This resource is a video abstract of a research paper created by Research Square on behalf of its authors. It provides a synopsis that's easy to understand, and can be used to introduce the topics it covers to students, researchers, and the general public. The video's transcript is also provided in full, with a portion provided below for preview:

"Colorectal cancer is the fourth most common cancer and the fifth leading cause of cancer death worldwide. Two important hallmarks of the disease are faulty tumor suppressor genes and altered composition of the community of microbes that live in the colon. That prompted researchers to explore whether there is a connection between the two. They examined 33 tissue samples from patients with colorectal cancer. Protein-assisted DNA sequencing revealed the prominence of Fusobacterium nucleatum, pathogenic bacteria associated with gum disease, and Hungatella hathewayi, rod-shaped bacteria with no substantial track record of causing disease. Further experiments showed that these bacteria can actually mute genes that normally suppress cancer, promoting the spread of colorectal cancer cells. The findings are unexpected evidence that bacteria in the colon can regulate genes linked to cancer suppression and reveal at least a few targets for anti-cancer therapy..."

The rest of the transcript, along with a link to the research itself, is available on the resource itself.

This resource is a video abstract of a research paper created by Research Square on behalf of its authors. It provides a synopsis that's easy to understand, and can be used to introduce the topics it covers to students, researchers, and the general public. The video's transcript is also provided in full, with a portion provided below for preview:

"The birth of a child involves many big transitions, but one of these changes occurs inside the child, who transitions from the sterile womb to an outside environment full of microbes. While this has lasting effects on growth, inflammation, and immunity, remarkably little is known about how gut bacteria and viruses are acquired by infants. Recently, researchers used next-generation sequencing to evaluate microbes from the guts of 28 pairs of twins and their mothers. They found that the majority of the infant’s gut bacteria were similar to their mother’s gut bacteria. Viruses were less similar, suggesting they might be transmitted through other routes. Twins also shared more of their gut microbiota with each other, emphasizing the strong effect of environmental exposure, and mode of delivery had very little effect on how much of the infants’ gut microbiome was inherited from their mothers..."

The rest of the transcript, along with a link to the research itself, is available on the resource itself.

This resource is a video abstract of a research paper created by Research Square on behalf of its authors. It provides a synopsis that's easy to understand, and can be used to introduce the topics it covers to students, researchers, and the general public. The video's transcript is also provided in full, with a portion provided below for preview:

"Crohn’s disease is an incredibly painful inflammatory bowel disease that frequently reoccurs after treatment. The growth of a certain type of abdominal fat has been associated with Crohn's disease recurrence. This fat, called mesenteric adipose tissue, is tucked up against the membrane connecting the intestines to the abdominal wall. Microbes can escape the intestines in Crohn's disease and may affect the mesenteric fat. Recently, researchers explored this relationship by investigating the mesenteric microbiome of patients with Crohn’s disease. Crohn’s disease patients had distinct mesenteric microbiomes, host gene expression patterns, and metabolites compared to controls. To explore the specifics, the researchers isolated bacterial strains from the mesenteric microbiome of these patients. In a mouse model of colitis, introducing a mixture of five of the isolated bacterial strains made disease symptoms worse. One of these strains, _A..."

The rest of the transcript, along with a link to the research itself, is available on the resource itself.

This resource is a video abstract of a research paper created by Research Square on behalf of its authors. It provides a synopsis that's easy to understand, and can be used to introduce the topics it covers to students, researchers, and the general public. The video's transcript is also provided in full, with a portion provided below for preview:

"Our microbiomes are in continuous exchange with the microorganisms living in our indoor environments. In hospitals, this interaction may play a critical role in hospital-acquired infections and the rise of antibiotic-resistant bacteria. However, the bacterial colonization dynamics in newly opened hospitals are poorly understood. In a recent study, researchers used a longitudinal metagenomic approach to characterize this process in a newly occupied hospital ward. Sequencing data showed that the taxonomic succession was site-specific and led to stable community structures after only a few weeks. This fast colonization process was characterized by a significant increase in the bacterial biomass and its alpha-diversity. The bacterial composition of the environment could also be linked to exchanges with patient microbiota. They did not detect a rise in pathogenic bacteria during the 30-week study, but the number of antibiotic resistance genes found on the hospital floor increased over time..."

The rest of the transcript, along with a link to the research itself, is available on the resource itself.

