The Effect of Altitude and Environmental Variables on Butterfly Activity in Puerto Rico

The focus of this research project was at 735m and above 915m within the cloud forest on El Yunque Peak in the Luquillo Experimental Forest (LEF) in Puerto Rico. From 2001 to 2005, numbers of Calisto nubila encountered on El Yunque Peak decreased between 915m and 1000m, while numbers of C. nubila recorded along the Tradewinds trail between 735m and 765m increased. A climate anomaly was recorded on the peaks of the LEF by the climate data between May and September 2001. This was reflected in numbers of C. nubila encountered on El Yunque peak above 915m in the following field visit in 2002. Numbers of C. nubila on El Yunque Peak had not recovered by 2005. Calculations using the general linear model on the Tradewinds trail 2003 data showed that all the climate variables had a close relationship with C. nubila numbers encountered between 735m and 765m. Because all the climate variables had a close relationship with each other as well as with C. nubila numbers, no single climate variable on its own had a close relationship with numbers encountered. The timing of the transect walks also had a close relationship with C. nubila numbers encountered on the Tradewinds trail. Annual precipitation in the preceding 365 days is shown to be a controlling mechanism on C. nubila population numbers on the Tradewinds trail by possibly acting on immature stages and foodplant condition at this site. Numbers of C. nubila encountered on the 965m to 1000m El Yunque Peak transect had a close relationship with wind speed. Calisto nubila numbers also had a close relationship with the other climate variables combined. The results show that C. nubila can be used as a biological indicator of climate change in forest ecosystems above 735m

Macrophage Migration Is Impaired within Candida albicans Biofilms

Acknowledgments: We thank the Microscopy and Histology Core Facility at the University of Aberdeen. This work was funded by NHS Grampian Endowments (grant RG10191); the Wellcome Trust Strategic Award in Medical Mycology and Fungal Immunology (grant 097377); the Wellcome Trust Investigator award (grants 101873, 086827, 075470, & 200208) and the Medical Research Council Centre for Medical Mycology (grant MR/N006364/1).Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Cu-Au type orderings in the staggered quadrupolar region of the fcc Blume Emery Griffiths model

The spin-1 Ising (BEG) model has been simulated using a cellular automaton (CA) algorithm improved from the Creutz cellular automaton (CCA) for a face-centered cubic (fcc) lattice. The ground state diagram ($k$, $d$) of the fcc BEG model has ferromagnetic ($F$), quadrupolar ($Q$) and staggered quadrupolar ($SQ$) ordering regions. The simulations have been made in the staggered quadrupolar region for the parameter values in the intervals $-24\leq d=D/J<0$ and $-3\leq k=K/J\leq 0$ . The phase diagrams on the ($kT_{C}/J$, $d$) and the ($kT_{C}/J$, $k$) planes have been obtained through $k=-3$ and $d=-4$ lines, respectively. The staggered quadrupolar ordering region separates into five ordering regions ($A_{3}B(a)$, $A_{3}B(f)$, $AB$ (type-I), $AB$(type-II) and $AB_{3}(f)$) which have the different stoichiometric Cu-Au type structures.Comment: 24 pages, 11 figure

Experiment K-6-09. Morphological and biochemical investigation of microgravity-induced nerve and muscle breakdown. Part 1: Investigation of nerve and muscle breakdown during spaceflight; Part 2: Biochemical analysis of EDL and PLT muscles

The present findings on rat hindlimb muscles suggest that skeletal muscle weakness induced by prolonged spaceflight can result from a combination of muscle fiber atrophy, muscle fiber segmental necrosis, degeneration of motor nerve terminals and destruction of microcirculatory vessels. Damage was confined to the red adductor longus (AL) and soleus muscles. The midbelly region of the AL muscle had more segmental necrosis and edema than the ends. Macrophages and neutrophils were the major mononucleated cells infiltrating and phagocytosing the cellular debris. Toluidine blue-positive mast cells were significantly decreased in Flight AL muscles compared to controls; this indicated that degranulation of mast cells contributed to tissue edema. Increased ubiquitination of disrupted myofibrils may have promoted myofilament degradation. Overall, mitochondria content and SDH activity were normal, except for a decrease in the subsarcolemmal region. The myofibrillar ATPase activity shifted toward the fast type in the Flight AL muscles. Some of the pathological changes may have occurred or been exacerbated during the 2 day postflight period of readaptation to terrestrial gravity. While simple atrophy should be reversible by exercise, restoration of pathological changes depends upon complex processes of regeneration by stem cells. Initial signs of muscle and nerve fiber regeneration were detected. Even though regeneration proceeds on Earth, the space environment may inhibit repair and cause progressive irreversible deterioration during long term missions. Muscles obtained from Flight rats sacrificed immediately (within a few hours) after landing are needed to distinguish inflight changes from postflight readaptation

