IDENTIFICATION OF MASTIGOCLADUS LAMINOSUS GENES ASSOCIATED WITH ENHANCED NITROGEN FIXATION PERFORMANCE

Understanding population variation for fitness-related traits is important for our comprehension of evolutionary adaptation and of how populations respond to environmental change. Here, I investigate variation in nitrogen fixation performance for an ecologically-variable population of the cyanobacterium Mastigocladus laminosus from White Creek, a nitrogen-limited, geothermally-influenced stream in Yellowstone NP. I next take a population genomics approach to identify candidate loci associated with superior performance. Variation among strains and temperature dependence of the nitrogen fixation process were the most important factors in a linear mixed effects model. Absolute and relative measures of genetic differentiation between strains from the upper quartile of nitrogen fixation performance and the other 75% of strains showed that only a small subset of loci were associated with superior nitrogen fixation. Most notably, the strains that fixed the most nitrogen contained a premature stop codon in a regulatory histidine kinase gene, but this allele was present at low frequency in other strains. Because this nonsense mutation eliminates many important functional sites in the protein, this allele is expected to be non-functional. Both the full-length and the putative null allele, as well as a third recombinant allele, were expressed during nitrogen step-down and in the presence of combined nitrogen. Future studies will investigate whether the nonsense mutation results in transcriptional rewiring that is favorable for nitrogen fixation

It Takes A Village: Engaging Families to Support Student Transitioning Into A New School

Students face many barriers throughout their education and school transitions have always been a significant challenge for many. Moving to a new school always comes with a host of challenges whether you are moving into kindergarten as a 5-year old or moving to a four-year university as an 18-year old. Schools attempt many different interventions at each of these levels but one common theme, that transcends through a student’s entire journey and increases the chances of a success, is engaging families throughout its entirety. Parents are typically much more involved in a student’s earlier years of school, typically elementary school, but this engagement seems to decrease as a student gets older and moves into different schools. Having parents involved early in their child’s education is vitally important for adolescent development, it is just as important to keep them engaged throughout all of it, every transition is just as important as the previous. Using families as a tool and a resource to help a student through these difficult times in school will help all students become more successful academically, socially, and behaviorally. There are many barriers to increasing family involvement. Some of these barriers are due to family circumstances such as busy schedules and childcare needs but some of these barriers (often unknowingly) are from the school and district itself like inherent biases from staff and teachers or a (perceived or actual) lack of communication between school and home. Overcoming these barriers and making a stronger connection between school and home remains a critical intervention to aid students in making transitions between schools

Cheaper by the Dozen: Communication in Large Families

Little research has been devoted to the examination of communicative patterns and behaviors within traditional large nuclear families. In fact, large families themselves have become quite rare in industrialized western society. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, total fertility rate in the United States is at 1.93, and the US Census Bureau reports that the average number of children in a family is less than two. Though the rarity of large families has made them difficult to study, large families are by no means extinct as a demographic. The research herein seeks to expand current understanding of communicative dynamics within large families by reviewing existing research on large families, as well as analyzing data collected from a questionnaire and interviews with members of large families. The goal of this research is to reveal trends in large family communication and explore its effect on the expression of extroverted and neurotic traits. Individuals from families with six or more children were surveyed using Sato’s Eysenck Personality Questionnaire Brief Version (2005) and Carver & Jones’s Family Satisfaction Scale (1992) in order to provide a quantitative perspective on the potential effect of family size on the expression of extraversion and neuroticism, as well as family satisfaction. Additionally, interviews conducted with individuals raised in large families furnish a holistic impression of communicative trends within these families. Given the unique dynamic present in a large and atypical household, the goal of this paper is to identify and investigate communication trends within large families, explore the impact of family environment and practices on expression of extraversion and neuroticism, and evaluate the effects of large family size on family satisfaction. What communication trends characterize interactions within large families? Do the communicative practices of large families give rise to expression of extraverted and neurotic personality traits? What (if any) is the function of large family size on family satisfaction? This foray into the largely uncharted field of communication in large families seeks to shed light on these questions