This resource is a video abstract of a research paper created by Research Square on behalf of its authors. It provides a synopsis that's easy to understand, and can be used to introduce the topics it covers to students, researchers, and the general public. The video's transcript is also provided in full, with a portion provided below for preview:

"Microbes are all around us. With around the same number of bacteria as cells in each human body, our microbiomes are constantly interacting with microbes in the surrounding environment. And indoor environmental microbes can influence our health, affecting allergies, asthma, and other health conditions. To better characterize indoor microbial communities, researchers conducted an environmental assessment as part of an epidemiologic study of 50 elementary schools in a large city in the United States. They identified more than 2,000 bacterial species in floor dust collected from 500 classrooms. The most abundant bacterial phyla were Firmicutes and Proteobacteria, and interestingly, the genus Halospirulina was reported for the first time in a classroom sample. Outdoor-associated and gram-negative bacteria were more abundant in classroom floor dust compared to homes, where human-associated and gram-positive bacteria are more abundant..."

The rest of the transcript, along with a link to the research itself, is available on the resource itself.

This resource is a video abstract of a research paper created by Research Square on behalf of its authors. It provides a synopsis that's easy to understand, and can be used to introduce the topics it covers to students, researchers, and the general public. The video's transcript is also provided in full, with a portion provided below for preview:

"Infectious microbes don’t stop at the hospital door upon admission. Hospital surfaces serve as a reservoir of microbial life that may colonize patients, resulting in healthcare-associated infections (HAIs). The most vulnerable are critically ill patients in the intensive care unit (ICU), where HAIs represent the leading cause of death. Unfortunately, little is known about how the microbiome of the ICU is established or how it is influenced over time. A new study took advantage of a unique opportunity to examine the evolution of the ICU microbiome. Researchers examined microbes isolated from ICU surfaces before, during, and after hospital renovations closed the unit. Using DNA sequencing, they found that the greatest bacterial diversity existed before ICU closure..."

The rest of the transcript, along with a link to the research itself, is available on the resource itself.

This resource is a video abstract of a research paper created by Research Square on behalf of its authors. It provides a synopsis that's easy to understand, and can be used to introduce the topics it covers to students, researchers, and the general public. The video's transcript is also provided in full, with a portion provided below for preview:

"In ecology research, population density is an important metric for community analysis studies. Yet even though microbiomes are small ecosystems, microbiome studies rarely report the bacterial density. To evaluate the significance of bacterial density in gut microbiome research, a recent retrospective study examined rectal swabs from hospitalized patients. The authors found that bacterial density had important methodologic significance, as it predicted vulnerability to sequencing contamination. Specifically, low-bacterial-density specimens had higher levels of sequencing contamination. Clinical factors like age, exposure to antibiotics, and comorbidities also varied with bacterial density. Older patients and those with multiple co-morbidities had high bacterial density, while antibiotic exposure correlated with low density. Lastly, bacterial density showed potential as a prognostic indicator, as the density at time of admission correlated with subsequent infection..."

The rest of the transcript, along with a link to the research itself, is available on the resource itself.

This resource is a video abstract of a research paper created by Research Square on behalf of its authors. It provides a synopsis that's easy to understand, and can be used to introduce the topics it covers to students, researchers, and the general public. The video's transcript is also provided in full, with a portion provided below for preview:

"Trees support so much life on Earth – but one important component might easily be overlooked. The phyllosphere – the aerial surfaces of plants, including leaves – is a microbial habitat for diverse microorganisms. Phyllosphere bacteria play key roles in plant health, human health, and ecosystem function, but unfortunately, not much is known about how plants and their associated microbes influence each other. A recent study evaluated this relationship in a diverse neotropical forest. Using shotgun metagenomics, researchers found that the metabolic functions of phyllosphere microbes varied based on their tree hosts. While overall there was low variability in plant-associated microbes, suggesting that certain microbes form a “core microbiota” for neotropical trees, bacterial metabolism and membrane transport functions varied between plant species..."

The rest of the transcript, along with a link to the research itself, is available on the resource itself.

The next time you are in the kitchen, try this experiment: pick up a box of butter (four sticks) in one hand and a box of saltines (four packets) in the other. Which is heavier? If you said the butter, you are not alone. Most people would identify the box of butter as the heavier object even though, if you look at the labels, you'll see that they both weigh exactly one pound! This is an example of the size-weight illusion, and it is incredibly common. Read more to see the evolution (and baseball) connection ...

