Laboratory evaluation of stable isotope labeling of Culicoides (Diptera: Ceratopogonidae) for adult dispersal studies.

BackgroundStable isotope labeling is a promising method for use in insect mark-capture and dispersal studies. Culicoides biting midges, which transmit several important animal pathogens, including bluetongue virus (BTV) and epizootic hemorrhagic disease virus (EHDV), are small flies that develop in various semi-aquatic habitats. Previous Culicoides dispersal studies have suffered from the limitations of other labeling techniques, and an inability to definitively connect collected adult midges to specific immature development sites.ResultsAdult C. sonorensis were successfully labeled with 13C and 15N stable isotopes as larvae developing in a semi-aquatic mud substrate in the laboratory. High and low-dose isotope treatments for both elements significantly enriched midges above the background isotope levels of unenriched controls. Enrichment had no effect on C. sonorensis survival, though a slight (~ 5 day) delay in emergence was observed, and there was no significant effect of pool size on 13C or 15N enrichment levels.ConclusionsStable isotope labeling is life-long, and does not interfere with natural insect behaviors. Stable isotope enrichment using 13C or 15N shows promise for Culicoides dispersal studies in the field. This method can be used to identify adult dispersal from larval source habitat where a midge developed. It may be possible to detect a single enriched midge in a pool of unenriched individuals, though further testing is needed to confirm the sensitivity of this method

Persistent Decadal-Scale Rainfall Variability in the Tropical South Pacific Convergence Zone Through the Past Six Centuries

Modern Pacific decadal variability (PDV) has global impacts; hence records of PDV from the pre-instrumental period are needed to better inform models that are used to project future climate variability. We focus here on reconstructing rainfall in the western tropical Pacific (Solomon Islands; similar to 9.5 degrees S, similar to 160 degrees E), a region directly influenced by PDV, using cave deposits (stalagmite). A relationship is developed between delta O-18 variations in the stalagmite and local rainfall amount to produce a 600 yr record of rainfall variability from the South Pacific Convergence Zone (SPCZ). We present evidence for large (similar to 1.5 m), abrupt, and periodic changes in total annual rainfall amount on decadal to multidecadal timescales since 1423 +/- 5 CE (Common Era) in the Solomon Islands. The timing of the decadal changes in rainfall inferred from the 20th-century portion of the stalagmite delta O-18 record coincides with previously identified decadal shifts in PDV-related Pacific ocean-atmosphere behavior (Clement et al., 2011; Deser et al., 2004). The Solomons record of PDV is not associated with variations in external forcings, but rather results from internal climate variability. The 600 yr Solomon Islands stalagmite delta O-18 record indicates that decadal oscillations in rainfall are a persistent characteristic of SPCZ-related climate variability.Taiwan ROC NSCNTU 101-2116-M-002-009, 102-2116-M-002-016, 101R7625Geological Science

Discovery of a novel transcriptional regulator of sugar catabolism in archaea

The haloarchaeon Haloferax volcanii degrades D-glucose via the semiphosphorylative Entner-Doudoroff pathway and D-fructose via a modified Embden-Meyerhof pathway. Here, we report the identification of GfcR, a novel type of transcriptional regulator that functions as an activator of both D-glucose and D-fructose catabolism. We find that in the presence of D-glucose, GfcR activates gluconate dehydratase, glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase and pyruvate kinase and also acts as activator of the phosphotransferase system and of fructose-1,6-bisphosphate aldolase, which are involved in uptake and degradation of D-fructose. In addition, glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase and pyruvate kinase are activated by GfcR in the presence of D-fructose and also during growth on D-galactose and glycerol. Electrophoretic mobility shift assays indicate that GfcR binds directly to promoters of regulated genes. Specific intermediates of the degradation pathways of the three hexoses and of glycerol were identified as inducer molecules of GfcR. GfcR is composed of a phosphoribosyltransferase (PRT) domain with an N-terminal helix-turn-helix motif and thus shows homology to PurR of Gram-positive bacteria that is involved in the transcriptional regulation of nucleotide biosynthesis. We propose that GfcR of H. volcanii evolved from a PRT-like enzyme to attain a function as a transcriptional regulator of central sugar catabolic pathways in archaea

