Comparison of Niskin vs. in situ approaches for analysis of gene expression in deep Mediterranean Sea water samples

Author Posting. © The Author(s), 2014. This is the author's version of the work. It is posted here by permission of Elsevier for personal use, not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in Deep Sea Research Part II: Topical Studies in Oceanography 129 (2016): 213-222, doi:10.1016/j.dsr2.2014.10.020.Obtaining an accurate picture of microbial processes occurring in situ is essential for our understanding of marine biogeochemical cycles of global importance. Water samples are typically collected at depth and returned to the sea surface for processing and downstream experiments. Metatranscriptome analysis is one powerful approach for investigating metabolic activities of microorganisms in their habitat and which can be informative for determining responses of microbiota to disturbances such as the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. For studies of microbial processes occurring in the deep sea, however, sample handling, pressure, and other changes during sample recovery can subject microorganisms to physiological changes that alter the expression profile of labile messenger RNA. Here we report a comparison of gene expression profiles for whole microbial communities in a bathypelagic water column sample collected in the Eastern Mediterranean Sea using Niskin bottle sample collection and a new water column sampler for studies of marine microbial ecology, the Microbial Sampler – In Situ Incubation Device (MS-SID). For some taxa, gene expression profiles from samples collected and preserved 33 in situ were significantly different from potentially more stressful Niskin sampling and 34 preservation on deck. Some categories of transcribed genes also appear to be affected by sample 35 handling more than others. This suggests that for future studies of marine microbial ecology, 36 particularly targeting deep sea samples, an in situ sample collection and preservation approach 37 should be considered.This research was funded by NSF OCE-1061774 to VE and CT, NSF DBI-0424599 to CT and NSF OCE-0849578 to VE and colleague J. Bernhard. Cruise participation was partially supported by Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) grant STO414/10-1 to T. Stoeck

Manufacturing consensus in a diverse field of scholarly opinions: A comment on Bushman, Gollwitzer, and Cruz (2015).

We appreciate the efforts of Bushman and Cruz to provide new data describing parents’ and professionals’ opinions regarding effects of media violence. Unfortunately, we feel it is necessary to call attention to apparent errors and inaccuracies in the way those data are interpreted and represented in their article. The article overstates the extent to which there is agreement that media violence has meaningful negative societal effects and misrepresents the relevance of the study to an understanding of the effects of media violence on societal violence. In contrast, we call for a climate of research on media violence that better recognizes the diversity of findings and conclusions in an active and growing research agenda and eschews unwarranted insinuations about effects on criminal violence from research focused on aggression-related measures not assessing violent crime

Models and metaphors: complexity theory and through-life management in the built environment

Complexity thinking may have both modelling and metaphorical applications in the through-life management of the built environment. These two distinct approaches are examined and compared. In the first instance, some of the sources of complexity in the design, construction and maintenance of the built environment are identified. The metaphorical use of complexity in management thinking and its application in the built environment are briefly examined. This is followed by an exploration of modelling techniques relevant to built environment concerns. Non-linear and complex mathematical techniques such as fuzzy logic, cellular automata and attractors, may be applicable to their analysis. Existing software tools are identified and examples of successful built environment applications of complexity modelling are given. Some issues that arise include the definition of phenomena in a mathematically usable way, the functionality of available software and the possibility of going beyond representational modelling. Further questions arising from the application of complexity thinking are discussed, including the possibilities for confusion that arise from the use of metaphor. The metaphor of a 'commentary machine' is suggested as a possible way forward and it is suggested that an appropriate linguistic analysis can in certain situations reduce perceived complexity

Do Older Adults Hate Video Games until they Play them? A Proof-of-Concept Study

The issue of negative video game influences on youth remains contentious in public debate, the scholarly community and among policy makers. Recent research has indicated that negative attitudes toward video games are, in part, generational in nature with older adults more inclined to endorse negative beliefs about video games. The current mixed design study examined the impact of exposure to games on beliefs about video games in a small (n = 34) sample of older adults. Results indicated that older adults were more concerned about video games as an abstract concept but when exposed to a particular video game, even an M-rated violent game, expressed fewer concerns about that specific video game. Results support the hypothesis that negative attitudes toward video games exists mainly in the abstract and do not survive direct exposure to individual games. Further, older adults were not uniform in their condemnation of video games with older adults having varying opinions about the harmfulness of video games. Related to specific concerns, older adults tended to worry more about issues such as addiction than they did violent content.<br/

Attributing minds to vampires in Richard Matheson’s I Am Legend

For Palmer (2004, 2010), and other proponents of a cognitive narratology, research into real-world minds in the cognitive sciences provides insights into readers’ experiences of fictional minds. In this article, I explore the application of such research to the minds constructed for the vampire characters in Richard Matheson’s (1954) science fiction/horror novel I Am Legend. I draw upon empirical research into ‘mind attribution’ in social psychology, and apply Cognitive Grammar (Langacker, 2008), and its notion of ‘construal’, as a framework for the application of such findings to narrative. In my analysis, I suggest that readers’ attribution of mental-states to the vampires in Matheson’s novel is strategically limited through a number of choices in their linguistic construal. Drawing on online reader responses to the novel, I argue that readers’ understanding of these other minds plays an important role in their empathetic experience and their ethical judgement of the novel’s main character and focaliser, Robert Neville. Finally, I suggest that the limited mind attribution for the vampires invited through their construal contributes to the presentation of a ‘mind style’ (Fowler, 1977) for this character

