MANAGEMENT AND LIFE HISTORY CONSEQUENCES OF HYBRIDIZATION BETWEEN WESTSLOPE CUTTHROAT TROUT (ONCORHYNCHUS CLARKII LEWISI) AND RAINBOW TROUT (ONCORHYNCHUS MYKISS)

The role of introductions of nonnative fishes in the decline of native fishes cannot be overstated. Westslope cutthroat trout (Oncorhynchus clarkii lewisi, WCT) are a salmonid native to the northern Rocky Mountains. These trout hybridize with rainbow trout (O. mykiss, RBT) where they are sympatric; however, in portions of the WCT range where RBT have been introduced, hybridization appears to spread rapidly and threatens continued existence of WCT. The conservation value of these hybridized populations is equivocal, and a better knowledge of the ecological, demographic, behavioral, and genetic consequences of hybridization is needed to better inform conservation strategies. I investigated three related questions: specifically, what landscape factors are associated with estimates of introgression; what are life history differences between WCT and hybrids; and what are tradeoffs in restoring migratory life history in populations threatened by hybridization? The riverscape context plays a substantial role in the distribution of hybrids, as estimates of introgression declined with increases in stream slope, elevation, and distance from a primary source of RBT, three correlated landscape variables. Spatial variation in patterns of hybridization suggests clarifying objectives for sampling and careful designs are necessary to adequately understand the status of populations. Variation in location may relate to some of the ecological differences, such as growth, among fish with different levels of introgression. In the Jocko River, hybrids with ancestry \u3e 20% RBT demonstrated higher growth, earlier migration, increased egg size, and lower fecundity versus WCT. These lines of evidence demonstrate the importance of limiting further hybridization even in populations that already have low levels of hybridization. Given that many unaltered populations currently reside in isolated habitat fragments, I evaluated several demographic tradeoffs of restoring a migratory life history weighed against the risks of increased potential for hybridization from removing barriers or selectively passing migratory fish above the barriers using both matrix and genetic population models. Restoration of migratory life history substantially increases population viability; however, hybridization in above-barrier population increases predictably relative to hybridization status of below-barrier population, which may reduce viability if vital rates are reduced in hybrids. Hybridization creates a challenging set of management problems, but this research adds several important pieces to the puzzles to help develop and evaluate conservation strategies

Economic Impact of the Transportation Research Center Inc. on Central Ohio and the State Of Ohio

A recognized leader in transportation research and innovation since 1974, the Transportation Research Center Inc. (TRC), with its 4,500-acre testing facility and expert technical team, created more than $127 million total in economic output in 2019 and supported over 670 total jobs with almost$36 million in wages and benefits throughout Ohio, the study determined. Testing and research on behalf of TRC clients, including many of the world’s leading automotive manufacturers and systems innovators, generated more than $1.3 million in taxes to local government entities,$1.3 million to the state government and $2.3 million to the federal government. An additional$67.5 million in economic activity in the state was generated from 2011-2019 through multiple construction projects that expanded facilities on TRC’s campus

Top 100 Urology Influences on Twitter: Is Social Media Influence Associated with Academic Impact?

Introduction: The purpose of this cross-sectional study is to identify and describe the top 100 urology influencers on the social media platform Twitter. Furthermore, we aim to correlate each individual\u27s Twitter influence with academic impact in urology. Materials and Methods: Twitter influence scores for the topic search “urology” were collected in April 2022 using the Right Relevance software, which accounts for the individual\u27s connections (followers/following) to other influencers in urology as well as engagement (likes, retweets, and views) on the platform. The top 100 personal accounts with the highest computed scores were linked to individuals’ names, all-time h-index, geographic location, specialty, sex, and board certification. We examined the Pearson correlation coefficient between influence rank and h-index. Results: We identified the top 100 Twitter influencers on the topic of “urology.” The majority are from the United States (63%), male (85%), and are practicing urologists (93%). Ninety-three percent (93%) of U.S. urology influencers are board certified. Only 22 out of the 50 states are represented. The second most common country is the United Kingdom with 11 urology influencers. The median all-time h-index is 41.5 (IQR: 27 – 55.5). There is a weak positive coefficient (r=0.26) between the influence rank and h-index (p=0.021). Conclusions: The top Twitter influencers in urology are mostly Board-certified U.S. urologists. Collectively, influencers have a relatively greater academic impact compared to the average urologist, although there is a weak positive correlation between Twitter influence and h-index among top Twitter influencers

