141 research outputs found
Long telomeres are associated with clonality in wild populations of the fissiparous starfish Coscinasterias tenuispina
elomeres usually shorten during an organism's lifespan and have thus been used as an aging and health marker. When telomeres become sufficiently short, senescence is induced. The most common method of restoring telomere length is via telomerase reverse transcriptase activity, highly expressed during embryogenesis. However, although asexual reproduction from adult tissues has an important role in the life cycles of certain species, its effect on the aging and fitness of wild populations, as well as its implications for the long-term survival of populations with limited genetic variation, is largely unknown. Here we compare relative telomere length of 58 individuals from four populations of the asexually reproducing starfish Coscinasterias tenuispina. Additionally, 12 individuals were used to compare telomere lengths in regenerating and non-regenerating arms, in two different tissues (tube feet and pyloric cecum). The level of clonality was assessed by genotyping the populations based on 12 specific microsatellite loci and relative telomere length was measured via quantitative PCR. The results revealed significantly longer telomeres in Mediterranean populations than Atlantic ones as demonstrated by the Kruskal-Wallis test (K=24.17, significant value: P-value<0.001), with the former also characterized by higher levels of clonality derived from asexual reproduction. Telomeres were furthermore significantly longer in regenerating arms than in non-regenerating arms within individuals (pyloric cecum tissue: Mann-Whitney test, V=299, P-value<10−6; and tube feet tissue Student's t=2.28, P-value=0.029). Our study suggests that one of the mechanisms responsible for the long-term somatic maintenance and persistence of clonal populations is telomere elongation
An open reproducible framework for the study of the iterated prisoner's dilemma
The Axelrod library is an open source Python package that allows for
reproducible game theoretic research into the Iterated Prisoner's Dilemma. This
area of research began in the 1980s but suffers from a lack of documentation
and test code. The goal of the library is to provide such a resource, with
facilities for the design of new strategies and interactions between them, as
well as conducting tournaments and ecological simulations for populations of
strategies.
With a growing collection of 139 strategies, the library is a also a platform
for an original tournament that, in itself, is of interest to the game
theoretic community. This paper describes the Iterated Prisoner's Dilemma, the
Axelrod library and its development, and insights gained from some novel
research.Comment: 11 pages, Journal of Open Research Software 4.1 (2016
Food Security in the COVID-19 Era
Food insecurity is a national issue, one that affected 10.5% of households during some point of the year 2019. Those affected by food insecurity can have their access to food jeopardized due to financial hardship, eating patterns altered to prolong the food available, or various other adjustments including reliance on low-cost food, skipping meals, etc.
The state of Vermont is not immune to food insecurity, with a rate of 11.3% of households in 2018.
The Covid-19 pandemic created an unprecedented shift in daily life, with households having to rapidly adapt to meet newly imposed governmental regulations, including stay at home orders, while maintaining access to food essentials. This changed exacerbated food insecurity in already food-insecure households, while simultaneously creating food insecurity for those previously unaffected. A study focusing on food insecurity in Vermont from March to April 2020 found a 32.3% increase in food insecurity, with 35.5% of food-insecure households being previously food-secure.
This change highlighted not only the growing incidence of food insecurity, but also acknowledged the demographic change seen by newly food insecure households.
