Long-Billed Curlew (\u3ci\u3eNumenius americanus\u3c/i\u3e) Rangewide Survey and Monitoring Guidelines

LBCUs are a species of special concern throughout much of their breeding range in North America, with both the U.S. and Canadian Shorebird Plans listing them as “Highly Imperiled” (Brown et al. 2001). LBCUs are also listed in the U.S. as a Bird of Conservation Concern, at the National level, within FWS Regions 1, 2, 4 and 6, and for many Bird Conservation Regions (U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service 2002). This level of concern is due to apparent population declines, particularly in the shortgrass and mixed-grass prairie of the western Great Plains (Brown et al. 2001). Threats include habitat loss and fragmentation due to agricultural conversion (cropland and tame pasture), encroachment of woody vegetation, and urban development. For details on LBCU ecology, management, and conservation, refer to Dugger and Dugger (2002)

Fibroblast growth factor 2 regulates activity and gene expression of human postâ mitotic excitatory neurons

Many neuropsychiatric disorders are thought to result from subtle changes in neural circuit formation. We used human embryonic stem cells and induced pluripotent stem cells (hiPSCs) to model mature, postâ mitotic excitatory neurons and examine effects of fibroblast growth factor 2 (FGF2). FGF2 gene expression is known to be altered in brain regions of major depressive disorder (MDD) patients and FGF2 has antiâ depressive effects in animal models of depression. We generated stable inducible neurons (siNeurons) conditionally expressing human neurogeninâ 2 (NEUROG2) to generate a homogenous population of postâ mitotic excitatory neurons and study the functional as well as the transcriptional effects of FGF2. Upon induction of NEUROG2 with doxycycline, the vast majority of cells are postâ mitotic, and the gene expression profile recapitulates that of excitatory neurons within 6 days. Using hES cell lines that inducibly express NEUROG2 as well as GCaMP6f, we were able to characterize spontaneous calcium activity in these neurons and show that calcium transients increase in the presence of FGF2. The FGF2â responsive genes were determined by RNAâ Seq. FGF2â regulated genes previously identified in nonâ neuronal cell types were upâ regulated (EGR1, ETV4, SPRY4, and DUSP6) as a result of chronic FGF2 treatment of siNeurons. Novel neuronâ specific genes were also identified that may mediate FGF2â dependent increases in synaptic efficacy including NRXN3, SYT2, and GALR1. Since several of these genes have been implicated in MDD previously, these results will provide the basis for more mechanistic studies of the role of FGF2 in MDD.Alterations in fibroblast growth factor (FGF) signaling have been implicated in major depressive disorder (MDD). In this article, human stem cells are differentiated into glutamatergic neurons. FGF2 treatment of these neurons increases activity as determined using calcium imaging. RNAseq studies implicate a number of genes in this regulation of neuronal activity by FGF2 including SYT2, NRXN3, and GALR1.Peer Reviewedhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/143704/1/jnc14255-sup-0001-SupInfo.pdfhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/143704/2/jnc14255-sup-0002-TableS1-S2.pdfhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/143704/3/jnc14255.pdfhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/143704/4/jnc14255_am.pd

The Secret Life of the Anthrax Agent Bacillus anthracis: Bacteriophage-Mediated Ecological Adaptations

Ecological and genetic factors that govern the occurrence and persistence of anthrax reservoirs in the environment are obscure. A central tenet, based on limited and often conflicting studies, has long held that growing or vegetative forms of Bacillus anthracis survive poorly outside the mammalian host and must sporulate to survive in the environment. Here, we present evidence of a more dynamic lifecycle, whereby interactions with bacterial viruses, or bacteriophages, elicit phenotypic alterations in B. anthracis and the emergence of infected derivatives, or lysogens, with dramatically altered survival capabilities. Using both laboratory and environmental B. anthracis strains, we show that lysogeny can block or promote sporulation depending on the phage, induce exopolysaccharide expression and biofilm formation, and enable the long-term colonization of both an artificial soil environment and the intestinal tract of the invertebrate redworm, Eisenia fetida. All of the B. anthracis lysogens existed in a pseudolysogenic-like state in both the soil and worm gut, shedding phages that could in turn infect non-lysogenic B. anthracis recipients and confer survival phenotypes in those environments. Finally, the mechanism behind several phenotypic changes was found to require phage-encoded bacterial sigma factors and the expression of at least one host-encoded protein predicted to be involved in the colonization of invertebrate intestines. The results here demonstrate that during its environmental phase, bacteriophages provide B. anthracis with alternatives to sporulation that involve the activation of soil-survival and endosymbiotic capabilities

