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Sulphoraphane originates from glucoraphanin in broccoli and is associated with anti-cancer effects. A preclinical study suggested that daily consumption of broccoli may increase the production of sulphoraphane and sulphoraphane metabolites available for absorption. The objective of this study was to determine whether daily broccoli consumption alters the absorption and metabolism of isothiocyanates derived from broccoli glucosinolates. We conducted a randomised cross-over human study (n 18) balanced for BMI and glutathione S-transferase μ 1 (GSTM1) genotype in which subjects consumed a control diet with no broccoli (NB) for 16 d or the same diet with 200 g of cooked broccoli and 20 g of raw daikon radish daily for 15 d (daily broccoli, DB) and 100 g of broccoli and 10 g of daikon radish on day 16. On day 17, all subjects consumed a meal of 200 g of broccoli and 20 g of daikon radish. Plasma and urine were collected for 24 h and analysed for sulphoraphane and metabolites of sulphoraphane and erucin by triple quadrupole tandem MS. For subjects with BMI >26 kg/m2 (median), plasma AUC and urinary excretion rates of total metabolites were higher on the NB diet than on the DB diet, whereas for subjects with BMI <26 kg/m2, plasma AUC and urinary excretion rates were higher on the DB diet than on the NB diet. Daily consumption of broccoli interacted with BMI but not GSTM1 genotype to affect plasma concentrations and urinary excretion of glucosinolate-derived compounds believed to confer protection against cancer. This trial was registered as NCT02346812.

Undigested components of the human diet affect the composition and function of the microorganisms present in the gastrointestinal tract. Techniques like metagenomic analyses allow researchers to study functional capacity, thus, revealing the potential of using metagenomic data for developing objective biomarkers of food intake. As a continuation of our previous work using 16S and metabolomic datasets, we aimed to utilize a computationally intensive, multivariate, machine learning approach to identify fecal Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) Orthology (KO) categories as biomarkers that accurately classify food intake. Data were aggregated from five controlled feeding studies that studied the individual impact of almonds, avocados, broccoli, walnuts, barley, and oats on the adult gastrointestinal microbiota. DNA from pre-and post-intervention fecal samples underwent shotgun genomic sequencing. After pre-processing, sequences were aligned and functionally annotated with DIAMOND v2.0.11.149 and MEGAN v6.12.2, respectively. After count normalization, the log of the fold change ratio for resulting KOs between pre-and post-intervention of the treatment group against its corresponding control was utilized to conduct differential abundance analysis. Differentially abundant KOs were used to train machine learning models examining potential biomarkers in both single-food and multi-food models. We identified differentially abundant KOs in the almond (n = 54), broccoli (n = 2,474), and walnut (n = 732) groups (q < 0.20), which demonstrated classification accuracies of 80%, 87%, and 86% for the almond, broccoli, and walnut groups, respectively, using a random forest model to classify food intake into each food group’s respective treatment and control arms. The mixed-food random forest achieved 81% accuracy. Our findings reveal promise in utilizing fecal metagenomics to objectively complement self-reported measures of food intake. Future research on various foods and dietary patterns will expand these exploratory analyses for eventual use in feeding study compliance and clinical settings.

Introduction A large body of evidence has shown that sleep plays a critical role in the consolidation of memories, a process facilitated in part by sleep spindles, a hallmark feature of non-rapid eye movement (NREM) sleep. It is less clear how the brain selects and prioritizes which memories get consolidated during sleep. Here, we used EEG to identify neural activity during initial memory encoding that can be used to predict subsequent memory consolidation during sleep. We focused on oscillations in the theta (4-8Hz) frequency band, due to its role in memory encoding and retrieval processes. Methods Data from the 47 participants will be presented. All participants learnt pairs of words at a computer, followed immediately by a cued recall test. Six hours later, participants performed a second recall test. N = 17 participants stayed awake for the full six hour period, whilst N = 30 had a two-hour nap opportunity followed by four hours awake. High-density (57-channel) EEG was recorded throughout encoding, both recall sessions, and the nap. Results Participants in the nap group showed superior memory retention at the delayed test compared to the wake group. Theta activity during encoding was positively correlated with memory consolidation and spindle density during NREM sleep. In turn, spindle density was correlated with memory consolidation. A mediated regression model showed that the relationship between encoding theta and memory consolidation was mediated by spindle density. Additionally, successful memory recall after sleep was associated with significantly lower theta activity than successful recall following a period of wake. The magnitude of this theta decrease was significantly correlated with spindle density. Conclusion Our results show that the neural activity that occurs during initial memory encoding contains information that can be used to predict memory consolidation. Theta activity during encoding may act as a potential ‘tagging’ mechanism for subsequent consolidation. We also found that sleep reduces the amount of theta activity required to recall a consolidated memory. This may reflect a sleep-dependent transfer of information from mediotemporal to neocortical networks. Support (If Any) NIH grant MH044832.

