Increasingly, national programs and leaders are looking at interdisciplinary collaborations as essential to future research. Twelve years ago, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Office of ...Research on Women's Health (ORWH) developed and implemented the Building Interdisciplinary Research Careers in Women's Health (BIRCWH) K12 program to focus on interdisciplinary mentored career development for junior faculty in women's health research.
We applied a mixed-methods approach using an electronic survey and in-person presentations and discussions to understand best practices and lessons learned for interdisciplinary mentoring across BIRCWH K12 program leaders.
We received responses from all 29 active BIRCWH programs. Factors associated with success included ensuring sufficient protected time for regular (weekly or biweekly) mentoring; mentors promoting the research independence of the Scholar; a team mentoring approach, including career as well as content mentors; and explicit and clear expectations outlined between the Scholar and mentor. The majority of programs conduct formal evaluations of mentorship, and 79% of programs offer training in mentorship for either Scholars, mentors, or both. This article presents program leaders' best practices, challenges, and lessons learned from mentoring junior faculty who are conducting women's health research, whether basic, clinical, behavioral, translational, or health services research, using an interdisciplinary mentoring approach.
The ribosomal small subunit (SSU) rRNA gene has emerged as an important genetic marker for taxonomic identification in environmental sequencing datasets. In addition to being present in the nucleus ...of eukaryotes and the core genome of prokaryotes, the gene is also found in the mitochondria of eukaryotes and in the chloroplasts of photosynthetic eukaryotes. These three sets of genes are conceptually paralogous and should in most situations not be aligned and analyzed jointly. To identify the origin of SSU sequences in complex sequence datasets has hitherto been a time-consuming and largely manual undertaking. However, the present study introduces Metaxa (http://microbiology.se/software/metaxa/), an automated software tool to extract full-length and partial SSU sequences from larger sequence datasets and assign them to an archaeal, bacterial, nuclear eukaryote, mitochondrial, or chloroplast origin. Using data from reference databases and from full-length organelle and organism genomes, we show that Metaxa detects and scores SSU sequences for origin with very low proportions of false positives and negatives. We believe that this tool will be useful in microbial and evolutionary ecology as well as in metagenomics.
No Brasil, país com dimensões continentais, o transporte rodoviário é o principal modal utilizado, com 1,72 milhões km de rodovias pavimentadas e não pavimentadas. Estradas e rodovias são ...consideradas como vetores de desenvolvimento, porém também são fonte de distúrbio antrópico no meio ambiente, como fragmentação da paisagem e mortalidade de fauna, representando uma real ameaça para a conservação da vida silvestre. Mesmo rodovias implementadas com o prévio Estudo de Impacto Ambiental/Relatório de Impacto ao Meio Ambiente (EIA/RIMA) e possuidoras das respectivas licenças ambientais, podem carecer de estudos técnicos complementares e sequenciais que permitam o monitoramento contínuo da biodiversidade, mostrando-se insuficientes e ineficazes aos fins que se destinam. Neste sentido, a integração da infraestrutura existente e a previsão e mitigação de impactos dos novos empreendimentos se configura como um grande desafio socioambiental. Este estudo teve por objetivo identificar os critérios técnicos e jurídicos que nortearam as condicionantes ambientais e expressas nos licenciamentos das rodovias da região norte do Estado do Rio Grande do Sul, identificando eventuais carências ou inconsistências hábeis à efetividade na implantação e à redução dos impactos ambientais. Para tal foram avaliados os documentos referentes aos licenciamentos ambientais de três rodovias no Estado do Rio Grande do Sul, as condicionantes ambientais previstas, os regramentos técnicos norteadores, as ações realizadas para a regularização das rodovias, e os desdobramentos legais para sua aplicabilidade. O procedimento de licenciamento ambiental vigente para as rodovias analisadas sinaliza com decisões conflitantes que inviabilizam os fins desejados e necessitam de aprimoramentos para uma maior proteção ambiental. A efetiva participação das partes envolvidas no processo técnico de licenciamento ambiental de rodovias contribui positivamente para a celeridade processual e evita judicialização. A clareza nos regramentos a serem cumpridos, tanto pelo licenciador como pelo licenciado, além de ser mais benéfica a ambos, contempla a segurança jurídica e salvaguarda a transparência nos procedimentos fiscalizatórios e renovadores dos licenciamentos.
