Short communication: Latent detection of downy mildew (Peronospora pisi) in bioassays against Pisum sativum

Downy mildew of peas is caused by the obligate parasite Peronospora pisi, which occurs sporadically throughout temperate pea-growing regions across the world. To screen pea lines against this biotrophic pathogen, a suitable and reproducible in vitro method using living plant material is required. Field screening can be influenced by environmental factors, thus giving variable results. The aim of this study was to develop a method that could reliably be used to screen pea cultivars against P. pisi in a laboratory setting. A range of bioassays were used to test various methods of inoculation, utilizing sporangia and naturally infested soil. Latent infection was achieved by planting seeds in soil collected from a site with a known history of P. pisi infection and directly inoculating young pea plants with sporangia. Out of the 108 plants which survived the experimental period, only two plants expressed visible signs of disease; however, through a two-step nested PCR process we detected latent infection in 24 plants. This research highlights the importance of considering the presence of latent infection when screening pea lines against downy mildew

National Museum of You: Scotland 365 Final Report

‘National Museum of You’ was a research and public engagement project conducted between November 2021 and May 2022 as part of the Scotland 365 project. The project was commissioned by National Museums Scotland (NMS) to help NMS transform the way they engage young people with their museums and collections. Led by Peter McCaughey, the arts organisation WAVEparticle invited pupils aged 10-18 and their teachers to tell us what they think school visits to museums should be like for young people. The project sought to understand and explore what school pupils and their teachers find enjoyable about museums and what they think should be changed or improved with respect to school visits. The project was delivered using a methodology composed of secondary research, site visits, interviews, workshops, creative approaches and a national survey. Project outputs included a final project report detailing findings and recommendations for the NMS youth engagement strategy and action plan, and a creative toolkit designed for teachers to support future school visits and pupil engagement with NMS’ museums. This is a final report on the work undertaken for the Schools Consultancy as part of the Scotland 365 project, that shares findings and makes recommendations for the NMS youth engagement strategy and action plan

Plug-and-play genetic access to drosophila cell types using exchangeable exon cassettes.

Genetically encoded effectors are important tools for probing cellular function in living animals, but improved methods for directing their expression to specific cell types are required. Here, we introduce a simple, versatile method for achieving cell-type-specific expression of transgenes that leverages the untapped potential of "coding introns" (i.e., introns between coding exons). Our method couples the expression of a transgene to that of a native gene expressed in the cells of interest using intronically inserted "plug-and-play" cassettes (called "Trojan exons") that carry a splice acceptor site followed by the coding sequences of T2A peptide and an effector transgene. We demonstrate the efficacy of this approach in Drosophila using lines containing suitable MiMIC (Minos-mediated integration cassette) transposons and a palette of Trojan exons capable of expressing a range of commonly used transcription factors. We also introduce an exchangeable, MiMIC-like Trojan exon construct that can be targeted to coding introns using the Crispr/Cas system.This work was supported by the Intramural Research Program of the National Institute of Mental Health (B.H.W.) and by grants from the Whitehall Foundation (C.J.P.), NIH (R01DC013070, C.J.P.), the Wellcome Trust (H.I. and M.L.), and the Sir Isaac Newton Trust, Cambridge (M.L.). J.E. was supported by FONDECYT #1141278 and the CINV, which is supported by the Millennium Scientific Initiative of the Ministerio de Economía, Fomento y Turismo. We thank the Bellen laboratory and the Drosophila Gene Disruption Project at Baylor College of Medicine, the Bloomington Stock Center (NIH P40OD018537), and Julie Simpson for fly lines. Thanks also to Aaron DiAntonio, Aaron Hsueh, and John Reinitz for antibodies and the NINDS Sequencing Core Facility for DNA sequencing. Finally, thanks to Sarah Naylor for technical help and Grace Gray, Herman Dierick, Koen Venken, and Hugo Bellen for comments on the manuscript and productive discussions.This is the final published version. It first appeared at http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25732830

“Women Who Wail”: An auto-ethnographic study of four Latina educators and the heroínas who shaped their understanding of critical pedagogies

