Using elliptical fourier analysis to compare size of morphospace occupation between modern edentulous freshwater unionoid mussels and the fossils at L6516 (Slope County, North Dakota, USA), with remarks on preservation

The purpose of this project was to use outline morphometric techniques to determine the number of freshwater mussel taxa present at locality L6516 (“Das Goods”),which is located in Cretaceous strata in the basal Ludlow Member of the Fort Union Formation in Slope County, North Dakota, U.S.A. Secondary goals were to improve the outline morphometric procedures that have been previously used to characterize fossil and extant freshwater mussels, and to describe in more detail the preservation of the edentulous unionoid specimens from the Das Goods area. Outlines of individual mussel valves were used for morphometric analyses due to lack of preserved taxonomic characters. Outlines were digitized as a series of (x,y)coordinates, after which elliptical Fourier analysis was used to standardize the valves according to position, size, and rotation. A series of coefficients was produced for each valve that was used to characterize the freshwater mussels from L6516 as well as a selection of modern edentulous genera and species. The size of morphospace occupation was calculated and compared between the fossil and modern groups to determine the probability of multiple taxa at L6516. Different regions of preservation on the best-preserved specimens from locality L6516 were mapped to characterize preservation trends at this site. Traces attributed to epizoic organisms were also examined for position, size, and relief. The fossil edentulous freshwater mussel assemblage from locality L6516 does not possess statistically significantly more or less morphological variation than the modern genera and species with which it was compared, suggesting a single taxon is preserved. Some of the effects of procedural changes on the outcome of the statistical tests were described in order to enhance the efficacy of the morphometric techniques: standardization of both digitization size and increased smoothing during elliptical Fourier analysis lead to a reduction in size of morph space occupation. Detailed descriptions of the specimens led to new insight into the epifaunal association of other organisms with the unionoid assemblage. Suggestions were made for the improvement of morphometric methods in the natural sciences, including making standardized datasets and detailed documentation more available to new researchers

Beyond trade: The European Union - New Zealand Free Trade Agreement

The 2022 announcement of the European Union- New Zealand Free Trade Agreement was seminal for both sides. For New Zealand, the deal is projected to be worth up to an extra NZ$1.8 billion per annum by 2035. What is less evident is the motivation for securing the deal for Europe – New Zealand is only the EU’s 50th most important trading partner and accounts for 0.2% of its total trade. This article outlines three major benefits for the EU. Firstly, it symbolises that the EU’s neoliberal trading agenda is continuing in the face of perceived increased protectionism. Second, the deal includes a seminal clause of holding each partner to account in climate change responsibilities – a detail that should garner support from EU citizens. Finally, closer EU cooperation with New Zealand may add to the EU’s legitimacy in the Indo-Pacific

Synthesis and In Vitro Antiprotozoan Evaluation of 4-/8-Aminoquinoline-based Lactams and Tetrazoles

A second generation of 4-aminoquinoline- and 8-aminoquinoline-based tetrazoles and lactams were synthesized via the Staudinger and Ugi multicomponent reactions. These compounds were subsequently evaluated in vitro for their potential antiplasmodium activity against a multidrug-resistant K1 strain and for their antitrypanosomal activity against a cultured T. b. rhodesiense STIB900 strain. Several of these compounds (4a–g) displayed good antiplasmodium activities (IC50 = 0.20–0.62 µM) that were comparable to the reference drugs, while their antitrypanosomal activity was moderate (200 µM) at pH 7

