Molecular Barcoding of Eupatorieae of Tennessee

Molecular analysis has become a popular method used to characterize the complex biodiversity of our world. In this project, we have been able to add to the understanding of the native species of Tennessee by analyzing particular regions of DNA. We obtained DNA sequences for a standard barcode marker from each of about 30 species belonging to the Eupatorieae tribe found in the state. This process of molecular barcoding has produced a catalog of the state’s diversity of these plants. With this, we are better able to identify unknown samples and aid in the conservation of rare plants such as Eupatorium leucolepis. This plant, also known as justiceweed, is a flowering plant currently listed as endangered in the state of Tennessee. While commonly found in the coastal plain region, justiceweed is also native to one county in Tennessee. Isolated by hundreds of miles from any other of its species, the populations of this plant found in Tennessee have raised some questions. Is this truly the same plant that grows along the eastern coast of North America? If so how did it come to occupy this land locked state? So far, we have been unable to find a characteristic to distinguish Tennessee’s justiceweed from that of coastal plain populations. However, molecular data have determined that the plants in Tennessee previously identified as E. leucolepis differ significantly from those found in the coastal plain region, and instead are hybrids of E. leucolepis and E. semiserratum, a species more commonly found in Tennessee

Individual decision making and the evolutionary roots of institutions

Just as many aspects of individual decisions are sometimes called unconscious or automatic, we know that some institutions have evolved through unconscious, nondeliberative mechanisms. Their function can also be largely nondeliberative, as in the case of some institutions that may structure behavior without requiring any reflection on the part of the participants. On the other hand, political institutions exist for the purpose of bringing deliberative mechanisms to bear on institutions in the hope of changing them for the better. The immense project of building an integrated explanation of institutions from individual brains to nations-has only barely begun. In this chapter, we report on our discussions that attempted to sketch the mechanisms that connect individuals to large-scale institutions. We begin with a discussion of current thought on the design of individual decision making. If institutions regulate behavior, then presumably the mechanisms that have evolved to produce individual behavior will be relevant to the broader enterprise of integrating these two scales of explanation. Then we explore ways in which institutions may have evolved, both as a result of individual decision making and as a result of processes distinct from those that govern individual behavior. We approach this topic from two perspectives. Seen one way, unconscious psychological forces constrain the design of institutions, sometimes powerfully. Seen another way, unconscious population-level processes create functional institutional design that few social architects could conceive of with their individual deliberate faculties

Elastic strains at interfaces in InAs/AlSb multilayer structures for quantum cascade lasers

InAs/AlSb multilayers similar to those used in quantum cascade lasers have been grown by molecular beam epitaxy on (001) InAs substrates. Elastic strain is investigated by high resolution transmission electron microscopy. Thin interfacial regions with lattice distortions significantly different from the strain of the AlSb layers themselves are revealed from the geometrical phase analysis. Strain profiles are qualitatively compared to the chemical contrast of high angle annular dark field images obtained by scanning transmission electron microscopy. The strain and chemical profiles are correlated with the growth sequences used to form the interfaces. Tensile strained AlAs-like interfaces tend to form predominantly due to the high thermal stability of AlAs. Strongly asymmetric interfaces, AlAs-rich and (Al, In)Sb, respectively, can also be achieved by using appropriate growth sequences

Chronic nicotine improves cognitive and social impairment in mice overexpressing wild type α-synuclein

