The increasing demand for food coupled to various environmental pressures, is increasing the importance of sustainable agricultural practices.

The molecular mechanisms responsible for the sexual differentiation of the zebra finch song system remain mysterious. Androgen receptors are expressed in a sexually dimorphic fashion in the zebra finches song system: males have more cells expressing androgen receptors, and this sex difference appears very early in development (day 9 posthatch). Estrogen administration to hatchling females up-regulates androgen receptor expression in their song system and profoundly masculinizes their song system's morphology. Co-administering flutamide, an androgen-receptor blocker, with estrogen impedes estrogen's masculinizing effects on the song system, suggesting that androgens are required for masculine development. Accordingly, to investigate further the role of androgens in the sexual differentiation of the zebra finch song system, we sought to block androgen activity in males by administering large, sustained doses of flutamide from just before androgen receptors are expressed in the song system (day 7) through to the day of sacrifice (day 61-63).Flutamide profoundly reduced the size of the testes, demonstrating that this drug and mode of administration could have a large impact on tissues. In contrast, flutamide had only a minor impact on the song system: the number of RA neurons was slightly reduced, and the corrected HVC volume showed a trend toward demasculinization. Other brain measures (uncorrected HVC, and corrected and uncorrected volumes of Area X, lMAN, RA, and Rotundus; neuron size in lMAN, HVC, and RA; and number of HVC and LMAN neurons) were not significantly affected. The present results do not support an important role for androgen in masculinizing the song circuit after posthatch day 7.

A homogeneous layer of a single biofilm component (polysaccharides, proteins, and nucleic acids) was studied on an ultrafiltration membrane and its interaction with different cleaning solutions (base, oxidizer, surfactant, and chelating agent) was evaluated by comparing permeate flux, with the base and oxidizer showing the best cleaning performance. The presence of calcium in the feed solution hindered the ability of the cleaning solutions to completely remove the foulants in the absence of a chelating agent. Backwashing the membranes fouled with polysaccharides and DNA resulted in full flux recovery but had little effect on recovering the flux of protein-fouled membranes. The efficacy of cleaning agents toward model biofilm component mixtures designed to mimic Gram-negative and Gram-positive bacterial biofilms were tested. Flux recovery was enhanced by the usage of a base and oxidizer. However, full recovery was never achieved using chemical cleaning agents. It was determined that the presence of proteins in biofilms determines their susceptibility to cleaning.

BackgroundThe optimal structure of an internal medicine ward team at a teaching hospital is unknown. We hypothesized that increasing the ratio of attendings to housestaff would result in an enhanced perceived educational experience for residents.MethodsHarbor-UCLA Medical Center (HUMC) is a tertiary care, public hospital in Los Angeles County. Standard ward teams at HUMC, with a housestaff∶attending ratio of 5∶1, were split by adding one attending and then dividing the teams into two experimental teams containing ratios of 3∶1 and 2∶1. Web-based Likert satisfaction surveys were completed by housestaff and attending physicians on the experimental and control teams at the end of their rotations, and objective healthcare outcomes (e.g., length of stay, hospital readmission, mortality) were compared.ResultsNine hundred and ninety patients were admitted to the standard control teams and 184 were admitted to the experimental teams (81 to the one-intern team and 103 to the two-intern team). Patients admitted to the experimental and control teams had similar age and disease severity. Residents and attending physicians consistently indicated that the quality of the educational experience, time spent teaching, time devoted to patient care, and quality of life were superior on the experimental teams. Objective healthcare outcomes did not differ between experimental and control teams.ConclusionsAltering internal medicine ward team structure to reduce the ratio of housestaff to attending physicians improved the perceived educational experience without altering objective healthcare outcomes.