Attachment to tourism destinations: The role of memory and place attachment

The purpose of this study was to explore the role that autobiographical memory plays in explaining how people become attached to tourism destinations. Autobiographical memory is an innovative method adopted from psychology which comprises the personal recollections individuals have of experiences and events. Furthermore, place attachment is a long-standing concept in tourism that identifies the emotional connection people have with places. Through an on-site visitor survey and a mail-back follow-up, 2,216 mail-back surveys were given to Yellowstone National Park visitors with 802 completed surveys (36 percent response rate). A structural equation model between autobiographical memory and place attachment indicated a significant, positive relationship between the strength of a visitor’s autobiographical memory salience and their level of place attachment. Thus, this model can be used forward in tourism research to identify how travelers form an attachment to the destination

Evolutionary aspects of urea utilization by fungi

The higher fungi exhibit a dichotomy with regard to urea utilization. The hemiascomycetes use urea amidolyase (DUR1,2), whereas all other higher fungi use the nickel-containing urease. Urea amidolyase is an energy-dependent biotincontaining enzyme. It likely arose before the Euascomycete/Hemiascomycete divergence c. 350 million years ago by insertion of an unknown gene into one copy of a duplicated methylcrotonyl CoA carboxylase (MccA). The dichotomy between urease and urea amidolyase coincides precisely with that for the Ni/Co transporter (Nic1p), which is present in the higher fungi that use urease and is absent in those that do not. We suggest that the selective advantage for urea amidolyase is that it allowed the hemiascomycetes to jettison all Ni2+- and Co2+- dependent metabolisms and thus to have two fewer transition metals whose concentrations need to be regulated. Also, the absence of MccA in the hemiascomycetes coincides with and may explain their production of fusel alcohols

Thinking Outside the Park - National Park Fee Increase Effects on Gateway Communities

In 2017, the National Park Service proposed an entrance fee increase across 17 park units, including Yellowstone National Park. The fee increase is proposed to help offset substantial deferred maintenance costs currently experienced across park units. This paper assesses the potential effects felt by gateway communities surrounding the parks. We identify, using Yellowstone as a case study, that even though revenue to the park may increase, spending in local communities can be expected to decrease, all else being equal

AmpliTaq DNA polymerase, FS dye-terminator sequencing: Analysis of peak height patterns

Taq DNA polymerases in which the phenylalanine is substituted by a tyrosine at position 667 (Taq F667Y) are members of a new class of DNA polymerases that incorporate chain-terminating dideoxyribonucleoside triphosphates (ddNTPs) much more efficiently than the wild-type Taq DNA polymerase. Improved incorporation of ddNTPs into DNA during cycle sequencing using AmpliTaq DNA polymerase, FS (Taq-FS, a member of the Taq F667Y family), and dye-labeled primers results in nearly uniform peak heights in the sequencing trace. This is not the case when dye-labeled ddNTPs are used in Taq-FS cycle sequencing reactions. While the rate of dye-terminator incorporation is more efficient with Taq-FS, the peak pattern is still highly variable and different from that produced by the wild-type enzyme. We have systematically examined pairs of sequence-tagged sites that vary at only a single nucleotide to determine how base changes influence the peak heights of neighboring bases in sequencing traces generated by the Taq-FS dye-terminator chemistry. In 31 of 64 possible 3-base windows (48%), we find that the peak height of a particular base can be predicted by knowing just one or two bases 5\u27 to the base in question. We have also compared and contrasted the peak patterns produced by the Taq-FS enzyme with those previously identified for the wild-type enzyme. Establishing the patterns in peak heights within local sequence contexts can improve the accuracy of base-calling and the identification of polymorphisms/mutations when using the Taq-FS dye-terminator cycle-sequencing chemistry

Terminal digit preference biases polyp size measurements at endoscopy, computed tomographic colonography and histopathology

BACKGROUND AND STUDY AIMS: Terminal digit preference bias for "pleasing" numbers has been described in many areas of medicine. The aim of this study was to determine whether endoscopists, radiologists, and pathologists exhibit such bias when measuring colorectal polyp diameters. METHODS: Colorectal polyp diameters measured at endoscopy, computed tomographic colonography (CTC), and histopathology were collated from a colorectal cancer screening program and two parallel multicenter randomized trials. Smoothing models were fitted to the data to estimate the expected number of polyps at 1-mm increments, assuming no systematic measurement bias. The difference between the expected and observed numbers of polyps was calculated for each terminal digit using statistical modeling. The impact of measurement bias on per-patient detection rates of polyps ≥ 10 mm was estimated for each modality. RESULTS: A total of 92 124 individual polyps were measured by endoscopy (91 670 screening and 454 from trials), 2385 polyps were measured by CTC (1664 screening, 721 trials), and 79 272 were measured by histopathology (78 783 screening, 489 trials). Clustering of polyp diameter measurements at 5-mm intervals was demonstrated for all modalities, both in the screening program and the trials. The statistical models estimated that per-patient detection rates of polyps ≥ 10 mm were over-inflated by 2.4 % for endoscopy, 3.1 % for CTC, and 3.3 % for histopathology in the screening program, with similar trends in the randomized trials. CONCLUSION: Endoscopists, radiologists, and pathologists all exhibit terminal digit preference when measuring colorectal polyps. This will bias trial data, referral rates for further testing, adenoma surveillance regimens, and comparisons between tests

