Letter from Sarah Clopper to James B. Finley

Mrs. Clopper is anxious to know if her son-in-law, Mr. Lilly, has done anything about the grave of her daughter Ellen. She planned to have a monument erected, was told Mr. Lilly was planning to take care of it, and she wants to know if he has done so. Abstract Number - 152https://digitalcommons.owu.edu/finley-letters/1150/thumbnail.jp

Letter from Sarah Clopper to James B. Finley

Mrs. Clopper is very thankful for the letter from Finley explaining the details of her daughter Ellen\u27s death. She tells Finley that Ellen was one of five out of her seven children who have died. She requests that her daughter be left in the vault so that she may see her when she visits Cincinnati. She inquires about the possibility of boarding in a private family when she comes to Cincinnati. Abstract Number - 107https://digitalcommons.owu.edu/finley-letters/1105/thumbnail.jp

Variation in the prosody of focus in head- and head/edge-prominence languages

This study explored the prosodic realization of focus in four typologically unrelated languages: American English, Paraguayan Guaraní, Moroccan Arabic, and K’iche’. American English and Paraguayan Guaraní mark prosodic prominence culminatively on the head of the prosodic unit, whereas Moroccan Arabic and K’iche’ mark prosodic prominence demarcatively on the right edge of the prosodic unit. To allow for cross-linguistic comparisons, the same interactive task was used for all four languages in their respective countries. Utterances were elicited in which a color-denoting adjective, a shape-denoting noun, or the noun phrase consisting of the adjective and the noun was focused. Data from each language were annotated phonologically using an autosegmental-metrical approach and analyzed acoustically. The results suggest that the prosodic realization of focus is partially orthogonal to the distinction between head-prominence and head/edge-prominence languages, and may be due to differences in macro-rhythm. American English and Paraguayan Guaraní, the head-prominence languages, share deaccenting as a means for marking non-focused expressions, but only English uses pitch accent type to mark focused elements. Moroccan Arabic, a head/edge-prominence language, uses phrasing and duration cues to focus, but K’iche’, also a head/edge-prominence language, does not. In addition, American English shares phrasing cues, and both American English and Paraguayan Guaraní share duration cues with Moroccan Arabic, despite their structural prosodic differences

Taxis assays measure directional movement of mosquitoes to olfactory cues.

BACKGROUND: Malaria control methods targeting indoor-biting mosquitoes have limited impact on vectors that feed and rest outdoors. Exploiting mosquito olfactory behaviour to reduce blood-feeding outdoors might be a sustainable approach to complement existing control strategies. Methodologies that can objectively quantify responses to odour under realistic field conditions and allow high-throughput screening of many compounds are required for development of effective odour-based control strategies. METHODS: The olfactory responses of laboratory-reared Anopheles gambiae in a semi-field tunnel and A. arabiensis females in an outdoor field setting to three stimuli, namely whole human odour, a synthetic blend of carboxylic acids plus carbon dioxide and CO(2) alone at four distances up to 100 metres were measured in two experiments using three-chambered taxis boxes that allow mosquito responses to natural or experimentally-introduced odour cues to be quantified. RESULTS: Taxis box assays could detect both activation of flight and directional mosquito movement. Significantly more (6-18%) A. arabiensis mosquitoes were attracted to natural human odour in the field up to 30 metres compared to controls, and blended synthetic human odours attracted 20% more A. gambiae in the semi-field tunnel up to 70 metres. Whereas CO(2) elicited no response in A. arabiensis in the open field, it was attractive to A. gambiae up to 50 metres (65% attraction compared to 36% in controls). CONCLUSIONS: We have developed a simple reproducible system to allow for the comparison of compounds that are active over medium- to long-ranges in semi-field or full-field environments. Knowing the natural range of attraction of anopheline mosquitoes to potential blood sources has substantial implications for the design of malaria control strategies, and adds to the understanding of olfactory behaviour in mosquitoes. This experimental strategy could also be extended from malaria vectors to other motile arthropods of medical, veterinary and agricultural significance

Genome-wide Association Study of Platelet Count Identifies Ancestry-Specific Loci in Hispanic/Latino Americans

Platelets play an essential role in hemostasis and thrombosis. We performed a genome-wide association study of platelet count in 12,491 participants of the Hispanic Community Health Study/Study of Latinos by using a mixed-model method that accounts for admixture and family relationships. We discovered and replicated associations with five genes (ACTN1, ETV7, GABBR1-MOG, MEF2C, and ZBTB9-BAK1). Our strongest association was with Amerindian-specific variant rs117672662 (p value = 1.16 × 10−28) in ACTN1, a gene implicated in congenital macrothrombocytopenia. rs117672662 exhibited allelic differences in transcriptional activity and protein binding in hematopoietic cells. Our results underscore the value of diverse populations to extend insights into the allelic architecture of complex traits