A Statistical Analysis of the Change in Age Distribution of Spawning Hatchery Salmon

Declines in salmon sizes have been reported primarily as a result of younger maturation rates. This change in age distribution poses serious threats to salmon-dependent peoples and ecological systems. We perform a statistical analysis to examine the change in age structure of spawning Alaskan chum salmon Oncorhynchus keta and Chinook salmon O. tshawytscha using 30 years of hatchery data. To highlight the impacts of this change, we investigate the average number of fry/smolt that each age of spawning chum/Chinook salmon produce. Our findings demonstrate an increase in younger hatchery salmon populations returning to spawn, and fewer amounts of fry produced by younger salmon compared to older salmon. These results suggest the potential risks associated with younger spawning salmon and aim to help better understand salmon behavior in order to sustain and protect healthy salmon populations

Strategies for lexical expansion in Algonquian languages

This paper provides an empirical study of word formation and lexical expansion in a set of Algonquian languages, considering 153 terms for each language. These terms range from words that predate European colonialism to more recent forms coined by English L1 speakers. We propose a classification of the methods of lexical innovation, which involves the intersection of a set of grammatical and a set of semantic strategies. By far, the most common means of constructing new terminology that we found in the data combined nominalization with associated-action metonymy (the use of a form denoting an action associated with the object). We discuss challenges to doing such studies, especially the idiosyncrasies of dictionary creation. We also consider how our results can be used in language reclamation, especially immersion programs that need words for concepts in the school curriculum. We do not prescribe a “right” way to develop new vocabulary, but our findings may make explicit some of the intuitions speakers of Algonquian languages have about how the naming of new objects is approached.National Foreign Language Resource Cente

UK research data resources based on primary care electronic health records: review and summary for potential users

BACKGROUND: The range and scope of electronic health record (EHR) data assets in the UK has recently increased, which has been mainly in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Summarising and comparing the large primary care resources will help researchers to choose the data resources most suited to their needs. AIM: To describe the current landscape of UK EHR databases and considerations of access and use of these resources relevant to researchers. DESIGN & SETTING: Narrative review of EHR databases in the UK. METHOD: Information was collected from the Health Data Research Innovation Gateway, publicly available websites and other published data, and from key informants. The eligibility criteria were population-based open-access databases sampling EHRs across the whole population of one or more countries in the UK. Published database characteristics were extracted and summarised, and these were corroborated with resource providers. Results were synthesised narratively. RESULTS: Nine large national primary care EHR data resources were identified and summarised. These resources are enhanced by linkage to other administrative data to a varying extent. Resources are mainly intended to support observational research, although some can support experimental studies. There is considerable overlap of populations covered. While all resources are accessible to bona fide researchers, access mechanisms, costs, timescales, and other considerations vary across databases. CONCLUSION: Researchers are currently able to access primary care EHR data from several sources. Choice of data resource is likely to be driven by project needs and access considerations. The landscape of data resources based on primary care EHRs in the UK continues to evolve

Acute myeloid leukemia induces pro-tumoral p16INK4a driven senescence in the bone marrow microenvironment

Acute myeloid leukemia (AML) is an age-related disease that is highly dependent on the bone marrow (BM) microenvironment. With increasing age, tissues accumulate senescent cells, characterized by an irreversible arrest of cell proliferation and the secretion of a set of proinflammatory cytokines, chemokines, and growth factors, collectively known as the senescence-associated secretory phenotype (SASP). Here, we report that AML blasts induce a senescent phenotype in the stromal cells within the BM microenvironment and that the BM stromal cell senescence is driven by p16INK4a expression. The p16INK4a-expressing senescent stromal cells then feed back to promote AML blast survival and proliferation via the SASP. Importantly, selective elimination of p16INK4a 1 senescent BM stromal cells in vivo improved the survival of mice with leukemia. Next, we find that the leukemia-driven senescent tumor microenvironment is caused by AML-induced NOX2-derived superoxide. Finally, using the p16-3MR mouse model, we show that by targeting NOX2 we reduced BM stromal cell senescence and consequently reduced AML proliferation. Together, these data identify leukemia-generated NOX2-derived superoxide as a driver of protumoral p16INK4a-dependent senescence in BM stromal cells. Our findings reveal the importance of a senescent microenvironment for the pathophysiology of leukemia. These data now open the door to investigate drugs that specifically target the “benign” senescent cells that surround and support AML

