A taxonomic and distributional study of the adult caddisflies of the family leptoceridae (insecta: trichoptera) of West Virginia

A survey of the adult Leptoceridae of West Virginia revealed 27 species, 25 of which were state records. The most abundant genus in the state was Ceraclea which had ten different species. Triaenodes had six different species, while Oecetis had five. The most common species in the state included C. cancellatus, C. maculate, O. avara, and O. inconspicua. Species that were abundant only in the larger rivers of the western portion of the state included C. flava, C. maculata, Nectopsyche pavida, and T. ignita. C. neffi seemed to be most abundant in the higher elevations of the east. Ceraclea ophioderus, C. slossonae, and C. wetzeli were important range extensions into West Virginia. Many species emerged throughout the summer suggesting multi-cohort populations

Factors Contributing to the Temporal Trends in Tissue Mercury Levels in Largemouth Bass from Lake Murray (South Carolina, USA)

2010 S.C. Water Resources Conferences - Science and Policy Challenges for a Sustainable Futur

Data management for JGOFS: Theory and design

The Joint Global Ocean Flux Study (JGOFS), currently being organized under the auspices of the Scientific Committee for Ocean Research (SCOR), is intended to be a decade long internationally coordinated program. The main goal of JGOFS is to determine and understand on a global scale the processes controlling the time-varying fluxes of carbon and associated biogenic elements in the ocean and to evaluate the related exchanges with the atmosphere, sea floor and continental boundaries. 'A long-term goal of JGOFS will be to establish strategies for observing, on long time scales, changes in ocean biogeochemical cycles in relation to climate change'. Participation from a large number of U.S. and foreign institutions is expected. JGOFS investigators have begun a set of time-series measurements and global surveys of a wide variety of biological, chemical and physical quantities, detailed process-oriented studies, satellite observations of ocean color and wind stress and modeling of the bio-geochemical processes. These experiments will generate data in amounts unprecedented in the biological and chemical communities; rapid and effortless exchange of these data will be important to the success of JGOFS

Hydrothermal activity lowers trophic diversity in Antarctic sedimented hydrothermal vents

Sedimented hydrothermal vents are those in which hydrothermal fluid vents through sediment and are among the least studied deep-sea ecosystems. We present a combination of microbial and biochemical data to assess trophodynamics between and within hydrothermally active and off-vent areas of the Bransfield Strait (1050–1647 m depth). Microbial composition, biomass and fatty acid signatures varied widely between and within vent and non-vent sites and provided evidence of diverse metabolic activity. Several species showed diverse feeding strategies and occupied different trophic positions in vent and non-vent areas and stable isotope values of consumers were generally not consistent with feeding structure morphology. Niche area and the diversity of microbial fatty acids reflected trends in species diversity and was lowest at the most hydrothermally active site. Faunal utilisation of chemosynthetic activity was relatively limited but was detected at both vent and non-vent sites as evidenced by carbon and sulphur isotopic signatures, suggesting that the hydrothermal activity can affect trophodynamics over a much wider area than previously thought

Transcriptomic comparison of communally reared wild, domesticated and hybrid Atlantic salmon fry under stress and control conditions

Background Domestication is the process by which organisms become adapted to the human-controlled environment. Since the selection pressures that act upon cultured and natural populations differ, adaptations that favour life in the domesticated environment are unlikely to be advantageous in the wild. Elucidation of the differences between wild and domesticated Atlantic salmon may provide insights into some of the genomic changes occurring during domestication, and, help to predict the evolutionary consequences of farmed salmon escapees interbreeding with wild conspecifics. In this study the transcriptome of the offspring of wild and domesticated Atlantic salmon were compared using a common-garden experiment under standard hatchery conditions and in response to an applied crowding stressor. Results Transcriptomic differences between wild and domesticated crosses were largely consistent between the control and stress conditions, and included down-regulation of environmental information processing, immune and nervous system pathways and up-regulation of genetic information processing, carbohydrate metabolism, lipid metabolism and digestive and endocrine system pathways in the domesticated fish relative to their wild counterparts, likely reflective of different selection pressures acting in wild and cultured populations. Many stress responsive functions were also shared between crosses and included down-regulation of cellular processes and genetic information processing and up-regulation of some metabolic pathways, lipid and energy in particular. The latter may be indicative of mobilization and reallocation of energy resources in response to stress. However, functional analysis indicated that a number of pathways behave differently between domesticated and wild salmon in response to stress. Reciprocal F1 hybrids permitted investigation of inheritance patterns that govern transcriptomic differences between these genetically divergent crosses. Additivity and maternal dominance accounted for approximately 42 and 25% of all differences under control conditions for both hybrids respectively. However, the inheritance of genes differentially expressed between crosses under stress was less consistent between reciprocal hybrids, potentially reflecting maternal environmental effects. Conclusion We conclude that there are transcriptomic differences between the domesticated and wild salmon strains studied here, reflecting the different selection pressures operating on them. Our results indicate that stress may affect certain biological functions differently in wild, domesticated and hybrid crosses and these should be further investigated

