Methods for Purifying Enzymes for Mycoremediation

A process for purifying laccase from an ectomycorrhizal fruiting body is disclosed. The process includes steps of homogenization, sonication, centrifugation, filtration, affinity chromatography, ion exchange chromatography, and gel filtration. Purified laccase can also be separated into isomers

Spinning a Rich Tapestry of Changes: Weaving, Sewing and Spinning Represented in French Female Writing

Picture a woman working diligently in solitude on a task that requires great patience and skill to produce an object at once useful and beautiful, pragmatic and pleasing. This job requires a thorough knowledge of the methods needed to accomplish it well, and it draws on various materials to obtain its end result

A Multimodal Intervention Treatment Plan for Adults with Generalized Anxiety Disorder in Primary Care

Generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) is a debilitating psychological condition that affects 3.1% of the American population and is one of the leading causes of disability (Anxiety and Depression Association of America, 2022; Baxter, 2014). The purpose of this evidence-based practice project was to implement a multimodal intervention to decrease GAD symptoms in adults in the primary care setting. The PICOT question that guided this project was: In adults, over the age of 18, who have been diagnosed with generalized anxiety disorder (GAD), does the combination of digital cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) through a smartphone application, lifestyle modification education, and pharmacotherapy improve patient’s GAD-7 scores over an 8-week period in the primary care setting? A comprehensive literature search of six databases and citation chasing were conducted to determine the best treatment practices for GAD in primary care. Fourteen pieces of high-level evidence graded using evidence-based appraisal tools supported the implementation of CBT, lifestyle modifications, and pharmacotherapy. A sample of 13 adult participants were recruited in a primary care clinic and screened for GAD using the GAD-7 scale. Participants underwent an eight-week intervention consisting of digital CBT, lifestyle modification including an exercise regimen, and pharmacotherapy. Participants were contacted every two weeks to obtain GAD-7 scores and assess adherence to interventions. A paired t test was used to compare the mean baseline GAD-7 scores to the mean eight-week GAD-7 scores. A significant decrease from baseline to eight weeks was found (t (13) = -3.975, p \u3c0.05). A repeated measures ANOVA was calculated comparing scores of participants at four different times: baseline, two-weeks, four-weeks, and eight-weeks. A significant effect was found (F (1,12) = 42.783, p \u3c 0.01). Follow up protect t tests revealed that scores did not begin to significantly decrease until four weeks after the intervention (M = -2.38, sd = 3.38). These findings suggest that a combination of digital CBT, lifestyle modifications, and pharmacotherapy decreases anxiety symptoms in adults with GAD. Future research should compare digital CBT to face-to-face CBT. Research should be conducted to identify barriers to implementing 10 psychological interventions in primary care and evaluate their effectiveness in comparison to pharmacological interventions

A study of sodium methyl siliconate in gel formation

The object of this work was to study the critical pH range in which the gels of sodium methyl siliconate are believed to form and to plot potentiometric titration curves for the compound at various dilutions. This study is a continuation of the work begun here at Union College last year on General Electric’s SC-50

Epiparasitic plants specialized on arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi

Over 400 non-photosynthetic species from 10 families of vascular plants obtain their carbon from fungi and are thus defined as myco-heterotrophs. Many of these plants are epiparasitic on green plants from which they obtain carbon by 'cheating' shared mycorrhizal fungi. Epiparasitic plants examined to date depend on ectomycorrhizal fungi for carbon transfer and exhibit exceptional specificity for these fungi, but for most myco-heterotrophs neither the identity of the fungi nor the sources of their carbon are known. Because many myco-heterotrophs grow in forests dominated by plants associated with arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF; phylum Glomeromycota), we proposed that epiparasitism would occur also between plants linked by AMF. On a global scale AMF form the most widespread mycorrhizae, thus the ability of plants to cheat this symbiosis would be highly significant. We analysed mycorrhizae from three populations of Arachnitis uniflora (Corsiaceae, Monocotyledonae), five Voyria species and one Voyriella species (Gentianaceae, Dicotyledonae), and neighbouring green plants. Here we show that non-photosynthetic plants associate with AMF and can display the characteristic specificity of epiparasites. This suggests that AMF mediate significant inter-plant carbon transfer in nature

A kinematic analysis of the karate back thrust kick

The back thrust kick is a karate technique used primarily in a defensive setting. This research described the kinematic variables involved in the skilled execution of the kick. Variables examined included movement sequencing, angular position of the trunk, thigh and leg, angular velocity of the thigh and leg, linear velocity at the ankle and duration of the kick. High speed cinematography was used to film seven subjects as they performed three trials of the back thrust kick. Subjects were highly skilled black belts, four males and three females. Digitizing and computer analysis were done to obtain the variables needed for quantitative analysis. Visual analysis of the film and of graphs showing the quantitative data were used for the qualitative analysis. The two sample t-test and nonparametric Mann-Whitney analyses were used to compare the influence of gender upon the kinematic variables. Data did not support the hypotheses of significant differences occurring as a function of gender among the variables analyzed. All subjects performed the kick in a similar fashion with males exhibiting minor variations in form during the extension phase of the kick. The major educational implication derived from this research is the necessity to adapt instructional techniques and methods for populations which may vary by gender, height, weight and segment lengths