Ensuring the Alignment of Genetic/Epigenetic Designed Swarms.

. One of the major concerns of AI researchers and implementers is how to ensure that the systems stay aligned with the aspirations of the humans they interact with. This problem becomes even more complex for systems that develop their own operational rules and where multiple agents are involved. The paper addresses some of the implications of using genetic/epigenetic design techniques where the control structure is developed without direct human involvement. This presents particular difficulties in ensuring that the control protocols stay aligned with the desires of the instigators and do not cause unpredicted harm. It also explores how this problem is further complicated when the AI system has many agents. Modern control systems are often decentralized which provides a more robust solution than using a central controller. A specific example of this approach is Self-Organising Swarms where the agents act independently of the central control. From an alignment point of view, it generates particular problems. Not only must the individual agents act in the best human interest but the swarm as a collective must do it as well. This is difficult for a homogeneous swarm and no proposal for a heterogeneous one has yet been made. There have been and continue to be considerable research and discussions on how to create and what form a global AI ethics might take, but any progress has been slow. This is partly because even the 4 ISSN 1028-9763. Математичні машини і системи. 2022. № 1 Universal Declaration of Human Rights has difficulties. All the nations that have signed up to the UN Human Rights Declaration believe they are at least trying to implement it. The problem is in the interpretation where many signatories believe others are in breach. The same would apply to any universal AI ethics agreement. This paper proposes a solution where the AI systems’ basic ethics are individual but have to comply where they interface with either other AI entities or humans. Keywords: genetic/epigenetic algorithms, AI alignment, AI ethics

hSSB1 interacts directly with the MRN complex stimulating its recruitment to DNA double-strand breaks and its endo-nuclease activity

hSSB1 is a recently discovered single-stranded DNA binding protein that is essential for efficient repair of DNA double-strand breaks (DSBs) by the homologous recombination pathway. hSSB1 is required for the efficient recruitment of the MRN complex to sites of DSBs and for the efficient initiation of ATM dependent signalling. Here we explore the interplay between hSSB1 and MRN. We demonstrate that hSSB1 binds directly to NBS1, a component of the MRN complex, in a DNA damage independent manner. Consistent with the direct interaction, we observe that hSSB1 greatly stimulates the endo-nuclease activity of the MRN complex, a process that requires the C-terminal tail of hSSB1. Interestingly, analysis of two point mutations in NBS1, associated with Nijmegen breakage syndrome, revealed weaker binding to hSSB1, suggesting a possible disease mechanism.Publisher PDFPeer reviewe

Kinetic studies of Candida parapsilosis phagocytosis by macrophages and detection of intracellular survival mechanisms

Peer reviewedPublisher PD

The structure of causal sets

More often than not, recently popular structuralist interpretations of physical theories leave the central concept of a structure insufficiently precisified. The incipient causal sets approach to quantum gravity offers a paradigmatic case of a physical theory predestined to be interpreted in structuralist terms. It is shown how employing structuralism lends itself to a natural interpretation of the physical meaning of causal sets theory. Conversely, the conceptually exceptionally clear case of causal sets is used as a foil to illustrate how a mathematically informed rigorous conceptualization of structure serves to identify structures in physical theories. Furthermore, a number of technical issues infesting structuralist interpretations of physical theories such as difficulties with grounding the identity of the places of highly symmetrical physical structures in their relational profile and what may resolve these difficulties can be vividly illustrated with causal sets.Comment: 19 pages, 4 figure