Use of ubiquitous, highly heterozygous copy number variants and digital droplet polymerase chain reaction to monitor chimerism after allogeneic haematopoietic stem cell transplantation.

Chimerism analysis has an important role in the management of allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation. It informs response to disease relapse, graft rejection, and graft-versus-host disease. We have developed a method for chimerism analysis using ubiquitous copy number variation (CNV), which has the benefit of a "negative background" against which multiple independent informative markers are quantified using digital droplet polymerase chain reaction.

Anti-inflammatory effects of wild Irish mushroom extracts in RAW264.7 mouse macrophage cells.

Mushrooms and mushroom extracts have traditionally been used as therapies for a wide variety of ailments, including allergy, arthritis, and other inflammatory disorders. However, more evidence is required on the mechanism by which mushrooms exert these effects. In the present study, the anti-inflammatory properties of ethanol and hot water extracts prepared from 27 fungal samples collected between October and November 2011 at various forest locations in the southwest of Ireland were investigated using the lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-stimulated mouse macrophage (RAW264.

The effects of the SUN project on teacher knowledge and self-efficacy regarding biological energy transfer are significant and long-lasting: results of a randomized controlled trial.

Biological energy flow has been notoriously difficult to teach. Our approach to this topic relies on abiotic and biotic examples of the energy released by moving electrons in thermodynamically spontaneous reactions. A series of analogical model-building experiences was supported with common language and representations including manipulatives.