Changing trends in residents-as-teachers across graduate medical education

BACKGROUND: Teaching residents how to teach is a critical part of residents' training in graduate medical education (GME). The purpose of this study was to assess the change in resident-as-teacher (RaT) instruction in GME over the past 15 years in the US. METHODS: We used a quantitative and qualitative survey of all program directors (PDs) across specialties. We compared our findings with a previous work from 2000-2001 that studied the same matter. Finally, we qualitatively analyzed PDs' responses regarding the reasons for implementing and not implementing RaT instruction. RESULTS: Two hundred and twenty-one PDs completed the survey, which yields a response rate of 12.6%. Over 80% of PDs implement RaT, an increase of 26.34% compared to 2000-2001. RaT instruction uses multiple methods with didactic lectures reported as the most common, followed by role playing in simulated environments, then observing and giving feedback. Residents giving feedback, clinical supervision, and bedside teaching were the top three targeted skills. Through our qualitative analysis we identified five main reasons for implementing RaT: teaching is part of the residents' role; learners desire formal RaT training; regulatory bodies require RaT training; RaT improves residents' education; and RaT prepares residents for their current and future roles. CONCLUSION: The use of RaT instruction has increased significantly in GME. More and more PDs are realizing its importance in the residents' formative training experience. Future studies should examine the effectiveness of each method for RaT instruction

Executing multi-taxa eDNA ecological assessment via traditional metrics and interactive networks

Current approaches to ecological assessment are limited by the traditional morpho-taxonomic methods presently employed and the inability to meet increasing demands for rapid assessments. Advancements in high throughput sequencing now enable rapid high-resolution ecological assessment using environmental DNA (eDNA). Here we test the ability of using eDNA-based ecological assessment methods against traditional assessment of two key indicator groups (diatoms and macroinvertebrates) and show how eDNA across multiple gene regions (COI, rbcL, 12S and 18S) can be used to infer interactive networks that link to ecological assessment criteria. We compared results between taxonomic and eDNA based assessments and found significant positive associations between macroinvertebrate (p < 0.001 R2 = 0.645) and diatom (p = 0.015, R2 = 0.222) assessment metrics. We further assessed the ability of eDNA based assessment to identify environmentally sensitive genera and found an order of magnitude greater potential for 18S, versus COI or rbcL, to determine environmental filtering of ecologically assessed communities. Lastly, we compared the ability of traditional metrics against co-occurrence network properties of our combined 18S, COI and rbcL indicator genera to infer habitat quality measures currently used by managers. We found that transitivity (network connectivity), linkage density and cohesion were significantly associated with habitat modification scores (HMS), whereas network properties were inconsistent with linking to the habitat quality score (HQS) metric. The incorporation of multi-marker eDNA network assessment opens up a means for finer scale ecological assessment, currently limited using traditional methods. While utilization of eDNA-based assessment is recommended, direct comparisons with traditional approaches are difficult as the methods are intrinsically different and should be treated as such with regards to future research. Overall, our findings show that eDNA can be used for effective ecological assessment while offering a wider range of scope and application compared to traditional assessment methods

Developing a Health Equity and Criminal Justice Concentration for a Master of Public Health (MPH) Program: Results From a Needs Assessment Among Community Partners and Potential Employers

The United States has experienced a 4-fold increase in jail and prison populations over the last 40 years, disproportionately burdening African American and Hispanic/Latinx communities. Mass incarceration threatens the health of individuals, families, and communities, and requires a public health response. The Master of Public Health (MPH) Program at Touro University California (TUC) trains students to become skillful, socially-conscious public health professionals. We are developing a concentration focused on the public health impacts of incarceration. Along with the core public health curriculum, students of this new Health Equity and Criminal Justice (HECJ) concentration will receive training in criminal justice, reentry, reintegration, recidivism, restorative justice, structural racism, and social and community impacts of incarceration. Our study gauges interest in an HECJ concentration in our local community, including potential employers. We surveyed a cross-section of community partners including public health departments, other governmental agencies, California correctional facilities, county jails, community groups, health clinics, and hospitals. A majority (89%) of respondents consider mass incarceration a public health problem and 86% believe specialized training would make graduates employable by criminal justice related organizations. The HECJ track will fill a gap in the field and train a future generation of public health professionals to address the epidemic of mass incarceration

Cellular-level versus receptor-level response threshold hierarchies in T-Cell activation

