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Author: Reid Vero
Traumatic brain injury (TBI) accounts for 50% of all trauma-related deaths. Neural stem/progenitor cells have been shown to mediate motor and cognitive functional recovery when transplanted intracerebrally after TBI. In this study, the researchers hypothesized that the transplanted neural stem cells would remain near the area of injury and improve motor and cognitive functional recovery.
The researchers used a controlled cortical impact (CCI) device to administer an injury to the brain of the rats. The CCI device is incredibly useful because of its ability to make a consistent wound on the rats involved in the study. Seven days after the injury, the rats were then injected with 40,000 neural stem cells (NSCs) at ten different sites, for a total of 400,000 NSCs per animal. Behavioral testing was used to analyze the effectiveness of the treatment with the use of a neurological severity score, a rotarod, a balance beam, a Morris water maze, and a foot fault.
They found that 1.4-1.9% of the infused cells stayed in the neural tissue 48 hours and 2 weeks post-injection. It was confirmed that the NSCs were nestin positive, which is a protein found mostly in neurons when they are implicated in the radical growth of the axon. Rotatod motor testing revealed significant increases in maximal speed among NSC-treated rats compared with the saline controls at day 4. The other motor, as well as early and late cognitive evaluations revealed no significant differences compared to the saline controls. Most of the data of this experiment is displayed in graphs to show the difference between the sham rats, the NSC rats, and the saline solution rats. The “differences in behavioral testing were assessed by repeated measures analysis of variance with post-hoc Tukey-Kramer analysis. All data are shown as mean +/- SEM.” The Tukey-Kramer method is a single-step multiple comparison procedure and statistical test. It is used to find means that are significantly different from each other.
Harting, Sloan, Jimenez, Baumgartner, & Cox. (2009). Subacute Neural Stem Cell Therapy for Traumatic Brain Injury. Journal of Surgical Research, 153(2), 188-194.
- What kind of bait works best to catch New York City fish? (worms, corn, garbage, etc.)
- Do CCNY students want the Marshak pool to be open? How many would actually use it if it were open?
- Do patrons of New York City zoos feel that they do a good job of educating people about conservation?
I looked at Fox News’ and CNN’s coverage of Hillary Clinton’s release of her book, What Happened. What is interesting about these two articles is that they both include an interview with the same person, Jonathan Allen. He is one of the co-authors of a book about the Clinton campaign, and is being interviewed by these news networks about Clinton’s new book.
In Allen’s interview with CNN, he talks about how Clinton blames Bernie Sanders partly for her loss, as he “kept hitting her at quite possibly the worst possible time during the campaign.” Even after he made an endorsement for her, Allen claims that Sanders didn’t completely support her, and he made that clear to his supporters. Allen also talks about some of the “self inflicted wounds” that Clinton caused during her campaign, and that she “lacked a message and message discipline.” He agrees with Hillary’s claim that Comey and Russian interference caused her the election, but Allen adds that they weren’t the only factors. Allen talks about the email scandal and how it ultimately doomed her, and that it was a bad mistake.
In the Fox News article, it starts out saying that Clinton takes the full blame for her loss, but also manages to blame “everyone and everything from FBI Director James Comey to Russian hackers to Bernie Sanders to misogyny.” Allen is even quoted saying, “Even when she’s not saying it directly, you just go through page after page after page where it’s always someone else’s fault.” Allen also suggests that Clinton has never acknowledged that she “simply lacked a message that resonated with voters.”
Overall, the information in both of these articles isn’t that different, but the Fox News article definitely says most of the things in a more harsh and critical way than CNN does. Some of Allen’s statements in the Fox article are more critical of Clinton “blaming” other people for her loss instead of taking the blame on herself for not having a message that resonated with voters. Allen’s statements in the CNN article seem to back up Clinton’s claims that she is making in her book while also adding reasons why some of the blame belongs to her also. The article titles also differ in message, as the CNN title is questioning if what Clinton says happened really happened. On the other hand, the Fox article’s title uses the word “excuses” and includes a quote saying, “It’s Always Someone Else’s Fault.”
http://www.cnn.com/2017/09/12/politics/clinton-what-happened-q-and-a/index.html
http://insider.foxnews.com/2017/09/12/hillary-clinton-book-what-happened-shattered-author-her-excuses-blame-game
In this study, the researchers compared various locations to see the relationship between sea otters, invertebrate herbivores, and macroalgae populations. The idea was that in areas with sea otters, there wouldn’t be many herbivores, and thus an abundance of plants. In areas without sea otters, the population of herbivores would be higher, resulting in fewer plants. They selected 153 random sites in the Aleutian Islands and southeast Alaska. For the most part, these sites followed the predicted paradigm, with one exception being Torch Bay. This was because there were disturbances in the sea urchin population, causing the kelp abundance to vary significantly. When sea otters spread into previously unoccupied locations, sea urchin population plummeted by as much as 100%. Due to this, increases in kelp populations were abrupt and highly significant. This study demonstrated that sea otter predation has a predictable and broadly generalizable influence over the structure of Alaskan kelp forests.
Source:
Estes, J. A., & Duggins, D. O. (1995). Sea Otters and Kelp Forests in Alaska: Generality and Variation in a Community Ecological Paradigm. Ecological Monographs, 65, 75-100.
Alloparenting, which is the caring for non-filial young, has been observed in mammal and bird species. Since sea lion pups have the ability to recognize their mothers and show a strong preference for them, it is likely that incidents of non-filial nursing represent adoption of orphaned pups by females who have miscarried or lost pups. Adoption events lower the pup mortality rate and contribute to greater population persistence. In this study, scientists used markings on pups and took biopsies of the females while they were nursing in order to identify mismatched female-pup genotypes. It was found that mismatched female-pup pairs accounted for less than 6% of nursing pairs in San Jorge Island. In Los Islotes Island, however, non-filial pairs accounted for over 17% of the female-pup pairs. Adoption is the most likely cause for mismatch pairs among these populations.
Source: Flatz, R., & Gerber, L. R. (2010). First Evidence for Adoption in California Sea Lions. PLoS ONE, 5(11).