In addition to dopaminergic and motor deficits, patients with Parkinson's disease (PD) suffer from non-motor symptoms, including early cognitive and social impairment, that do not respond well to dopaminergic therapy. Cholinergic deficits may contribute to these problems, but cholinesterase inhibitors have limited efficacy. Mice over-expressing α-synuclein, a protein critically associated with PD, show deficits in cognitive and social interaction tests, as well as a decrease in cortical acetylcholine. We have evaluated the effects of chronic administration of nicotine in mice over-expressing wild type human α-synuclein under the Thy1-promoter (Thy1-aSyn mice). Nicotine was administered subcutaneously by osmotic minipump for 6 months from 2 to 8 months of age at 0.4 mg/kg/h and 2.0 mg/kg/h. The higher dose was toxic in the Thy1-aSyn mice, but the low dose was well tolerated and both doses ameliorated cognitive impairment in Y-maze performance after 5 months of treatment. In a separate cohort of Thy1-aSyn mice, nicotine was administered at the lower dose for one month beginning at 5 months of age. This treatment partially eliminated the cognitive deficit in novel object recognition and social impairment. In contrast, chronic nicotine did not improve motor deficits after 2, 4 or 6 months of treatment, nor modified α-synuclein aggregation, tyrosine hydroxylase immunostaining, synaptic and dendritic markers, or microglial activation in Thy1-aSyn mice. These results suggest that cognitive and social impairment in synucleinopathies like PD may result from deficits in cholinergic neurotransmission and may benefit from chronic administration of nicotinic agonists

Field-Induced Magnetization Steps in Intermetallic Compounds and Manganese Oxides: The Martensitic Scenario

Field-induced magnetization jumps with similar characteristics are observed at low temperature for the intermetallic germanide Gd5Ge4and the mixed-valent manganite Pr0.6Ca0.4Mn0.96Ga0.04O3. We report that the field location -and even the existence- of these jumps depends critically on the magnetic field sweep rate used to record the data. It is proposed that, for both compounds, the martensitic character of their antiferromagnetic-to-ferromagnetic transitions is at the origin of the magnetization steps.Comment: 4 pages,4 figure

Emerging Diluted Ferromagnetism in High-T-c Superconductors Driven by Point Defect Clusters

Defects in ceramic materials are generally seen as detrimental to their functionality and applicability. Yet, in some complex oxides, defects present an opportunity to enhance some of their properties or even lead to the discovery of exciting physics, particularly in the presence of strong correlations. A paradigmatic case is the high-temperature superconductor YBa2Cu3O7-delta(Y123), in which nanoscale defects play an important role as they can immobilize quantized magnetic flux vortices. Here previously unforeseen point defects buried in Y123 thin films that lead to the formation of ferromagnetic clusters embedded within the superconductor are unveiled. Aberration-corrected scanning transmission microscopy has been used for exploring, on a single unit-cell level, the structure and chemistry resulting from these complex point defects, along with density functional theory calculations, for providing new insights about their nature including an unexpected defect-driven ferromagnetism, and X-ray magnetic circular dichroism for bearing evidence of Cu magnetic moments that align ferromagnetically even below the superconducting critical temperature to form a dilute system of magnetic clusters associated with the point defects

Native Speaker Perceptions of Accented Speech: The English Pronunciation of Macedonian EFL Learners

The paper reports on the results of a study that aimed to describe the vocalic and consonantal features of the English pronunciation of Macedonian EFL learners as perceived by native speakers of English and to find out whether native speakers who speak different standard variants of English perceive the same segments as non-native. A specially designed computer web application was employed to gather two types of data: a) quantitative (frequency of segment variables and global foreign accent ratings on a 5-point scale), and b) qualitative (open-ended questions). The result analysis points out to three most frequent markers of foreign accent in the English speech of Macedonian EFL learners: final obstruent devoicing, vowel shortening and substitution of English dental fricatives with Macedonian dental plosives. It also reflects additional phonetic aspects poorly explained in the available reference literature such as allophonic distributional differences between the two languages and intonational mismatch

The Threat of Capital Drain: A Rationale for Public Banks?

This paper yields a rationale for why subsidized public banks may be desirable from a regional perspective in a financially integrated economy. We present a model with credit rationing and heterogeneous regions in which public banks prevent a capital drain from poorer to richer regions by subsidizing local depositors, for example, through a public guarantee. Under some conditions, cooperative banks can perform the same function without any subsidization; however, they may be crowded out by public banks. We also discuss the impact of the political structure on the emergence of public banks in a political-economy setting and the role of interregional mobility