Poster is text only. Text continues: The National Organising Committee for War Savings appeals against extravagance in women's dress. ... It is essential, not only that money should be saved, but that labour employed in the clothing trades should be set free. Published by the National Organising Committee for War Savings, 18 & 19, Abingdon Street, Westminster, S.W. Poster no. 4. Title from item.

In this experiment, two chemicals that can be found around the house will be mixed within a plastic baggie, and several chemical changes will be observed.

The artist predicts a decisive Whig victory in the presidential election of 1848, with Whig candidate Zachary Taylor "bagging" all of the states in an electoral sweep. (Taylor actually carried only fifteen of the thirty states.) A kneeling Taylor (left) gathers fallen pigeons, each bearing a state's name, into a bag. Holding up the New York bird he muses, "My purpose would be suited without this fellow, however I'll take him: the more the merrier for the 4th of March next." Taylor's strength in New York was considered questionable before the election. Standing to the right is Lewis Cass with a musket at his side. Looking over at Taylor, he marvels, "What an all devouring appetite the fellow has: I expect he'll bag me in the bargain!" In the background Martin Van Buren is caught by the seat of his trousers on the nails of a fence. Holding a rooster labeled "Proviso" he cries, "Cass, come and help an old crony won't you!" Peering over from behind the fence is Pennsylvania congressman David Wilmot, author of the Wilmot Proviso, who threatens Van Buren with a switch, "I'll teach you to come ta robbing my barn!" Van Buren and the Barnburner Democrats adopted the proviso, which barred slavery in American territory gained in the Mexican War, as the main plank in their 1848 campaign platform.|Probably drawn by E.F. Durang.|Pubd. by Able [i.e., Peter E. Abel] & Durang. Philada.|Title appears as it is written on the item.|Weitenkampf, p. 97.|Forms part of: American cartoon print filing series (Library of Congress)|Published in: American political prints, 1766-1876 / Bernard F. Reilly. Boston : G.K. Hall, 1991, entry 1848-46.

This resource is a video abstract of a research paper created by Research Square on behalf of its authors. It provides a synopsis that's easy to understand, and can be used to introduce the topics it covers to students, researchers, and the general public. The video's transcript is also provided in full, with a portion provided below for preview:

"Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is the leading cause of dementia in the aged population. The key feature of AD is the deposition of two different kinds of protein aggregates in the brain, and at the point of aggregate formation, treatment becomes difficult. A recent study focused on how to prevent the aggregation of one protein: the microtubule-associated protein Tau, which forms neurofibrillary tangles. Following up on research indicating that polyphenolic compounds can serve as neuroprotective agents, researchers analyzed the ability of the polyphenol Baicalein to inhibit the aggregation of Tau. In vitro, Baicalein blocked Tau aggregation and paired helical filament dissolution via an oligomer capture and dissociation mechanism. It also dissolved preformed mature fibrils of Tau, creating Tau oligomers, with no effect on the viability of neuronal cells..."

The rest of the transcript, along with a link to the research itself, is available on the resource itself.

This resource is a video abstract of a research paper created by Research Square on behalf of its authors. It provides a synopsis that's easy to understand, and can be used to introduce the topics it covers to students, researchers, and the general public. The video's transcript is also provided in full, with a portion provided below for preview:

"The transcription factor Nrf2 plays paradoxical roles in cancer biology. Transient Nrf2 activation can protect against cancer development, but permanent Nrf2 activation promotes progression and treatment resistance. Persistent activation can be triggered by Keap1-inactivating mutations that cause Nrf2 nuclear accumulation and/or by mutations in the ETGE and DLG motifs of Nrf2, which are important regions for Nrf2–Keap1 interaction. Epigenetic silencing of Keap1 and disruption of the Nrf2–Keap1 interaction by other proteins can also aberrantly activate Nrf2. Given the detrimental effects of excessive activation, pharmacologically balancing Nrf2 activity is a promising avenue for cancer treatment. Numerous Nrf2 activators have been discovered or developed, such as the synthetic compound oltipraz (OPZ) and the plant-derived compound curcumin (CUR). In general, Nrf2 activators can promote the functions of antioxidants, phase II detoxification factors, and transducers..."

The rest of the transcript, along with a link to the research itself, is available on the resource itself.

