University of Alberta

About: University of Alberta is a education organization based out in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Population & Health care. The organization has 65403 authors who have published 154847 publications receiving 5358338 citations. The organization is also known as: Ualberta & UAlberta.

The Human Urine Metabolome

Abstract: Urine has long been a “favored” biofluid among metabolomics researchers. It is sterile, easy-to-obtain in large volumes, largely free from interfering proteins or lipids and chemically complex. However, this chemical complexity has also made urine a particularly difficult substrate to fully understand. As a biological waste material, urine typically contains metabolic breakdown products from a wide range of foods, drinks, drugs, environmental contaminants, endogenous waste metabolites and bacterial by-products. Many of these compounds are poorly characterized and poorly understood. In an effort to improve our understanding of this biofluid we have undertaken a comprehensive, quantitative, metabolome-wide characterization of human urine. This involved both computer-aided literature mining and comprehensive, quantitative experimental assessment/validation. The experimental portion employed NMR spectroscopy, gas chromatography mass spectrometry (GC-MS), direct flow injection mass spectrometry (DFI/LC-MS/MS), inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) and high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) experiments performed on multiple human urine samples. This multi-platform metabolomic analysis allowed us to identify 445 and quantify 378 unique urine metabolites or metabolite species. The different analytical platforms were able to identify (quantify) a total of: 209 (209) by NMR, 179 (85) by GC-MS, 127 (127) by DFI/LC-MS/MS, 40 (40) by ICP-MS and 10 (10) by HPLC. Our use of multiple metabolomics platforms and technologies allowed us to identify several previously unknown urine metabolites and to substantially enhance the level of metabolome coverage. It also allowed us to critically assess the relative strengths and weaknesses of different platforms or technologies. The literature review led to the identification and annotation of another 2206 urinary compounds and was used to help guide the subsequent experimental studies. An online database containing the complete set of 2651 confirmed human urine metabolite species, their structures (3079 in total), concentrations, related literature references and links to their known disease associations are freely available at http://www.urinemetabolome.ca.

Outgroup analysis and parsimony

Abstract: -Methods that use outgroups in the reconstruction of phylogeny are described and evaluated by the criterion of parsimony. By considering the character states and relationships of outgroups, one can estimate the states ancestral for a study group or ingroup, even when several character states are found among the outgroups. Algorithms and rules are presented that find the most parsimonious estimates of ancestral states for binary and multistate characters when outgroup relationships are well resolved. Other rules indicate the extent to which uincertainty about outgroup relationships leads to uncertainty about the ancestral states. The algorithms and rules are based on "simple parsimony" in that convergences and reversals are counted equally. After parsimony is measured locally among the outgroups to estimate ancestral states, parsimony is measured locally within the ingroup, given the ancestral states, to find the ingroup cladogram. This two-step procedure is shown to find the ingroup cladograms that are most parsimonious globally; that is, most parsimonious when parsimony is measured simultaneously over the ingroup and outgroups. However, the two-step procedure is guaranteed to achieve global parsimony only when: (a) outgroup relationships are sufficiently resolved beforehand; (b) outgroup analysis is taken to indicate the state not in the most recent common ancestor of the ingroup, but in a more distant ancestor; and (c) ancestral states are considered while the ingroup is being resolved, not merely added afterward to root an unrooted network. The criterion of global parsimony is then applied to evaluate procedures used when outgroup relationships are poorly resolved. The procedure that chooses as ancestral the state occurring most commonly among the outgroups can sometimes yield cladograms that are not globally parsimonious. By the criterion of global parsimony, the best procedure is one that simultaneously resolves the outgroups and ingroup with the data at hand. Finally, simple parsimony can choose among competing hypotheses, but it often fails to indicate how much confidence can be placed in that choice. [Phylogeny reconstruction; cladistic methods; outgroup analysis; character polarity; parsimony.] This paper explores the use of outgroup analysis in phylogeny reconstruction. When reconstructing a phylogeny, a systematist asks: Given a group of organisms (the ingroup), what are the monophyletic subgroups? If the members of a subgroup share a character state that is derived within the group, the monophyly of this subgroup is corroborated (Hennig, 1966; Wiley, 1975). Hence, systematists attempting to infer phylogenies have sought methods for determining whether a given character state is derived (apomorphic) or ancestral (plesiomorphic). Many methods for assessing the evolutionary polarity of characters have been proposed, including outgroup analysis, ingroup analysis, the ontogenetic method, and the paleontological method. These approaches have been reviewed recently by Crisci and Stuessy (1980), de Jong (1980), Stevens (1980), Arnold (1981), Nelson and Platnick (1981), and others. The methods perhaps most widely accepted today are outgroup analysis and the ontogenetic method, the relative merits of which are still being debated (contrast Nelson [1978] and Patterson [1982] with Lundberg [1973], Wheeler [1981] and Voorzanger and van der Steen [1982]). In its simplest form, outgroup analysis can be summarized by the following rule (Watrous and Wheeler, 1981): For a given character with two or more states within a group, the state occurring in related groups is assumed to be the plesiomorphic state. This rule is inadequate, however, when characters vary among the related groups (the outgroups). Arnold (1981) and Farris (1982) have dealt with some cases of

