Determining the Genetic Distances between sub-populations of Aneides aeneus in the Westvāco Wildlife and Ecological Research Forest

Aneides aeneus, the Green Salamander, is a plethodontid species ranging from southern Pennsylvania to central Alabama and from eastern Mississippi to Maryland. Populations of Green Salamanders most often inhabit cliffs and rocky outcrops which are moist but not wet and shaded. The animal is listed as a species of special concern by the West Virginia Division of Natural Resources Wildlife Diversity Program. Genetic and reproductive isolation due to strict habitat preferences of the Green Salamander could be a factor in the decline of the species. Seventeen tissue samples were retrieved from five sites within the Westvāco Wildlife and Ecosystem Research Forest (WWERF) in Randolph County, West Virginia for the purposes of determining the extent of gene flow between those 5 separate populations. The polymerase chain reaction was used to amplify approximately 940 base pairs of the ND4 NADH dehydrogenase region of mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA). These amplicons were sequenced and then analyzed using distance matrix phylograms, maximum parsimony cladograms, and linear regression analysis. Tree topologies, rooted by an outgroup Green Salamander specimen from North Carolina, showed no consistent grouping by individual populations. The North Carolina specimen consistently branched away from the West Virginia specimens. However, linear regression analysis showed a significant correlation (R=0.645, P=0.008) between genetic distances and geographical distances of the samples both within the WWERF and extending to the North Carolina specimen. This correlation was not significant for populations which were within one kilometer of each other. Linear regressions of protein genetic distances and geographic distances proved to have no significant correlation for populations inside the WWERF. We were unable to demonstrate, through phylogenetic methods or linear regressions, that populations within one kilometer are genetically isolated.This work suggests that gene flow can occur within a one kilometer radius, but is reduced or absent at three kilometers for A. aeneus.Continued monitoring of these populations and examination of the ND4 region of mtDNA from other populations is important for the Green Salamander. Knowledge of the extent of species migration is important to provide proper protective measures for this species

Macroinvertebrate community structure as an indicator of phosphorus enrichment in rivers

Nutrient enrichment represents one of the most important causes of detriment to river ecosystem health globally. Monitoring nutrient inputs can be particularly challenging given the spatial and temporal heterogeneity of nitrogen and phosphorus concentrations and the indirect and often lagged effects on instream communities. The objective of this paper was to explore the association between family level macroinvertebrate community data and Total Reactive Phosphorus (TRP). To achieve this, a biological index for phosphorus sensitivity (Total Reactive Phosphorus Index – TRPI) was developed and tested utilising invertebrate community and chemical data from two datasets, one consisting 88 sites across England and the other 76 sites, both sampled in spring and autumn using the same methodology between 2013 and 2015. There was a significant association between TRPI and TRP concentrations that was stronger than other biological indices of elevated phosphorus, including the TDI (diatoms) and MTR (macrophytes), currently available in the UK. Additional testing and validation are presented via local case studies, where results indicate that macroinvertebrate family sensitivity is dependent upon a range of abiotic factors including season (time of year), benthic substrate composition, altitude, and water alkalinity

Launch Vehicle Design for the FAR-Mars Competition

Zenith Propulsion is constructing a launch vehicle, named Altair, to compete in a competition hosted by the Friends of Amateur Rocketry (FAR) and the Mars Society. The objective for Zenith Propulsion is to design, build and launch Altair to a qualifying altitude of 30,000 feet in the FAR-Mars competition. Altair will utilize a rocket engine that has been in development at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University’s Prescott campus since late 2018. This engine, named Janus, uses liquid oxygen and Jet-A and is designed to deliver 1000 lbf of thrust. Altair will be launched from the FAR launch site, in Mojave, CA, on April 18th, 2020. POSTER PRESENTATION EAGLE PRIZE AWAR

