University of North Carolina at Greensboro

About: University of North Carolina at Greensboro is a education organization based out in Greensboro, North Carolina, United States. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Population & Poison control. The organization has 5481 authors who have published 13715 publications receiving 456239 citations. The organization is also known as: UNCG & UNC Greensboro.

Resilience in family and nonfamily firms: an examination of the relationships between manufacturing strategy, competitive strategy and firm performance

Abstract: Economic recessions that affect firms regardless of location, increased competition and changes in customer expectations, all contribute to disruptions that require firms to be resilient. Building resilience is a long-term strategic initiative that changes the way a firm operates by aligning linkages between functional strategies and competitive strategy. This article compares the relationship between manufacturing strategy and competitive strategy, and the relationship between manufacturing strategy and performance for family and nonfamily firms in the developing economy of Ghana. Using data from 122 manufacturing firms, the results indicate that delivery strategy is associated with the competitive strategy of cost leadership for family firms while flexibility is associated with cost leadership for nonfamily firms. Flexibility is related to the competitive strategy of differentiation for family firms but not for nonfamily firms. While delivery is associated with both sales growth and profitability for fa...

Migratory management and environmental conditions affect lifespan and oxidative stress in honey bees.

Abstract: Migratory management and environmental conditions affect lifespan and oxidative stress in honey bees

Melamine-Induced Renal Toxicity Is Mediated by the Gut Microbiota

Abstract: Melamine poisoning has become widely publicized after a recent occurrence of renal injury in infants and children exposed to melamine-tainted milk in China. This renal damage is believed to result from kidney stones formed from melamine and uric acid or from melamine and its cocrystallizing chemical derivative, cyanuric acid. However, the composition of the stones and the mechanism by which the stones are formed in the renal tubules are unknown. We report that cyanuric acid can be produced in the gut by microbial transformation of melamine and serves as an integral component of the kidney stones responsible for melamine-induced renal toxicity in rats. Melamine-induced toxicity in rats was attenuated and melamine excretion increased after antibiotic suppression of gut microbial activity [corrected]. We further demonstrated that melamine is converted to cyanuric acid in vitro by bacteria cultured from normal rat feces; Klebsiella was subsequently identified in fecal samples by 16S ribosomal DNA sequencing. In culture, Klebsiella terrigena was shown to convert melamine to cyanuric acid directly. Rats colonized by K. terrigena showed exacerbated melamine-induced nephrotoxicity. Cyanuric acid was detected in the kidneys of rats administered melamine alone, and the concentration after Klebsiella colonization was increased. These findings suggest that the observed toxicity of melamine may be conditional on the exact composition and metabolic activities of the gut microbiota.

Biochemometrics for Natural Products Research: Comparison of Data Analysis Approaches and Application to Identification of Bioactive Compounds

Abstract: A central challenge of natural products research is assigning bioactive compounds from complex mixtures. The gold standard approach to address this challenge, bioassay-guided fractionation, is often biased toward abundant, rather than bioactive, mixture components. This study evaluated the combination of bioassay-guided fractionation with untargeted metabolite profiling to improve active component identification early in the fractionation process. Key to this methodology was statistical modeling of the integrated biological and chemical data sets (biochemometric analysis). Three data analysis approaches for biochemometric analysis were compared, namely, partial least-squares loading vectors, S-plots, and the selectivity ratio. Extracts from the endophytic fungi Alternaria sp. and Pyrenochaeta sp. with antimicrobial activity against Staphylococcus aureus served as test cases. Biochemometric analysis incorporating the selectivity ratio performed best in identifying bioactive ions from these extracts early in the fractionation process, yielding altersetin (3, MIC 0.23 μg/mL) and macrosphelide A (4, MIC 75 μg/mL) as antibacterial constituents from Alternaria sp. and Pyrenochaeta sp., respectively. This study demonstrates the potential of biochemometrics coupled with bioassay-guided fractionation to identify bioactive mixture components. A benefit of this approach is the ability to integrate multiple stages of fractionation and bioassay data into a single analysis.