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The efficient preservation of protein in silage for livestock feed is dependent on the rate and extent of proteolysis. Previous research on fresh forage indicated enhanced protein stability in certain Festulolium (ryegrass × fescue hybrids) cultivars compared to ryegrass. This is the first report of an experiment to test the hypothesis that a Lolium perenne × Festuca arundinacea var glaucescens cultivar had reduced proteolysis compared to perennial ryegrass (L. perenne) during the ensiling process. Forages were harvested in May (Cut 2) and August (Cut 4), wilted for 24 h and ensiled in laboratory‐scale silos. Silage was destructively sampled at 0 h, 9 h, 24 h, 48 h, 72 h, 14 days and 90 days post‐ensiling, and dry matter (DM), pH and chemical composition were determined. At Cut 2, there was no difference in crude protein between treatments but ryegrass had higher soluble nitrogen (SN) (P < 0.001) and grass × time interactions (p = 0.03) indicated higher rates of proteolysis. By Cut 4, Festulolium had (5.5% units) higher CP than ryegrass (p < 0.001) but SN did not differ. Ammonia‐N did not differ between silages in either cut. DM differences (11.8% units) between treatments in Cut 4 (v.2.2% in Cut 2) may have masked effects on proteolysis, highlighting the importance of management on silage quality. This was despite higher WSC in ryegrass in both cuts (p < 0.001), with grass × time interactions (Cut 2; p = 0.03) showing slower WSC decline in ryegrass in Cut 4 (p < 0.001). Silage pH values did not differ between grasses in either cut, but grass × time interactions (p < 0.001) showed a slower decline in both ryegrass cuts, resulting in higher (p < 0.05) pH at 24 h and 72 h for Cuts 2 and 4, respectively. Overall, the hypothesis for an enhanced protein stability in Festulolium when ensiled as ruminant feed was evidenced by lower SN but not ammonia‐N in an early‐cut silage with a comparable DM to ryegrass. An experiment tested the hypothesis that a Festulolium had reduced proteolysis compared to perennial ryegrass when ensiled. The benefits of Festulolium silage as ruminant feed were evidenced by lower soluble nitrogen but not ammonia‐N in an early‐cut silage with a comparable DM to ryegrass. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents an investigation of how experience-led content in an engineering degree can be strengthened by creating opportunities for engineering students to benefit from the knowledge, skills and resources of students with current professional experience. Students who study civil engineering part-time at Coventry University (while also working in the industry) are being used as mentors for full-time students, and careful attention is being paid to the input they can make to group project work. This paper reviews the results of evaluations of these two initiatives. The clearest enhancement to learning provided by the part-time students in these settings is the access they provide for the full-time students to real examples and the provision of actual physical artefacts such as drawings, photos, example documents and templates. Full-time students also gain an awareness of the value of the professional skills. The study confirms the value of these initiatives and points to future improvements. (Contains 3 tables.)

This work describes a novel semi-sequential technique for in silico enhancement of high-throughput screening (HTS) experiments now employed at Novartis. It is used in situations in which the size of [...]

Angiogenesis is crucial for tumor growth. Angiogenesis inhibitors, such as O-(chloracetyl-carbamoyl) fumagillol (TNP-470), are thus emerging as a new class of anticancer drugs. In clinical trials, TNP-470 slowed tumor growth in patients with metastatic cancer. However, at higher doses necessary for tumor regression, many patients experienced neurotoxicity. We therefore synthesized and characterized a water-soluble conjugate of N-(2-hydroxypropyl)methacrylamide (HPMA) copolymer, Gly-Phe-Leu-Gly linker and TNP-470. This conjugate accumulated selectively in tumor vessels because of the enhanced permeability and retention (EPR) effect. HPMA copolymer-TNP-470 substantially enhanced and prolonged the activity of TNP-470 in vivo in tumor and hepatectomy models. Polymer conjugation prevented TNP-470 from crossing the blood-brain barrier (BBB) and decreased its accumulation in normal organs, thereby avoiding drug-related toxicities. Treatment with TNP-470 caused weight loss and neurotoxic effects in mice, whereas treatment with the conjugate did not. This new approach for targeting angiogenesis inhibitors specifically to the tumor vasculature may provide a new strategy for the rational design of cancer therapies., Author(s): Ronit Satchi-Fainaro [1]; Mark Puder [1]; John W Davies [2]; Hai T Tran [3]; David A Sampson [1]; Arin K Greene [1]; Gabriel Corfas [4]; Judah Folkman (corresponding author) [...]

