Correlated Phenotypic Transitions to Competence in Bacterial Colonies

Genetic competence is a phenotypic state of a bacterial cell in which it is capable of importing DNA, presumably to hasten its exploration of alternate genes in its quest for survival under stress. Recently, it was proposed that this transition is uncorrelated among different cells in the colony. Motivated by several discovered signaling mechanisms which create colony-level responses, we present a model for the influence of quorum-sensing signals on a colony of B. Subtilis cells during the transition to genetic competence. Coupling to the external signal creates an effective inhibitory mechanism, which results in anti-correlation between the cycles of adjacent cells. We show that this scenario is consistent with the specific experimental measurement, which fails to detect some underlying collective signaling mechanisms. Rather, we suggest other parameters that should be used to verify the role of a quorum-sensing signal. We also study the conditions under which phenotypic spatial patterns may emerge

Localized seismic deformation in the upper mantle revealed by dense seismic arrays

Seismicity along continental transform faults is usually confined to the upper half of the crust, but the Newport-Inglewood fault (NIF), a major fault traversing the Los Angeles basin, is seismically active down to the upper mantle. We use seismic array analysis to illuminate the seismogenic root of the NIF beneath Long Beach, California, and identify seismicity in an actively deforming localized zone penetrating the lithospheric mantle. Deep earthquakes, which are spatially correlated with geochemical evidence of a fluid pathway from the mantle, as well as with a sharp vertical offset in the lithosphere-asthenosphere boundary, exhibit narrow size distribution and weak temporal clustering. We attribute these characteristics to a transition from strong to weak interaction regimes in a system of seismic asperities embedded in a ductile fault zone matrix

Resolving the Kinematics and Moment Release of Early Afterslip within the First Hours following the 2016 M_w 7.1 Kumamoto Earthquake: Implications for the Shallow Slip Deficit and Frictional Behavior of Aseismic Creep

As stresses following rupture are dissipated continuous measurements of postseismic surface deformation provide insight into variations of the frictional strength of faults and the rheology of the lower crust and upper mantle. Due to the difficulty of capturing the earliest phase of afterslip, most analyses have focused on understanding postseismic processes over timescales of weeks to years. Here we investigate the kinematics, moment release, and frictional properties of the earliest phase of afterslip within the first hours following the 2016 M_w 7.1 Kumamoto earthquake using a network of 5‐minute sampled continuous Global Positioning System (GPS) stations. Using independent component analysis to filter the GPS data, we find that (1) early afterslip contributes only ~1% of total moment release within the first hour and 8% after 24 hr. This suggests that the lack of a coseismic slip deficit, which we estimate using standard geodetic data sets (e.g., InSAR, GPS, and pixel offsets) and which span the first 4 days of the postseismic period, is largely reflective of the dynamic rupture process and we can rule out contamination of moment release by early afterslip. (2) Early afterslip shows no evidence of a delayed nucleation or acceleration phase, where instead fault patches transition to immediate deceleration following rupture that is consistent with frictional relaxation under steady state conditions with dependence only on the sliding velocity. (3) There is a close correlation between the near‐field aftershocks and afterslip within the first hours following rupture, suggesting afterslip may still be an important possible triggering mechanism during the earliest postseismic period

Locality and Accessibility in Wh-Questions

Even in relatively configurational languages, such as English, speakers frequently have a choice between different constituent orders. Many of these word order variations have been linked to complexity (Hawkins 2005; inter alia). For example, heavy-NP shift is more likely if the shifted NP is more complex than the NP it shifts over (Wasow 1997). Other cases of word order variations, however, have not been considered in these terms. The choice between different wh-phrase orders, as in (1), has been said to be determined by (categorical) grammatical constraints, such as Superiorit

Randomised trials for the Fitbit generation

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/116333/1/sign863.pd

In situ observations of velocity changes in response to tidal deformation from analysis of the high-frequency ambient wavefield

