Foxalexandersen0766

Taxonomists always have had intense discussions about how species should be delimited and recently many studies have used integrative approaches by combining molecular, morphological, and bioacoustic data. Although these studies are paramount for understanding species diversity, few of them actually formalize species delimitations to the final step of nomenclatural acts. Historically, the Neotropical frog genus Adenomera has been considered as a difficult taxonomic group because it comprises many morphologically similar species exhibiting high levels of intraspecific polymorphism. A recent work using molecular data shed light on the phylogenetic relationships within the genus and identified several lineages that may correspond to undescribed species but did not delimit species boundaries. In the Atlantic Forest, a clade formed by A. marmorata and two putative species (Adenomera sp. J and Adenomera sp. K) were identified. In this paper, we combine morphological, acoustic, and molecular data in order to evaluate species limits within this Atlantic Forest Adenomera clade. We provide a redescription of A. marmorata and restrict its type locality to the Tijuca Massif, in the Municipality of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Our results do not support A. marmorata and the two candidate species as diagnosable distinct species. Therefore A. marmorata corresponds to a species with pronounced morphological and acoustic variation in the genus and a complex phylogeographic structure.RNA quality and quantity are important factors for ensuring the accuracy of gene expression analysis and other RNA-based downstream applications. Thus far, only a limited number of methodological studies have compared sample storage and RNA extraction procedures for human cells. We compared three commercially available RNA extraction kits, i.e., (NucliSENS) easyMAG, RNeasy (Mini Kit) and RiboPure (RNA Purification Kit-blood). In addition, additional conditions, such as storage medium and storage temperature of human peripheral blood mononuclear cells were evaluated, i.e., 4 °C for RNAlater or -80 °C for QIAzol and for the respective cognate lysis buffers; easyMAG, RNeasy or RiboPure. RNA was extracted from aliquots that had been stored for one day (Run 1) or 83 days (Run 2). After DNase treatment, quantity and quality of RNA were assessed by means of a NanoDrop spectrophotometer, 2100 Bioanalyzer and RT-qPCR for the ACTB reference gene. We observed that high-quality RNA can be obtained using RNeasy and RiboPure, regardless of the storage medium, whereas samples stored in RNAlater resulted in the least amount of RNA extracted. In addition, RiboPure combined with storage of samples in its cognate lysis buffer yielded twice as much RNA as all other procedures. These results were supported by RT-qPCR and by the reproducibility observed for two independent extraction runs.The Bacillus Calmette-Guérin (BCG) vaccine is administered at birth in tuberculosis (TB) endemic countries. BCG vaccination is also associated with protective non-specific effects against non-tuberculous infections. This seems at least in part mediated through induction of innate immune memory in myeloid cells, a process termed trained immunity. β-glucan, a component of the fungal cell wall from Candida albicans, induces a trained immunity phenotype in human monocytes with hyper-responsiveness against unrelated pathogens. We aimed to study the capacity of BCG and β-glucan to induce a similar phenotype by examining cytokine production in cord blood monocytes following re-stimulation. We used a well-known model of in vitro induction of trained immunity. Adherent mononuclear cells from neonates and adults, which consist mainly of monocytes, were stimulated in vitro with BCG or β-glucan for one day, after which the stimulus was washed away. Cells were rested for 5 days, then restimulated with LPS. Cytokine levels were measured using ELISA. Neonate and adult monocytes responded similarly in terms of cytokine production. BCG significantly increased IL-6 responses to LPS in both neonate and adult monocytes, while β-glucan induced increases of IL-6, IL-10 and TNF production capacity. The BCG and β-glucan induced increase in cytokine production, reminiscent of trained immunity, showed similar levelsin neonatal and adult monocytes. BCG mediated changes in cytokine production shows the feasibility of this in vitro assay for further studies regarding non-specific effects of vaccines.BACKGROUND Globally, alcohol consumption is a significant public health concern and it is one of the most important risk behaviours among university students. Alcohol consumption can lead to poor academic performance, injuries, fights, use of other substances, and risky sexual behaviours among students. 3Methyladenine However, the study explored the prevalence of alcohol consumption and the associated risk factors among university students since these have not been fully examined in previous research. Therefore, the aim of this study was to explore the prevalence of alcohol consumption and the associated risk factors among university students in Myanmar. METHODS The present cross-sectional study was conducted using a sample of 15-24-year-old university students who were selected from six universities in Mandalay, Myanmar, in August 2018. In total, 3,456 students (males 1,301 and females 2,155) were recruited and asked to respond to a self-administered questionnaire. Multiple logistic regression analysis was used to estimatee well developed and strengthened, as in the case of other Southeast Asian countries.INTRODUCTION Heel pricks are performed on newborns for diagnostic screenings of various pre-symptomatic metabolic and genetic diseases. Excess blood is spotted on Guthrie cards and archived by many states in biobanks for follow-up diagnoses and public health research. However, storage environment may vary across biobanks and across time within biobanks. With increased applications of DNA extracted from spots for genetic studies, identifying factors associated with genotyping success is critical to maximize DNA quality for future studies. METHOD We evaluated 399 blood spots, which were part of a genome-wide association study of childhood leukemia risk in children with Down syndrome, archived at the Michigan Neonatal Biobank between 1992 and 2008. High quality DNA was defined as having post-quality control call rate ≥ 99.0% based on the Illumina GenomeStudio 2.0 GenCall algorithm after processing the samples on the Illumina Infinium Global Screening Array. Bivariate analyses and multivariable logistic regression models were applied to evaluate effects of storage environment and storage duration on DNA genotyping quality.