While this increase is dramatic and alarming, to our knowledge there is no research looking at the continuation of these trends regarding the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on food insecurity in Vermont households. This lack of data indicates a need for continued follow up to best inform governmental agencies on both how Vermont households are being affected, and how regulations during summer & fall 2020 impacted the rise in food insecurity. These data will then provide guidance for future action to combat current and future food insecurity.https://scholarworks.uvm.edu/comphp_gallery/1304/thumbnail.jp
Predicting Visibility of Aircraft
Visual detection of aircraft by human observers is an important element of aviation safety. To assess and ensure safety, it would be useful to be able to be able to predict the visibility, to a human observer, of an aircraft of specified size, shape, distance, and coloration. Examples include assuring safe separation among aircraft and between aircraft and unmanned vehicles, design of airport control towers, and efforts to enhance or suppress the visibility of military and rescue vehicles. We have recently developed a simple metric of pattern visibility, the Spatial Standard Observer (SSO). In this report we examine whether the SSO can predict visibility of simulated aircraft images. We constructed a set of aircraft images from three-dimensional computer graphic models, and measured the luminance contrast threshold for each image from three human observers. The data were well predicted by the SSO. Finally, we show how to use the SSO to predict visibility range for aircraft of arbitrary size, shape, distance, and coloration
Citizen Science as an Approach for Responding to the Threat of 'Anopheles stephensi' in Africa
Even as novel technologies emerge and medicines advance, pathogen-transmitting mosquitoes pose a deadly and accelerating public health threat. Detecting and mitigating the spread of Anopheles stephensi in Africa is now critical to the fight against malaria, as this invasive mosquito poses urgent and unprecedented risks to the continent. Unlike typical African vectors of malaria, An. stephensi breeds in both natural and artificial water reservoirs, and flourishes in urban environments. With An. stephensi beginning to take hold in heavily populated settings, citizen science surveillance supported by novel artificial intelligence (AI) technologies may offer impactful opportunities to guide public health decisions and community-based interventions. Coalitions like the Global Mosquito Alert Consortium (GMAC) and our freely available digital products can be incorporated into enhanced surveillance of An. stephensi and other vector-borne public health threats. By connecting local citizen science networks with global databases that are findable, accessible, interoperable, and reusable (FAIR), we are leveraging a powerful suite of tools and infrastructure for the early detection of, and rapid response to, (re)emerging vectors and diseases
Integrating Global Citizen Science Platforms to Enable Next-Generation Surveillance of Invasive and Vector Mosquitoes
Este artículo contiene 24 páginas, 6 figuras.Mosquito-borne diseases continue to ravage humankind with >700 million infections and
nearly one million deaths every year. Yet only a small percentage of the >3500 mosquito species transmit
diseases, necessitating both extensive surveillance and precise identification. Unfortunately, such
efforts are costly, time-consuming, and require entomological expertise. As envisioned by the Global
Mosquito Alert Consortium, citizen science can provide a scalable solution. However, disparate data
standards across existing platforms have thus far precluded truly global integration. Here, utilizing
Open Geospatial Consortium standards, we harmonized four data streams from three established
mobile apps—Mosquito Alert, iNaturalist, and GLOBE Observer’s Mosquito Habitat Mapper and
Land Cover—to facilitate interoperability and utility for researchers, mosquito control personnel,
and policymakers. We also launched coordinated media campaigns that generated unprecedented
numbers and types of observations, including successfully capturing the first images of targeted invasive and vector species. Additionally, we leveraged pooled image data to develop a toolset of
artificial intelligence algorithms for future deployment in taxonomic and anatomical identification.
