The Distribution of Fitness Effects of Spontaneous Mutations in Vibrio fischeri

Mutations are the ultimate source of the biological diversity on which natural selection acts, but the vast majority of these mutations are harmful. As such, mutations lead to disease states like cancer, extinction of small populations, and can drive pathogen evolution. Unfortunately, because mutations are rare and past studies have been subject to detection biases, very little is known about the distribution of fitness effects from naturally occurring mutations. In this study, we used mutation accumulation and full genome sequencing to capture naturally occurring mutations before they were exposed to the sieve of natural selection in Vibrio fischeri. We then measured the effects of these mutations on the fitness of the individuals harboring these mutations. We hypothesized that most mutations would be deleterious, and that deletions and insertions would be more detrimental to fitness than base substitutions, particularly in coding regions. Additionally, we expected to show that mutations on primary chromosomes, which are more highly expressed and evolutionarily conserved, would have more harmful effects than mutations on accessory secondary chromosomes. Using a subset of eleven mutation accumulation isolates, each harboring between two and nine mutations, we show that the majority of mutations have minor deleterious effects, with a subset of those errors resulting in more drastic fitness declines. However, extending this study to more genotypes will be required to examine the relationship between particular mutation types and fitness. Ultimately, an enhanced understanding of the relationship between genotype and fitness will broaden our understanding of the distribution of mutational effects and elucidate the susceptibility of different genome regions to deleterious variation

“For Them, Not Us”: How Ableist Interpretations of the International Symbol of Access Make Disability

This paper uses a cultural studies lens to suggest that the ISA confers a semiotic imposition of “otherness” upon people with disabilities by signaling dominant, ableist cultural ideologies. Considering disability as representative of the culture in which it appears, the ISA’s sometimes troubling manifestations emerge at certain intersections of our cultural landscapes where us and them meet and separate. This paper focuses on the disabled and non-disabled experiences through the author’s self-reflexivity, and through the work of Liat Ben-Moshe and Justin Powell, as it queries the social spaces which inhabit and exclude the ISA as a cultural object tied to disability-related mythologies. The manifestations of this symbol in the author’s cultural landscape hold political and social meanings that lead her to think about disability as a way of being in relation to others. The ISA can be read by spectators as sponsoring a highly problematic message about embodiment, binaries, and boundaries stemming from interpretations of the body in an ableist, Western culture. Keywords: International Symbol of Access (ISA), accessibility, disability semiotics, disability mythologie

Analyzing the concept of human security and R2P as a part of EU foreign policy.

The traditional notion of security has changed significantly since the end of the Cold War. We now live in a world where war is no longer being fought primarily against nations but within nations. The concept of human security put forward by the United Nations is viewed through the lens of the individual rather than the state. By having a right to the “freedom from fear” and “freedom from want”, this paper examines how EU foreign and defense policies have evolved since human security and the Responsibility to Protect have emerged. This paper analyzes both concepts against the five main documents of EU defense policy, Common Foreign and Security Policy (1992); European Security and Defense Policy (1999); European Security Strategy (2003); Common Security and Defense Policy (2009); and the European Union Global Strategy (2016). By examining both the literature and a real case study on how the EU reacted to Libya, this paper concludes that both concepts have had profound impacts on the evolution in EU foreign and defense policy

Parametric, Nonparametric, and Semiparametric Linear Regression in Classical and Bayesian Statistical Quality Control

Statistical process control (SPC) is used in many fields to understand and monitor desired processes, such as manufacturing, public health, and network traffic. SPC is categorized into two phases; in Phase I historical data is used to inform parameter estimates for a statistical model and Phase II implements this statistical model to monitor a live ongoing process. Within both phases, profile monitoring is a method to understand the functional relationship between response and explanatory variables by estimating and tracking its parameters. In profile monitoring, control charts are often used as graphical tools to visually observe process behaviors. We construct a practitioner’s guide to provide a stepby- step application for parametric, nonparametric, and semiparametric methods in profile monitoring, creating an in-depth guideline for novice practitioners. We then consider the commonly used cumulative sum (CUSUM), multivariate CUSUM (mCUSUM), exponentially weighted moving average (EWMA), multivariate EWMA (mEWMA) charts under a Bayesian framework for monitoring respiratory disease related hospitalizations and global suicide rates with parametric, nonparametric, and semiparametric linear models