The increasing frequency of droughts and floods on grasslands, due to climate change, increases the risk of soil compaction. Soil compaction affects both soil and forage productivity. Differing grasses may counteract some effects of compaction due to differences in their root architecture and ontogeny. To compare their resilience to soil compaction, three Festulolium (ryegrass and fescue species' hybrids) forage grass cultivars comprising differing root architecture and ontogeny were compared in replicated field plots, together with a ryegrass and tall fescue variety as controls. Pre‐compaction soil and forage properties were determined in spring using > four‐year‐old plots to generate baseline data. Half of each field plot was then artificially compacted using farm machinery. Forage dry matter yield (DMY) was determined over four cuts. After the final harvest, post compaction soil characteristics and root biomass (RB) were compared between grasses in the non‐compacted and compacted soils. Pre‐compaction data showed that soil under Festulolium and ryegrass had similar water infiltration rates, higher than soil under tall fescue plots. Tiller density of the Festulolium at this time was significantly higher than fescue but not the ryegrass control. Forage DMY was significantly lower (p <.001) with compacted soil at the first cut but, by the completion of the growing season, there was no effect of soil compaction on total DMY. Tall fescue had a higher total DMY than other grasses, which all produced similar annual yields. Soil bulk density and penetration resistance were higher, and grass tiller density was lower in compacted soils. Root biomass in compacted soils showed a tendency for Festulolium cv Lp × Fg to have higher RB than the ryegrass at 0–15 cm depth. Overall, findings showed alternative grass root structures provide differing resilience to machinery compaction, and root biomass production can be encouraged without negative impacts on forage productivity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The construction of novel derivatives has been made possible because of a nucleophilic substitution at a methylene attached to the bridgehead (1-) position of the 2-azabicyclo[2.1.1]hexane ring system. This provides access to epibatidine analogues, which contains heterocyclic substituents, and to homologation at the 1-position.

Motivation: Identifying phenotypes based on high-content cellular images is challenging. Conventional image analysis pipelines for phenotype identification comprise multiple independent steps, with each step requiring method customization and adjustment of multiple parameters. Results: Here, we present an approach based on a multi-scale convolutional neural network (M-CNN) that classifies, in a single cohesive step, cellular images into phenotypes by using directly and solely the images' pixel intensity values. The only parameters in the approach are the weights of the neural network, which are automatically optimized based on training images. The approach requires no a priori knowledge or manual customization, and is applicable to single- or multichannel images displaying single or multiple cells. We evaluated the classification performance of the approach on eight diverse benchmark datasets. The approach yielded overall a higher classification accuracy compared with state-of-the-art results, including those of other deep CNN architectures. In addition to using the network to simply obtain a yes-or-no prediction for a given phenotype, we use the probability outputs calculated by the network to quantitatively describe the phenotypes. This study shows that these probability values correlate with chemical treatment concentrations. This finding validates further our approach and enables chemical treatment potency estimation via CNNs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