En Attendant Centiloid

Aims: Test the robustness of a linear regression transformation of semiquantitative values from different Aβ tracers into a single continuous scale. Study Design: Retrospective analysis. Place and Duration of Study: PET imaging data acquired in Melbourne and Perth, Australia, between August 2006 and May 2014. Methodology: Aβ imaging in 633 participants was performed with four different radiotracers: flutemetamol (n=267), florbetapir (n=195), florbetaben (n=126) and NAV4694 (n=45). SUVR were generated with the methods recommended for each tracer, and classified as high (Aβ+) or low (Aβ-) based on their respective thresholds. Linear regression transformation based on reported head-to-head comparisons of each tracer with PiB was applied to each tracer result. Each tracer native classification was compared with the classification derived from the transformed data into PiB-like SUVR units (or BeCKeT: Before the Centiloid Kernel Transformation) using 1.50 as a cut-off. Results: Misclassification after transformation to PiB-like SUVR compared to native classification was extremely low with only 3/267 (1.1%) of flutemetamol, 1/195 (0.5%) of florbetapir, 1/45 (2.2%) of NAV4694, and 1/126 (0.8%) of florbetaben cases assigned into the wrong category. When misclassification occurred (Conclusion: While a definitive transformation into centesimal units is being established, application of linear regression transformations provide an interim, albeit robust, way of converting results from different Aβ imaging tracers into more familiar PiB-like SUVR units

Vision, challenges and opportunities for a Plant Cell Atlas

With growing populations and pressing environmental problems, future economies will be increasingly plant-based. Now is the time to reimagine plant science as a critical component of fundamental science, agriculture, environmental stewardship, energy, technology and healthcare. This effort requires a conceptual and technological framework to identify and map all cell types, and to comprehensively annotate the localization and organization of molecules at cellular and tissue levels. This framework, called the Plant Cell Atlas (PCA), will be critical for understanding and engineering plant development, physiology and environmental responses. A workshop was convened to discuss the purpose and utility of such an initiative, resulting in a roadmap that acknowledges the current knowledge gaps and technical challenges, and underscores how the PCA initiative can help to overcome them.</jats:p

Ring-Opening Metathesis Polymerization of 1,6-Disubstituted 1,5-Cyclooctadienes

Ring Opening Metathesis Polymerization (ROMP) facilitates the polymerization of strained cyclic olefins to produce functionalized polyolefins. Due to the combination of the strong thermodynamic driving force for ring-opening and their kinetic stability, eight-membered cyclic olefins are widely used as ROMP monomers. While many examples of ROMP with cyclooctenes (COEs) bearing a variety of functionalities exist in the literature, ROMP using cyclooctadienes (CODs) has been limited by synthetic access to functionalized COD monomers. In light of Dr. C. Rose Kennedy’s method for enabling the synthesis of substituted CODs from abundant 1,3-dienes, the viability of these products as ROMP monomers was explored using Grubbs’ second-generation ruthenium alkylidene catalyst. 1,6-dimethyl-1,5-cyclooctadiene (1,6-DMCOD) served as a representative monomer for ROMP study. In the presence of added chain transfer agent (CTA), precision synthesis of oligomers for evaluation as high-performance lubricants was enabled. Attempted extension to high molecular weight polymer syntheses was initially hampered by trace side products from monomer synthesis, which acted as CTAs to limit chain growth, and backbiting, which occurred after full monomer consumption. Following partial removal of the side product and reaction time optimization, ROMP was attempted. Application of these insights to the precision synthesis of polyolefins with controlled microstructure holds promise for the development and study of materials with unique properties

Defining borders, defining bodies : insularities, Utopia and other ideal figures in Las Sergas de Esplandián

While islands have long been a point of literary interest and curiosity, in the 16th century, one begins to see the stubborn application of the island’s geographical structure to non-islands. Recent scholarship on the issue of insularity has placed emphasis on the development of modern literature through the ambiguity of insularity of spaces and the language used to describe them. In the English and Spanish traditions, the focus on insularity in 16th century literature can be tied to the influence of colonialism. Despite widespread popularity in the 16th century, Las Sergas de Esplandián has become little more than a footnote in reference to the name of California. Nevertheless, the geographic elements of Las Sergas deserve closer examination, as they highlight the connection between geographic and literary texts in their portrayal of gender in the early modern period. In this essay I apply border theory to Las Sergas to understand the way in which these elements interact in the early modern period. In many ways, Las Sergas achieves the opposite of Anzaldúa’s intent in her development of border theory, which was designed to highlight that which exists between or outside the hegemonic structure left behind by colonialism rather than re-colonize it, but some of the insular spaces within Las Sergas demonstrate a geographic, linguistic and gendered ambiguity that fits well within border theory.Comparative Literatur