Alien Registration- Hutchins, George R. (Easton, Aroostook County)

https://digitalmaine.com/alien_docs/26403/thumbnail.jp

A study of the role of oncogenes and tumour suppressor genes in malignant pancreatico-biliary tumours

The molecular understanding of tumour development and progression has advanced considerably with the discovery of oncogenes and tumour suppressor genes. Surgical treatment is the only therapy that offers the potential for cure in hepatopancreatobiliary malignancy. Distinct from other solid tumours, HPB malignancies are unique in that many patients are considered unresectable despite only local, small volume disease. "Curative" resection unfortunately fails in 50% or more of cases. With such poor responses from conventional medical treatments, these tumours are potentially a target for genetic manipulation. The aim of this study was to identify those protein products abnormally expressed in HPB malignancy (by immunohistochemical analysis). In order to narrow down the field of protein products to be investigated, those that are abnormally expressed commonly in foregut tumours were chosen (p53, c-myc, MIB-1, Bcl-2 and c-erbB-2). Given that the embryological derivation of HPB tumours is also foregut, these factors were investigated in this group of neoplasms looking for distinguishing or diagnostic characteristics in expression. The results were compared with expression within pre- invasive, invasive and pre-malignant lesions of the same tissues. No classification based on expression of any of the oncogene products could be used to distinguish the site of tumour origin. Based on comparisons with benign and normal tissue examples, no useful diagnostic differences were discovered between expression of any of the markers. To assess whether expression was a feature of aggressive biological behaviour, comparisons were made for each grade of tumour. Only ampullary lesions had a significant increase in expression of p53 protein with advancing grade of tumour. Confirmed was the suspicion that immunohistochemically-expressed p53 protein is not confined to malignant cells alone. There was a high percentage of expression of c-myc and p53 proteins in all tumour sites, but seemingly no relevance to cancer development. Given this, the second stage of this study was to investigate controlling mechanisms around these proteins and assess whether these dictated the progression of the cell cycle to mitosis or release to differentiation, cell death or DNA repair pathways and thus avoidance of malignant change. In-situ hybridisation techniques were used to assess the expression of mRNA (MDM-2, p21WAF-1, Bax and BCLX1 cDNA probes constructed in-house) in serial sections of ten cholangiocarcinomas and two normal gallbladders. This was compared with expression of p53, MDM-2, p21WAF-1, Bax, c-erbB-2, Bcl-2, MIB-1 and c-myc proteins by immunohistochemistry and cell death (apoptosis) by histopathological assessment and the TUNEL assay. Heterogeneity of expression resulted in no correlation between markers being of any significance or in any pattern of expression within a tumour group compared to normal biliary epithelium. The third stage of the study was to assess whether any protein expression had prognostic significance in cholangiocarcinoma compared to accepted prognostic clinical and pathological criteria by Kaplan-Meier survival analysis. No marker performed usefully in assessing aggressiveness of disease. An incidental finding during this study was that Bcl-2 plays no part in regulating cell survival within the biliary tree. This is distinct from the overwhelming majority of other tissues where Bcl-2 does regulate survival. This role, in the biliary tree, is performed by a Bcl-2-related gene - BclxL. This is now being more formally assessed in further studies as well as the response of cholangiocarcinoma cells to manipulations of these and other cell survival factors

Acute pulmonary pathology and sudden death in rats following the intravenous administration of the plasticizer, DI (2-ethylhexyl) phthalate, solubilized with Tween surfactants

Intravenous administration of 200-300 mg/kg of di(2-ethylhexyl)phthalate (DEHP) solubilized in aqueous solutions of several Tween surfactants caused respiratory distress in rats. There was a dose-dependent lethality with death generally occurring within 90 minutes after injection. The lungs from DEHP:Tween treated animals were enlarged, generally darkened, and in some cases showed hemorrhagic congestion. Neither the overt symptoms nor the morphologic alterations resulting from DEHP:Tween administration could be reproduced by intravenous administration of aqueous Tween solutions alone. The absence of pulmonary abnormalities following the intravenous administration of DEHP as an aqueous emulsion given either alone or even as soon as 2 minutes after pretreatment with Tween 80, suggests that the specific in vivo interaction between DEHP and Tween surfactants depends on the prior formation of water-soluble micelles of DEHP

