What Do You Have to Offer Me?”: A Relationship Building Activity for Demonstrating Social Exchange Theory

This article describes “What Do You Have to Offer Me?,” an interactive classroom activity designed to help students encounter social exchange theory in action. During the exercise, each student selected seven cards, each containing a characteristic related to personality, physical appearance, family history, finances, ideology, and occupation. Next, students were asked to mill around the classroom and find someone with whom they would be interested in developing a relationship based on their assigned characteristics. Once all students found partners and took their seats, students reflected on the process of the activity and its application to social exchange theory. Along with providing details on the activity, we conclude with student reflections and evaluative data on the exercise

The oxidation of guanine by photoionized 2‑aminopurine

2-Aminopurine (2AP) is a fluorescent nucleobase analogue of the DNA nucleobase adenine and can be inserted in place of adenine into nucleic acids with minimal structural perturbation. The inserted 2-aminopurine can be selectively excited, and the fluorescence observed used as a sensitive probe for local structure, in addition selective ionization of 2‑aminopurine within a nucleic acid is possible and once formed the ionized 2‑aminopurine will oxidize nearby guanine bases, providing a route to study charge transfer within nucleic acids. Time resolved infrared spectroscopy is a powerful tool to study oxidation processes on picosecond, and longer timescales. There is a lack of availability of high quality IR spectra in the literature of the individual, short lived, photoproducts, required to fully elucidate the mechanism of the interaction of photoionized 2-aminopurine with guanine. Density functional theory (DFT) methods (B3LYP/6–31G+(d) and EDF1/6–31G+(d)) have been used to calculate the energies and infrared spectra of 2‑aminopurine, guanine and potential photoproducts that may result from photoionization reactions between 2-aminopurine and guanine. Direct comparison can therefore be made between areas of bleaching of bands in the IR spectra of 2‑aminopurine or guanine and the appearance of new transient bands of potential photoproducts. These potential photoproducts could include deprotonated neutral radical species, deprotonated anion species, radical cations and radical anions. It was found in the current work that the key intermediates in the oxidation reaction between photoionized 2-aminopurine and guanine were: 2AP•(−H,N2) (formed from deprotonation from the 2AP●+ amino group); G•(−H) (formed from deprotonation from the N1 nitrogen, or possibly the amino group, of the initially formed G●+), and 2AP−(−H,N2) (formed from the reduction of 2AP•(−H,N2) by guanine)

Effectiveness of Peer-led Eating Disorders Prevention: A Replication Trial

The aim of this study was to replicate and extend results of a previous trial that investigated the effectiveness of two peer-led eating disorders prevention interventions on reducing eating disorder risk factors in undergraduate women (Becker, Smith & Ciao, 2006). In order to extend findings from the previous study by allowing for investigation of differential response, we randomly assigned a larger sample of both higher- and lower-risk sorority members (N = 188; age M = 18.64, range = 18-21; 20% minority) to either a cognitive dissonance (CD) or a media advocacy (MA) intervention under naturalistic conditions. Interventions were delivered by trained sorority peer-leaders and consisted of two 2-hour group sessions. Participants completed questionnaires assessing eating disorder risk factors at pre-treatment, post-treatment, 7-week follow-up, and 8-month follow-up. Results indicate that both interventions reduced thin-ideal internalization, body dissatisfaction, dietary restraint, and bulimic pathology at 8-months, although higher- and lower-risk participants responded somewhat differently. Both CD and MA generally appeared effective for higher-risk participants; only CD, however, appeared to benefit lower-risk participants. Results further support the viability of using peer-leaders in dissonance-based prevention

Multiscale topology classifies and quantifies cell types in subcellular spatial transcriptomics

Spatial transcriptomics has the potential to transform our understanding of RNA expression in tissues. Classical array-based technologies produce multiple-cell-scale measurements requiring deconvolution to recover single cell information. However, rapid advances in subcellular measurement of RNA expression at whole-transcriptome depth necessitate a fundamentally different approach. To integrate single-cell RNA-seq data with nanoscale spatial transcriptomics, we present a topological method for automatic cell type identification (TopACT). Unlike popular decomposition approaches to multicellular resolution data, TopACT is able to pinpoint the spatial locations of individual sparsely dispersed cells without prior knowledge of cell boundaries. Pairing TopACT with multiparameter persistent homology landscapes predicts immune cells forming a peripheral ring structure within kidney glomeruli in a murine model of lupus nephritis, which we experimentally validate with immunofluorescent imaging. The proposed topological data analysis unifies multiple biological scales, from subcellular gene expression to multicellular tissue organization.Comment: Main text: 8 pages, 4 figures. Supplement: 12 pages, 5 figure

B cells require DOCK8 to elicit and integrate T cell help when antigen is limiting

Dedicator of cytokinesis 8 (DOCK8) immunodeficiency syndrome is characterized by a failure of the germinal center response, a process involving the proliferation and positive selection of antigen-specific B cells. Here, we describe how DOCK8-deficient B cells are blocked at a light-zone checkpoint in the germinal centers of immunized mice, where they are unable to respond to T cell–dependent survival and selection signals and consequently differentiate into plasma cells or memory B cells. Although DOCK8-deficient B cells can acquire and present antigen to initiate activation of cognate T cells, integrin up-regulation, B cell–T cell conjugate formation, and costimulation are insufficient for sustained B cell and T cell activation when antigen availability is limited. Our findings provide an explanation for the failure of the humoral response in DOCK8 immunodeficiency syndrome and insight into how the level of available antigen modulates B cell–T cell cross-talk to fine-tune humoral immune responses and immunological memory