Abstract Objective To assess the effect of vertebral fractures (VF) and glucocorticoid (GC) exposure on height deficits in children during treatment of acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL). Methods Children with ALL treated without cranial radiation therapy (n = 160; median age, 5.1 years; 58.1% male) were followed prospectively for 6 years. Spinal deformity index (SDI) was used to quantify VF status. Results Baseline height z score ± SD was 0.3 ± 1.2. It fell by 0.5 ± 0.4 in the first 6 months for boys and by 0.4 ± 0.4 in the first 12 months for girls (P < 0.01 for both) and then subsequently recovered. The prevalence of VF peaked at 1 year (17.6%). Among those with VF, median SDI rose from 2 [interquartile range (IQR): 1, 7] at baseline to 8 (IQR: 1, 8) at 1 year. A mixed model for repeated measures showed that height z score declined by 0.13 (95% CI: 0.02 to 0.24; P = 0.02) for each 5-unit increase in SDI during the previous 12 months. Every 10 mg/m2 increase in average daily GC dose (prednisone equivalent) in the previous 12 months was associated with a height z score decrement of 0.26 (95% CI: 0.20 to 0.32; P < 0.01). Conclusions GC likely plays a major role in the observed height decline during therapy for ALL. Because only a minority of children had VF, fractures could not have contributed significantly to the height deficit in the entire cohort but may have been important among the subset with VF. This 6-year prospective cohort study shows that vertebral fractures and glucocorticoid exposure are associated with height deficits in children during treatment of acute lymphoblastic leukemia.

Children with glucocorticoid-treated illnesses are at risk for osteoporotic vertebral fractures, and growing awareness of this has led to increased monitoring for these fractures. However scant literature describes developmental changes in vertebral morphology that can mimic fractures. The goal of this paper is to aid in distinguishing between normal variants and fractures. We illustrate differences using lateral spine radiographs obtained annually from children recruited to the Canada-wide STeroid-Associated Osteoporosis in the Pediatric Population (STOPP) observational study, in which 400 children with glucocorticoid-treated leukemia, rheumatic disorders, and nephrotic syndrome were enrolled near glucocorticoid initiation and followed prospectively for 6 years. Normal variants mimicking fractures exist in all regions of the spine and fall into two groups. The first group comprises variants mimicking pathological vertebral height loss, including not-yet-ossified vertebral apophyses superiorly and inferiorly, which can lead to a vertebral shape easily over-interpreted as anterior wedge fracture, physiological beaking, or spondylolisthesis associated with shortened posterior vertebral height. The second group includes variants mimicking other radiologic signs of fractures: anterior vertebral artery groove resembling an anterior buckle fracture, Cupid’s bow balloon disk morphology, Schmorl nodes mimicking concave endplate fractures, and parallax artifact resembling endplate interruption or biconcavity. If an unexpected vertebral body contour is detected, careful attention to its location, detailed morphology, and (if available) serial changes over time may clarify whether it is a fracture requiring change in management or simply a normal variant. Awareness of the variants described in this paper can improve accuracy in the diagnosis of pediatric vertebral fractures.

