Gene regulatory factors of the sea urchin embryo. II. Two dissimilar proteins, P3A1 and P3A2, bind to the same target sites that are required for early territorial gene expression

Previous work demonstrated that a negative regulatory interaction mediated by factor(s) termed 'P3A' is required for correct territory-specific gene expression in the sea urchin embryo. A probe derived from a P3A target site in the skeletogenic SM50 gene of Strongylocentrotus purpuratus was used to isolate a cDNA clone coding for a factor that binds specifically to this site. This factor, called P3A1, contains two sequence elements that belong to the Zn finger class of DNA-binding motifs, and in these regions is most closely similar to the Drosophila hunchback factor. The P3A1 factor also binds to a similar target sequence in a second gene, CyIIIa, expressed in embryonic aboral ectoderm. Another sea urchin embryo protein factor, P3A2, has been isolated by affinity chromatography and cloned, as described in Calzone et al. Development 112, 335-350 (1991). P3A2 footprints the same target sites in the SM50 and CyIIIa genes as does P3A1, but lacks the Zn finger sequence motifs and in amino acid sequence is almost entirely dissimilar to P3A1. A deletion analysis of P3A2 delimited the DNA-binding region, revealing that five specific amino acids in the first P3A1 finger region and four in the second P3A1 finger region are also present in equivalent positions in P3A2. The P3A1 and P3A2 factors could function as regulatory antagonists, having evolved similar target specificities from dissimilar DNA-binding domains

A window on reality: perceiving edited moving images

Edited moving images entertain, inform, and coerce us throughout our daily lives, yet until recently, the way people perceive movies has received little psychological attention. We review the history of empirical investigations into movie perception and the recent explosion of new research on the subject using methods such as behavioral experiments, functional magnetic resonance imagery (fMRI) eye tracking, and statistical corpus analysis. The Hollywood style of moviemaking, which permeates a wide range of visual media, has evolved formal conventions that are compatible with the natural dynamics of attention and humans’ assumptions about continuity of space, time, and action. Identifying how people overcome the sensory differences between movies and reality provides an insight into how the same cognitive processes are used to perceive continuity in the real world

Neurochemistry Predicts Convergence of Written and Spoken Language: A Proton Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy Study of Cross-Modal Language Integration

Recent studies have provided evidence of associations between neurochemistry and reading (dis)ability (Pugh et al., 2014). Based on a long history of studies indicating that fluent reading entails the automatic convergence of the written and spoken forms of language and our recently proposed Neural Noise Hypothesis (Hancock et al., 2017), we hypothesized that individual differences in cross-modal integration would mediate, at least partially, the relationship between neurochemical concentrations and reading. Cross-modal integration was measured in 231 children using a two-alternative forced choice cross-modal matching task with three language conditions (letters, words, and pseudowords) and two levels of difficulty within each language condition. Neurometabolite concentrations of Choline (Cho), Glutamate (Glu), gamma-Aminobutyric (GABA), and N- acetyl-aspartate (NAA) were then measured in a subset of this sample (n = 70) with Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy (MRS). A structural equation mediation model revealed that the effect of cross-modal word matching mediated the relationship between increased Glu (which has been proposed to be an index of neural noise) and poorer reading ability. In addition, the effect of cross-modal word matching fully mediated a relationship between increased Cho and poorer reading ability. Multilevel mixed effects models confirmed that lower Cho predicted faster cross-modal matching reaction time, specifically in the hard word condition. These Cho findings are consistent with previous work in both adults and children showing a negative association between Cho and reading ability. We also found two novel neurochemical relationships. Specifically, lower GABA and higher NAA predicted faster cross-modal matching reaction times. We interpret these results within a biochemical framework in which the ability of neurochemistry to predict reading ability may at least partially be explained by cross-modal integration

The Chicken Yolk Sac IgY Receptor, a Mammalian Mannose Receptor Family Member, Transcytoses IgY across Polarized Epithelial Cells

