Animal-microbial ecology in anchialine habitats

Animals often shape environmental microbial communities, which can in turn influence animal gut microbiomes. Invasive species in critical habitats may reduce grazing pressure from native species and shift microbial communities. The landlocked coastal ponds, pools, and caves that make up the Hawaiian anchialine ecosystem support an endemic shrimp (Halocaridina rubra) that grazes on diverse benthic microbial communities, including orange cyanobacterial-bacterial crusts and green algal mats. Here, we asked how shrimp: (1) shape the abundance and composition of microbial communities, (2) respond to invasive fishes, and (3) whether their gut microbiomes are affected by environmental microbial communities. We demonstrate that ecologically relevant levels of shrimp grazing significantly reduce epilithon biomass. Shrimp grazed readily and grew well on both orange crusts and green mat communities. However, individuals from orange crusts were larger, despite crusts having reduced concentrations of key fatty acids. DNA profiling revealed shrimp harbor a resident gut microbiome distinct from the environment, which is relatively simple and stable across space (including habitats with different microbial communities) and time (between wild-caught individuals and those maintained in the laboratory for >2 yr). DNA profiling also suggests shrimp grazing alters environmental microbial community composition, possibly through selective consumption and/or physical interactions. While this work suggests grazing by endemic shrimp plays a key role in shaping microbial communities in the Hawaiian anchialine ecosystem, the hypothesized drastic ecological shifts resulting from invasive fishes may be an oversimplification as shrimp may largely avoid predation. Moreover, environmental microbial communities may have little influence on shrimp gut microbiomes.We thank S. Hau, R.A. Mackenzie, T. Sakihara, and M. Ramsey for help with fieldwork, and T. Cook and the Hualalai Four Seasons and Waikoloa Resorts for generous on-site assistance and permission to collect. Funding was provided by NSF DEB-2020099 to JCH, NSF DEB-0949855 and DEB-2020081 to SRS, and the Cornell University Atkinson Center for Sustainability.https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/lno.1218

Analysis of the steady-state concentrations of reactive species and their role in contaminant degradation by the iron-biochar/persulfate advanced oxidation process: Comparison of probe compound and quenching agent methods

Reactive species, including hydroxyl radicals (OH), sulfate radicals (SO₄), singlet oxygen (¹O₂), superoxide radicals (O₂), and Fe(IV), are generated by the iron-biochar activated persulfate (Fe-BC/PS) process. These reactive species can be leveraged for treatment of micropollutants, such as the sulfamethoxazole antibiotic. In this study, the steady-state concentrations and contributions of OH, SO₄, ¹O₂, O₂, and Fe(IV) to sulfamethoxazole degradation were calculated for different operating conditions in the iron-biochar/persulfate (Fe-BC/PS advanced oxidation process. Electron paramagnetic resonance was employed to confirm the production of each reactive species. The nitrobenzene, benzoic acid, furfuryl alcohol, p-chlorobenzoic acid or p-benzoquinone, and phenyl methyl sulfoxide probe compounds were added to experimental solutions in isolation, as mixtures, and at different concentrations to calculate the steady-state concentrations of OH, SO₄, ¹O₂, O₂, and Fe(IV) and determine their contributions to sulfamethoxazole degradation at variable pH conditions. The results not only informed the primary mechanisms of sulfamethoxazole degradation by the Fe-BC/PS system, but also highlighted best practices for the use of probe compounds and quenching agents in persulfate-based advanced oxidation processes. In particular, the initial concentration of the probe compounds should be as low as possible to avoid impacts on target contaminant degradation and misinterpretation of the role of each reactive species. Furthermore, quenching-based approaches to determination of the key reactive species were less consistent than evaluation by probe compounds. The overall outcomes of this work inform sulfamethoxazole treatment by the Fe-BC/PS system and emphasize the need for internal validation of kinetics results using a multi-pronged approach.This work was supported by the Natural Scientific Fund of Chongqing (Grant No. CSTB2023NSCQ-MSX0205), the Graduate Education and Teaching Reform Research of Southwest University (Grant No. SWUYJS226106), the Beijing Natural Science Foundation (Grant No. 8222046), the Excellent Youth Science Foundation of BAAFS (Grant No. YXQN202201), and the Yibin City Silkworm Industry Efficient Production Technology Innovation and Integration Demonstration (Grant No. XNDX2022020015).https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S138358662402241

