Fearless: Christine Serwan and Sam Holmes

This week, we’re recognising the fearless work that Christine Serwan ’13 and Sam Holmes ’13 will be doing over the next two years during with the Peace Corps. [excerpt

Harbouring Aliens: Ports as Habitats for Non-native Species

Non-native species are widely regarded as a significant environmental threat and have been associated with biodiversity loss, species extinctions and the altering of ecosystem services. Shipping is the largest transport vector for aquatic species worldwide and ports, being central to this industry, are considered potential ‘hotspots’ for non-native species introductions. Ports are often heavily industrialised areas which can hinder access and the use of standard survey methods. As such, our knowledge of non-native species within UK ports is poor. As the foundation for this research I developed two different settlement surveys designed specifically to overcome some of the obstacles associated with working within active port environments. Surveys were deployed across five ports in South Wales, UK. I detected 13 non-native species and described the wider fouling communities present within each studied port. Whole community structure and their succession varied highly between ports, with salinity being the primary driver of differences between port communities. Significant differences in the observed non-native species between ports, independent of geographic proximity, highlighted the need to monitor individual ports with a view to implementing bespoke, effective management strategies. Colonisation of different material substrates was quantified and revealed that whilst the community structure varied between material types, non-native species would readily colonise all studied materials. These findings have particular importance for the management of non-native species within ports and have been used to inform port biosecurity procedures within the studied region. The successful deployment of the tailored survey methods within active ports will encourage regular monitoring for non-native species within UK ports. This research also showed that collaborations between researchers and port authorities can be highly effective for both parties and may indeed be necessary if we are to successfully manage aquatic non-native species within the UK

Examining the Effect of Group Assignment on Upper Elementary Students\u27 Experiences in a Technology-Mediated Collaborative Compositional Activity

Collaboration in elementary music instruction has been incorporated frequently in creative activities. With the increase of technology integration, researchers have investigated its use as a mediation tool in creative activities. The nature of how children are grouped remains in contention. There is a need for comparing students’ perceptions in group work based on their group selection. The purpose of this mixed methods study was to examine the effect of group assignment on upper elementary students’ experiences in a technology-mediated collaborative compositional activity. Research questions included: (a) How do upper elementary students perceive collaboration in a group-based, technology-mediated music composition activity? (b) Is there a significant difference in students’ perceptions of collaboration based on their group assignment, as measured by the Collaborative Composition Through Technology Assessment (CCTTA)? (c) Based on group assignment, are there differences in the nature of students’ interactions in collaboration? and (d) How does group assignment influence the quality of students’ compositional products? Data consisted of a researcher-adapted questionnaire consisting of Likert type items and open-ended questions pertaining to perceptions of working collaboratively, video observations, interviews, and a final product score. Fourth grade students (N = 40) from two, intact classes were formed into student-selected (SSG) and researcher-selected (RSG) groups. Groups participated in a 60-minute, open-ended compositional activity using GarageBand as the mediation tool. While participants viewed collaboration and technology positively, quantitative results yielded no significant differences between groups in students’ perceptions. Similarly, there was no significant difference between groups in the quality of compositional products. Participants in SSG preferred working collaboratively over their RSG counterparts, which was a statistically significant finding. Qualitative findings revealed that both group sets employed a democratic approach to decision making. Both group sets reported having disagreements between members. Findings indicated that the SSG overcame differences through a shared understanding of their existing knowledge while the RSG reported frustrations in unequal role assignments, hindering the integration of individual ideas. The importance of exploratory processes in the activity indicated that the SSG employed purposeful planning of the final product, while the RSG used more random exploration

Strategies to Incorporate Left Atrial Appendage Occlusion Into Clinical Practice

AbstractThe left atrial appendage (LAA) has been identified as a predominant source of thrombus formation leading to significant thromboembolic events in patients with nonvalvular atrial fibrillation. Medical therapy to eliminate thrombus formation in the LAA has been the standard of care for several decades, but mechanical approaches designed to exclude the LAA from the circulation have recently been developed. The largest body of randomized and nonrandomized data to date has been for the Watchman device (Boston Scientific, Natick, Massachusetts), which was recently approved by the Food and Drug Administration for selected patients in the United States. There are no current guidelines or guidance for institutions and operators looking to become involved in this therapy. This perspective is aimed at exploring these issues and providing necessary information and guidance to these programs and operators to help ensure a successful launch of a LAA occlusion program and optimize patient selection, procedural performance, and outcome

The Incorporation of Scientific Discourse in Yamamura Bochō's "Prismist" Poetry (1914-1916)

Yamamura Bochō (1884-1924) is mainly remembered as the author of "Seisanryōhari" (The Sacred Prism, 1915), a collection of "shi" (modern poetry in non-traditional forms) that represents the culmination of his experiments in diction and imagery. One of the most striking elements of his ‘prismist’ poetry is the presence of scientific language, coming from the domains of geology, botany, biology, and medicine. In this paper, I adopt a historical and textual perspective to attempt an analysis of the incorporation of scientific discourse in Bochō’s poetry. Particular emphasis is placed on the European and Japanese debate on the ‘new science’ and on the similarities to the treatment of this topic by Bochō and the discourses of the historical European avant-garde (especially Italian Futurism)