We report systematic seismic velocity variations in response to tidal deformation. Measurements are made on correlation functions of the ambient seismic wavefield at 2–8 Hz recorded by a dense array at the site of the Piñon Flat Observatory, Southern California. The key observation is the dependence of the response on the component of wave motion and coda lapse time τ. Measurements on the vertical correlation component indicate reduced wave speeds during periods of volumetric compression, whereas data from horizontal components show the opposite behavior, compatible with previous observations. These effects are amplified by the directional sensitivities of the different surface wave types constituting the early coda of vertical and horizontal correlation components to the anisotropic behavior of the compliant layer. The decrease of the velocity (volumetric) strain sensitivity S_θ with τ indicates that this response is constrained to shallow depths. The observed velocity dependence on strain implies nonlinear behavior, but conclusions regarding elasticity are more ambiguous. The anisotropic response is possibly associated with inelastic dilatancy of the unconsolidated, low-velocity material above the granitic basement. However, equal polarity of vertical component velocity changes and deformation in the vertical direction indicate that a nonlinear Poisson effect is similarly compatible with the observed response pattern. Peak relative velocity changes at small τ are 0.03%, which translates into an absolute velocity strain sensitivity of S_θ≈5 × 10^3 and a stress sensitivity of 0.5 MPa^(−1). The potentially evolving velocity strain sensitivity of crustal and fault zone materials can be studied with the method introduced here

Does FXIII Deficiency Impair Wound Healing after Myocardial Infarction?

Inadequate healing of myocardial infarction may contribute to local expansion of the infarct, frequently leading to chamber dilation, heart failure, or myocardial rupture. Experimental evidence in mouse models suggests that Factor XIII might play a key role in wound healing, and low persistent values lead to increased incidence of cardiac rupture following myocardial infarction. Here we would like to share our initial clinical experiences with strikingly similar observations in patients with this grave disease, and compare these observations to experimental findings

Pro-social behavior in rats is modulated by social experience

In mammals, helping is preferentially provided to members of one's own group. Yet, it remains unclear how social experience shapes pro-social motivation. We found that rats helped trapped strangers by releasing them from a restrainer, just as they did cagemates. However, rats did not help strangers of a different strain, unless previously housed with the trapped rat. Moreover, pair-housing with one rat of a different strain prompted rats to help strangers of that strain, evidence that rats expand pro-social motivation from one individual to phenotypically similar others. To test if genetic relatedness alone can motivate helping, rats were fostered from birth with another strain and were not exposed to their own strain. As adults, fostered rats helped strangers of the fostering strain but not rats of their own strain. Thus, strain familiarity, even to one's own strain, is required for the expression of pro-social behavior

Incorporating physiology into species distribution models moderates the projected impact of warming on Mediterranean marine species

Species distribution models (SDMs) correlate species occurrences with environmental predictors, and can be used to forecast distributions under future climates. SDMs have been criticized for not explicitly including the physiological processes underlying the species response to the environment. Recently, new methods have been suggested to combine SDMs with physiological estimates of performance (physiology-SDMs). In this study, we compare SDM and physiology-SDM predictions for select marine species in the Mediterranean Sea, a region subjected to exceptionally rapid climate change. We focused on six species and created physiology-SDMs that incorporate physiological thermal performance curves from experimental data with species occurrence records. We then contrasted projections of SDMs and physiology-SDMs under future climate (year 2100) for the entire Mediterranean Sea, and particularly the ‘warm’ trailing edge in the Levant region. Across the Mediterranean, we found cross-validation model performance to be similar for regular SDMs and physiology-SDMs. However, we also show that for around half the species the physiology-SDMs substantially outperform regular SDM in the warm Levant. Moreover, for all species the uncertainty associated with the coefficients estimated from the physiology-SDMs were much lower than in the regular SDMs. Under future climate, we find that both SDMs and physiology-SDMs showed similar patterns, with species predicted to shift their distribution north-west in accordance with warming sea temperatures. However, for the physiology-SDMs predicted distributional changes are more moderate than those predicted by regular SDMs. We conclude, that while physiology-SDM predictions generally agree with the regular SDMs, incorporation of the physiological data led to less extreme range shift forecasts. The results suggest that climate-induced range shifts may be less drastic than previously predicted, and thus most species are unlikely to completely disappear with warming climate. Taken together, the findings emphasize that physiological experimental data can provide valuable supplemental information to predict range shifts of marine species