Utilizing endoscopic technology to reveal real-time proteomic alterations in response to chemoprevention

Cancer chemoprevention approaches use either pharmacological or dietary agents to impede, arrest or reverse the carcinogenic process. Although several agents have shown effectiveness against colon cancer, present intervention strategies provide only partial reduction. In this study, we utilized high-resolution endoscopy to obtain colon tumor biopsy specimens from Apc mutant mice before and after 2-wk sulindac intervention. To acquire information beyond genomics, proteome analysis using the ProteomeLab PF2D platform was implemented to generate 2-D protein expression maps from biopsies. Chromatograms produced common signature profiles between sulindac and nonsulindac treated samples, and contrasting profiles termed "fingerprints". We selected a double peak that appeared in tumor biopsies from sulindac-treated mice. Further analyses using MS sequencing identified this protein as histone H2B. The location of H2B in the 1(st) dimension strongly suggested PTM, consistent with identification of two oxidized methionines. While further studies on sulindac proteomic fingerprints are underway, this study demonstrates the feasibility and advantages of "real-time" proteomic analysis for obtaining information on biomarker discovery and drug activity that would not be revealed by a genetic assay. This approach should be broadly applicable for assessing lesion responsiveness in a wide range of translational and human clinical studies.     

Educational achievement, personality, and behavior: assessment, factor structure and implications for theory and practice

The purposes of this research were to first examine the evidence regarding the factor structure of educational achievement tests in the context of two theoretical models of cognitive ability (psychometric g and mutualism) that have been proposed to explain this structure as well as the underlying processes that may be responsible for its emergence in dimensionality studies. Then, the factor structure underlying a sample of the standardized educational achievement tests used by California in its statewide school accountability program was compared to those emerging from a selection of behavioral and personality assessments. As expected, the educational achievement tests exhibited a strong and uniformly positive manifold resulting in greater unidimensionality as evidenced by a dominant general factor in bi-factor analysis then either the personality or behavioral assessments. The implications of these structural differences are discussed with respect to the two theoretical perspective as well as in the context of formative and summative educational inferences in particular, and the school accountability and reform movement in general.     

White certificate trading: A dying concept or just making its debut? Part I: Market status and trends

Energy-saving certificate trading programs within the U.S. have not had the success of their counterparts abroad due to the energy efficiency reduction targets not being stringent enough to incite trading. Programs exist in Italy, Denmark, France, the UK and Australia, and each is unique in what it allows to qualify, its units, and other details. The Italian market is the most robust in terms of volumes traded, but programs in Australia are strong and growing.     

Short communication: A comparison of 2 nonsteroidal antiinflammatory drugs following the first stage of a 2-stage fistulation surgery in dry dairy cows

Postoperative pain and its management following fistulation surgery in cattle are poorly understood. The purpose of this study was to compare 2 nonsteroidal antiinflammatory drugs (NSAID) as potential postoperative pain management treatments following the first stage of a 2-stage fistulation surgery. A randomized complete block design trial was conducted in dry Holstein cows (n = 10) following fistulation surgery. Ketoprofen (3 mg/kg of body weight i.m.) was administered on the day of surgery and 24 h later, whereas meloxicam (0.5 mg/kg of body weight s.c.) was administered once only on the day of surgery. Outcomes evaluated at 0, 2, 9, 24, 26, and 33 h postsurgery were heart rate, respiration rate, rectal temperature, and infrared temperature around the surgical site. Outcomes evaluated on the day of surgery and d 1 following surgery and compared with the average for the 4 d before surgery were lying activity (total lying time, total time spent lying on the left side, and percentage of time lying on the left side) and feed intake. A difference was observed in dry matter intake on d 1 but this effect was not different on d 0 compared with presurgical averages. A difference was observed in time spent lying on the left side and a difference was observed in heart rate following the first stage of fistulation surgery compared with presurgical averages. The infrared temperature readings around the surgical site were significantly greater in the hours following surgery compared with presurgical averages. The respiration rate increased over time after 24 h postsurgery compared with presurgical values. Although it was clear that the surgery is painful, the drug effects were more difficult to explain. On d 0 and 1, the meloxicam-treated cows ate 3 kg more but spent 101 min/d less time lying on their left side compared with ketoprofen-treated cows. The first stage of a 2-stage fistulation surgery was considered painful based on changes in heart rate, respiration rate, infrared temperature readings, dry matter intake, and time spent lying on the left side. It is clear that left flank surgery is painful and that NSAID can improve outcomes associated with that pain, but we cannot make recommendations as to which NSAID to choose based on these results.     