Supersymmetric QCD corrections to e+e−→tbˉH−e^+e^-\to t\bar{b}H^- and the Bernstein-Tkachov method of loop integration

The discovery of charged Higgs bosons is of particular importance, since their existence is predicted by supersymmetry and they are absent in the Standard Model (SM). If the charged Higgs bosons are too heavy to be produced in pairs at future linear colliders, single production associated with a top and a bottom quark is enhanced in parts of the parameter space. We present the next-to-leading-order calculation in supersymmetric QCD within the minimal supersymmetric SM (MSSM), completing a previous calculation of the SM-QCD corrections. In addition to the usual approach to perform the loop integration analytically, we apply a numerical approach based on the Bernstein-Tkachov theorem. In this framework, we avoid some of the generic problems connected with the analytical method.Comment: 14 pages, 6 figures, accepted for publication in Phys. Rev.

Effect of angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitor and angiotensin receptor blocker initiation on organ support-free days in patients hospitalized with COVID-19

IMPORTANCE Overactivation of the renin-angiotensin system (RAS) may contribute to poor clinical outcomes in patients with COVID-19. Objective To determine whether angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitor or angiotensin receptor blocker (ARB) initiation improves outcomes in patients hospitalized for COVID-19. DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS In an ongoing, adaptive platform randomized clinical trial, 721 critically ill and 58 non–critically ill hospitalized adults were randomized to receive an RAS inhibitor or control between March 16, 2021, and February 25, 2022, at 69 sites in 7 countries (final follow-up on June 1, 2022). INTERVENTIONS Patients were randomized to receive open-label initiation of an ACE inhibitor (n = 257), ARB (n = 248), ARB in combination with DMX-200 (a chemokine receptor-2 inhibitor; n = 10), or no RAS inhibitor (control; n = 264) for up to 10 days. MAIN OUTCOMES AND MEASURES The primary outcome was organ support–free days, a composite of hospital survival and days alive without cardiovascular or respiratory organ support through 21 days. The primary analysis was a bayesian cumulative logistic model. Odds ratios (ORs) greater than 1 represent improved outcomes. RESULTS On February 25, 2022, enrollment was discontinued due to safety concerns. Among 679 critically ill patients with available primary outcome data, the median age was 56 years and 239 participants (35.2%) were women. Median (IQR) organ support–free days among critically ill patients was 10 (–1 to 16) in the ACE inhibitor group (n = 231), 8 (–1 to 17) in the ARB group (n = 217), and 12 (0 to 17) in the control group (n = 231) (median adjusted odds ratios of 0.77 [95% bayesian credible interval, 0.58-1.06] for improvement for ACE inhibitor and 0.76 [95% credible interval, 0.56-1.05] for ARB compared with control). The posterior probabilities that ACE inhibitors and ARBs worsened organ support–free days compared with control were 94.9% and 95.4%, respectively. Hospital survival occurred in 166 of 231 critically ill participants (71.9%) in the ACE inhibitor group, 152 of 217 (70.0%) in the ARB group, and 182 of 231 (78.8%) in the control group (posterior probabilities that ACE inhibitor and ARB worsened hospital survival compared with control were 95.3% and 98.1%, respectively). CONCLUSIONS AND RELEVANCE In this trial, among critically ill adults with COVID-19, initiation of an ACE inhibitor or ARB did not improve, and likely worsened, clinical outcomes. TRIAL REGISTRATION ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT0273570

The femme fatale in "postfeminist" hard-boiled detective fiction : redundant or re-inventing herself? : a thesis presented in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in English at Massey University, New Zealand

