“What comes to mind when you think of science? The perfumery!”: Documenting science‐related cultural learning pathways across contexts and timescales

In this paper, we explore the details of one youth's science‐related learning in‐ and out‐of‐school at the time of her participation in an ethnography of youth science and technology learning across contexts and over time. We use the Cultural Learning Pathways Framework to analyze the youth's interests, and the related sociocultural, historical, material, and affect‐laden practices in which she and her family participated. The following question guided our analysis: How do everyday moments—experienced across settings, pursuits, social groups, and time—result in scientific learning, expertise development, and identification? We found that this youth's interest in various aspects of the sciences was years in the making, embedded in situated events that were part of a space–time continuum bound by passion for the practices involved, influenced by specific cultural practices, and explored with the help of close family collaborators. We also found that school science activity in which the youth in question participated both supported and could have potentially constrained her science‐related cultural learning pathways. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 51: 260–285, 2014Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/106138/1/tea21134.pd

Assessment of coastal management options by means of multilayered ecosystem models

This paper presents a multilayered ecosystem modelling approach that combines the simulation of the biogeochemistry of a coastal ecosystem with the simulation of the main forcing functions, such as catchment loading and aquaculture activities. This approach was developed as a tool for sustainable management of coastal ecosystems. A key feature is to simulate management scenarios that account for changes in multiple uses and enable assessment of cumulative impacts of coastal activities. The model was applied to a coastal zone in China with large aquaculture production and multiple catchment uses, and where management efforts to improve water quality are under way. Development scenarios designed in conjunction with local managers and aquaculture producers include the reduction of fish cages and treatment of wastewater. Despite the reduction in nutrient loading simulated in three different scenarios, inorganic nutrient concentrations in the bay were predicted to exceed the thresholds for poor quality defined by Chinese seawater quality legislation. For all scenarios there is still a Moderate High to High nutrient loading from the catchment, so further reductions might be enacted, together with additional decreases in fish cage culture. The model predicts that overall, shellfish production decreases by 10%–28% using any of these development scenarios, principally because shellfish growth is being sustained by the substances to be reduced for improvement of water quality. The model outcomes indicate that this may be counteracted by zoning of shellfish aquaculture at the ecosystem level in order to optimize trade-offs between productivity and environmental effects. The present case study exemplifies the value of multilayered ecosystem modelling as a tool for Integrated Coastal Zone Management and for the adoption of ecosystem approaches for marine resource management. This modelling approach can be applied worldwide, and may be particularly useful for the application of coastal management regulation, for instance in the implementation of the European Marine Strategy Framework Directive

MSH1 Is a Plant Organellar DNA Binding and Thylakoid Protein under Precise Spatial Regulation to Alter Development

As metabolic centers, plant organelles participate in maintenance, defense, and signaling. MSH1 is a plantspecific protein involved in organellar genome stability in mitochondria and plastids. Plastid depletion of MSH1 causes heritable, non-genetic changes in development and DNA methylation. We investigated the msh1 phenotype using hemi-complementation mutants and transgene-null segregants from RNAi suppression lines to sub-compartmentalize MSH1 effects. We show that MSH1 expression is spatially regulated, specifically localizing to plastids within the epidermis and vascular parenchyma. The protein binds DNA and localizes to plastid and mitochondrial nucleoids, but fractionation and protein–protein interactions data indicate that MSH1 also associates with the thylakoid membrane. Plastid MSH1 depletion results in variegation, abiotic stress tolerance, variable growth rate, and delayed maturity. Depletion from mitochondria results in 7%–10% of plants altered in leaf morphology, heat tolerance, and mitochondrial genome stability. MSH1 does not localize within the nucleus directly, but plastid depletion produces non-genetic changes in flowering time, maturation, and growth rate that are heritable independent of MSH1.MSH1depletion alters non-photoactive redox behavior in plastids and a sub-set of mitochondrially altered lines. Ectopic expression produces deleterious effects, underlining its strict expression control. Unraveling the complexity of the MSH1 effect offers insight into triggers of plant-specific, transgenerational adaptation behaviors

A multiplex approach to molecular detection of Brucella abortus and/or Mycobacterium boris infection in cattle

A multiplex amplification and detection platform for the diagnosis of Mycobacterium bovis and Brucella abortus infection simultaneously in bovine milk and nasal secretions was developed. This system (designated the bovine pathogen detection assay [BPDA]-PCR) consists of duplex amplification of species-specific targets (a region of the BCSP31K gene of B. abortus and a repeat-sequence region in the hsp65 gene of M. bovis, respectively). This is followed by a solid-phase probe capture hybridization of amplicons for detection. On the basis of spiking experiments with normal milk, the analytical sensitivity of the assay was 800 CFU equivalents/ml of milk for B. abortus and as low as 4 CFU equivalents per ml of milk for M. bovis. BPDA-PCR was validated with 45 liver samples from lemmings experimentally infected with B. abortus. The assay sensitivity, based on culture status as a \u27gold standard,\u27 was 93.9%. In this experiment, BPDA-PCR also identified five culture-negative liver samples as positive (41.7%). Field studies for the evaluation of BPDA-PCR were performed with samples from dairy animals from geographically distinct regions (India, Mexico, and Argentina). A high prevalence of shedding of B. abortus (samples from India) and M. bovis (samples from Mexico) was identified by BPDA-PCR. In samples from India, B. abortus shedding was identified in 86% of milk ring test-positive animals (n = 15) and 80% of milk ring test-negative cows (n = 5). In samples from Mexico, M. bovis was identified by PCR in 32.6% of pools (n = 46) of milk that each contained milk from 10 animals and in 56.2% of nasal swabs (n = 121) from cattle from tuberculin test-positive herds. In contrast, the Argentine cattle (n = 70) had a modest prevalence of M. bovis shedding in nasal swabs (2.9%) and milk (1.4.%) and or B. abortus in milk (11.4%). On the basis of these analyses, we identify BPDA-PCR as an optimal tool for both screening of herds and testing of individual animals in a disease eradication program. A combination of the duplex assay, screening of milk samples in pools, and the proposed algorithm provides a highly sensitive, cost- effective, and economically viable alternative to serological testing