Canadian 24-Hour Movement Guidelines for Children and Youth: An Integration of Physical Activity, Sedentary Behaviour, and Sleep.

Abstract: Leaders from the Canadian Society for Exercise Physiology convened representatives of national organizations, content experts, methodologists, stakeholders, and end-users who followed rigorous and transparent guideline development procedures to create the Canadian 24-Hour Movement Guidelines for Children and Youth: An Integration of Physical Activity, Sedentary Behaviour, and Sleep. These novel guidelines for children and youth aged 5-17 years respect the natural and intuitive integration of movement behaviours across the whole day (24-h period). The development process was guided by the Appraisal of Guidelines for Research Evaluation (AGREE) II instrument and systematic reviews of evidence informing the guidelines were assessed using the Grading of Recommendations Assessment, Development, and Evaluation (GRADE) approach. Four systematic reviews (physical activity, sedentary behaviour, sleep, integrated behaviours) examining the relationships between and among movement behaviours and several health indicators were completed and interpreted by expert consensus. Complementary compositional analyses were performed using Canadian Health Measures Survey data to examine the relationships between movement behaviours and health indicators. A stakeholder survey was employed (n = 590) and 28 focus groups/stakeholder interviews (n = 104) were completed to gather feedback on draft guidelines. Following an introductory preamble, the guidelines provide evidence-informed recommendations for a healthy day (24 h), comprising a combination of sleep, sedentary behaviours, light-, moderate-, and vigorous-intensity physical activity. Proactive dissemination, promotion, implementation, and evaluation plans have been prepared in an effort to optimize uptake and activation of the new guidelines. Future research should consider the integrated relationships among movement behaviours, and similar integrated guidelines for other age groups should be developed.

Self-Directed Learning: Toward a Comprehensive Model

Abstract: Self-directed learning is a core theoretical construct distinguishing adult education as a field of study. Most of the concept's emphasis has been on the external control and management of learning...

The sequence and de novo assembly of the giant panda genome

Abstract: Using next-generation sequencing technology alone, we have successfully generated and assembled a draft sequence of the giant panda genome. The assembled contigs (2.25 gigabases (Gb)) cover approximately 94% of the whole genome, and the remaining gaps (0.05 Gb) seem to contain carnivore-specific repeats and tandem repeats. Comparisons with the dog and human showed that the panda genome has a lower divergence rate. The assessment of panda genes potentially underlying some of its unique traits indicated that its bamboo diet might be more dependent on its gut microbiome than its own genetic composition. We also identified more than 2.7 million heterozygous single nucleotide polymorphisms in the diploid genome. Our data and analyses provide a foundation for promoting mammalian genetic research, and demonstrate the feasibility for using next-generation sequencing technologies for accurate, cost-effective and rapid de novo assembly of large eukaryotic genomes.