Fungal-host diversity among mycoheterotrophic plants increases proportionally to their fungal-host overlap

The vast majority of plants obtain an important proportion of vital resources from soil through mycorrhizal fungi. Generally, this happens in exchange of photosynthetically fixed carbon, but occasionally the interaction is mycoheterotrophic, and plants obtain carbon from mycorrhizal fungi. This process results in an antagonistic interaction between mycoheterotrophic plants and their fungal hosts. Importantly, the fungal‐host diversity available for plants is restricted as mycoheterotrophic interactions often involve narrow lineages of fungal hosts. Unfortunately, little is known whether fungal‐host diversity may be additionally modulated by plant–plant interactions through shared hosts. Yet, this may have important implications for plant competition and coexistence. Here, we use DNA sequencing data to investigate the interaction patterns between mycoheterotrophic plants and arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi. We find no phylogenetic signal on the number of fungal hosts nor on the fungal hosts shared among mycoheterotrophic plants. However, we observe a potential trend toward increased phylogenetic diversity of fungal hosts among mycoheterotrophic plants with increasing overlap in their fungal hosts. While these patterns remain for groups of plants regardless of location, we do find higher levels of overlap and diversity among plants from the same location. These findings suggest that species coexistence cannot be fully understood without attention to the two sides of ecological interactions. Keywords: mycoheterotrophic interactions; mycorrhizal cheaters; niche overlap; niche width; plant coexistence; plant–belowground interaction

Chicago Farmer\u27s Market Collective

Our hands-on experience with CFMC included designing, implementing, and evaluating a primary data research project on behalf of a Client(s). Specifically, we covered the following steps of the marketing research process: how to define and clarify the problems to be investigated, how to identify and use relevant information sources (including stakeholders and sponsored users) for research design, how to design data collection tools, how to collect and analyze the data, how to interpret and present the findings, and how to share actionable recommendations based on the findings. Finally, we adopted a design thinking mindset through IBM; this is an ideology that allows us to be human-centered in our approach to designing research experiences. Throughout this research we found some interesting data from the participants in both our quantitative survey and unfocus group survey which will be found within this presentation

Impacts of changed litter inputs on soil CO2 efflux in three forest types in central south China

We have defined Neutrosophic Over-/Under-/Off-Set and Logic for the first time in 1995 and published in 2007. During 1995-2016 we presented them to various national and international conferences and seminars. These new notions are totally different from other sets/logics/probabilities. We extended the neutrosophic set respectively to Neutrosophic Overset {when some neutrosophic component is > 1}, to Neutrosophic Underset {when some neutrosophic component is < 0}, and to Neutrosophic Offset {when some neutrosophic components are off the interval [0, 1], i.e. some neutrosophic component > 1 and other neutrosophic component < 0}. This is no surprise since our real-world has numerous examples and applications of over-/under-/off-neutrosophic components

Structural plasticity in root-fungal symbioses: diverse interactions lead to improved plant fitness

Root-fungal symbioses such as mycorrhizas and endophytes are key components of terrestrial ecosystems. Diverse in trophy habits (obligate, facultative or hemibiotrophs) and symbiotic relations (from mutualism to parasitism), these associations also show great variability in their root colonization and nutritional strategies. Specialized interface structures such as arbuscules and Hartig nets are formed by certain associations while others are restricted to non-specialized intercellular or intracellular hyphae in roots. In either case, there are documented examples of active nutrient exchange, reinforcing the fact that specialized structures used to define specific mycorrhizal associations are not essential for reciprocal exchange of nutrients and plant growth promotion. In feremycorrhiza (with Austroboletus occidentalis and eucalypts), the fungal partner markedly enhances plant growth and nutrient acquisition without colonizing roots, emphasizing that a conventional focus on structural form of associations may have resulted in important functional components of rhizospheres being overlooked. In support of this viewpoint, mycobiome studies using the state-of-the-art DNA sequencing technologies have unearthed much more complexity in root-fungal relationships than those discovered using the traditional morphology based approaches. In this review, we explore the existing literature and most recent findings surrounding structure, functioning, and ecology of root-fungal symbiosis, which highlight the fact that plant fitness can be altered by taxonomically/ecologically diverse fungal symbionts regardless of root colonization and interface specialization. Furthermore, transition from saprotrophy to biotrophy seems to be a common event that occurs in diverse fungal lineages (consisting of root endophytes, soil saprotrophs, wood decayers etc.), and which may be accompanied by development of specialized interface structures and/or mycorrhiza-like effects on plant growth and nutrition