Genetic diversity and structure of calanoid copepods: Molecular evolutionary patterns in coastal estuaries (Acartia tonsa) and the open ocean (Calanus spp)

Calanoid copepods are an important part of marine and estuarine ecosystems. However, it has been difficult to study their life histories, population structure, and evolution because they share a conserved morphology that complicates species identification. A primary focus of this study was the genetic and physiological variation of the calanoid copepod Acartia tonsa from four estuaries along the East Coast of the USA (Great Bay, NH, Buzzards Bay, MA, Narragansett Bay, RI, and Beaufort Inlet, NC). Based on DNA sequence variation for the mitochondrial cytochrome oxidase I (mtCOI) gene, significant population structure was observed between all pairs of estuarine populations (phi ST \u3e 0.9, p \u3c 0.0001), except for those of two neighboring estuaries, Buzzards Bay and Narragansett Bay. Based on amplified fragment length polymorphism (AFLP) markers, significant population structure was observed between Buzzards Bay and Narragansett Bay (thetaB = 0.042, 95% CI: 0.024--0.065). Individuals from the four estuarine populations were shown to interbreed with each other in reciprocal crosses in laboratory cultures. Crosses between individuals from Great Bay, NH and the other populations failed to produce fertile offspring. Thus, according to both the biological and evolutionary species concepts, the Great Bay, NH population of A. tonsa should be considered to be a different species from the Buzzards Bay, MA; Narragansett Bay, RI; and Beaufort Inlet, NC populations. Comparisons of physiological responses to high and low temperatures of Great Bay and Beaufort Inlet populations yielded evidence of significantly different responses to temperature extremes. Attempts to induce females to lay diapause egg by exposing them to low temperatures and short photoperiods produced only quiescent eggs. It was concluded that the currently identified group of A. tonsa contains at least two cryptic species that are genetically diverse, potentially evolutionarily and taxonomically distinct, and morphologically identical. The second focus of this study was a parallel analysis of nine species of Calanus based on DNA sequence variation of mtCOI. There was significant genetic divergence between all species, which was used to reconstruct the phylogenetic relationship among the species. The molecular phylogeny was in good agreement with hypotheses of evolutionary relationships based on morphological characters. The DNA sequences were also used to develop a PCR-based molecular protocol to rapidly identify four of the species of Calanus with very similar morphologies and overlapping geographic ranges. Considered together, the results of these studies showed that the conserved morphology of the calanoid copepods harbor a large amount of genetic diversity, which can be used to identify species and reconstruct their evolutionary relationships. These studies have also indicated that the true diversity of calanoid copepods is yet to be discovered

Relative Age and Maturation Selection Biases in Academy Football

This study examined the simultaneous effects of relative age and biological maturity status upon player selection in an English professional soccer academy. A total of 202 players from the U9 to U16 age groups, over an eight-year period (total of 566 observations), had their relative age (birth quarter) and biological maturity (categorised as late, on-time or early maturing based upon the Khamis-Roche method of percentage of predicted adult height at time of observation) recorded. Players born in the first birth quarter of the year (54.8%) were over-represented across all age groups. A selection bias towards players advanced in maturity status for chronological age emerged in U12 players and increased with age; 0% of players in the U15 and U16 age group were categorised as late maturing. A clear maturity selection bias for early maturing players was, however, only apparent when the least conservative criterion for estimating maturity status was applied (53.8% early and 1.9% late maturing in the U16 age group). Professional football academies need to recognise relative age and maturation as independent constructs that exist and operate independently. Thus, separate strategies should perhaps be designed to address the respective selection biases, to better identify, retain and develop players

'It's a film' : medium specificity as textual gesture in Red road and The unloved

British cinema has long been intertwined with television. The buzzwords of the transition to digital media, 'convergence' and 'multi-platform delivery', have particular histories in the British context which can be grasped only through an understanding of the cultural, historical and institutional peculiarities of the British film and television industries. Central to this understanding must be two comparisons: first, the relative stability of television in the duopoly period (at its core, the licence-funded BBC) in contrast to the repeated boom and bust of the many different financial/industrial combinations which have comprised the film industry; and second, the cultural and historical connotations of 'film' and 'television'. All readers of this journal will be familiar – possibly over-familiar – with the notion that 'British cinema is alive and well and living on television'. At the end of the first decade of the twenty-first century, when 'the end of medium specificity' is much trumpeted, it might be useful to return to the historical imbrication of British film and television, to explore both the possibility that medium specificity may be more nationally specific than much contemporary theorisation suggests, and to consider some of the relationships between film and television manifest at a textual level in two recent films, Red Road (2006) and The Unloved (2009)