Peptide-MHC (pMHC) ligand engagement by T-cell receptors (TCRs) elicits a variety of cellular responses, some of which require substantially more TCR-mediated stimulation than others. This threshold hierarchy could reside at the receptor level, where different response pathways branch off at different stages of the TCR/CD3 triggering cascade, or at the cellular level, where the cumulative TCR signal registered by the T-cell is compared to different threshold values. Alternatively, dual-level thresholds could exist. In this study, we show that the cellular hypothesis provides the most parsimonious explanation consistent with data obtained from an in-depth analysis of distinct functional responses elicited in a clonal T-cell system by a spectrum of biophysically defined altered peptide ligands across a range of concentrations. Further, we derive a mathematical model that describes how ligand density, affinity, and off-rate all affect signaling in distinct ways. However, under the kinetic regime prevailing in the experiments reported here, the TCR/pMHC class I (pMHCI) dissociation rate was found to be the main governing factor. The CD8 coreceptor modulated the TCR/pMHCI interaction and altered peptide ligand potency. Collectively, these findings elucidate the relationship between TCR/pMHCI kinetics and cellular function, thereby providing an integrated mechanistic understanding of T-cell response profiles

The Nakanai Mountain Ranges of East New Britain Papua New Guinea. E: Booklet Version 2

NOTES ON THE E-BOOKLET VERSION TWO Between 2016- 2019, a multidisciplinary team of researchers1 from Australia and Papua New Guinea worked in collaboration with local communities to document the cultural values of the Nakanai Mountains and their inextricable link to the spectacular natural landscape. This research aims to contribute to a standalone nomination to the UNESCCO Tentative World Heritage List of the Nakanai Karst Area (NKA) and elevate its recognition as a cultural landscape of outstanding significance. The research team included both anthropologists and archaeologists. Further anthropological and archaeological research is likely to yield further evidence of the richly diverse cultural values of the area. Between July 2018 - December 2019, researchers from James Cook University (JCU) in collaboration with postgraduate researchers from the University of Papua New Guinea (UPNG) were commissioned by the United Nations Development Programme2 in conjunction with the Conservation, Environment Protection Authority to generate awareness of protected area planning processes and to facilitate the gazettal of four Community Protected Areas around Jacquinot Bay and Central Inland Pomio. These protected area processes are ongoing

A Human-derived Dual MRI/PET Reporter Gene System with High Translational Potential for Cell Tracking

Purpose: Reporter gene imaging has been extensively used to longitudinally report on whole-body distribution and viability of transplanted engineered cells. Multi-modal cell tracking can provide complementary information on cell fate. Typical multi-modal reporter gene systems often combine clinical and preclinical modalities. A multi-modal reporter gene system for magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and positron emission tomography (PET), two clinical modalities, would be advantageous by combining the sensitivity of PET with the high-resolution morphology and non-ionizing nature of MRI. Procedures: We developed and evaluated a dual MRI/PET reporter gene system composed of two human-derived reporter genes that utilize clinical reporter probes for engineered cell detection. As a proof-of-concept, breast cancer cells were engineered to co-express the human organic anion transporter polypeptide 1B3 (OATP1B3) that uptakes the clinical MRI contrast agent gadolinium ethoxybenzyl-diethylenetriaminepentaacetic acid (Gd-EOB-DTPA), and the human sodium iodide symporter (NIS) which uptakes the PET tracer, [18F] tetrafluoroborate ([18F] TFB). Results: T1-weighted MRI results in mice exhibited significantly higher MRI signals in reporter-gene-engineered mammary fat pad tumors versus contralateral naïve tumors (p \u3c 0.05). No differences in contrast enhancement were observed at 5 h after Gd-EOB-DTPA administration using either intravenous or intraperitoneal injection. We also found significantly higher standard uptake values (SUV) in engineered tumors in comparison to the naïve tumors in [18F]TFB PET images (p \u3c 0.001). Intratumoral heterogeneity in signal enhancement was more conspicuous in relatively higher resolution MR images compared to PET images. Conclusions: Our study demonstrates the ability to noninvasively track cells engineered with our human-derived dual MRI/PET reporter system, enabling a more comprehensive evaluation of transplanted cells. Future work is focused on applying this tool to track therapeutic cells, which may one day enable the broader application of cell tracking within the healthcare system