Are There De Soto Relics in Florida?

The adventurous trip of Hernando de Soto from his debarkation on the Florida Gulf Coast in 1539, through thousands of miles of wilderness, to his death on the Mississippi River in 1542 has been the subject of many fictional and scholarly studies. Despite the careful attention given to his journey many questions arise in the minds of the students. One is the puzzling problem of why no material objects have ever been found which can be derived from the De Soto expedition. It is hard to believe a party of more than five hundred well-equipped men would leave or lose nothing along their line of march

Osceola: Portraits, Features, and Dress

The most colorful figure of the unpopular Second Seminole War, Osceola, the Seminole war leader, early caught the imagination of the American public. 1 As a result, although we lack details of his early history, we have a good amount of data for his military career, and numerous comments on his appearance. He was the subject of several original sketches and paintings, as well as numerous engravings taken from them. However, differences between some of these “from life” renderings, raise the question of exactly what Osceola did look like

Exploring the networks of government scientists using Social Network Analysis: a scoping study

Scientists working for the New South Wales (NSW) Office of Environment and Heritage (OEH) provide rigorous evidence and advice to support government priorities which include protecting the natural environment. They also collaborate with and attract non-government researchers to work on government priorities. In this scoping study, we used Social Network Analysis (SNA) to visualise the ego networks of six government scientists from OEH who work on biodiversity conservation and landscape management. This allowed us to explore the potential reach of their advice and information within OEH and beyond; and examine gaps and redundancy in the stacked ego networks

Oil palm in the 2020s and beyond: challenges and solutions

Oil palm, Elaeis guineensis, is by far the most important global oil crop, supplying about 40\\% of all traded vegetable oil. Palm oils are key dietary components consumed daily by over three billion people, mostly in Asia, and also have a wide range of important non-food uses including in cleansing and sanitizing products.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Search for black hole ringdown signals in LIGO S4 data

If a coalescing binary system results in a black hole we expect it to be a perturbed Kerr black hole and to radiate gravitational waves in the form of ringdowns. A search for such signals in data from the fourth LIGO science run is currently being developed. In this paper we outline the theory on which this search is based and use it to predict the range for this data set

Two potential hookworm DAF-16 target genes, SNR-3 and LPP-1: gene structure, expression profile, and implications of a cis-regulatory element in the regulation of gene expression

Background Hookworms infect nearly 700 million people, causing anemia and developmental stunting in heavy infections. Little is known about the genomic structure or gene regulation in hookworms, although recent publication of draft genome assemblies has allowed the first investigations of these topics to be undertaken. The transcription factor DAF-16 mediates multiple developmental pathways in the free living nematode Caenorhabditis elegans, and is involved in the recovery from the developmentally arrested L3 in hookworms. Identification of downstream targets of DAF-16 will provide a better understanding of the molecular mechanism of hookworm infection. Methods Genomic Fragment 2.23 containing a DAF-16 binding element (DBE) was used to identify overlapping complementary expressed sequence tags (ESTs). These sequences were used to search a draft assembly of the Ancylostoma caninum genome, and identified two neighboring genes, snr-3 and lpp-1, in a tail-to-tail orientation. Expression patterns of both genes during parasitic development were determined by qRT-PCR. DAF-16 dependent cis-regulatory activity of fragment 2.23 was investigated using an in vitro reporter system. Results The snr-3 gene spans approximately 5.6 kb in the genome and contains 3 exons and 2 introns, and contains the DBE in its 3′ untranslated region. Downstream from snr-3 in a tail-to-tail arrangement is the gene lpp-1. The lpp-1 gene spans more than 6 kb and contains 10 exons and 9 introns. The A. caninum genome contains 2 apparent splice variants, but there are 7 splice variants in the A. ceylanicum genome. While the gene order is similar, the gene structures of the hookworm genes differ from their C. elegans orthologs. Both genes show peak expression in the late L4 stage. Using a cell culture based expression system, fragment 2.23 was found to have both DAF-16-dependent promoter and enhancer activity that required an intact DBE. Conclusions Two putative DAF-16 targets were identified by genome wide screening for DAF-16 binding elements. Aca-snr-3 encodes a core small nuclear ribonucleoprotein, and Aca-lpp-1 encodes a lipid phosphate phosphohydrolase. Expression of both genes peaked at the late L4 stage, suggesting a role in L4 development. The 3′-terminal genomic fragment of the snr-3 gene displayed Ac-DAF-16-dependent cis-regulatory activity

The limits of consensus? Report on the Somaliland Presidential Election, 13th November 2017

This report presents the findings of the International Election Observation Mission (IEOM) to Somaliland's third presidential election, held on November 13th 2017