The pre-depositional history of the Applecross Formation, Northwest Highlands, Scotland

The provenance of Applecross Formation sedimentary rocks (Torridon Group, Northwest Scotland) is a topic of significant debate owing to difficulties in clearly correlating various datasets for the region (detrital mineral studies, sedimentology, and palinspastic restorations) to create an accepted palaeogeographic reconstruction. This study aims to elucidate the source area of Applecross sedimentary rocks and modes of deposition and transportation. LA-ICP-MS 206Pb/238U dating of detrital zircon samples from various stratigraphic levels within the Applecross Formation type area is utilised to assess variations in the source over time. Sampling is spread through ~2000m of stratigraphy, along a ~15km outcrop parallel transect between Applecross and Loch Kishorn. Data reduction is undertaken using Iolite data reduction software. U-Pb detrital zircon peaks of Mesoproterozoic (1280-1520Ma) and late Palaeoproterozoic (1680-1980Ma) age are dominant throughout the Applecross Formation. Minor early Palaeoproterozoic (2191-2265Ma) and Archean components up to 3346±43Ma are present. These data are in broad agreement with detrital zircon data from elsewhere in the Applecross Formation presented by Rainbird, Hamilton and Young (2001) and Krabbendam et al. (2017), suggesting a uniform input of well mixed sediment from a single source. Terranes in the foreland basin of the Grenville Orogen are favoured as source areas, with transport in an orogen axial foreland trunk system. Detrital Zircon U-Pb geochronology is combined with sedimentological context to determine depositional style. Deposition is interpreted to occur in a large scale distributive system similar to the Okavango Delta, Botswana, with unconfinement occurring during an extensional phase of the Grenville Orogen associated with rotation of Baltica relative to Laurentia at the time of deposition (see Rivers, 1997; Cawood et al., 2007). This proposal correlates known detrital mineral and sedimentological datasets. Further work is required to support the model; additional detrital zircon datasets are required to confirm the validity of a single sediment input. Further evidence for localised extension in the Applecross region is required to substantiate unconfinement of an established foreland trunk river system

A tale of two moduli spaces: logarithmic and multi-scale differentials

Multi-scale differentials are constructed in [BCGGM3], from the viewpoint of flat and complex geometry, for the purpose of compactifying moduli spaces of curves together with a differential with prescribed orders of zeros and poles. Logarithmic differentials are constructed in [MW20], as a generalization of stable rubber maps from Gromov--Witten theory. Modulo the global residue condition that isolates the main components of the compactification, we show that these two kinds of differentials are equivalent, and establish an isomorphism of their (coarse) moduli stacks. Moreover, we describe the rubber and multi-scale spaces as an explicit blowup of the moduli space of stable pointed rational curves in the case of genus zero, and as a global blowup of the incidence variety compactification for arbitrary genera, which implies their projectivity. We also propose a refined double ramification cycle formula in the twisted Hodge bundle which interacts with the universal line bundle class.Comment: 54 pages. Comments very welcome

Post-termination Effects of Cover Crop Monocultures and Mixtures on Soil Inorganic Nitrogen and Microbial Communities on Two Organic Farms in Illinois

Cover crops can continue to affect agricultural systems even after they have been terminated by influencing nitrogen dynamics and by altering soil microbial communities. These post-termination effects can influence soil fertility, weed pressure, and the dynamics of potential plant pathogens in the narrow window of time between cover crop termination and cash crop emergence. We evaluated the post-termination effects of 12 different spring-sown cover crop mixtures and monocultures on soil nitrogen and microbial communities on two different organic farms in Central Illinois (on Lawson silt loam soil) and Northern Illinois (on Virgil silt loam soil). In comparison to control plots with no cover crops, all cover crop treatments significantly reduced soil nitrate levels but increased the potentially mineralizable nitrogen pool following termination. Nitrate levels of cover crop plots approached those of controls after 2 and 4 weeks, respectively, but potentially mineralizable nitrogen levels in cover plots remained elevated for at least 4 weeks following termination. Monocultures of Brassica cover crops showed the greatest decrease in soil nitrate, while Brassicas and unplanted control plots containing high biomass of weeds showed the greatest increase in potentially mineralizable nitrogen in comparison to plant-free control plots. In contrast to their effect on soil nitrogen, cover crops had very limited impact on the composition of soil microbial communities. Overall microbial community composition varied across sites and years, and only soil fungi significantly responded to cover cropping treatments. Nevertheless, we found that some highly correlated groups of soil microbes showed significant responses to soil nitrate and to high plant biomass. Key members of these correlated groups included ammonia-oxidizing organisms and saprotrophic fungi. Our results suggest that cover crops may reduce the potential for springtime nitrogen leaching losses by retaining nitrogen in the soil organic pool, and they may also have impacts on the soil microbial community that are particularly relevant for nitrogen cycling and decomposition of plant residues