SEALM: Semantically Enriched Attributes with Language Models for Linkage Recommendation

International Conference on Enterprise Information Systems (ICEIS 2025). Porto, Portugal, April 4-6, 2025Matching attributes from different repositories is an important step in the process of schema integration to consolidate heterogeneous data silos. In order to recommend linkages between relevant attributes, a contextually rich representation of each attribute is quite essential, particularly when more than two database schemas are to be integrated. This paper introduces the SEALM approach to generate a data catalog of semantically rich attribute descriptions using Generative Language Models based on a new technique that employs six variations of available metadata information. Instead of using raw attribute metadata, we generate SEALM descriptions, which are used to recommend linkages with an unsupervised matching pipeline that involves a novel multi-source Blocking algorithm. Experiments on multiple schemas yield a 5% to 20% recall improvement in recommending linkages with SEALM-based attribute descriptions generated by the tiniest Llama3.1:8B model compared to existing techniques. With SEALM, we only need to process the small fraction of attributes to be integrated rather than exhaustively inspecting all combinations of potential linkages.Leonard Traeger was partially supported by a Technology Catalyst Fund TCF24KAR11131049602 by UMBC and a grant project PLan CV (reference number 03FHP109) by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) and Joint Science Conference (GWK)

I Hate the News Apr 15

The weekly news analysis from I Hate Politics: Montgomery County offers $3 million to help restart White’s Ferry connecting Maryland and Virginia. Sandy Spring Friends School closes due to financial trouble. MCPS wants to tighten grading policy after almost 20 years of growing leniency. Ike Leggett says that Blueprint education funding remains on track despite the budget crisis. Washington DC inaugurated a new full-service hospital east of the Potomac River. And planting recommendations from the Washington Gardener Kathy Jentz. Music by Seth Kibel and Friends.https://open.spotify.com/episode/2EDC7XWGBJMiQLr3KDELv

Behind Rising Electricity Rates

With rising electricity rates and the Maryland General Assembly considering over 50 energy-related bills, Sunil Dasgupta talks with Jason Stanek, the executive director of PJM Interconnection, the regional transmission operator for 14 states including Maryland and DC, and the body responsible for managing the electricity market. Stanek was previously chair of the state's Public Service Commission. Music by Washington art-pop rock band Catscan!https://open.spotify.com/episode/3aTwD9xERr5mZsL8dVqZf

Outflowing photoionized plasma in Circinus X-1 using the high-resolution X-ray spectrometer Resolve onboard XRISM and the radiative transfer code cloudy

High-resolution X-ray spectroscopy is a key to understanding the mass inflow and outflow of compact objects. Spectral lines carry information about the ionization, density, and velocity structures through their intensity ratios and profiles. They are formed in non-local thermodynamic equilibrium conditions under the intense radiation field from the compact objects, thus radiative transfer (RT) calculation is a requisite for proper interpretations. We present such a study for a low-mass X-ray binary, Circinus X-1, from which the P Cygni profile was discovered using the X-ray grating spectrometer onboard Chandra. We observed the source using the X-ray microcalorimeter onboard XRISM at an orbital phase of 0.93-0.97 and revealed many spectral features unidentified before; the higher series transitions (n to 1; n > 2) of highly-ionized (H- and He-like) S, Ca, Ar, and Fe in emission and absorption, the Fe K{\alpha} and K\b{eta} inner-shell excitation absorption of mildly-ionized (O- to Li-like) Fe, and resolved fine-structure level transitions in the Fe Ly{\alpha} and He{\alpha} complexes. They blend with each other at different velocity shifts on top of apparently variable continuum emission that changed its flux by an order of magnitude within a 70 ks telescope time. Despite such complexity in the observed spectra, most of them can be explained by a simple model consisting of the photoionized plasma outflowing at ~300 km s-1 and the variable blocking material in the line of sight of the incident continuum emission from the accretion disk. We demonstrate this with the aid of the RT code cloudy for the line ratio diagnostics and spectral fitting. We further constrain the physical parameters of the outflow and argue that the outflow is launched close to the outer edge of the accretion disk and can be driven radiatively by being assisted by the line force calculated using the RT simulation.This work was supported by the JSPS Core-to-Core Program (grant number: JPJSCCA20220002). MS acknowledges support by Grantsin-Aid for Scientific Research 19K14762 and 23K03459 from the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science, and Technology (MEXT) of Japan. Part of this work was performed under the auspices of the U.S. Department of Energy by Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory under Contract DE-AC52-07NA27344. The material is based upon work supported by NASA under award number 80GSFC21M0002. This research made use of the JAXA’s high-performance computing system JSS3.https://arxiv.org/abs/2503.0825