Zenith Propulsion

Launch Vehicle Design for the FAR-Mars Competition The Zenith Propulsion team took on the challenge put forth by the Friends of Amateur Rocketry (FAR), to build and launch a rocket propelled by a liquid rocket engine. In 2018-2019, a capstone team called Tiber Designs successfully designed and tested a 1,000 lbf-thrust rocket engine, named Janus, that uses liquid oxygen and jet-A (aviationgrade kerosene) as propellants. Zenith Propulsion would design a vehicle – 21 ft long, 6 in diameter, 170 lbm loaded – that uses the Janus rocket engine to fly to a target altitude of 30,000 ft above ground level. The vehicle requires propellant tanks, an internal structure to support the tanks, a propellant feed system to direct fuel and oxidizer to the engine, an aeroshell with fins to passively stabilize the rocket in flight, a ground support system to control the launch sequence, and a parachute system to recover the rocket. The vehicle was designed and constructed and reached 82% completion in March 2020 when vehicle testing began. A simulated launch was to be performed with the vehicle in a captive vertical orientation in order to qualify all systems for launch. Due to the onset of COVID-19 related closures, the ability to perform the vehicle test, or to travel to the FAR launch site in California, became impossible. Current plans call for testing and launch efforts to resume in the Fall 2020 semester, with the support of additional funds from the URI

Comparability of macroinvertebrate biomonitoring indices of river health derived from semi-quantitative and quantitative methodologies

Aquatic macroinvertebrates have been the basis for one of the primary indicators and a cornerstone of lotic biomonitoring for over 40 years. Despite the widespread use of lotic invertebrates in statutory biomonitoring networks, scientific research and citizen science projects, the sampling methodologies employed frequently vary between studies. Routine statutory biomonitoring has historically relied on semi-quantitative sampling methods (timed kick sampling), while much academic research has favoured fully quantitative methods (e.g. Surber sampling). There is an untested assumption that data derived using quantitative and semi-quantitative samples are not comparable for biomonitoring purposes. As a result, data derived from the same site, but using different sampling techniques, have typically not been analysed together or directly compared. Here, we test this assumption by comparing a range of biomonitoring metrics derived from data collected using timed semi-quantitative kick samples and quantitative Surber samples from the same sites simultaneously. In total, 39 pairs of samples from 7 rivers in the UK were compared for two seasons (spring and autumn). We found a strong positive correlation (rs = +0.84) between estimates of taxa richness based on ten Surber sub-samples and a single kick sample. The majority of biomonitoring metrics were comparable between techniques, although only fully quantitative sampling allows the density of the community (individual m−2) to be determined. However, this advantage needs to be balanced alongside the greater total sampling time and effort associated with the fully quantitative methodology used here. Kick samples did not provide a good estimate of relative abundance of a number of species/taxa and, therefore, the quantitative method has the potential to provide important additional information which may support the interpretation of the biological metrics

Aurora B couples chromosome alignment with anaphase by targeting BubR1, Mad2, and Cenp-E to kinetochores

The Aurora/Ipl1 family of protein kinases plays multiple roles in mitosis and cytokinesis. Here, we describe ZM447439, a novel selective Aurora kinase inhibitor. Cells treated with ZM447439 progress through interphase, enter mitosis normally, and assemble bipolar spindles. However, chromosome alignment, segregation, and cytokinesis all fail. Despite the presence of maloriented chromosomes, ZM447439-treated cells exit mitosis with normal kinetics, indicating that the spindle checkpoint is compromised. Indeed, ZM447439 prevents mitotic arrest after exposure to paclitaxel. RNA interference experiments suggest that these phenotypes are due to inhibition of Aurora B, not Aurora A or some other kinase. In the absence of Aurora B function, kinetochore localization of the spindle checkpoint components BubR1, Mad2, and Cenp-E is diminished. Furthermore, inhibition of Aurora B kinase activity prevents the rebinding of BubR1 to metaphase kinetochores after a reduction in centromeric tension. Aurora B kinase activity is also required for phosphorylation of BubR1 on entry into mitosis. Finally, we show that BubR1 is not only required for spindle checkpoint function, but is also required for chromosome alignment. Together, these results suggest that by targeting checkpoint proteins to kinetochores, Aurora B couples chromosome alignment with anaphase onset