Extended neighborhood: Definition and characterization

We consider neighborhood search defined on combinatorial optimization problems. Suppose that N is a Neighborhood for combinatorial optimization problem X . We say that N ′ is LO-equivalent (locally optimal) to N if for any instance of X , the set of locally optimal solutions with respect to N and N ′ are the same. The union of two LO-equivalent neighborhoods is itself LO-equivalent to the neighborhoods. The largest neighborhood that is LO-equivalent to N is called the extended neighborhood of N , and denoted as N * . We analyze some basic properties of the extended neighborhood. We provide a geometric characterization of the extended neighborhood N * when the instances have linear costs defined over a cone. For the TSP, we consider 2-opt * , the extended neighborhood for the 2-opt (i.e., 2-exchange) neighborhood structure. We show that number of neighbors of each tour T in 2-opt * is at least ( n /2 -2)!. We show that finding the best tour in the 2-opt * neighborhood is NP-hard. We also show that the extended neighborhood for the graph partition problem is the same as the original neighborhood, regardless of the neighborhood defined. This result extends to the quadratic assignment problem as well. This result on extended neighborhoods relies on a proof that the convex hull of solutions for the graph partition problem has a diameter of 1, that is, every two corner points of this polytope are adjacent.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/47903/1/10107_2003_Article_497.pd

Connexin 36 Expression Regulates Neuronal Differentiation from Neural Progenitor Cells

Background: Gap junction communication has been shown in glial and neuronal cells and it is thought they mediate interand intra-cellular communication. Connexin 36 (Cx36) is expressed extensively in the developing brain, with levels peaking at P14 after which its levels fall and its expression becomes entirely neuronal. These and other data have led to the hypothesis that Cx36 may direct neuronal coupling and neurogenesis during development. Methodology/Principal Findings: To investigate Cx36 function we used a neurosphere model of neuronal cell development and developed lentiviral Cx36 knockdown and overexpression strategies. Cx36 knockdown was confirmed by western blotting, immunocytochemistry and functionally by fluorescence recovery after photobleaching (FRAP). We found that knockdown of Cx36 in neurosphere neuronal precursors significantly reduced neuronal coupling and the number of differentiated neurons. Correspondingly, the lentiviral mediated overexpression of Cx36 significantly increased the number of neurons derived from the transduced neurospheres. The number of oligodendrocytes was also significantly increased following transduction with Cx36 indicating they may support neuronal differentiation. Conclusions/Significance: Our data suggests that astrocytic and neuronal differentiation during development are governed by mechanisms that include the differential expression of Cx36

The Otterbein Miscellany - May 1968

https://digitalcommons.otterbein.edu/miscellany/1001/thumbnail.jp

Climate Change and Biosphere Response: Unlocking the Collections Vault

Natural history collections (NHCs) are an important source of the long-term data needed to understand how biota respond to ongoing anthropogenic climate change. These include taxon occurrence data for ecological modeling, as well as information that can be used to reconstruct mechanisms through which biota respond to changing climates. The full potential of NHCs for climate change research cannot be fully realized until high-quality data sets are conveniently accessible for research, but this requires that higher priority be placed on digitizing the holdings most useful for climate change research (e.g., whole-biota studies, time series, records of intensively sampled common taxa). Natural history collections must not neglect the proliferation of new information from efforts to understand how present-day ecosystems are responding to environmental change. These new directions require a strategic realignment for many NHC holders to complement their existing focus on taxonomy and systematics. To set these new priorities, we need strong partnerships between NHC holders and global change biologists