Mutagenesis Screen in C. elegans Suggests Role of mor Genes in Pharyngeal Development

The study of organogenesis investigates the increasingly restrictive genetic programs that ultimately result in a single differentiated cell type. To study the genetic mechanisms orchestrating organ development, our lab chose the pharynx in Caenorhabditis elegans as a model system. The pharynx is a narrow tube composed of muscular epithelial tissue and is responsible for the grinding and ingestion of food in C. elegans. The pharynx has been so well studied that the complete lineage of cell divisions has been revealed. In addition, C. elegans possess a transparent body allowing researchers to track its development. To identify the genes responsible for the specification or differentiation of muscle cells in the pharynx, our lab used the specific pharynx muscle protein myosin-2, tagged with green fluorescent protein (myo-2::GFP) as a visual assay. Ethyl methane sulfonate (EMS), which yields random point mutations within DNA was used to perform a mutagenesis screen of ~10,000 haploid genomes. Administration of EMS resulted in over 200 mutant lines of worms. Of these mutants, we observed anatomical variations in the pharynx that could be attributed to cell adhesion, cell fate, cell morphology, and migration in both anterior and posterior pharynx regions. To locate the alleles responsible for disrupting myo-2::GFP expression in the pharynx, our lab conducted single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) mapping (Jorgensen et al., 2005). This mapping was carried out between the wild-type C. elegans strain (N2 Bristol) and the genetically similar strain (CD4856 Hawaiian). To acquire accurate mapping, chromosomal and interval mapping were performed. Thus far, our lab has successfully been able to establish a linkage for 10 different mutant phenotypes to various chromosomal regions. For instance, mor-1, which results in a shortened, rounded pharynx, was mapped to chromosome III. Furthermore, we found another 14 similar phenotypes, which may represent at least two other genes, mor-2 and mor-3. mor-2 has not been cloned, but is located on chromosome IV and has been shown to yield phenotypes very similar to mor-1 {{81 Lewis,J.A.1977;}}. The mor-3 gene, a calcium/calmodulin dependent protein kinase may also have a role in abnormal pharynx development. The human orthologue of mor-3—dapk-1 (death-associated protein kinase 1)—is known to play a role in cell death. We believe that these mor genes share the same molecular pathway during development in C. elegans and in humans. Therefore, studying the molecular pathways of mor-1, mor-2, and mor-3 will yield a greater comprehension of muscle cell fate in the pharynx and thereby grant insight into human development

CIVIL PRACTICE Civil Practice Act: Allow for Discretionary Appeal of Class Certification; Adopt Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 23 Pertaining to Class Actions; Amend Interest Amount on Judgments; Prohibit Third Voluntary Dismissal by Plaintiff; Permit Courts to Use Discretion in Declining Jurisdiction When Another Forum is More Convenient; Change the Pre-Judgment Interest Rate; Provide for Vacation of an Arbitration Award Based Upon an Arbitrator\u27s Manifest Disregard for the Law

The Act replaces the Georgia rule relating to class actions by adopting Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 23. The Federal Rule allows for a discretionary intermediate appeal which existing state law did not allow. The Act amends the Georgia Code to allow courts to vacate arbitration awards when the arbitrator disregarded background substantive law in making a decision. The Act changes pre-judgment interest amounts on civil awards. Further, the Act prohibits plaintiffs from filing the same claim three times after voluntarily dismissing the claim twice. The Act also gives courts more discretion to deny jurisdiction in civil actions against nonresident defendants when a more convenient forum is available

A WIKI for your Thoughts- Can WIKIS promote a collaborative learning environment?

In this paper it will be argued that the incorporation of WIKIS within a collaborative learning environment has the ability to overcome the restraints created by larger classes. The paper will define what a collaborative learning environment should look like and how wiki technology has been used to create effective learning programs for large classes. The paper will also set out some ideas for teaching applications incorporating wikis along with some correlation evidence showing a relationship between student academic achievement and participation in wiki activities

Universal Loss Dynamics in a Unitary Bose Gas

The low temperature unitary Bose gas is a fundamental paradigm in few-body and many-body physics, attracting wide theoretical and experimental interest. Here we first present a theoretical model that describes the dynamic competition between two-body evaporation and three-body re-combination in a harmonically trapped unitary atomic gas above the condensation temperature. We identify a universal magic trap depth where, within some parameter range, evaporative cooling is balanced by recombination heating and the gas temperature stays constant. Our model is developed for the usual three-dimensional evaporation regime as well as the 2D evaporation case. Experiments performed with unitary 133 Cs and 7 Li atoms fully support our predictions and enable quantitative measurements of the 3-body recombination rate in the low temperature domain. In particular, we measure for the first time the Efimov inelasticity parameter $\eta$ * = 0.098(7) for the 47.8-G d-wave Feshbach resonance in 133 Cs. Combined 133 Cs and 7 Li experimental data allow investigations of loss dynamics over two orders of magnitude in temperature and four orders of magnitude in three-body loss. We confirm the 1/T 2 temperature universality law up to the constant $\eta$ *