Ultimately, by harnessing the combined powers of citizen science and artificial intelligence, we
establish a next-generation surveillance framework to serve as a united front to combat the ongoing
threat of mosquito-borne diseases worldwide.This research was funded by the National Science Foundation under Grant No. IIS-2014547 to
R.M.C., S.C., R.D.L. and A.B. The GLOBE Observer app and citizen science programming are supported
through National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) cooperative agreement NNX16AE28A
to the Institute for Global Environmental Strategies (IGES) for the NASA Earth Science Education
Collaborative (NESEC, PI: Theresa Schwerin). F.B. and J.R.B.P. acknowledge funding from: (a) the
European Commission, under Grants CA17108 (AIM-COST Action), 874735 (VEO), 853271 (H-MIP),
and 2020/2094 (NextGenerationEU, through CSIC’s Global Health Platform, PTI Salud Global); (b) the
Dutch National Research Agenda (NWA), under Grant NWA/00686468; and (c) “la Caixa” Foundation,
under Grant HR19-00336.Peer reviewe
Conflicts of Interest in the Assessment of Chemicals, Waste, and Pollution
Pollution by chemicals and waste impacts human and ecosystem health on regional, national, and global scales, resulting, together with climate change and biodiversity loss, in a triple planetary crisis. Consequently, in 2022, countries agreed to establish an intergovernmental science–policy panel (SPP) on chemicals, waste, and pollution prevention, complementary to the existing intergovernmental science–policy bodies on climate change and biodiversity. To ensure the SPP’s success, it is imperative to protect it from conflicts of interest (COI). Here, we (i) define and review the implications of COI, and its relevance for the management of chemicals, waste, and pollution; (ii) summarize established tactics to manufacture doubt in favor of vested interests, i.e., to counter scientific evidence and/or to promote misleading narratives favorable to financial interests; and (iii) illustrate these with selected examples. This analysis leads to a review of arguments for and against chemical industry representation in the SPP’s work. We further (iv) rebut an assertion voiced by some that the chemical industry should be directly involved in the panel’s work because it possesses data on chemicals essential for the panel’s activities. Finally, (v) we present steps that should be taken to prevent the detrimental impacts of COI in the work of the SPP. In particular, we propose to include an independent auditor’s role in the SPP to ensure that participation and processes follow clear COI rules. Among others, the auditor should evaluate the content of the assessments produced to ensure unbiased representation of information that underpins the SPP’s activities
Pan-Cancer Analysis of lncRNA Regulation Supports Their Targeting of Cancer Genes in Each Tumor Context
Long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs) are commonly dys-regulated in tumors, but only a handful are known toplay pathophysiological roles in cancer. We inferredlncRNAs that dysregulate cancer pathways, onco-genes, and tumor suppressors (cancer genes) bymodeling their effects on the activity of transcriptionfactors, RNA-binding proteins, and microRNAs in5,185 TCGA tumors and 1,019 ENCODE assays.Our predictions included hundreds of candidateonco- and tumor-suppressor lncRNAs (cancerlncRNAs) whose somatic alterations account for thedysregulation of dozens of cancer genes and path-ways in each of 14 tumor contexts. To demonstrateproof of concept, we showed that perturbations tar-geting OIP5-AS1 (an inferred tumor suppressor) andTUG1 and WT1-AS (inferred onco-lncRNAs) dysre-gulated cancer genes and altered proliferation ofbreast and gynecologic cancer cells. Our analysis in-dicates that, although most lncRNAs are dysregu-lated in a tumor-specific manner, some, includingOIP5-AS1, TUG1, NEAT1, MEG3, and TSIX, synergis-tically dysregulate cancer pathways in multiple tumorcontexts
Pan-cancer Alterations of the MYC Oncogene and Its Proximal Network across the Cancer Genome Atlas
Although theMYConcogene has been implicated incancer, a systematic assessment of alterations ofMYC, related transcription factors, and co-regulatoryproteins, forming the proximal MYC network (PMN),across human cancers is lacking. Using computa-tional approaches, we define genomic and proteo-mic features associated with MYC and the PMNacross the 33 cancers of The Cancer Genome Atlas.Pan-cancer, 28% of all samples had at least one ofthe MYC paralogs amplified. In contrast, the MYCantagonists MGA and MNT were the most frequentlymutated or deleted members, proposing a roleas tumor suppressors.MYCalterations were mutu-ally exclusive withPIK3CA,PTEN,APC,orBRAFalterations, suggesting that MYC is a distinct onco-genic driver. Expression analysis revealed MYC-associated pathways in tumor subtypes, such asimmune response and growth factor signaling; chro-matin, translation, and DNA replication/repair wereconserved pan-cancer. This analysis reveals insightsinto MYC biology and is a reference for biomarkersand therapeutics for cancers with alterations ofMYC or the PMN
Genomic, Pathway Network, and Immunologic Features Distinguishing Squamous Carcinomas
This integrated, multiplatform PanCancer Atlas study co-mapped and identified distinguishing
molecular features of squamous cell carcinomas (SCCs) from five sites associated with smokin
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