In mammals the transfer of passive immunity from mother to young is mediated by the MHC-related receptor FcRn, which transports maternal IgG across epithelial cell barriers. In birds, maternal IgY in egg yolk is transferred across the yolk sac to passively immunize chicks during gestation and early independent life. The chicken yolk sac IgY receptor (FcRY) is the ortholog of the mammalian phospholipase A2 receptor, a mannose receptor family member, rather than an FcRn or MHC homolog. FcRn and FcRY both exhibit ligand binding at the acidic pH of endosomes and ligand release at the slightly basic pH of blood. Here we show that FcRY expressed in polarized mammalian epithelial cells functioned in endocytosis, bidirectional transcytosis, and recycling of chicken FcY/IgY. Confocal immunofluorescence studies demonstrated that IgY binding and endocytosis occurred at acidic but not basic pH, mimicking pH-dependent uptake of IgG by FcRn. Colocalization studies showed FcRY-mediated internalization via clathrin-coated pits and transport involving early and recycling endosomes. Disruption of microtubules partially inhibited apical-to-basolateral and basolateral-to-apical transcytosis, but not recycling, suggesting the use of different trafficking machinery. Our results represent the first cell biological evidence of functional equivalence between FcRY and FcRn and provide an intriguing example of how evolution can give rise to systems in which similar biological requirements in different species are satisfied utilizing distinct protein folds

Digital Mazes and Spatial Reasoning: Using Colour and Movement to Explore the 4th Dimension

This chapter focuses on innovative developments of four-dimensional digital mazes, examining how these mazes tap into the ideas of mathematician and fiction writer Charles Hinton (1853-1907) who wrote extensively on perception of a 4th geometric dimension. Hinton treats mathematical objects as physical and material movements, and draws on non-Euclidean geometry to argue for a virtual dimension to matter. I discuss recent attempts to build digital mazes that develop spatial sense in four dimensions, and show how these are directly linked to Hinton’s ideas. I focus on how colour and movement in digital environments are used to develop a distinctive kind of spatial sense. This chapter sheds light on innovative uses of digital software for developing student spatial sense. My aim is to explicate the new materialism of Charles Hinton, contribute to discussions about the nature of spatial sense and spatial reasoning, and to point to possible directions for future research on inventive approaches to geometry

Evaluating the taxa that provide shared pollination services across multiple crops and regions

Many pollinator species visit multiple crops in multiple regions, yet we know little about their pollination service provisioning at local and regional scales. We investigated the floral visitors (n = 13,200), their effectiveness (n = 1718 single visits) and response to landscape composition across three crops avocado, mango and macadamia within a single growing region (1 year), a single crop (3 years) and across different growing regions in multiple years. In total, eight wild visitor groups were shared across all three crops. The network was dominated by three pollinators, two bees (Apis mellifera and Tetragonula spp.) and a fly, Stomorhina discolor. The visitation network for the three crops was relatively generalised but with the addition of pollen deposition data, specialisation increased. Sixteen managed and wild taxa were consistently present across three years in avocado, yet their contribution to annual network structure varied. Node specialisation (d’) analyses indicated many individual orchard sites across each of the networks were significantly more specialised compared to that predicted by null models, suggesting the presence of site-specific factors driving these patterns. Identifying the taxa shared across multiple crops, regions and years will facilitate the development of specific pollinator management strategies to optimize crop pollination services in horticultural systems

Extraction of bodily features for gait recognition and gait attractiveness evaluation

This is the author's accepted manuscript. The final publication is available at Springer via http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11042-012-1319-2. Copyright @ 2012 Springer.Although there has been much previous research on which bodily features are most important in gait analysis, the questions of which features should be extracted from gait, and why these features in particular should be extracted, have not been convincingly answered. The primary goal of the study reported here was to take an analytical approach to answering these questions, in the context of identifying the features that are most important for gait recognition and gait attractiveness evaluation. Using precise 3D gait motion data obtained from motion capture, we analyzed the relative motions from different body segments to a root marker (located on the lower back) of 30 males by the fixed root method, and compared them with the original motions without fixing root. Some particular features were obtained by principal component analysis (PCA). The left lower arm, lower legs and hips were identified as important features for gait recognition. For gait attractiveness evaluation, the lower legs were recognized as important features.Dorothy Hodgkin Postgraduate Award and HEFCE