JOYGRIEF: A Collaged Interview

JOYGRIEF is a multiple-channel sound installation. It is an 8-channel interview collage involving field recorded samples of interviews conducted by the artist. The main focus of the interviews are death, mortality, and joy, and go into more specific topics such as the deaths of loved ones, war, suicide, feelings regarding one’s own mortality, cultural practices surrounding death, and more. The clips are played randomly from random speakers interspersed with silence in order to create a confrontational and uneasy environment that is at the same time immersive, reflective, and minimalist. Within this sound collage common and divergent themes emerge, connecting visitors to the human experience and leaving them to meditate on some of life’s most difficult feelings.Speakers are arranged in an evenly-distributed circle (or, octagon) within a plain white-walled space. People can stand in the middle of the speakers or walk around and between them. The speakers are placed on stands to be nearer to ear-height. The speakers are connected to an 8-channel interface and interview clips are randomized and distributed by a Max patch.This piece is an exercise in exorcising my own personal experiences with and feelings toward death and mortality as well as tackling the Zeitgeist of this era. This Zeitgeist is metaphorical and actual death and destructive change that is happening politically, socially, economically, ecologically, religiously, intellectually, etc. all over the world and which can be seen plainly even within our own UCSC microcosm

In Defense of Specialized Theft Statutes

This essay is an invited contribution to a symposium hosted by the New England Law Review in celebration of Stuart Green’s important book 13 Ways to Steal a Bicycle. As we note, Professor Green’s argument is so reasonable and executed in such elegant prose, there is little call for anything other than praise. Nevertheless, in the spirit of academic exchange, we challenge Professor Green’s skepticism of specialized theft statutes. Relying on retributivist theories of criminal punishment, we argue that specialized theft statutes have an important role to play in contemporary criminal law by educating the public about the necessary commitments that must be maintained in order to facilitate emerging fields of art, technology, and commerce and by guarding the boundaries of those enterprises. In the process, we propose an “enterprise theory” of theft that justifies criminal prohibition as a tool to defend vulnerable social enterprises ranging from retail sales to copyright

The Effects of Mind Mapping Activities on Students\u27 Motivation

We examined how students‟ motivation differed when they participated in three different types of mind mapping activities: one activity that was completed individually outside of class time, one that was completed individually in class with the instructor available for help, and one that was completed in class with other students and the instructor available for help. Using the MUSIC Model of Academic Motivation (Jones, 2009) as a framework, we implemented a concurrent mixed methods design using identical samples whereby the quantitative component was dominant over the qualitative component. Participants included 40 undergraduate students enrolled in an educational psychology course at a U.S. university. After each of the mind mapping activities, study participants completed questionnaires that included open- and closed-ended items. Although the three activities had similar effects on students‟ motivation-related beliefs, some differences were documented in their preferences of mind mapping activities. Instructional implications are provided

Bringing Fresh Produce to a Heartside Daycare; Heartside Gleaning Initiative Partnership

The Gleaning Initiative is a Non-Profit organization in the Grand Rapids community. Every Saturday afternoon, their team of volunteers collects produce donated by farmers who attend the Downtown and Fulton Street farmers markets in downtown Grand Rapids. After collecting the produce they distribute it throughout the Heartside Community at food pantries and low income housing. While attending the Gleaning Initiative volunteer opportunities as a group we have observed how the Initiative could reach more people in the community. Throughout our research we found the need for fresh produce in daycare centers located in communities declared as food deserts. Kids are not receiving the proper nutrition because of the lack of access to healthy foods. Additionally, the centers are unable to afford to purchase fresh fruits and vegetables because of the cost. Our attention has been mainly focused on the Hill Child Development Center. Our goal is to incorporate donated produce from the Gleaning Initiative into the meals served by the Hill Child Development Center day care staff. Through a series of collaborators, we opened the lines of communications between the Heartside Gleaning Initiative and daycare centers in the area. We highlighted a series of recommendations to make distribution to the daycare center part of the regular route for the 2015 gleaning season. We hope this project will continue to increase the amount of people the Gleaning Initiative reaches each year. Our group would also like to see children in the Heartside community get the proper nutrition they need to prevent obesity or any other health risk they could face