Scoping studies to establish the capability and utility of a real-time bioaerosol sensor to characterise emissions from environmental sources

A novel dual excitation wavelength based bioaerosol sensor with multiple fluorescence bands called Spectral Intensity Bioaerosol Sensor (SIBS) has been assessed across five contrasting outdoor environments. The mean concentrations of total and fluorescent particles across the sites were highly variable being the highest at the agricultural farm (2.6 cm−3 and 0.48 cm−3, respectively) and the composting site (2.32 cm−3 and 0.46 cm−3, respectively) and the lowest at the dairy farm (1.03 cm−3 and 0.24 cm−3, respectively) and the sewage treatment works (1.03 cm−3 and 0.25 cm−3, respectively). In contrast, the number-weighted fluorescent fraction was lowest at the agricultural site (0.18) in comparison to the other sites indicating high variability in nature and magnitude of emissions from environmental sources. The fluorescence emissions data demonstrated that the spectra at different sites were multimodal with intensity differences largely at wavelengths located in secondary emission peaks for λex 280 and λex 370. This finding suggests differences in the molecular composition of emissions at these sites which can help to identify distinct fluorescence signature of different environmental sources. Overall this study demonstrated that SIBS provides additional spectral information compared to existing instruments and capability to resolve spectrally integrated signals from relevant biological fluorophores could improve selectivity and thus enhance discrimination and classification strategies for real-time characterisation of bioaerosols from environmental sources. However, detailed lab-based measurements in conjunction with real-world studies and improved numerical methods are required to optimise and validate these highly resolved spectral signatures with respect to the diverse atmospherically relevant biological fluorophores

EphA2 Drives the Segregation of Ras-Transformed Epithelial Cells from Normal Neighbors

© 2016 Elsevier Ltd In epithelial tissues, cells expressing oncogenic Ras (hereafter RasV12 cells) are detected by normal neighbors and as a result are often extruded from the tissue [1–6]. RasV12 cells are eliminated apically, suggesting that extrusion may be a tumor-suppressive process. Extrusion depends on E-cadherin-based cell-cell adhesions and signaling to the actin-myosin cytoskeleton [2, 6]. However, the signals underlying detection of the RasV12 cell and triggering extrusion are poorly understood. Here we identify differential EphA2 signaling as the mechanism by which RasV12 cells are detected in epithelial cell sheets. Cell-cell interactions between normal cells and RasV12 cells trigger ephrin-A-EphA2 signaling, which induces a cell repulsion response in RasV12 cells. Concomitantly, RasV12 cell contractility increases in an EphA2-dependent manner. Together, these responses drive the separation of RasV12 cells from normal cells. In the absence of ephrin-A-EphA2 signals, RasV12 cells integrate with normal cells and adopt a pro-invasive morphology. We also show that Drosophila Eph (DEph) is detected in segregating clones of RasV12 cells and is functionally required to drive segregation of RasV12 cells invivo, suggesting that our invitro findings are conserved in evolution. We propose that expression of RasV12 in single or small clusters of cells within a healthy epithelium creates ectopic EphA2 boundaries, which drive the segregation and elimination of the transformed cell from the tissue. Thus, deregulation of Eph/ephrin would allow RasV12 cells to go undetected and expand within an epithelium

