Birds of a Feather Session

Presentation of speakers and topics in a birds of a feather session for the 2013 Digital Frontiers Annual Conference. Topics include: Testing the research usability of finding aids and metadata of primary resources, exploring data curation across disciplines using Google books for academic research, digital collection usage, teaching humanities digitally, and internet politics

Early-life nutrition modulates the epigenetic state of specific rDNA genetic variants in mice.

A suboptimal early-life environment, due to poor nutrition or stress during pregnancy, can influence lifelong phenotypes in the progeny. Epigenetic factors are thought to be key mediators of these effects. We show that protein restriction in mice from conception until weaning induces a linear correlation between growth restriction and DNA methylation at ribosomal DNA (rDNA). This epigenetic response remains into adulthood and is restricted to rDNA copies associated with a specific genetic variant within the promoter. Related effects are also found in models of maternal high-fat or obesogenic diets. Our work identifies environmentally induced epigenetic dynamics that are dependent on underlying genetic variation and establishes rDNA as a genomic target of nutritional insults.This work was supported by the following grants and fellowships: Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council, UK (BB/M012494/1) to V.K.R. and (BB/G00711/X/1) to V.K.R. and C.G.; and a Research Council UK Academic Fellowship to M.L.H. R.L. is supported by EU-FP7 BLUEPRINT. S.E.O. is supported by the British Heart Foundation (FS/12/64/30001) and the Medical Research Council (MC_UU_12012/4). This research used Queen Mary’s MidPlus computational facilities, supported by Queen Mary University of London Research-IT and funded by Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council grant EP/K000128/1. We thank King’s College London FWB Genomics Centre and Barts and The London Genome Centre for performing high-throughput sequencing.This is the author accepted manuscript. The final version is available from the American Association for the Advancement of Science via http://dx.doi.org/10.1126/science.aaf704

Genome-Wide Profiling of H3K56 Acetylation and Transcription Factor Binding Sites in Human Adipocytes

The growing epidemic of obesity and metabolic diseases calls for a better understanding of adipocyte biology. The regulation of transcription in adipocytes is particularly important, as it is a target for several therapeutic approaches. Transcriptional outcomes are influenced by both histone modifications and transcription factor binding. Although the epigenetic states and binding sites of several important transcription factors have been profiled in the mouse 3T3-L1 cell line, such data are lacking in human adipocytes. In this study, we identified H3K56 acetylation sites in human adipocytes derived from mesenchymal stem cells. H3K56 is acetylated by CBP and p300, and deacetylated by SIRT1, all are proteins with important roles in diabetes and insulin signaling. We found that while almost half of the genome shows signs of H3K56 acetylation, the highest level of H3K56 acetylation is associated with transcription factors and proteins in the adipokine signaling and Type II Diabetes pathways. In order to discover the transcription factors that recruit acetyltransferases and deacetylases to sites of H3K56 acetylation, we analyzed DNA sequences near H3K56 acetylated regions and found that the E2F recognition sequence was enriched. Using chromatin immunoprecipitation followed by high-throughput sequencing, we confirmed that genes bound by E2F4, as well as those by HSF-1 and C/EBPα, have higher than expected levels of H3K56 acetylation, and that the transcription factor binding sites and acetylation sites are often adjacent but rarely overlap. We also discovered a significant difference between bound targets of C/EBPα in 3T3-L1 and human adipocytes, highlighting the need to construct species-specific epigenetic and transcription factor binding site maps. This is the first genome-wide profile of H3K56 acetylation, E2F4, C/EBPα and HSF-1 binding in human adipocytes, and will serve as an important resource for better understanding adipocyte transcriptional regulation.Singapore. Agency for Science, Technology and Research (National Science Scholarship )Massachusetts Institute of Technology (Eugene Bell Career Development Chair)National Science Foundation (U.S.) (Award No. DBI-0821391)Pfizer Inc

Guidelines for Submissions

N/

Future Directions for Digital Literacy Fluency using Cognitive Flexibility Research: A Review of Selected Digital Literacy Paradigms and Theoretical Frameworks

As learners engage, test, and apply new subject knowledge, they often expend their cognitive capacity on the technological tools designed to capture their learning progress and outcomes. The energy and attention spent on these tools reduces their capacity to engage deeply with new learning concepts. Digital literacy skills require both cognitive and technical skills to develop a learner’s ability to locate, use, and communicate information. Increasingly complex information environments create various barriers for student learning, and as our learning and working industries continue to evolve and integrate technologies, students must overcome these barriers by bridging learning needs and technology expectations. This research explores the value of developing digital literacy to improve learners’ cognitive flexibility by decreasing technological cognitive load and increasing learning fluency. The findings highlight the need for establishing scaffolded digital literacy skills and digital tool selection, and expand college readiness requirements to include digital literacy as a prerequisite skill for learners

Human male body size predicts increased knockout power, which is accurately tracked by conspecific judgments of male dominance

Humans have undergone a long evolutionary history of violent agonistic exchanges, which would have placed selective pressures on greater body size and the psychophysical systems that detect them. The present work showed that greater body size in humans predicted increased knockout power during contests (Study 1a-1b: total N = 5,866; Study 2: N = 44 openweight fights). In agonistic exchanges reflective of ancestral size asymmetries, heavier combatants were 300% more likely to win against their lighter counterparts solely because they were 300% more likely to knock them out (Study 2). Greater body size afforded no other fighting performance advantages other than increased knockout power (Studies 1-2). Human dominance judgments (total N = 500 MTurkers) accurately tracked the frequency with which men (N = 516) had knocked out similar sized adversaries (Study 3). Humans were able to directly perceive a man’s knockout power solely because they were attending to cues of a man’s body size. Human dominance judgments—which are important across numerous psychological domains, including attractiveness, leadership, and legal decision-making—accurately predict the likelihood with which a potential mate, ally, or rival can incapacitate their adversaries

Facial masculinity predicts men’s actual and perceived aggressiveness

Status obtained via dominance is a phylogenetically ancient feature of human social systems. Yet empirical evidence that men’s secondary sexual traits reliably predict success in intra-sexual contests has been hard to demonstrate. The present work provides the first test of whether masculine craniofacial structures in men predicts aggressiveness in contest competition and whether people accurately assess such aggressiveness from masculine facial cues. After placing 32,447 facial landmarks on the facial stimuli of 457 male fighters, multivariate geometric morphometric analyses extracted 142 distinct facial metrics and revealed that men with better developed masculine facial traits (e.g., large jaw, large browridge, deep-set eyes) attempted more strikes and successfully struck their opponents, including targeting the face. When rating the facial stimuli of these male fighters, participants (N = 500) used men’s masculine facial traits to accurately predict these same components of aggressiveness, including targeting the face. These findings remained robust after accounting for the fighter’s age, total fights, weight division, height, fight duration, and their opponent’s striking frequency. Our findings provide the first evidence that humans accurately forecast men’s agonistic behavior from variation in facial morphology, suggesting perceptual systems have evolved to perceive physical formidability among contemporaries and competitors