High-throughput screening (HTS) is an integral part of early drug discovery. Herein, we focused on those small molecules in a screening collection that have never shown biological activity despite having been exhaustively tested in HTS assays. These compounds are referred to as 'dark chemical matter' (DCM). We quantified DCM, validated it in quality control experiments, described its physicochemical properties and mapped it into chemical space. Through analysis of prospective reporter-gene assay, gene expression and yeast chemogenomics experiments, we evaluated the potential of DCM to show biological activity in future screens. We demonstrated that, despite the apparent lack of activity, occasionally these compounds can result in potent hits with unique activity and clean safety profiles, which makes them valuable starting points for lead optimization efforts. Among the identified DCM hits was a new antifungal chemotype with strong activity against the pathogen Cryptococcus neoformans but little activity at targets relevant to human safety. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An experiment investigated whether the inclusion of chicory (Cichorium intybus) in swards grazed by beef steers altered their performance, carcass characteristics or parasitism when compared to steers grazing perennial ryegrass (Lolium perenne). Triplicate 2-ha plots were established with a chicory/ryegrass mix or ryegrass control. Forty-eight Belgian Blue-cross steers were used in the first grazing season and a core group (n = 36) were retained for finishing in the second grazing season. The experiment comprised of a standardisation and measurement period. During standardisation, steers grazed a ryegrass/white clover pasture as one group. Animals were allocated to treatment on the basis of liveweight, body condition and faecal egg counts (FEC) determined 7 days prior to the measurement period. The measurement period ran from 25 May until 28 September 2010 and 12 April until 11 October 2011in the first and second grazing year. Steers were weighed every 14 days at pasture or 28 days during housing. In the first grazing year, faecal samples were collected for FEC and parasite cultures. At the end of the first grazing year, individual blood samples were taken to determine O. ostertagi antibody and plasma pepsinogen levels. During winter, animals were housed as one group and fed silage. In the second grazing year, steers were slaughtered when deemed to reach fat class 3. Data on steer performance showed no differences in daily live-weight gain which averaged 1.04 kg/day. The conformation, fat grade and killing out proportion of beef steers grazing chicory/ryegrass or ryegrass were not found to differ. No differences in FEC, O. ostertagi antibody or plasma pepsinogen levels of beef steers grazing either chicory/ryegrass or ryegrass were observed. Overall, there were no detrimental effects of including chicory in swards grazed by beef cattle on their performance, carcass characteristics or helminth parasitism, when compared with steers grazing ryegrass. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper considers the opportunity for academic-industry collaboration that arises when a proportion of engineering students in a cohort are part-time students with current industry experience. It describes a study that took the opportunity of probing the response of these students to aspects of course design, using their perspective to answer the questions: 'How successful are we in our attempts to create realistic project work for students, and what improvements should be made?' The consensus from semi-structured group interviews with 52 students is that the project work they have experienced is generally realistic from a technical point of view, enhanced by basing projects on a real site, using real data, and working with a realistic brief. Some students considered the briefs to be too open-ended to be realistic, but others relished the opportunity this presented. Team-working aspects of university group projects were not considered realistic by the students; they pointed out that the environment in engineering practice is very different because it is moderated by the management structure and professional expectations of staff. The role of a client figure was identified as important in creating realism. The paper considers the potential conflict between some aspects of realism in project work and educational benefit. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The National HE STEM Programme has funded the production of a series of guides on transition, induction and retention of students in STEM subjects. The guides cover transition to HE, the first year experience, social engagement, curriculum development to support retention, maths support, optimising the part-time experience, and using data to understand the issues. The paper discusses why the guides were produced and how the project was managed. The literature forming the general background to the project is presented, together with the research underpinning particular guides. The paper summarises the content of each guide, and discusses the lessons learned from the project as a whole. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In light of the high number of Nigerian students who gain admission to overseas universities for postgraduate studies, there is an increasing need to understand their background and previous study experiences. There are few studies of the experiences or views of Nigerian postgraduate students about the concept of plagiarism. The occurrence of plagiarism in the writings of some Nigerian students who travel overseas for graduate studies, like that of other students studying in a new academic context, has become a concern in recent times. This paper aims to contribute to the current research on student plagiarism around the world by exploring the concept of plagiarism of Nigerian postgraduate students studying in a United Kingdom university. It presents results from a phenomenographic study which utilised semi-structured interviews to acquire data. In analysing the data, the views expressed by participants, the manner in which these were expressed and the context in which the views were expressed were paramount. Preconceived ideas were put aside while analysing the data, letting the data speak for itself rather than viewing the data from existing theoretical structures or presuppositions. The emerging themes were noted and comparative views of experiences were arrived at from pooling and comparing quotations across several participants. An outcome space was identified and the emerging overarching theme relating to their experiences was found to be the fear of not understanding the underlying concept of plagiarism. The students expressed deep concern about the simultaneous awareness of the need to acquire the requisite academic writing skills and utilising them, while being faced with coursework and looming submission deadlines. The results and their implications are discussed with regards to the students' adaptation and a way forward is proffered. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This work addresses the problem of enriching high throughput screening (HTS) data of mixtures of five compounds/well without any redundancies and where no structural information of the drug target is available. Devising a mathematical model for mixtures of compounds is extremely difficult. Instead, we employed extended-connectivity fingerprints (ECFPs), which are a new class of fingerprints for molecular characterization. We calculated the Tanimoto similarity between all the compounds which appeared in the active mixtures and ranked them in order of decreasing similarity. This methodology enriched the data in three recent in-house HTS campaigns that were conducted in five compounds/well mixtures. The top 10% most similar compounds captured between 29% and 41% of the active compounds. Although this methodology is not particularly sensitive, considering the quality of the data (ca. 80% noise presumed to be inactive) and the simplicity of the method, we find it useful. It offers a true opportunity to quickly prioritize and enrich primary screening data from mixtures of compounds and therefore reduce the time and the high costs of the secondary screening. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An account of group work at a day centre for elderly people which, by using Reminiscence Therapy, tapped into a time when their morale had been high; with some interesting results. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]