NineML: the network interchange for neuroscience modeling language

The growing number of large-scale neuronal network models has created a need for standards and guidelines to ease model sharing and facilitate the replication of results across different simulators. To foster community efforts towards such standards, the International Neuroinformatics Coordinating Facility (INCF) has formed its Multiscale Modeling program, and has assembled a task force of simulator developers to propose a declarative computer language for descriptions of large-scale neuronal networks. The name of the proposed language is "Network Interchange for Neuroscience Modeling Language" (NineML) and its initial focus is restricted to point neuron models. The INCF Multiscale Modeling task force has identified the key concepts of network modeling to be 1) spiking neurons 2) synapses 3) populations of neurons and 4) connectivity patterns across populations of neurons. Accordingly, the definition of NineML includes a set of mathematical abstractions to represent these concepts. NineML aims to provide tool support for explicit declarative definition of spiking neuronal network models both conceptually and mathematically in a simulator independent manner. In addition, NineML is designed to be self-consistent and highly flexible, allowing addition of new models and mathematical descriptions without modification of the previous structure and organization of the language. To achieve these goals, the language is being iteratively designed using several representative models with various levels of complexity as test cases. The design of NineML is divided in two semantic layers: the Abstraction Layer, which consists of core mathematical concepts necessary to express neuronal and synaptic dynamics and network connectivity patterns, and the User Layer, which provides constructs to specify the instantiation of a network model in terms that are familiar to computational neuroscience modelers. As part of the Abstraction Layer, NineML includes a flexible block diagram notation for describing spiking dynamics. The notation represents continuous and discrete variables, their evolution according to a set of rules such as a system of ordinary differential equations, and the conditions that induce a regime change, such as the transition from subthreshold mode to spiking and refractory modes. The User Layer provides syntax for specifying the structure of the elements of a spiking neuronal network. This includes parameters for each of the individual elements (cells, synapses, inputs) and the grouping of these entities into networks. In addition, the user layer defines the syntax for supplying parameter values to abstract connectivity patterns. The NineML specification is defined as an implementation-neutral object model representing all the concepts in the User and Abstraction Layers. Libraries for creating, manipulating, querying and serializing the NineML object model to a standard XML representation will be delivered for a variety of languages. The first priority of the task force is to deliver a publicly available Python implementation to support the wide range of simulators which provide a Python user interface (NEURON, NEST, Brian, MOOSE, GENESIS-3, PCSIM, PyNN, etc.). These libraries will allow simulator developers to quickly add support for NineML, and will thus catalyze the emergence of a broad software ecosystem supporting model definition interoperability around NineML

Protective CD8+ T-cell immunity to human malaria induced by chimpanzee adenovirus-MVA immunisation.

Induction of antigen-specific CD8(+) T cells offers the prospect of immunization against many infectious diseases, but no subunit vaccine has induced CD8(+) T cells that correlate with efficacy in humans. Here we demonstrate that a replication-deficient chimpanzee adenovirus vector followed by a modified vaccinia virus Ankara booster induces exceptionally high frequency T-cell responses (median >2400 SFC/10(6) peripheral blood mononuclear cells) to the liver-stage Plasmodium falciparum malaria antigen ME-TRAP. It induces sterile protective efficacy against heterologous strain sporozoites in three vaccinees (3/14, 21%), and delays time to patency through substantial reduction of liver-stage parasite burden in five more (5/14, 36%), P=0.008 compared with controls. The frequency of monofunctional interferon-γ-producing CD8(+) T cells, but not antibodies, correlates with sterile protection and delay in time to patency (P(corrected)=0.005). Vaccine-induced CD8(+) T cells provide protection against human malaria, suggesting that a major limitation of previous vaccination approaches has been the insufficient magnitude of induced T cells

