeficiency diseases treated at our center (All Children's Hospital, University of South Florida) since its inception in 1986. The primary immune diseases included severe combined immunodeficiency, Wiscott-Aldrich syndrome, X-linked hyper-IgM syndrome, and chronic granulomatous disease. The age of the patient's at the time of transplant ranged from 1 month to 19 years, and conditioning regimens varied based on the patients underlying disease.

Determination of transgene copy number by real-time quantitative PCR.

Efficient methods to characterize transgenic plants are important to quickly understand the state of the transformant. Determining transgene copy number is an important step in transformant characterization and can differentiate between complex and simple transformation events. This knowledge can be extremely useful when determining what future experiments and uses the transgenic lines can be utilized for.

Transient expression of GFP in immature seed tissues.

Transient expression is the nonstable expression of a transgene whereby the transgene does not integrate into the host's genomic DNA. Transient expression assays have 20 years of history in plant molecular biology research, being used to answer a variety of questions. The method described here allows the ability to test promoter activity for seed-specific expression by quantifying reporter protein production in immature seed tissues.

Variations in the neuropathology of familial Alzheimer's disease.

Mutations in the amyloid precursor protein (APP), presenilin 1 (PSEN1) and presenilin 2 (PSEN2) genes cause autosomal dominant familial Alzheimer's disease (AD). PSEN1 and PSEN2 are essential components of the gamma-secretase complex, which cleaves APP to affect Abeta processing. Disruptions in Abeta processing have been hypothesised to be the major cause of AD (the amyloid cascade hypothesis).

Lack of protection with a novel, selective melanocortin receptor subtype-4 agonist RY767 in a rat transient middle cerebral artery occlusion stroke model.

Previous studies utilizing alpha-melanocyte-stimulating hormone (alpha-MSH) or the synthetic analog [Nle(4), D-Phe(7)] alpha-MSH have reported beneficial effects in animal models of ischemic stroke, with the latter studies suggesting melanocortin receptor subtype-4 (MC4R) activation as a protective mechanism. The present study directly addresses the hypothesis that MC4R activation may ameliorate ischemic brain injury by assessing the efficacy of a novel small molecule MC4R agonist RY767, administered in a pharmacokinetically guided and pharmacologically validated dosing regimen, in a rat stroke model of transient middle cerebral artery occlusion (tMCAO). Male Wistar rats were subjected to 90-min tMCAO followed by 72 h of reperfusion.

Integration of ERG gene mapping and gene-expression profiling identifies distinct categories of human prostate cancer.

Objective: To integrate the mapping of ERG alterations with the collection of expression microarray (EMA) data, as previous EMA analyses have failed to consider the genetic heterogeneity and complex patterns of ERG alteration frequently found in cancerous prostates.

Materials And Methods: We determined genome-wide expression levels with GeneChip Human Exon 1.0 ST arrays (Affymetrix, Santa Clara, CA, USA) using RNA prepared from 35 specimens of prostate cancer from 28 prostates.

Cytoskeletal alterations differentiate presenilin-1 and sporadic Alzheimer's disease.

Most cases of Alzheimer's disease (AD) are sporadic in nature, although rarer familial AD (FAD) cases have provided important insights into major pathological disease mechanisms. Mutations in the presenilin 1 gene (PS1) are responsible for the majority of FAD cases, causing an earlier age of onset and more rapid progression to end-stage disease than seen in sporadic AD. We have investigated the cytoskeletal alterations in neuritic AD pathology in a cohort of FAD cases in comparison to sporadic AD and pathologically aged cases.

TEAD1 and c-Cbl are novel prostate basal cell markers that correlate with poor clinical outcome in prostate cancer.

Prostate cancer is the most frequently diagnosed male cancer, and its clinical outcome is difficult to predict. The disease may involve the inappropriate expression of genes that normally control the proliferation of epithelial cells in the basal layer and their differentiation into luminal cells. Our aim was to identify novel basal cell markers and assess their prognostic and functional significance in prostate cancer.

VIPERdb2: an enhanced and web API enabled relational database for structural virology.

VIPERdb (http://viperdb.scripps.edu) is a relational database and a web portal for icosahedral virus capsid structures.

An epidemiological, clinical and genetic survey of neurofibromatosis type 1 in children under sixteen years of age.

Aim: To identify all cases of Neurofibromatosis type 1 in Northern Ireland under 16 years of age, document age, modes of presentation and any complications that occurred.

Methods: All cases of Neurofibromatosis type 1 in children less than 16 years of age were identified from the records in the Department of Medical Genetics. From the records and by direct contact with the patient's parents the relevant clinical information was obtained.

Co-ordinated expression of amino acid metabolism in response to N and S deficiency during wheat grain filling.

Increasing demands for productivity together with environmental concerns about fertilizer use dictate that the future sustainability of agricultural systems will depend on improving fertilizer use efficiency. Characterization of the biological processes responsible for efficient fertilizer use will provide tools for crop improvement under reduced inputs. Transcriptomic and metabolomic approaches were used to study the impact of nitrogen (N) and sulphur (S) deficiency on N and S remobilization from senescing canopy tissues during grain filling in winter wheat (Triticum aestivum).

Monocyte chemoattractant protein-1 plays a dominant role in the chronic inflammation observed in Alzheimer's disease.

Chronic neuroinflammation correlates with cognitive decline and brain atrophy in Alzheimer's disease (AD), and cytokines and chemokines mediate the inflammatory response. However, quantitation of cytokines and chemokines in AD brain tissue has only been carried out for a small number of mediators with variable results. We simultaneously quantified 17 cytokines and chemokines in brain tissue extracts from controls (n = 10) and from patients with and without genetic forms of AD (n = 12).

Construction and evaluation of a maize (Zea mays) chimaeric promoter with activity in kernel endosperm and embryo.

Chimaeric promoters contain DNA sequences from different promoters. Chimaeric promoters are developed to increase the level of recombinant protein expression, to precisely control transgene activity or to combat homology-based gene silencing. Sets of chimaeric promoters, each containing different lengths of DNA from maize (Zea mays) 27zn (27 kDa gamma-zein) endosperm-specific promoter and the Glb1 (Globulin-1) embryo-specific promoter were created and tested in a transient expression assay of GFP (green fluorescent protein).

Expression profiling of CD133+ and CD133- epithelial cells from human prostate.

Background: Recent evidence suggests that prostate stem cells in benign and tumor tissue express the cell surface marker CD133, but these cells have not been well characterized. The aim of our study was to gene expression profile CD133-expressing cells.

Methods: We analyzed CD133-positive (CD133+) and -negative (CD133-) sub-populations of high-integrin expressing epithelial cells isolated from benign human prostate tissue and hormone-refractory prostate cancer (HRPC).

A retrospective study of artificial insemination of 251 mares using chilled and fixed time frozen-thawed semen.

Reasons For Performing Study: Historically, artificial insemination (AI) using frozen semen has been perceived to have poorer success rates and be more labour intensive than using chilled semen. A retrospective study was therefore conducted to compare the conception rate achieved by AI between chilled and frozen semen, using fixed time insemination protocols over 2 breeding seasons.

Hypothesis: Artificial insemination using chilled semen produces a higher conception rate than that achieved with frozen semen.