Design of Trehalose-Based Amide/Sulfonamide C-type Lectin Receptor Signaling Compounds

Mincle agonists have been shown to induce inflammatory cytokine production, such as tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF) and promote the development of a Th1/Th17 immune response that might be crucial to development of effective vaccination against pathogens such as Mycobacterium tuberculosis. As an expansion of our previous work, a library of 6,6′-amide and sulfonamide α,α-d -trehalose compounds with various substituents on the aromatic ring was synthesized efficiently in good to excellent yields. These compounds were evaluated for their ability to activate the human C-type lectin receptor Mincle by the induction of cytokines from human peripheral blood mononuclear cells. A preliminary structure–activity relationship (SAR) of these novel trehalose diamides and sulfonamides revealed that aryl amide-linked trehalose compounds demonstrated improved activity and relatively high potency cytokine production compared to the Mincle ligand trehalose dibehenate adjuvant (TDB) and the natural ligand trehalose dimycolate (TDM) inducing dose-dependent and human-Mincle-specific stimulation in a HEK reporter cell line.     

Equations to predict female manual arm strength based on hand location relative to the shoulder

The purpose of this study was to develop regression equations to predict manual arm strength for a wide variety of hand locations within the reach envelope. Maximum voluntary manual arm strength was determined from 71 female participants in six exertion directions (superior, inferior, anterior, posterior, medial and lateral), in a total of 28 hand locations. Forces ranged from 51.3 to 164.4 N, and had a pooled coefficient of variation of 29.9%. Across all 168 combinations of hand locations and exertion directions, the multivariate regression equations explained 92.5% of the variance and had a root mean square error (RMSE) of only 6.4 N, using only the anterior, lateral and vertical location of the hand relative to the active shoulder joint as inputs. These equations provide a proof-of-principle for our novel regression approach, and represent a first step towards a more comprehensive equation to estimate maximum acceptable forces for occupational tasks.     

An introduction to a new direct testing method for characterizing pressure in compression fabrics

A newly developed direct pressure measuring system known as the CRIM Pressure System was compared with a traditional direct measuring device, the PicoPress Compression System, for compression bandage and hosiery samples. PicoPress measurements were taken both on the CRIM system and on research participants. Initial results indicated a good correlation between CRIM Pressure System and PicoPress participants’ measurements.     

An indirect testing approach for characterizing pressure profiles of compression bandages and hosiery

As outlined in compression therapy literature, the performance of a compression textile can be characterized by its stiffness and interface pressure. In this study, an indirect approach for measuring pressure from a set of compression bandages and hosiery was developed, from which rigidity (EI) values were determined, and tension–elongation curves and pressure-elongation data were calculated. The calculated pressure values were compared against PicoPress sensor readings measured on 10 participants. Results showed that the correlation between both approaches varied among bandage and hosiery samples.     

Technical note: Use of an automated grooming brush by heifers and potential for radiofrequency identification-based measurements of this behavior

Healthy cattle readily use grooming brushes but this behavior subsides when animals become ill. Tracking use of a brush may provide an opportunity for health monitoring, especially if the process could be automated. We assessed how healthy heifers groom themselves on a brush and hypothesized that radiofrequency identification (RFID) could be used to accurately and automatically record this behavior. Angus and Hereford heifers (n = 16) were fitted with 2 ultra-high-frequency RFID ear tags and monitored in groups of 8 while housed in a pen with an electronic brush, video cameras, and 4 RFID antennas. Each heifer was observed for a 6-h period using continuous video recordings, and brush contact was characterized in terms of anatomic region involved (head/neck, trunk, or posterior) and when not touching the brush but within 1 body length of it. The RFID data were collected for the same period and then processed such that intervals of up to 16 s with no detections but contained between 2 recordings were also considered positive (animal in brush proximity). Brush proximity (RFID) was regressed against brush contact duration (video) and the sensitivity and specificity for each individual heifer calculated. Across heifers, the majority of brush use involved the head/neck, although a few heifers demonstrated relatively large amounts of posterior contact, which contributed to false-negative readings when antennas failed to read the ear tags. Furthermore, for the majority of time that animals were near the brush, they were not in contact with it but rather standing or lying nearby, resulting in false-positive readings. It follows that the ability of the RFID system to accurately detect brush contact varied widely across individual heifers (sensitivity 0.54–1.0; specificity 0.59–0.98), with RFID generally overestimating the duration of brush proximity relative to actual time spent in brush contact. The implication is that RFID-based ear tag recording of brush proximity relative to continuous video observations of contact does not yield accurate results in certain heifers and therefore, as currently configured, is not a reliable representation of this type of grooming behavior.