Impacts of jellyfish on marine cage aquaculture : an overview of existing knowledge and the challenges to finfish health

BBSRC Eastbio funded studentship (lead author).Gelatinous plankton present a challenge to marine fish aquaculture that remains to be addressed. Shifting plankton distributions, suggested by some to be a result of factors such as climate change and overfishing, appear to be exacerbated by anthropogenic factors linked directly to aquaculture. Fish health can be negatively influenced by exposure to the cnidarian hydrozoan and scyphozoan life stages commonly referred to as “jellyfish”. Impact is particularly pronounced in gill tissue, where three key outcomes of exposure are described; direct traumatic damage, impaired function, and initiation of secondary disease. Cnidarian jellyfish demonstrated to negatively impact fish include Cyanea capillata, Aurelia aurita, and Pelagia noctiluca. Further coelenterates have also been associated with harm to fish, including sessile polyps of species such as Ectopleura larynx. An accurate picture of inshore planktic exposure densities within the coastal environments of aquaculture would aid in understanding cnidarian species of concern, and their impact upon fish health, particularly in gill disease. This information is however presently lacking. This review summarises the available literature regarding the impact of gelatinous plankton on finfish aquaculture, with a focus on cnidarian impact on fish health. Present strategies in monitoring and mitigation are presented, alongside identified critical knowledge gaps.PostprintPeer reviewe

Automated lithological mapping using airborne hyperspectral thermal infrared data: A case study from Anchorage Island, Antarctica

The thermal infrared portion of the electromagnetic spectrum has considerable potential for mineral and lithological mapping of the most abundant rock-forming silicates that do not display diagnostic features at visible and shortwave infrared wavelengths. Lithological mapping using visible and shortwave infrared hyperspectral data is well developed and established processing chains are available, however there is a paucity of such methodologies for hyperspectral thermal infrared data. Here we present a new fully automated processing chain for deriving lithological maps from hyperspectral thermal infrared data and test its applicability using the first ever airborne hyperspectral thermal data collected in the Antarctic. A combined airborne hyperspectral survey, targeted geological field mapping campaign and detailed mineralogical and geochemical datasets are applied to small test site in West Antarctica where the geological relationships are representative of continental margin arcs. The challenging environmental conditions and cold temperatures in the Antarctic meant that the data have a significantly lower signal to noise ratio than is usually attained from airborne hyperspectral sensors. We applied preprocessing techniques to improve the signal to noise ratio and convert the radiance images to ground leaving emissivity. Following preprocessing we developed and applied a fully automated processing chain to the hyperspectral imagery, which consists of the following six steps: (1) superpixel segmentation, (2) determine the number of endmembers, (3) extract endmembers from superpixels, (4) apply fully constrained linear unmixing, (5) generate a predictive classification map, and (6) automatically label the predictive classes to generate a lithological map. The results show that the image processing chain was successful, despite the low signal to noise ratio of the imagery; reconstruction of the hyperspectral image from the endmembers and their fractional abundances yielded a root mean square error of 0.58%. The results are encouraging with the thermal imagery allowing clear distinction between granitoid types. However, the distinction of fine grained, intermediate composition dykes is not possible due to the close geochemical similarity with the country rock

Sampling the fish gill microbiome : a comparison of tissue biopsies and swabs

Funding Information: The research costs of this work were supported by the BBSRC EASTBIO DTP and Marine Alliance for Science and Technology Scotland (MASTS) small grants funding scheme. Acknowledgements The authors would like to thank Scottish Sea Farms (SSF) for the kind facilitation of fieldwork that provided material in this project, particularly the staff at the Loch Spelve facility, and the health team at SSF, particularly Dr. Ralph Bickerdike. Thanks are due as well to Professor Matt Holden and Kerry Pettigrew of the Infection Group within the Biomedical Sciences Research Complex, School of Medicine, University of St Andrews, for assistance within the laboratory, as well as Dr. David Bass at the Centre for Environment Fisheries and Aquaculture Science for helpful proofreading.Peer reviewedPublisher PD