Advancements in Electrochemical Biosensors for Comprehensive Glycosylation Assessment of Biotherapeutics

Proteins represent a significant portion of the global therapeutics market, surpassing hundreds of billions of dollars annually. Among the various post-translational modifications, glycosylation plays a crucial role in influencing protein structure, stability, and function. This modification is especially important in biotherapeutics, where the precise characterization of glycans is vital for ensuring product efficacy and safety. Although mass spectrometry-based techniques have become essential tools for glycomic analysis due to their high sensitivity and resolution, their complexity and lengthy processing times limit their practical application. In contrast, electrochemical methods provide a rapid, cost-effective, and sensitive alternative for glycosylation assessment, enabling the real-time analysis of glycan structures on biotherapeutic proteins. These electrochemical techniques, often used in conjunction with complementary methods, offer valuable insights into the glycosylation profiles of both isolated glycoproteins and intact cells. This review examines the latest advancements in electrochemical biosensors for glycosylation analysis, highlighting their potential in enhancing the characterization of biotherapeutics and advancing the field of precision medicine.This research was funded by the Maryland Innovation Initiative MII TEDCO grant number 0923 0003https://www.mdpi.com/1424-8220/25/7/206

Fast synergetic simulation of soliton molecules in microresonators in the presence of noise

 LASE, 2025, San Francisco, CaliforniaWe introduce a synergetic simulation method that makes it possible to take time steps that are many orders of magnitude larger than is possible with conventional methods. We apply this method to a two-soliton molecule in a microresonator to carry out Monte Carlo simulations and determine when the molecule becomes unstable due to white noise. We validate the model by solving for the steady-state probability density using the Fokker-Planck equation.https://www.spiedigitallibrary.org/conference-proceedings-of-spie/13349/1334904/Fast-synergetic-simulation-of-soliton-molecules-in-microresonators-in-the/10.1117/12.3043349.ful

Broadway, the Media, and Framing Theory

This paper examines the growing relationship between Broadway and media, with a focus on the way media framing is used to portray historical Broadway shows that include difficult topics. Using reviews from internal and external publications of shows, this paper analyzes the specific media frames portrayed for each show. It also analyzes emerging trends and the future of the relationship between Broadway and the media. All publications cited were selected for their geographical relevance to Broadway, and history of covering Broadway shows up to the relevant review. Newspapers include The New York Times, Variety, Playbill, New York Magazine, Dance Magazine, and The Washington Post and Times Herald. Reviews were largely pulled from the database Newspapers.Com, and were published within the first month following the show’s debut. This paper specifically covers the shows West Side Story, Hair, Rent, and The Colour Purple

Findings of the Roman High-Latitude Time-Domain Survey Definition Committee

The Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope is poised to revolutionize our scientific understanding of exoplanets, dark matter, dark energy, and general astrophysics, including through an innovative community approach to defining and executing sky surveys. The Roman Observations Time Allocation Committee (ROTAC) was convened to recommend time allocations for the three Core Community Surveys (CCS) using the Wide Field Instrument (WFI): the High Latitude Wide Area Survey, the High Latitude Time Domain Survey, and the Galactic Bulge Time Domain Survey, as well as balance the time allocation for the General Astrophysics Surveys. Each CCS had a corresponding Definition Committee that collected community input and designed proposals for a nominal (in-guide) survey, as well as underguide and overguide options with smaller and larger time allocations, respectively. These options explored different ways of fulfilling the mission science requirements while maximizing general astrophysics science goals enabled by the surveys. In this report, the ROTAC lays out its recommendations for the three CCS observing designs and the WFI time allotment for CCS (74.5%) and the General Astrophysics Surveys (25.5%).http://arxiv.org/abs/2505.1057