Abscisic acid (ABA) regulates numerous developmental processes and adaptive stress responses in plants. Many ABA signaling components have been identified, but their interconnections and a consensus ...on the structure of the ABA signaling network have eluded researchers. Recently, several advances have led to the identification of ABA receptors and their three-dimensional structures, and an understanding of how key regulatory phosphatase and kinase activities are controlled by ABA. A new model for ABA action has been proposed and validated, in which the soluble PYR/PYL/RCAR receptors function at the apex of a negative regulatory pathway to directly regulate PP2C phosphatases, which in turn directly regulate SnRK2 kinases. This model unifies many previously defined signaling components and highlights the importance of future work focused on defining the direct targets of SnRK2s and PP2Cs, dissecting the mechanisms of hormone interactions (i.e., cross talk) and defining connections between this new negative regulatory pathway and other factors implicated in ABA signaling.
Surgical subspecialty residents complete 5–6 years of training which includes general surgery rotations. A lack of data exists evaluating these rotations. This study aims to identify discrepancies in ...subspecialty training and improve the quality of surgical education.
Case logs for surgical subspecialty residents and general surgery residents at our institution were analyzed and queried for cases performed on general surgery rotations. A survey was distributed to subspecialty residents regarding their perceptions of these rotations.
50 residents were included in the study and the majority were male (n = 27, 54%). Subspecialty residents perform fewer cases per month compared to general surgery residents (13 vs 21, p < 0.001). 75% of subspecialty residents were satisfied with their experience on general surgery rotations.
Subspecialty residents perform fewer operations on general surgery rotations. Despite this, most are satisfied with off-service rotations and believe they are an important part of their education.
•Off-service rotations are an important component of surgical subspecialty training.•Subspecialty residents perform less cases than general surgery residents.•Off-service rotations for subspecialty residents are valuable despite case numbers.•General surgery rotations help subspecialty residents prepare for their career.
A finite supply of donor organs has led many transplant centers to accept marginal liver allografts with increasing frequency. These allografts may be at higher risk of primary nonfunction, early ...allograft dysfunction, and other recipient complications following liver transplantation. Machine perfusion preservation is an emerging technology that limits ischemia/reperfusion injury associated with preservation and may lead to improved outcomes following transplantation. Increased used of machine perfusion in liver preservation may permit an expansion of the donor pool. In this review, we examine the major clinical experience of hypothermic machine perfusion in human liver transplantation.Liver Transplantation 24 276–281 2018 AASLD.
Predictors of student performance on clerkship rotations are limited. In this study, we aim to identify predictors of success on the surgery clerkship.
62 third-year medical students completed an ...institution-specific clerkship survey. Students were grouped according to clerkship grade of honors (HG) versus high-pass or pass (PG). Statistical analyses were performed using Student's t-test, Pearson's Chi-square/Fisher's exact test, and linear regression analysis. Multivariate logistic regression was performed to identify predictors of achieving an honors on the clerkship.
HG students were more likely to be individual-based learners with higher grit and USMLE Step 1 scores compared with PG students. Moreover, USMLE Step 1 score was associated with quiz, shelf examination, and final clerkship grades, but not clinical evaluations. There were few differences with regard to preferred learning modalities, but overall, medical students favored active learning activities.
We found that higher USMLE Step 1 score, higher grit score, and an individual-based learning style were associated with a higher grade on the surgery clerkship. However, these factors may not fully capture the less objective components of high performance. Additional methods by which educators can measure students’ clinical competency are needed.
•High performers were individual-based learners with higher Step 1 & grit scores.•Students favor active learning, but this preference does not impact clerkship grade.•Reliable predictors of strong clinical evaluations remain unclear.•Improved methods to measure tacit knowledge and competency are needed.
How burnout changes during general surgery residency remains unknown.
From 2015 to 2018, general surgery residents completed the Maslach Burnout Inventory and Grit Scale. Statistical analyses were ...adjusted for repeated measures and compared to the incoming intern level.
Fifty-five residents participated in this study. Burnout rates varied by program level, with an increased risk occuring in the third clinical year (OR = 11.7, p = 0.03). Emotional exhaustion (EE) peaked during the first and third clinical years, depersonalization (DP) peaked during the first and second clinical years, and personal achievement (PA) reached a nadir during the third clinical year (all p < 0.05). Residents with burnout had lower grit scores compared to those without burnout (3.71 vs 4.02, p < 0.01). Increasing grit was linearly associated with decreasing EE, decreasing DP, and increasing PA (all p < 0.05).
Burnout varies throughout surgical residency, and grit is inversely related to burnout.
•Burnout fluctuates during surgical residency.•Experience of burnout varies by program level.•Increasing grit is associated with decreasing burnout scores.
