Reflections: Historical Perspectives on Pathology in Houston and Galveston

“This account of pathology in the Houston and Galveston area … examines important themes in the development of pathology in this area, using selected details from the careers of individuals and institutions to illustrate how pathologists, as practitioners, teachers, and researchers, dealt with the challenges they faced in finding and keeping a niche for pathology in the medical world.” - Preface This book was written to commemorate the 50th anniversary of Houston Society of Clinical Pathologists. Bibliographic references and other resources are included.https://digitalcommons.library.tmc.edu/ebooks/1006/thumbnail.jp

The effect of photobleaching on bee (Hymenoptera: Apoidea) setae color and its implications for studying aging and behavior

Historically, bee age has been estimated using measurements of wing wear and integument color change.  These measurements have been useful in studies of foraging ecology and plant-pollinator interactions.  Wing wear is speculated to be affected by the behaviors associated with foraging, nesting, and mating activities.  Setal color change may be an additional parameter used to measure bee age if it is affected by sun exposure during these same activities.  The objectives of this study were to experimentally assess the effect of direct sun exposure on setal color, unicellular hair-like processes of the integument, and determine whether wing wear and integument photobleaching are correlated.  To quantify photobleaching of setae, we measured changes in hue of lab-reared Bombus huntii Greene (Apidae) exposed to natural sunlight.  We found that sun exposure was a significant variable in determining setal bleaching.  To assess the relationship between wing wear and setal photobleaching, we scored wing wear and measured setal hue of B. huntii, Melecta pacifica fulvida Cresson (Apidae), and Osmia integra Cresson (Megachilidae) from museum specimens.  Wing wear and setal hue values were positively correlated for all three species; however, the strength of the relationship varies across bee species as indicated by correlation coefficient estimates.  Our results suggest that setal color change is affected by sun exposure, and is likely an accurate estimate of bee age.  We suggest that future investigations of bee aging consider a suite of morphometric characteristics due to differences in natural history and sociobiology that may be confounded by the use of a single characteristic

Development of knowledge management systems on the basis of unified ontological knowledge base

Creation of knowledge management system on the basis of a united model of knowledge organisation described in the form of the system of ontologies supplement each other is suggested. The base organization ontology and a set of ontologies of knowledge fields are included in the system. The construction variant of such model of knowledge is described and structure of knowledge control system on its basis is suggested

Circular consumption to reduce environmental pressure:Potential of behavioural change in the Netherlands

The European Union and various individual countries strive for a more circular economy to reduce environmental pressure. The transition towards a circular economy requires a change in what and how we consume. We argue that a realistic estimation of the environmental mitigation potential depends on 1) the environmental benefit that results from a certain circular behaviour, referred to as the ‘theoretical reduction potential’ (TRP), and 2) the behavioural plasticity, reflecting the share of consumers who are not yet engaging in the behaviour but would be willing to do so if circular goods and services are easily accessible and affordable. The aim of this study was to provide insight into the environmental mitigation potential of circular consumer behaviour by assessing both their TRP and behavioural plasticity. To do so, we conducted a large-scale survey in the Netherlands (n = 2542) in which we examined the current adoption rate and willingness of consumers to engage in 92 circular consumer behaviours. Furthermore, we made a rough estimate of the TRP of these behaviours in terms of greenhouse gas emissions and land use. Our results show that many behaviours with a large TRP (mainly related to consuming less and saving energy) have a rather low behavioural plasticity, either because most consumers are not willing to adopt such a behaviour or because they are already engaging in it. Behavioural plasticity is relatively high when it comes to prolonging product lifetimes and purchasing more sustainable product alternatives, but these behaviours tend to have a relatively small TRP. Our findings demonstrate that the TRP is a limited indicator of the actual environmental mitigation potential of circular consumer behaviour and suggest that behavioural plasticity is an important additional indicator to identify the types of behaviour relevant for research and policymaking.</p

PROTEOFORMER: deep proteome coverage through ribosome profiling and MS integration

An increasing amount of studies integrate mRNA sequencing data into MS-based proteomics to complement the translation product search space. However, several factors, including extensive regulation of mRNA translation and the need for three- or six-frame-translation, impede the use of mRNA-seq data for the construction of a protein sequence search database. With that in mind, we developed the PROTEOFORMER tool that automatically processes data of the recently developed ribosome profiling method (sequencing of ribosome-protected mRNA fragments), resulting in genome-wide visualization of ribosome occupancy. Our tool also includes a translation initiation site calling algorithm allowing the delineation of the open reading frames (ORFs) of all translation products. A complete protein synthesis-based sequence database can thus be compiled for mass spectrometry-based identification. This approach increases the overall protein identification rates with 3% and 11% (improved and new identifications) for human and mouse, respectively, and enables proteome-wide detection of 5'-extended proteoforms, upstream ORF translation and near-cognate translation start sites. The PROTEOFORMER tool is available as a stand-alone pipeline and has been implemented in the galaxy framework for ease of use