Exploring Anatomic Variants to Enhance Anatomy Teaching: Musculus Sternalis

The opportunity to encounter and appreciate the range of human variation in anatomic structures—and its potential impact on related structures, function, and treatment—is one of the chief benefits of cadaveric dissection for students in clinical preprofessional programs. The dissection lab is also where students can examine unusual anatomic variants that may not be included in their textbooks, lab manuals, or other course materials. For students specializing in physical medicine, awareness and understanding of muscle variants has a practical relevance to their preparations for clinical practice. In a routine dissection of the superficial chest muscles, graduate students in a human gross anatomy class exposed a large, well-developed sternalis muscle. The exposure of this muscle generated many student questions about M sternalis: its prevalence and appearance, its function, its development, and its evolutionary roots. Students used an inquiry protocol to guide their searches through relevant literature to gather this information. Instructors developed a decision tree to assist students in their inquiries, both by helping them to make analytic inferences and by highlighting areas of interest needing further investigation. Answering these questions enriches the understanding and promotes “habits of mind” for exploring musculoskeletal anatomy beyond simple descriptions of function and structure

Ekiden: A Platform for Confidentiality-Preserving, Trustworthy, and Performant Smart Contract Execution

Smart contracts are applications that execute on blockchains. Today they manage billions of dollars in value and motivate visionary plans for pervasive blockchain deployment. While smart contracts inherit the availability and other security assurances of blockchains, however, they are impeded by blockchains' lack of confidentiality and poor performance. We present Ekiden, a system that addresses these critical gaps by combining blockchains with Trusted Execution Environments (TEEs). Ekiden leverages a novel architecture that separates consensus from execution, enabling efficient TEE-backed confidentiality-preserving smart-contracts and high scalability. Our prototype (with Tendermint as the consensus layer) achieves example performance of 600x more throughput and 400x less latency at 1000x less cost than the Ethereum mainnet. Another contribution of this paper is that we systematically identify and treat the pitfalls arising from harmonizing TEEs and blockchains. Treated separately, both TEEs and blockchains provide powerful guarantees, but hybridized, though, they engender new attacks. For example, in naive designs, privacy in TEE-backed contracts can be jeopardized by forgery of blocks, a seemingly unrelated attack vector. We believe the insights learned from Ekiden will prove to be of broad importance in hybridized TEE-blockchain systems

Characterizing the Cool KOIs. VI. H- and K-band Spectra of Kepler M Dwarf Planet-Candidate Hosts

We present H- and K-band spectra for late-type Kepler Objects of Interest (the "Cool KOIs"): low-mass stars with transiting-planet candidates discovered by NASA's Kepler Mission that are listed on the NASA Exoplanet Archive. We acquired spectra of 103 Cool KOIs and used the indices and calibrations of Rojas-Ayala et al. to determine their spectral types, stellar effective temperatures and metallicities, significantly augmenting previously published values. We interpolate our measured effective temperatures and metallicities onto evolutionary isochrones to determine stellar masses, radii, luminosities and distances, assuming the stars have settled onto the main-sequence. As a choice of isochrones, we use a new suite of Dartmouth predictions that reliably include mid-to-late M dwarf stars. We identify five M4V stars: KOI-961 (confirmed as Kepler 42), KOI-2704, KOI-2842, KOI-4290, and the secondary component to visual binary KOI-1725, which we call KOI-1725 B. We also identify a peculiar star, KOI-3497, which has a Na and Ca lines consistent with a dwarf star but CO lines consistent with a giant. Visible-wavelength adaptive optics imaging reveals two objects within a 1 arc second diameter; however, the objects' colors are peculiar. The spectra and properties presented in this paper serve as a resource for prioritizing follow-up observations and planet validation efforts for the Cool KOIs, and are all available for download online using the "data behind the figure" feature.Comment: Accepted for publication in the Astrophysical Journal Supplement Series (ApJS). Data and table are available in the sourc