The lore of La Llorona, the woman who wails, is a pervasive archetype in Latin American cultures. While stories vary by country and region, the most common telling is associated with Mexican folklore, in which an anguished woman cries for her drowned children—in some retellings, their death results from her murderous rage at being betrayed by her lover; in others their deaths result from an accident. These stories have traditionally served as cautionary tales, often positioning Latinas as tragic forces within their communities (Morales, 2010); however, Chicana scholars have reconceptualized La Llorona to symbolize a feminist power. This autoethnographic study reflects on the lore of La Llorona as a metaphor for a Latina’s “resistance in society” (Anzaldúa, 1987, p.33) or as Morales (2010, p.3) states, “the voice who cries out against injustice”. Specifically, through the application of Chicana/Latina feminist and critical epistemologies, the authors explore the works of Gloria Anzaldúa, Nela Martinez Espinosa, Dolores Huerta, and Nisia Floresta— Latina feminist authors and politicians, who have used their voices to fight injustices within their communities. Furthermore, the authors reflect upon how these heroines have influenced their own identities as “women who wail”—as feminist Latina educators who work toward a pedagogy for social justice.La tradición de La Llorona, la mujer que se lamenta, es un arquetipo generalizado en las culturas latinoamericanas. Si bien las historias de la Llorona varían según el país y la región, la narración más común está asociada con el folklore mexicano, en el cual una mujer angustiada llora por sus hijos ahogados; en algunas versiones, la muerte es el resultado de su ira asesina al ser traicionada por su amante; en otros, la muerte es el resultado de un accidente. Estas historias han servido tradicionalmente como cuentos de advertencia, a menudo posicionando a las latinas como fuerzas trágicas dentro de sus comunidades (Morales, 2010). Sin embargo, los especialistas chicanos han reconceptualizado a La Llorona como símbolo de poder feminista. Este estudio autoetnográfico reflexiona en base a la historia de La Llorona como una metáfora de la "resistencia de la mujer latina” en la sociedad (Anzaldúa, 1987, p. 33), o como afirma Morales (2010, p. 3) "la voz que clama contra la injusticia ". En especial a través de la aplicación de la teoría feminista Chicana/Latina y la epistemología crítica, las autoras exploran los trabajos de Gloria Anzaldúa, Nela Martínez Espinosa, Dolores Huerta y Nisia Floresta, las cuales como autoras y políticas Latinas feministas han utilizado sus voces para luchar contra las injusticias sociales en sus comunidades. Además, las autoras reflexionan sobre cómo estas heroínas han influenciado sus propias identidades como "mujeres que se lamentan", como feministas Latinas educadoras que trabajan por una pedagogía en favor de la justicia social.A tradição de La Llorona, a mulher que lamenta-se, é um arquétipo geral nas culturas latino-americanas. Embora as histórias de La Llorona variem por país e região, a narração mais comum está associada ao folclore mexicano, no qual uma mulher angustiada chora por seus filhos afogados; em algumas versões, a morte é o resultado de sua ira assassina por ser traída por seu amante; em outros, a morte é o resultado de um acidente. Tradicionalmente, essas histórias servem como contos de advertência, muitas vezes posicionando as Latinas como forças trágicas em suas comunidades (Morales, 2010). No entanto, especialistas chicanos reconceptualizaram La Llorona como um símbolo do poder feminista. Este estudo autoetnográfico reflete sobre a história de La Llorona como uma metáfora para a "resistência das mulheres Latinas" na sociedade (Anzaldúa, 1987, p. 33) ou como Morales (2010, p. 3) afirma, "o voz clamando contra a injustiça". Especialmente a través da aplicação da teoria feminista chicana / latina e da epistemologia crítica, as autoras exploram os trabalhos de Gloria Anzaldúa, Nela Martínez Espinosa, Dolores Huerta e Nisia Floresta, que como autoras e políticas feministas Latinas usaram suas vozes para combater injustiças sociais em suas comunidades, e os autores refletem sobre como essas heroínas influenciaram suas próprias identidades como "mulheres que lamentam-se", como educadoras Latinas feministas que trabalham para uma pedagogia em prol da justiça social

A particular difficulty in discriminating between mirror images

We investigated the selective impairment of mirror image discrimination in a patient with bilateral parieto-occipital lesions (FIM). We report a difficulty with the discrimination between mirror images more selective than has been previously reported (Turnbull OH, McCarthy RA. Failure to discriminate between mirror-image objects: a case of viewpoint-independent object recognition? Neurocase 1996;2:63). FIM was asked to judge, in five same/different experiments, whether pairs of simultaneously presented line drawings of objects were identical. FIM demonstrated only a minor impairment in discriminating between orientations in the picture plane but was at chance in making discrimination between mirror images. An experiment with normal observers established that our results were not due to differences in task difficulty. Two further experiments investigated the effects of rotation on the discrimination of letters and geometric shapes. FIM's impairment extended to geometric shapes but not to letters. These results would be consistent with the preservation of an abstract representation for object recognition that did not code the difference between mirror image views

Warrington and Taylor’s 1978 paper

One of the most fundamental questions in cognitive neuroscience is to understand how the brain constructs our three-dimensional visual world from two-dimensional retinal signals of light and dark intensity. At the time this paper was written, the seminal work of Sperry and his colleagues studying patients who had undergone sections of the corpus callosum was most influential (Gazzaniga et al 1962; Sperry et al 1969). They reported that visual object recognition up to the level of functional significance or meaning was intact in the disconnected right hemisphere, merely the verbal label could not be retrieved. Consequently, at that time current theorising tended to conflate perceptual processing and semantic processing to a single post-sensory categorical stage such that object recognition was achieved by a single system (eg Sutherland 1968, 1973; Tenenbaum and Barrow 1976)

Fine mapping of a linkage peak with integration of lipid traits identifies novel coronary artery disease genes on chromosome 5

Coronary artery disease (CAD), and one of its intermediate risk factors, dyslipidemia, possess a demonstrable genetic component, although the genetic architecture is incompletely defined. We previously reported a linkage peak on chromosome 5q31-33 for early-onset CAD where the strength of evidence for linkage was increased in families with higher mean low density lipoprotein-cholesterol (LDL-C). Therefore, we sought to fine-map the peak using association mapping of LDL-C as an intermediate disease-related trait to further define the etiology of this linkage peak. The study populations consisted of 1908 individuals from the CATHGEN biorepository of patients undergoing cardiac catheterization; 254 families (N = 827 individuals) from the GENECARD familial study of early-onset CAD; and 162 aorta samples harvested from deceased donors. Linkage disequilibrium-tagged SNPs were selected with an average of one SNP per 20 kb for 126.6-160.2 MB (region of highest linkage) and less dense spacing (one SNP per 50 kb) for the flanking regions (117.7-126.6 and 160.2-167.5 MB) and genotyped on all samples using a custom Illumina array. Association analysis of each SNP with LDL-C was performed using multivariable linear regression (CATHGEN) and the quantitative trait transmission disequilibrium test (QTDT; GENECARD). SNPs associated with the intermediate quantitative trait, LDL-C, were then assessed for association with CAD (i.e., a qualitative phenotype) using linkage and association in the presence of linkage (APL; GENECARD) and logistic regression (CATHGEN and aortas)