Diet is a key determinant of human gut microbiome variation. However, the fine-scale relationships between daily food choices and human gut microbiome composition remain unexplored. Here, we used ...multivariate methods to integrate 24-h food records and fecal shotgun metagenomes from 34 healthy human subjects collected daily over 17 days. Microbiome composition depended on multiple days of dietary history and was more strongly associated with food choices than with conventional nutrient profiles, and daily microbial responses to diet were highly personalized. Data from two subjects consuming only meal replacement beverages suggest that a monotonous diet does not induce microbiome stability in humans, and instead, overall dietary diversity associates with microbiome stability. Our work provides key methodological insights for future diet-microbiome studies and suggests that food-based interventions seeking to modulate the gut microbiota may need to be tailored to the individual microbiome. Trial Registration: ClinicalTrials.gov: NCT03610477.
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•Daily microbiome variation is related to food choices, but not to conventional nutrients•Daily microbiome variation depends on at least two days of dietary history•Similar foods have different effects on different people’s microbiomes
Dietary intake is often considered to be a driver of microbiome variation. Johnson et al. use longitudinal sampling and daily dietary records to model microbiome changes in response to diet and find that microbiome responses to diet are personalized.
•The significant global investment in GM technology to improve plant response to water deficit has produced few products.•Significant progress has been made identifying genes that have a positive ...effect on plant response to water deficit.•There is a notable disconnect between simulated water deficit in pots and the impact of water deficit on crop productivity.•Field research confines drought tolerance trait evaluation to one season per hemisphere per year, which slows progress.•The cost of bringing a GM product to market limits the development of drought tolerance GM traits to large acreage crops.
Since the dawn of modern biotechnology public and private enterprise have pursued the development of a new breed of drought tolerant crop products. After more than 20 years of research and investment only a few such products have reached the market. This is due to several technical and market constraints. The technical challenges include the difficulty in defining tractable single-gene trait development strategies, the logistics of moving traits from initial to commercial genetic backgrounds, and the disconnect between conditions in farmer’s fields and controlled environments. Market constraints include the significant difficulty, and associated costs, in obtaining access to markets around the world. Advances in the biology of plant water management, including response to water deficit reveal new opportunities to improve crop response to water deficit and new genome-based tools promise to usher in the next era of crop improvement. As biotechnology looks to improve crop productivity under drought conditions, the environmental and food security advantages will influence public perception and shift the debate toward benefits rather than risks.
Rising temperatures and lessening fresh water supplies are threatening agricultural productivity and have motivated efforts to improve plant water use and drought tolerance. During water deficit, ...plants produce elevated levels of abscisic acid (ABA), which improves water consumption and stress tolerance by controlling guard cell aperture and other protective responses. One attractive strategy for controlling water use is to develop compounds that activate ABA receptors, but agonists approved for use have yet to be developed. In principle, an engineered ABA receptor that can be activated by an existing agrochemical could achieve this goal. Here we describe a variant of the ABA receptor PYRABACTIN RESISTANCE 1 (PYR1) that possesses nanomolar sensitivity to the agrochemical mandipropamid and demonstrate its efficacy for controlling ABA responses and drought tolerance in transgenic plants. Furthermore, crystallographic studies provide a mechanistic basis for its activity and demonstrate the relative ease with which the PYR1 ligand-binding pocket can be altered to accommodate new ligands. Thus, we have successfully repurposed an agrochemical for a new application using receptor engineering. We anticipate that this strategy will be applied to other plant receptors and represents a new avenue for crop improvement.
Celotno besedilo
Dostopno za:
DOBA, IJS, IZUM, KILJ, KISLJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBMB, SIK, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
Interest in surgery has declined for two decades. This study aimed to evaluate the impact of one’s interest in surgery on career choice.
Students who completed the surgical clerkship (2016–2017) were ...invited to complete surveys assessing rotation experience, learning style, burnout, and grit. Students were grouped according to interest or no interest in surgery after the clerkship.
Surveys were completed by 62 students of whom 51.6% reported an interest in surgery. No minority students expressed interest compared with Caucasian (51.1%) and Asian (71.4%) students (p = 0.02). Disinterested students had higher emotional exhaustion (EE, 20 vs 25, p = 0.03). There was no difference in clerkship grade between groups (86.3% vs 85.3%, p = 0.56). Students who matched into surgery had lower EE and higher grit.
Interest in surgery was not associated with improved clerkship performance. Disinterested students had higher EE, suggesting interest may play a role in adapting to clerkship challenges.
•Interest in surgery was not associated with improved clerkship performance.•Students who match into surgery have personality profiles similar to surgery residents.•Traits associated with unsuccessful surgery match parallel those of non-surgical fields.
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