Mt. Baker Highway SR 542-East Church Mountain Road realignment

The Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT) proposes to realign State Route 542 away from the North Fork Nooksack River in order to reduce environmental impacts from repetitive roadway maintenance, and to improve fish passage at Chain-up Creek. Work includes: realigning approximately 1,600 linear feet of roadway up to 80 feet away from the North Fork Nooksack River, replacing a 5-foot diameter, 80-foot long culvert with a 30-foot long, 40-foot wide bridge over Chain-up Creek, and installing 5 porous weirs and 2 anchored large woody debris structures in the restored stream channel

High background rates of positive tuberculosis-specific interferon-? release assays in a low prevalence region of UK: a surveillance study

Background: Background rates of latent tuberculosis infection in low prevalence regions of Britain are unknown. These would be valuable data for interpreting positive IGRA results, and guiding cost-benefit analyses. The management of a large outbreak of tuberculosis occurring in a rural district hospital provided an opportunity to determine the background rates and epidemiology of IGRA-positivity amongst unselected hospital patients in a low-prevalence region of U.K.Methods: As part of a public health surveillance project we identified 445 individuals exposed to the index cases for clinical assessment and testing by a TB-specific interferon-? release assay (IGRA): T-Spot.TB. Uniquely, an additional comparator group of 191 age-matched individuals without specific recent exposure, but with a similar age distribution and demographic, were recruited from the same wards where exposure had previously occurred, to undergo assessment by questionnaire and IGRA. Results: Rates of IGRA positivity were 8.7% (95%CI, 4.2-13, n=149) amongst unexposed patients, 9.5%(3.0-22, n=21) amongst unexposed staff, 22%(14–29, n=130) amongst exposed patients, 11%(6.1-16, n=142) amongst exposed staff. Amongst the individuals without history of recent exposure to the outbreak, IGRA-positivity was associated with prior TB treatment (OR11, P.04) and corticosteroid use (OR5.9, P.02). Background age-specific prevalences of IGRA-positivity amongst unexposed individuals were: age <40 0%(N/A), age 40–59 15%(12–29), age 60–79 7.0%(1.1-13), age?80 10%(5.9-19).Conclusions: Background rates of IGRA-positivity remain high amongst unselected white-Caucasian hospital inpatients in U.K. These data will aid interpretation of future outbreak studies. As rates peak in the 5th and 6th decade, given an ageing population and increasing iatrogenic immunosuppression, reactivation of LTBI may be a persistent hazard in this population for several decades to come

Proton transfer and tautomerism in 2-aminopurine–thymine and pyrrolocytosine–guanine base pairs

Pyrrolocytosine (PC) and 2-aminopurine (2AP) are fluorescent nucleobase analogues of the DNA nucleobases cytosine and adenine, respectively, and form base pairs with guanine and thymine. Both fluorescent nucleobases are used extensively as probes for local structure in nucleic acids as the fluorescence properties of PC and 2AP are very sensitive to changes such as helix formation, although the reasons for this sensitively are not clear. To address this question ab initio calculations have been used to calculate energies, at the MP2 and CIS level, of three different tautomer pairings of PC-G, and two of 2AP-T, which can potentially be interconverted by double proton transfer between the bases. Potential energy curves linking the different tautomer pairs have been calculated. For both PC-G and 2AP-T the most stable tautomer pair in the electronic ground state is that analogous to the natural C-G and A-T base pair. In the case of 2AP-T an alternative, stable, tautomer base pair was located in the first electronically excited state, however, it lies higher in energy than the tautomer pair analogous to A-T, making conversion to the alternative form unlikely. In contrast, in the case of PC-G, an alternative tautomer base pair is found to be the most stable form in the first electronically excited state and this form is accessible following initial excitation from the ground state tautomer pair, thus suggesting an alternative deactivation route via double proton transfer may be possible when PC is involved in hydrogen bonding, such as occurs in helical conformations

Credible biodiversity offsetting needs public national registers to confirm no net loss

Publisher Copyright: © 2022 The AuthorsIn the face of the ongoing biodiversity crisis, questions are arising regarding the success, or lack thereof, of biodiversity offset schemes, where biodiversity losses from human development are compensated by producing equitable gains elsewhere. The overarching goal of offsetting is to deliver no net loss (NNL) of biodiversity. Assessing whether offsetting does indeed deliver NNL is, however, challenging because of a lack of clear and reliable information about offset schemes. Here we consider barriers in tracking NNL outcomes, outline criteria of public offset registers to enable accessible and credible reporting of NNL, and show how existing registers fail to satisfy those criteria. The lack of accessibility and transparency in existing registers represents a fundamental gap between NNL targets and a valid tracking system, which challenges the impetus to enact the transformative changes needed to reverse biodiversity decline.Peer reviewe