Evidence of large-scale amplitude modulation on the near-wall turbulence

The relationship between large- and small-scale motions remains a poorly understood process in wall-bounded turbulence. Such misunderstanding is perhaps, in part, due to the limited scale separation typical of many laboratory-scale facilities. A recent investigation performed by Hutchins and Marusic [11] in a high Reynolds number turbulent boundary layer has qualitatively shown the existence of a modulating influence of the large-scale log region motions on the small-scale near-wall cycle. For this study we build upon these observations, using the Hilbert transformation applied to the spectrally filtered smallscale component of fluctuating velocity signals, in order to quantitatively determine the degree of amplitude modulation imparted by the large-scale structures onto the near-wall cycle

Indiana Consortium for Innovation in Biomedical Imaging

poster abstractThe Indiana Consortium for Innovation in Biomedical Imaging (Indiana-CIBI) has been established to leverage the biomedical imaging strengths of several major academic institutions throughout Indiana. This initiative provides the environment, infrastructure, and resources necessary for establishing one of the premier translational, research and educational imaging networks in the United States. The Indiana-CIBI will facilitate the identification of crucial clinical problems and unmet research needs; stimulate the development of innovative solutions; and help translate optimized patient care services into practice at partner health-care delivery facilities. The objectives of the Indiana-CIBI include: Providing national leadership in translation from concept to practice. Encouraging targeted problem-driven technology development. Nurturing innovation and progress through facile access to advanced resources. Focusing Indiana state-wide interdisciplinary partnerships in the development of new, innovative imaging technologies and the utilization of imaging resources. Cultivating investigator engagement and channeling intrinsic motivation. The stated objectives of the Indiana-CIBI define the operational model for the consortium. Key steps in the innovation-focused process include: 1) Identification of critical clinical or biomedical research needs by physician or biomedical investigator(s); 2) Creation of innovative solutions through innovation incubator teams, imaging innovation marathons, and crowdsourcing solicitations; 3) Translation to practice through a large medical physics/radiology network; and 4) Translation to advanced core services through the Indiana-CTSI core resource network. Critical success factors for the Indiana-CIBI include tight integration within academic health care facilities, consolidation of fragmented resources, and expansion of critical support resources, eliminating the need to duplicate some types of services across multiple sites in Indiana. For further information regarding the Indiana Consortium for Innovation in Biomedical Imaging and its programs please contact Mark Holland or Gary Hutchins at [email protected]. The Indiana-CIBI is supported, in part, by contributions from the IUPUI Office of the Vice Chancellor for Research

Note and Comment

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Modularised process-based modelling of phosphorus loss at farm and catchment scale

In recent years, a co-ordinated programme of data collection has resulted in the collation of sub-hourly time-series of hydrological, sediment and phosphorus loss data, together with soil analysis, cropping and management information for two small (< 200 ha) headwater agricultural catchments in the UK Midlands (Rosemaund, Herefordshire and Cliftonthorpe, Leicestershire). These data sets have allowed the dynamics of phosphorus loss to be characterised and the importance of both storm runoff and drainflow to be identified, together with incidental losses following manure and fertiliser additions in contributing to total annual loss. A modularised process-based model has been developed to represent current understanding of the dynamics of phosphorus loss. Modules describing runoff and sediment generation and associated phosphorus adsorption/desorption dynamics are described and tested. In the model, the effect of a growing crop on sediment detachment processes is represented and the stability of topsoil is considered so that, overall, the model is responsive to farm management factors. Importantly, using data sets available from national-scale survey programmes to estimate model parameters, a transferable approach is presented, requiring only sub-hourly rainfall data and field-specific landcover information for application of the model to new sites. Results from application of the model to the hydrological year 1998–99 are presented. Assessment of performance, which suggests that the timing of simulated responses is acceptable, has focused attention on quantifying landscape and in-stream retention and remobilisation processes.</b></p> <p style='line-height: 20px;'><b>Keywords: </b>phosphorus, erosion, process-based modelling, agricultur