Dass das Teilen in der Gesellschaft der Gegenwart einmal eine so große Rolle spielen würde, hätte bis vor kurzem wohl kaum jemand vorausgesagt. Eine globale Protestbewegung brachte ein tiefes ...Bedürfnis zum Ausdruck, alternative Wege einzuschlagen, die auf anderen Werten beruhten als jene, die allem Anschein nach zur Finanzkrise geführt hatten. Gleichzeitig sind hoch entwickelte Informations- und Kommunikationstechnologien, die das Teilen erleichtern, nicht nur beinahe überall verfügbar; sie stehen auch im Zentrum des Interesses zahlreicher Menschen, die viel Zeit und Einsatz aufbringen, um mit diesen Technologien zu experimentieren und sie in die Abläufe ihres Alltagslebens eingliedern. Eine ganze Generation von medienkompetenten, radikal globalisierten Menschen wächst mit der täglichen und persönlichen Erfahrung auf, dass das Teilen von (digitalen) Gütern ein unverzichtbares Element im Aufbau gemeinschaftlicher Beziehungen verschiedenster Art ist. Heute stehen diese Erfahrungen im krassen Widerspruch zu anderen gesellschaftlichen Erfahrungen, bei denen Wettbewerb und individuelles Besitzstreben vorherrschen. Dieser Band will einen Beitrag zur kollektiven Arbeit leisten, das Teilen in der Gesellschaft neu zu denken.
Objectives: Acute myeloid leukemia (AML) with monosomy 7 or deletion of the long arm of chromosome 7 (-7/7q-) is a leukemia with a poor outcome. Microarray analysis resulted in a gene expression ...profile specific for this subset of AML and showed SKI, a nuclear Co-repressor protein, being strongly upregulated. SKI is described to be a transforming gene, which inhibits TGF-beta-, SMAD- and retinoic acid (RA)-signaling.
Materials, methods and patients: Gene expression profiling was performed using cDNA microarrays (detecting 4608 genes). Gene expression pattern of 20 AML (9 pts. with -7/7q- and 11 pts. with normal karyotype) patients was compared to 23 healthy bone marrow donors. Expression data of interestings genes were confirmed by real-time PCR in samples of 111 AML patients. In cell culture experiments HL60 and U937 leukemic cell lines were used to investigate the influence of the identified oncogene Ski on differentiating properties. In a reporter gene assay retinoic acid response element (RARE) was transfected in QT6 cells. U937 were retrovirally transfected with Ski wild type and Ski mutant.
Results: Microarray analysis in AML (-7/7q-), revealed SKI being upregulated in AML. The group of patients with a high SKI expression level had a poorer overall survival when compared to the low expressers (p = 0.0279). Real-time PCR analysis comparing 111 AML samples to healthy CD34+ haematopoietic stem cells revealed, that SKI levels were highest in AML with -7/7q-, moderately elevated in most other karyotypes except AML with translocations involving retinoic acid receptor alpha (RARalpha). This suggests that Ski might interfere with RARalpha function in leukemia. Using reporter gene assays we could show that expression of wild-type, but not mutated SKI blocked RA induced differentiation. SKI was down regulated in HL60 leukemia cell line when differentiation was induced by ATRA and or valproic acid.
Conclusion: Upregulation of SKI has prognostic significance in AML. Inhibition of RA signaling may be more often implicated in pathogenesis of AML than anticipated so far. The Co-repressor of histone deacetylases (HDACs) Ski might therefore become a molecular target for the induction of differentiation in the treatment of AML.
In complex networks a common task is to identify the most important or
"central" nodes. There are several definitions, often called centrality
measures, which often lead to different results. Here we ...study extensively
correlations between four local and global measures namely the degree, the
shortest-path-betweenness, the random-walk betweenness and the subgraph
centrality on different random-network models like Erdos-Renyi, Small-World and
Barabasi-Albert as well as on different real networks like metabolic pathways,
social collaborations and computer networks. Correlations are quite different
between the real networks and the model networks questioning whether the models
really reflect all important properties of the real world.
To evaluate the cost implications of prophylactic aortic counterpulsation (IASP) to sustain coronary artery patency during acute myocardial infarction. we evaluated 102 (55%) from the 182 patients ...enrolled in the randomized IABP study. After coronary artery patency was established during acute cardiac catheterization, pts were randomized to IABP (N=52) for 48 hours versus standard therapy, Control (C) = 50. During the hospitalization. pts with IASP had less recurrent ischemia (4% vs. 21%), less reinfarction (3% vs. 8%), less reocclusion (8% vs. 21%), and less need for emergency PTCA (2% vs. 11%). The duration of hospitalization (IABP = 104vs. C = 9.7 daysl and CCU stay (IABP = 4.7 vs. C = 3.9 days) were similar. The outcomes were similar in the sUbstudy compared with the overall clinical trial. Median costs were:Cath Lab $CCU/ICU $Non-ICU $Total $IABP5,9103,2391,80417,903Control5,6792,7811,85117,913
The cost of hospitalization was significantly greater in pts with recurrent ischemia ($21,069vs. $17,492, p = 0.02) or reinfarction ($22,772 vs. $17,721, p = 0.06) compared with patients without these complications.
These findings suggest that a strategy of prophylactic IASP therapy after patency has been established during acute myocardial infarction while improving clinical outcomes does not increase hospitalization cost.
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