Advanced technologies for future ground-based, laser-interferometric gravitational wave detectors

We present a review of modern optical techniques being used and developed for the field of gravitational wave detection. We describe the current state-of-the-art of gravitational waves detector technologies with regard to optical layouts, suspensions and test masses. We discuss the dominant sources and noise in each of these subsystems and the developments that will help mitigate them for future generations of detectors. We very briefly summarise some of the novel astrophysics that will be possible with these upgraded detectors

Evaluating the Role of LVI as an Indicator for Adverse Outcomes in Patients with Upper Tract Urothelial Carcinoma and its Histological Subtypes

Lymphvascular invasion (LVI) is recognized as an adverse prognostic factor in many cancers. Our aim is to assess the prognostic ability of LVI in UTUC urothelial carcinoma (UC) and micropapillary urothelial carcinoma (MPUC) subtypes as a predictor of overall survival (OS) using a large North American cohort. Our cohort included 9750 cM0 UTUC patients who underwent a radical nephroureterectomy (RNU), between 2004 and 2015, within the National Cancer Database (NCDB). The main variable of interest was LVI status, and its interaction with pathological nodal (pN) status. Kaplan-Meier curves were used to estimate the OS. Cox regression analysis tested the impact of LVI status on OS after accounting for covariates. In patients with UC at 5-years post-RNU, the OS rates were 60.2%, 29.9%, 28.9%, and 20.8% in patient with pN0 without LVI, pN0 with LVI, pN+ without LVI, and pN+ with LVI, respectively (p Our report is the first to examine the impact of LVI on OS in a large North American nationwide cohort. It indicates that LVI is associated with reduced OS in patients with UTUC treated surgically

In Situ Probes of the First Galaxies and Reionization: Gamma-ray Bursts

The first structures in the Universe formed at z>7, at higher redshift than all currently known galaxies. Since GRBs are brighter than other cosmological sources at high redshift and exhibit simple power-law afterglow spectra that is ideal for absorption studies, they serve as powerful tools for studying the early universe. New facilities planned for the coming decade will be able to obtain a large sample of high-redshift GRBs. Such a sample would constrain the nature of the first stars, galaxies, and the reionization history of the Universe.Comment: 8 pages, 3 figures, science white paper submitted to the US Astro2010 Decadal Surve

Impact of Sleep and Circadian Disruption on Energy Balance and Diabetes: A Summary of Workshop Discussions

A workshop was held at the National Institute for Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases with a focus on the impact of sleep and circadian disruption on energy balance and diabetes. The workshop identified a number of key principles for research in this area and a number of specific opportunities. Studies in this area would be facilitated by active collaboration between investigators in sleep/circadian research and investigators in metabolism/diabetes. There is a need to translate the elegant findings from basic research into improving the metabolic health of the American public. There is also a need for investigators studying the impact of sleep/circadian disruption in humans to move beyond measurements of insulin and glucose and conduct more in-depth phenotyping. There is also a need for the assessments of sleep and circadian rhythms as well as assessments for sleep-disordered breathing to be incorporated into all ongoing cohort studies related to diabetes risk. Studies in humans need to complement the elegant short-term laboratory-based human studies of simulated short sleep and shift work etc. with studies in subjects in the general population with these disorders. It is conceivable that chronic adaptations occur, and if so, the mechanisms by which they occur needs to be identified and understood. Particular areas of opportunity that are ready for translation are studies to address whether CPAP treatment of patients with pre-diabetes and obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) prevents or delays the onset of diabetes and whether temporal restricted feeding has the same impact on obesity rates in humans as it does in mice