The Powers of North Carolina’s Second Executive: Discovering if the Lieutenant Governor Should be Designated more Power under the Constitution

In the original 1776 North Carolina State Constitution, the executive branch of government was solely comprised of the Governor. It was not until 1868 that the Lieutenant Governor position, along with other executive offices, was added to the branch. The current NC State Constitution today was ratified in 1971 and outlines the powers of the Governor and Lieutenant Governor thoroughly. The designated constitutional powers of the NC Lieutenant Governor include serving as the President of the Senate with the ability to cast tie-breaking votes, serving on the State Board of Education, and most notably, succeeding the Governor upon the death, resignation, or removal from office. These powers are weak in the spectrum of NC government because ties in the Senate and Governor’s leaving office are rare. Additionally, it is important to note that in North Carolina, the Governor and Lieutenant Governor are elected separately and independent from each other, which can possibly result in the two offices representing different parties. I am going to argue that the office of the Lieutenant Governor should be delegated more constitutional powers rather than relying so heavily on the assignment of duties from the General Assembly and Governor. I will conduct research on the election style of the Lieutenant Governor, which additional powers (if any) should be designated to the Lieutenant Governor, and what are other States doing in terms of designating executive powers to their Governor and Lieutenant Governor

The Powers of North Carolina’s Second Executive: Discovering if the Lieutenant Governor Should be Designated more Power under the Constitution

In the original 1776 North Carolina State Constitution, the executive branch of government was solely comprised of the Governor. It was not until 1868 that the Lieutenant Governor position, along with other executive offices, was added to the branch. The current NC State Constitution today was ratified in 1971 and outlines the powers of the Governor and Lieutenant Governor thoroughly. The designated constitutional powers of the NC Lieutenant Governor include serving as the President of the Senate with the ability to cast tie-breaking votes, serving on the State Board of Education, and most notably, succeeding the Governor upon the death, resignation, or removal from office. These powers are weak in the spectrum of NC government because ties in the Senate and Governor’s leaving office are rare. Additionally, it is important to note that in North Carolina, the Governor and Lieutenant Governor are elected separately and independent from each other, which can possibly result in the two offices representing different parties. \n\nI am going to argue that the office of the Lieutenant Governor should be delegated more constitutional powers rather than relying so heavily on the assignment of duties from the General Assembly and Governor. I will conduct research on the election style of the Lieutenant Governor, which additional powers (if any) should be designated to the Lieutenant Governor, and what are other States doing in terms of designating executive powers to their Governor and Lieutenant Governor

Mechanoresponsive stem cells acquire neural crest fate in jaw regeneration

During both embryonic development and adult tissue regeneration, changes in chromatin structure driven by master transcription factors lead to stimulus-responsive transcriptional programs. A thorough understanding of how stem cells in the skeleton interpret mechanical stimuli and enact regeneration would shed light on how forces are transduced to the nucleus in regenerative processes. Here we develop a genetically dissectible mouse model of mandibular distraction osteogenesis-which is a process that is used in humans to correct an undersized lower jaw that involves surgically separating the jaw bone, which elicits new bone growth in the gap. We use this model to show that regions of newly formed bone are clonally derived from stem cells that reside in the skeleton. Using chromatin and transcriptional profiling, we show that these stem-cell populations gain activity within the focal adhesion kinase (FAK) signalling pathway, and that inhibiting FAK abolishes new bone formation. Mechanotransduction via FAK in skeletal stem cells during distraction activates a gene-regulatory program and retrotransposons that are normally active in primitive neural crest cells, from which skeletal stem cells arise during development. This reversion to a developmental state underlies the robust tissue growth that facilitates stem-cell-based regeneration of adult skeletal tissue

\u3ci\u3eDrosophila\u3c/i\u3e Muller F Elements Maintain a Distinct Set of Genomic Properties Over 40 Million Years of Evolution

The Muller F element (4.2 Mb, ~80 protein-coding genes) is an unusual autosome of Drosophila melanogaster; it is mostly heterochromatic with a low recombination rate. To investigate how these properties impact the evolution of repeats and genes, we manually improved the sequence and annotated the genes on the D. erecta, D. mojavensis, and D. grimshawi F elements and euchromatic domains from the Muller D element. We find that F elements have greater transposon density (25–50%) than euchromatic reference regions (3–11%). Among the F elements, D. grimshawi has the lowest transposon density (particularly DINE-1: 2% vs. 11–27%). F element genes have larger coding spans, more coding exons, larger introns, and lower codon bias. Comparison of the Effective Number of Codons with the Codon Adaptation Index shows that, in contrast to the other species, codon bias in D. grimshawi F element genes can be attributed primarily to selection instead of mutational biases, suggesting that density and types of transposons affect the degree of local heterochromatin formation. F element genes have lower estimated DNA melting temperatures than D element genes, potentially facilitating transcription through heterochromatin. Most F element genes (~90%) have remained on that element, but the F element has smaller syntenic blocks than genome averages (3.4–3.6 vs. 8.4–8.8 genes per block), indicating greater rates of inversion despite lower rates of recombination. Overall, the F element has maintained characteristics that are distinct from other autosomes in the Drosophila lineage, illuminating the constraints imposed by a heterochromatic milieu