Summary Incident vertebral fractures and lumbar spine bone mineral density (BMD) were assessed in the 12 months following glucocorticoid initiation in 65 children with nephrotic syndrome. The incidence of vertebral fractures was low at 12 months (6 %) and most patients demonstrated recovery in BMD Z-scores by this time point. Introduction Vertebral fracture (VF) incidence following glucocorticoid (GC) initiation has not been previously reported in pediatric nephrotic syndrome. Methods VF was assessed on radiographs (Genant method); lumbar spine bone mineral density (LS BMD) was evaluated by dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry. Results Sixty-five children were followed to 12 months post-GC initiation (median age, 5.4 years; range, 2.3–17.9). Three of 54 children with radiographs (6 %; 95 % confidence interval (CI), 2–15 %) had incident VF at 1 year. The mean LS BMD Z-score was below the healthy average at baseline (mean ± standard deviation (SD), −0.5 ± 1.1; p  = 0.001) and at 3 months (−0.6 ± 1.1; p  < 0.001), but not at 6 months (−0.3 ± 1.3; p  = 0.066) or 12 months (−0.3 ± 1.2; p  = 0.066). Mixed effect modeling showed a significant increase in LS BMD Z-scores between 3 and 12 months (0.22 SD; 95 % CI, 0.08 to 0.36; p  = 0.003). A subgroup ( N  = 16; 25 %) had LS BMD Z-scores that were ≤−1.0 at 12 months. In these children, each additional 1,000 mg/m 2 of GC received in the first 3 months was associated with a decrease in LS BMD Z-score by 0.39 at 12 months (95 % CI, −0.71 to −0.07; p  = 0.017). Conclusions The incidence of VF at 1 year was low and LS BMD Z-scores improved by 12 months in the majority. Twenty-five percent of children had LS BMD Z-scores ≤−1.0 at 12 months. In these children, LS BMD Z-scores were inversely associated with early GC exposure, despite similar GC exposure compared to the rest of the cohort.

Sugarcane (Saccharum spp.) is a major crop for sugar and bioenergy production. Its highly polyploid, aneuploid, heterozygous, and interspecific genome poses major challenges for producing a reference sequence. We exploited colinearity with sorghum to produce a BAC-based monoploid genome sequence of sugarcane. A minimum tiling path of 4660 sugarcane BAC that best covers the gene-rich part of the sorghum genome was selected based on whole-genome profiling, sequenced, and assembled in a 382-Mb single tiling path of a high-quality sequence. A total of 25,316 protein-coding gene models are predicted, 17% of which display no colinearity with their sorghum orthologs. We show that the two species, S. officinarum and S. spontaneum, involved in modern cultivars differ by their transposable elements and by a few large chromosomal rearrangements, explaining their distinct genome size and distinct basic chromosome numbers while also suggesting that polyploidization arose in both lineages after their divergence.

Glucosinolates are secondary metabolites present in the order Capparales which includes the economically important Brassicaceae family. Although glucosinolates are generally not bioactive, enzymatic hydrolysis by myrosinase produces breakdown products with fungicidal, bactericidal, nematocidal, and allelopathic activity. Especially relevant for human health are reports that glucosinolate degradation products have cancer chemoprotective properties. Glucosinolate levels and myrosinase activity are known to vary by species, plant organ, and stage of development. Plants grown in seasons characterized by high temperatures, high levels of photosynthetic photon flux (PPF), and long photoperiods tend to contain high levels of glucosinolates, but there are few reports that attempt to correlate glucosinolate levels with specific climatic factors. The effects of season and associated climatic conditions on myrosinase activity has been completely neglected. The objectives of this research were: (1) to measure glucosinolate concentration in six Brassica cultivars to determine how it correlates to the isothiocyanate profile upon hydrolysis by myrosinase, (2) to determine how temperature, PPF, and photoperiod affect glucosinolate levels and myrosinase activity in leaves, stems, and roots of a rapid-cycling base population of Brassica oleracea grown in a controlled environment, and (3) to determine how temperature, PPF, and photoperiod affect glucosinolate levels and myrosinase activity in ten Brassica cultivars grown during two fall and two spring seasons. In this study, conversion of glucosinolates to isothiocyanates varied by cultivar and glucosinolate content alone was not a complete predictor of bioactivity resulting from glucosinolate breakdown products. In the controlled environment and field experiments, genotype, temperature, PPF, and photoperiod significantly affected glucosinolate levels, and genotype, temperature, and PPF significantly affected myrosinase activity. Therefore, selection of cultivar, botanical group, and planting time must be considered when glucosinolate levels and myrosinase activity in cruciferous crops are of interest.

Not long after Nellie fell ill in 2003, in an attempt to communicate effectively with Nellie's very large community and to coordinate the ever-growing list of volunteers, her UW colleagues created the e-mail equivalent of the \"phone trees\" used in women's studies programs during the 1960s and 70s. Or, to phrase it in a way that reminds us that she was a part of the Civil Rights Movement, one of the courageous foot soldiers who marched into spaces where black people were most definitely not welcome, she made sure students kept their eyes on the prize.