Reflecting Whig preelection confidence in the campaign of 1844, the artist portrays that party's ascendancy over the Democrats in the race for the presidency. Bucholzer uses the metaphor of a hot-air balloon race between Whig candidates Henry Clay and Theodore Frelinghuysen (on the right) and Democratic nominee James K. Polk. The Whigs ascend with ease; Clay waves a flag and Frelinghuysen points toward the "Presidential Chair" which appears at left on a bed of clouds. The Democratic balloon fails to rise for lack of gas and is prodded with a cane by Andrew Jackson. Jackson says, "I'll use my best endeavours to "poke" [i.e., "Polk"] it up. But it's harder work than gaining the battle of New Orleans!" In the balloon's carriage (actually a wooden tub) are Polk, a Loco Foco Democrat (looking upward through a telescope), and a bag of "Mint drops" (symbolizing the hard-money policies pursued by the Democrats). The carriage is supported by party stalwarts Thomas Hart Benton and John C. Calhoun. Polk says: "I think my friends have placed me in a very ridiculous position! They set me up here only to "poke" fun at me." Calhoun warns: "Push hard, Benton, or they'll never get any higher." Benton: "I'm afraid they'll have to throw the mint drops overboard!" From above, Clay offers: "Throw us a line, Polk, and we'll give you a tow!" Meanwhile, in the background a fox with the head of Martin van Buren slinks away saying, "If you had had the wit to put me in there, it would have gone up." He voices his disappointment at not being chosen Democratic nominee.|Entered . . . 1844 by James Baillie.|Lith. & pub. by James Baillie 33 Spruce St. N.Y.|Signed: H. Bucholzer.|The Library has two states of the print, one a proof before title (Landauer Collection; LC-USZ62-90665). The titled impression was deposited for copyright on June 26, 1844. It was followed two weeks later by the same artist's "Bursting the Balloon" (no. 1844-33), a companion piece or sequel.|Title appears as it is written on the item.|Weitenkampf, p. 78.|Forms part of: American cartoon print filing series (Library of Congress)|Published in: American political prints, 1766-1876 / Bernard F. Reilly. Boston : G.K. Hall, 1991, entry 1844-32.

An illustrated sheet music cover for a "Patriotic Song. Written, to be sung at Baltimore during the Young Men's Whig Convention" of May 1840. The composer is identified as "a Pennsylvanian." The illustration, like the song itself, celebrates the distinguished military record of Whig presidential candidate William Henry Harrison. A ring of smoke issues from two cannons and frames the central view of a log cabin in the wilderness. Outside the house are a cider barrel, a plough, a covered wagon, and (in the foreground) an ox cart and driver. Superimposed on the smoke ring are nine ovals containing scenes from Harrison's military career. They are (counterclockwise from bottom): Ensign Harrison 19 years of age" "Lieut. Harrison at Maumee Rapids" "Govr. Harrison making a treaty with the Sacke & Fox Indians" "Genl. Harrison hastening at night to the assistance of Genl. Winchester" "Harrison's Victory at the Thames" "Harrison's Victory at Tippecanoe" "Genl. Harrison & his Army going into winter quarters at the Maumee Rapids, in 1812" "Genl.Harrison in 1812 at the Head of 7000 Troops" "Genl. Harrison at the Council of Vincennes with Tecumseh." At the top of the oval is a bust of Harrison flanked by flags, muskets, bayonets, and fasces. Over his head hovers a dove holding a star.|Entered . . . 1840 by Ld. Meignen & Co.|Leopold. Meignen & Co. Publishers & Importers of Music.|On Stone by James Queen.|P.S. Duval, Lith Phila.|The Library's impression of the print is damaged slightly, with a tear running through the log house.|Title appears as it is written on the item.|Published in: American political prints, 1766-1876 / Bernard F. Reilly. Boston : G.K. Hall, 1991, entry 1840-11.

Caricature of Fanny Elssler, in carriage being drawn by men with ears of jackasses, going to Baltimore.|Signed in stone: HB.|Title appears as it is written on the item.|Forms part of: American cartoon print filing series (Library of Congress)

Spectators of all ages, seated and standing, watch a band perform in the afternoon on an outdoor stage. Title transcribed from Ansel Adams' caption on verso of print. Original neg. no.: LC-A35-5-M-8. Gift; Ansel Adams; 1965-1968. Forms part of: Manzanar War Relocation Center photographs.