Specifications of Standards in Systems and Synthetic Biology: Status and Developments in 2016

Standards are essential to the advancement of science and technology. In systems and synthetic biology, numerous standards and associated tools have been developed over the last 16 years. This special issue of the Journal of Integrative Bioinformatics aims to support the exchange, distribution and archiving of these standards, as well as to provide centralised and easily citable access to them

Denoising scanner effects from multimodal MRI data using linked independent component analysis

Pooling magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) data across research studies, or utilizing shared data from imaging repositories, presents exceptional opportunities to advance and enhance reproducibility of neuroscience research. However, scanner confounds hinder pooling data collected on different scanners or across software and hardware upgrades on the same scanner, even when all acquisition protocols are harmonized. These confounds reduce power and can lead to spurious findings. Unfortunately, methods to address this problem are scant. In this study, we propose a novel denoising approach that implements a data-driven linked independent component analysis (LICA) to identify scanner-related effects for removal from multimodal MRI to denoise scanner effects. We utilized multi-study data to test our proposed method that were collected on a single 3T scanner, pre- and post-software and major hardware upgrades and using different acquisition parameters. Our proposed denoising method shows a greater reduction of scanner-related variance compared with standard GLM confound regression or ICA-based single-modality denoising. Although we did not test it here, for combining data across different scanners, LICA should prove even better at identifying scanner effects as between-scanner variability is generally much larger than within-scanner variability. Our method has great promise for denoising scanner effects in multi-study and in large-scale multi-site studies that may be confounded by scanner differences.Open access articleThis item from the UA Faculty Publications collection is made available by the University of Arizona with support from the University of Arizona Libraries. If you have questions, please contact us at [email protected]

Observing Non-Gaussian Sources in Heavy-Ion Reactions

We examine the possibility of extracting non-Gaussian sources from two-particle correlations in heavy-ion reactions. Non-Gaussian sources have been predicted in a variety of model calculations and may have been seen in various like-meson pair correlations. As a tool for this investigation, we have developed an improved imaging method that relies on a Basis spline expansion of the source functions with an improved implementation of constraints. We examine under what conditions this improved method can distinguish between Gaussian and non-Gaussian sources. Finally, we investigate pion, kaon, and proton sources from the p-Pb reaction at 450 GeV/nucleon and from the S-Pb reaction at 200 GeV/nucleon studied by the NA44 experiment. Both the pion and kaon sources from the S-Pb correlations seem to exhibit a Gaussian core with an extended, non-Gaussian halo. We also find evidence for a scaling of the source widths with particle mass in the sources from the p-Pb reaction.Comment: 16 pages, 15 figures, 5 tables, uses RevTex3.

Autosomal Dominant Familial Dyskinesia and Facial Myokymia Single Exome Sequencing Identifies a Mutation in Adenylyl Cyclase 5

Background: Familial dyskinesia with facial myokymia (FDFM) is an autosomal dominant disorder that is exacerbated by anxiety. In a 5-generation family of German ancestry, we previously mapped FDFM to chromosome band 3p21-3q21. The 72.5-Mb linkage region was too large for traditional positional mutation identification. Objective: To identify the gene responsible for FDFM by exome resequencing of a single affected individual. Participants: We performed whole exome sequencing in 1 affected individual and used a series of bioinformatic filters, including functional significance and presence in dbSNP or the 1000 Genomes Project, to reduce the number of candidate variants. Co-segregation analysis was performed in 15 additional individuals in 3 generations. Main Outcome Measures: Unique DNA variants in the linkage region that co-segregate with FDFM. Results: The exome contained 23 428 single-nucleotide variants, of which 9391 were missense, nonsense, or splice site alterations. The critical region contained 323 variants, 5 of which were not present in 1 of the sequence databases. Adenylyl cyclase 5 (ADCY5) was the only gene in which the variant (c.2176G>A) was co-transmitted perfectly with disease status and was not present in 3510 control white exomes. This residue is highly conserved, and the change is nonconservative and predicted to be damaging. Conclusions: ADCY5 is highly expressed in striatum. Mice deficient in Adcy5 develop a movement disorder that is worsened by stress. We conclude that FDFM likely results from a missense mutation in ADCY5. This study demonstrates the power of a single exome sequence combined with linkage information to identify causative genes for rare autosomal dominant mendelian diseases