Crop Updates 2002 - Cereals

This session covers thirty one papers from different authors: VARIETIES AND BREEDING 1. Agronomic evaluation of wheat and barley in the central wheatbelt of Western Australia, Peter Burgess1and Gary Fawell2, 1Agritech and 2Farmanco Management 2. Evaluating stress tolerance to terminal drought by Western Australian wheats, Dean Diepeveen and Dr Tim Setter, Department of Agriculture 3. Broadscale wheat variety comparisons featuring Wyalkatchem, Jeff Russell, Department of Agriculture 4. Australian crop accreditation system variety selector, Tony Seymour, Australian Crop Accreditation System 5. Future wheat varieties, Robin Wilson, Iain Barclay,Robyn McLean, Robert Loughman, Jenny Garlinge, Bill Lambe, Neil Venn and Peter Clarke, Department of Agriculture AGRONOMY 6. Beware of wheat variety interactions with row spacing and seed rate, Mohammad Amjad and Wal Anderson, Department of Agriculture 7. Yield and falling numbers of wheat varieties on the South Coast, Mohammad Amjad and Wal Anderson, Department of Agriculture 8. Maximising wheat variety performance through agronomic management, Wal Anderson, Raffaele Del Cima, James Bee, Darshan Sharma, Sheena Lyon, Melaine Kupsch, Mohammad Amjad, Pam Burgess, Veronika Reck, Brenda Shackley, Ray Tugwell, BindiWebb and Steve Penny Jr, Department of Agriculture 9. High impact of soil type and seasonal rainfall on optimum wheat seed rate , Raffaele Del Cima and Wal Anderson Department of Agriculture 10. 101 seasons in one day: Using the ‘WA Wheat’ database to predict wheat yield, James Fisher1, Bill Bowden1, Craig Scanlan1, Senthold Asseng2and Michael Robertson2 1Department of Agriculture, 2CSIRO 11. Economics of improving compact soils, M.A. Hamza1, G. McConnell2and W.K. Anderson1, 1Department of Agriculture, 2Planfarm 12. Reducing the risks in producing durum wheat in Western Australia, Md Shahajahan Miyan and Wal Anderson, Department of Agriculture 13. Taking the Why out of Wyalkatchem – the new widely adopted wheat variety, Steve Penny, Department of Agriculture 14. Influence of nutrition and environmental factors on seed vigour in wheat, Darshan Sharma, Wal Anderson and Daya Patabendige, Department of Agriculture NUTRITION 15. N and K are important for oat yield and quality, Patrick Gethin, Stephen Loss, Tim O’Dea, Ryan Guthrie and Lisa Leaver, CSBP Futurefarm 16. Effects of nitrogen and phosphorus on the grain yield and quality of noodle wheat, Tyrone Henning1, Lionel Martin1and Wal Anderson2 1Muresk Institute of Agriculture, 2Department of Agriculture 17. Assessment of a high input fertiliser regime on the yield and quality of Gairdner barley, Narelle Hill1, Simon Wallwork2and Laurence Carslake2 1Department of Agriculture, 2Wesfarmers Landmark 18. The use of Flexi-N to achieve high yielding, high protein wheat, Darren Hughes1, Lionel Martin1, Wal Anderson2and Stephen Loss3 1Muresk Institute of Agriculture, 2Department of Agriculture, 3CSBP Futurefarm 19. Are liquid phosphorus fertilisers more efficient than solid fertilisers in Western Australia?Stephen Loss, Lisa Leaver, Ryan Guthrie, Patrick Gethin and Tim O’Dea, CSBP Futurefarm 20. Oats respond to phosphorus and potassium, Glenn McDonald, Department of Agriculture PESTS AND DISEASES 21. Cereal disease diagnostics and rust monitoring, Nichole Burges and Dominie Wright, Department of Agriculture 22. Distribution and incidence of aphids and barley yellow dwarf virus in over-summering grasses in the Western Australian wheatbelt, Jenny Hawkes and Roger Jones, Centre for Legumes in Mediterranean Agriculture and Department of Agriculture 23. Spring sprays for powdery mildew control in cereals, Kith Jayasena1, Kazue Tanaka1, Vanessa Johnson1, Robert Loughman1and Josh Jury2 1Department of Agriculture, 2Wesfarmers Landmark 24. Impact of root lesion nematodes on wheat and triticale in Western Australia, Sean Kelly and Shashi Sharma, Department of Agriculture 25. Cropping options for the management of root lesion nematodes in Western Australia, Sean Kelly, Shashi Sharma and Robert Loughman, Department of Agriculture 26. Cereal rust update 2002 – new stem rust on Camm wheat, Robert Loughman1and Robert Park2 1Department of Agriculture, 2University of Sydney 27. Cereal aphids and direct feeding damage to cereals, Phil Michael, Department of Agriculture 28. A decision support system for control of aphids and BYDV in cereal crops, Debbie Thackray, Jenny Hawkes and Roger Jones, Department of Agriculture and Centre for Legumes in Mediterranean Agriculture STORAGE 29. Aeration – opportunity for profit, Christopher Newman, Department of Agriculture CLIMATE 30. Financial impact of frost on the Western Australian grains industry, Garren Knell and Kim Povey, ConsultAg 31. Summary of 2001 weather and seasonal prospects for 2002, David Stephens, Department of Agricultur