The femme fatale of the hard-boiled era, who arrived in the late 1920s, seduced, shot and poisoned her way through pulp magazines, hard- and paper-backed novels, and films for almost fifty years, as the iconic figure of evil whose abjection secured a new masculine ideal that found its voice in the tough-guy detectives created by the likes of Dashiell Hammett, Raymond Chandler, and Mickey Spillane. But by the 1960s her particular brand of villainy was in decline. In the 1980s a new representation of the dangerous woman, in the form of the tough female detective subverted the genre, by decentring the masculine fantasy that was the source of the femme fatale. The female detectives authored by women, such as Sara Paretsky and Katherine Forrest, were a product of second-wave feminism, which, in the 1960s, agitated for legal and customary rights within the masculine hegemony. By the 1990s, the feminism that had driven a host of social and legal reforms was felt by many to have entered a new phase, allowing for the postulation of the return of the femme fatale within postfeminist detective fiction as the representative of the abject “other.” Contemporary gender politics and new postmodern representational regimes, however, make her return difficult. The cultural meaning attached to her has changed. The question is what different form of marginality, or “otherness,” can take her place? The focus of this study is to answer this question through a study of selected postfeminist detective fiction, framed by the theories of Julia Kristeva and Slavoj Žižek. This research suggests that the initial encroachment of the feminine, in the form of the hardboiled female detective, into the genre, and the further intrusion by aggressive women with no regard for hegemonic law, destabilises the masculine imaginary, and in doing so prepares the ground for a female imaginary, which though framed by the symbolic order, occupies its own space. The fiction of Declan Hughes, Megan Abbott, Stieg Larsson, Ian Rankin, and David Peace provides a mirror into a world where the femme fatale, moves, not necessarily in a linear progression, from being the guarantor of a particular brand of masculine subjectivity to a more diminished stature in the recognition that she is too small a figure for representing evil in a world of global corporations, atomic bombs, and national humiliation. Nevertheless, vestiges of the femme fatale remain in postfeminist crime fiction. However, the demands of feminism and the consequential reshaping of the established order make her survival, in whatever form of “otherness,” tenuous. While statistical evidence may provide some measure of women’s progress, perhaps the detective genre makes a better gauge. It reflects not the job numbers, or percentage of degrees earned, by members of each gender, but the changes wrought upon the sociosymbolic contract, and their effect upon traditional representations of gender, through the destabilising of a once-established masculine ideal

Female authors and their male detectives: the ideological contest in female-authored crime fiction : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in English at Massey University, Palmerston North, New Zealand

In the nineteen-eighties a host of female detectives appeared in crime fiction authored by women. Ostensibly these detectives challenged hegemonic norms, but the consensus of opinion was that their appropriation of male values and adherence to conventional generic closures colluded with a gender system of male privilege. Academic interest in the work of female authors featuring male detectives was limited. Yet it can be argued that these texts could have the potential to disrupt the hegemonic order through the introduction, whether deliberately, or inadvertently, of a female counterpoint to the hegemony. The hypothesis I am advancing claims that the reconfiguration of male detectives in works authored by women avoids the visible contradictions of gender and genre that are characteristic of works featuring female detectives. However, through their use of disruptive performatives, these works allow scope for challenging normal gender practices—without damage to the genre. This hypothesis is tested by applying the performative theories of Judith Butler to a close reading of selected crime novels. Influenced by the theories of Austin, Lacan and Althusser, Butler’s concept of performativity claims that hegemonic notions of gender are a fiction. This discussion also uses Wayne Booth’s concept of the implied author as a means of distinguishing the performative agency of the text from that of the characters. Agatha Christie, P.D. James, and Donna Leon, each with their male detective heroes, come from different generations. A Butlerian reading illustrates their potential for disrupting gender norms. Of the three, however, only Donna Leon avoids the return to hegemonic control that is a feature of the genre. Christie’s women who have agency are inevitably eliminated, while conformist women are rewarded. James’s lead female character is never fully at ease in her professional role. When thrust into a leadership she proves herself to be competent, but not ready or desirous of the senior position. Instead her role is to mediate the transition of her junior, a male, to that position. Donna Leon is different. The moral and emotional content of her narratives suggests an implied author committed to ideological change. Her characters simultaneously renounce and collude with illusions of patriarchal authority, and could lay claim to be models for Butler’s notion of performative resistance

Long-Billed Curlew (\u3ci\u3eNumenius americanus\u3c/i\u3e) Rangewide Survey and Monitoring Guidelines

LBCUs are a species of special concern throughout much of their breeding range in North America, with both the U.S. and Canadian Shorebird Plans listing them as “Highly Imperiled” (Brown et al. 2001). LBCUs are also listed in the U.S. as a Bird of Conservation Concern, at the National level, within FWS Regions 1, 2, 4 and 6, and for many Bird Conservation Regions (U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service 2002). This level of concern is due to apparent population declines, particularly in the shortgrass and mixed-grass prairie of the western Great Plains (Brown et al. 2001). Threats include habitat loss and fragmentation due to agricultural conversion (cropland and tame pasture), encroachment of woody vegetation, and urban development. For details on LBCU ecology, management, and conservation, refer to Dugger and Dugger (2002)