Simple Procedure for Fatigue Characterization of Bituminous Concrete

DOT-FH-11-8324The objective of this project was to develop a simple test to design bituminous concrete mixtures for fatigue resistance. Included are two literature reviews: (1) current fatigue testing procedures, and (2) simple test methods that offer possibilities for fatigue prediction. Seven bituminous concretes representing five areas of the United States were tested by a beam fatigue apparatus and several selected simple test methods. Correlations were performed between fatigue results and simple test results, and the best correlations were obtained with the indirect tensile test. Indirect tensile test results correlate with the stress-fatigue life curve under the constant stress fatigue test mode and the strain-fatigue life curve under the constant strain fatigue test mode. The main conclusion is that the indirect tensile test can be used to predict the fatigue characteristics of bituminous concretes and a simple test method is recommended

Bibliometric Analysis of Female Authorship Trends and Collaboration Dynamics Over JBMR's 30-Year History

In academia, authorship is considered a currency and is important for career advancement. As the Journal of Bone and Mineral Research (JBMR) is the highest-ranked journal in the field of bone, muscle, and mineral metabolism and is the official publication of the American Society for Bone and Mineral Research, we sought to examine authorship changes over JBMR's 30-year history. Two bibliometric methods were used to collect the data. The “decade method” included all published manuscripts throughout 1 year in each decade over the past 30 years starting with the inaugural year, yielding 746 manuscripts for analysis. The “random method” examined 10% of published manuscripts from each of the 30 years, yielding 652 manuscripts for analysis. Using both methods, the average number of authors per manuscript, numerical location of the corresponding author, number of collaborating institutions, number of collaborating countries, number of printed manuscript pages, and the number of times each manuscript was cited all significantly increased between 1986 and 2015 (p < 10−4). Using the decade method, there was a significant increase in the percentage of female first authors over time from 35.8% in 1986 to 47.7% in 2015 (p = 0.02), and this trend was confirmed using the random method. The highest percentage of female first authors in 2015 was in Europe (60.0%), and Europe also had the most dramatic increase in female first authors over time (more than double in 2015 compared with 1986). Likewise, the overall number of female corresponding authors significantly increased during the past 30 years. With the increasing demands of publishing in academic medicine, understanding changes in publishing characteristics over time and by geographical region is important. These findings highlight JBMR's authorship trends over the past 30 years and demonstrate those countries having the most changes and where challenges still exist

The Marker State Space (MSS) Method for Classifying Clinical Samples

The development of accurate clinical biomarkers has been challenging in part due to the diversity between patients and diseases. One approach to account for the diversity is to use multiple markers to classify patients, based on the concept that each individual marker contributes information from its respective subclass of patients. Here we present a new strategy for developing biomarker panels that accounts for completely distinct patient subclasses. Marker State Space (MSS) defines "marker states" based on all possible patterns of high and low values among a panel of markers. Each marker state is defined as either a case state or a control state, and a sample is classified as case or control based on the state it occupies. MSS was used to define multi-marker panels that were robust in cross validation and training-set/test-set analyses and that yielded similar classification accuracy to several other classification algorithms. A three-marker panel for discriminating pancreatic cancer patients from control subjects revealed subclasses of patients based on distinct marker states. MSS provides a straightforward approach for modeling highly divergent subclasses of patients, which may be adaptable for diverse applications. © 2013 Fallon et al

Energy partition of seismic coda waves in layered media: theory and application to Pinyon Flats Observatory

We have studied the partition of shear, compressional and kinetic energies in the coda of ten earthquakes recorded on a dense array, located at Pinyon Flats Observatory (PFO), California. We observe a clear stabilization of the shear to compressional ($W^s/W^p$) energy ratio in the coda, with an average value of about 2.8. The ratio between the vertical and horizontal kinetic energies ($V^2/H^2$) can be measured from 5 to 25Hz and shows an abrupt transitionfrom 0.1 in the 5-10Hz band, to about 0.8 in the 15-25Hz band. These measured values are in sharp contrast with the theoretical prediction for equipartitioned elastic waves in a homogeneous half-space. To explain these observations, we have developed a theory of equipartition in a layered elastic half-space. Using a rigorous spectral decomposition of the elastic wave equation, we define equipartition as a white noise distributed over the complete set of eigenfunctions. The theory predicts that close to the resonance frequency of a low-velocity layer, the ratio between shear and compressional energies strongly decreases. Using a detailed model of the subsurface at PFO, this conterintuitive result is found to be in good qualitative and quantitative agreement with the observations