Elections and Ethnic Civil War

Existing research on how democratization may influence the risk of civil war tends to consider only changes in the overall level of democracy and rarely examines explicitly the postulated mechanisms relating democratization to incentives for violence. The authors argue that typically highlighted key mechanisms imply that elections should be especially likely to affect ethnic groups’ inclination to resort to violence. Distinguishing between types of conflict and the order of competitive elections, the authors find that ethnic civil wars are more likely to erupt after competitive elections, especially after first and second elections following periods of no polling. When disaggregating to the level of individual ethnic groups and conflicts over territory or government, the authors find some support for the notion that ethno-nationalist mobilization and sore-loser effects provoke postelectoral violence. More specifically, although large groups in general are more likely to engage in governmental conflicts, they are especially likely to do so after noncompetitive elections. Competitive elections, however, strongly reduce the risk of conflict. </jats:p

Response to Kamath et al 'A syncretic approach can yield dividends'

We welcome the response from Kamath et al. and their insight into the issues and culture within medicine in India, and their thoughts about how to address these issues. We also agree that a drama-based approach is not sufficient on its own to deal with entrenched power issues which affect students adversely. As we have indicated, we believe “a multipronged approach is needed to generate systemic change.” These authors similarly advocate that student mistreatment be dealt with “in a comprehensive manner” including a ‘grievance redressal system’ and other measures to withhold accreditation where there are issues of abuse of power. Nevertheless, we note that Kamath et al. have responded positively to our approach—as a part of that mix—and it would be of great interest to see whether drama-based workshops could support medical students developing embodied acting skills in their institution and whether they may have similar transformative effects. We’d like to refer the authors to an excellent Medical Humanities paper we referenced that outlined drama-based activities in medical education in India: Gupta S, Singh S. Confluence: understanding medical humanities through street theatre. Medical Humanities. 2011;37(2):127-128. Despite the above article, the authors note that medical education in India has not embraced the medical humanities. We would draw a distinction within the medical humanities between activities which are primarily studious (reading literature, studying medical history) and workshops that are based on participative and embodied activity. Our experience has indicated the effectiveness of drama-based workshops in addressing both the cognitive and emotive aspects of harmful practices and we believe that it is the embodied nature of acting skills workshops that is transformative

A systematic review of studies measuring and reporting hearing aid usage in older adults since 1999: a descriptive summary of measurement tools

Objective: A systematic review was conducted to identify and quality assess how studies published since 1999 have measured and reported the usage of hearing aids in older adults. The relationship between usage and other dimensions of hearing aid outcome, age and hearing loss are summarised. Data sources: Articles were identified through systematic searches in PubMed/MEDLINE, The University of Nottingham Online Catalogue, Web of Science and through reference checking. Study eligibility criteria: (1) participants aged fifty years or over with sensori-neural hearing loss, (2) provision of an air conduction hearing aid, (3) inclusion of hearing aid usage measure(s) and (4) published between 1999 and 2011. Results: Of the initial 1933 papers obtained from the searches, a total of 64 were found eligible for review and were quality assessed on six dimensions: study design, choice of outcome instruments, level of reporting (usage, age, and audiometry) and cross validation of usage measures. Five papers were rated as being of high quality (scoring 10–12), 35 papers were rated as being of moderate quality (scoring 7–9), 22 as low quality (scoring 4–6) and two as very low quality (scoring 0–2). Fifteen different methods were identified for assessing the usage of hearing aids. Conclusions: Generally, the usage data reviewed was not well specified. There was a lack of consistency and robustness in the way that usage of hearing aids was assessed and categorised. There is a need for more standardised level of reporting of hearing aid usage data to further understand the relationship between usage and hearing aid outcomes

Celebrity abuse on Twitter: the impact of tweet valence, volume of abuse, and dark triad personality factors on victim blaming and perceptions of severity

Celebrities are increasingly utilizing social media platforms to establish their brand and interact with their fan base, but in doing so they often become the targets of online abuse. While such abusive acts are known to cause severe consequences in the general population little is known about how celebrity abuse is perceived by observers. This study investigated observers' impressions of the severity of online abuse on Twitter, the blame attributed to celebrities for the abuse they received, and the role of the dark triad of observers' personality factors (Machiavellianism, narcissism, and psychopathy) in these decisions. We manipulated celebrity tweet content (negative, neutral, positive) and the volume of abusive comments (high, low) the tweets received. Celebrities received more blame the more negative their initial tweet was, and incidents were perceived as least severe following a negative tweet with a high volume of abuse. Observer impressions were influenced by their dark triad personality factors. Following negative tweets, as observer narcissism increased, victim blame increased and perceived severity decreased. Following positive tweets, as observer psychopathy increased, perceived severity decreased. Results are discussed in the context of the Warranting Theory of online impression formation and the ramifications for celebrity social media use are explored