A comparative assessment of reference genes in mouse brown adipocyte differentiation and thermogenesis in vitro.

Adipogenic differentiation and thermogenesis in brown adipose tissue (BAT) undergo dynamic processes, altering phenotypes and gene expressions. Proper reference genes in gene expression analysis are crucial to mitigate experimental variances and ensure PCR efficacy. Unreliable reference genes can lead to erroneous gene expression quantification, resulting in data misinterpretation. This study focused on identifying suitable reference genes for mouse brown adipocyte research, utilizing brown adipocytes from the Ucp1-luciferase ThermoMouse model. Comparative analysis of gene expression data under adipogenesis and thermogenesis conditions was conducted, validating 13 housekeeping genes through various algorithms, including DeltaCq, BestKeeper, geNorm, Normfinder, and RefFinder. Tbp and Rer1 emerged as optimal references for Ucp1 and Pparg expression in brown adipogenesis, while Tbp and Ubc were ideal for the expression analysis of these target genes in thermogenesis. Conversely, certain conventional references, including Actb, Tubb5, and Gapdh, proved unstable as reference genes under both conditions. These findings stress the critical consideration of reference gene selection in gene expression analysis within specific biological systems to ensure accurate conclusions.

Does the public sector outperform the nonprofit and for-profit sectors? Evidence from a national panel study on nursing home quality and access.

Are public and private organizations fundamentally different? This question has been among the most enduring inquiries in public administration. Our study explores the impact of organizational ownership on two complementary aspects of performance: service quality and access to services for impoverished clients. Derived from public management research on performance determinants and nursing home care literature, our hypotheses stipulate that public, nonprofit, and for-profit nursing homes use different approaches to balance the strategic tradeoff between two aspects of performance. Panel data on 14,423 facilities were analyzed to compare measures of quality and access across three sectors using different estimation methods. Findings indicate that ownership status is associated with critical differences in both quality and access. Public and nonprofit organizations are similar in terms of quality, and both perform significantly better than their for-profit counterparts. When compared to nonprofit and, in some cases, for-profit facilities, public nursing homes have a significantly higher share of Medicaid recipients. The paper proposes strategies to address the identified long-term care divide.