Crosstalk and the Dynamical Modularity of Feed-Forward Loops in Transcriptional Regulatory Networks

Network motifs, such as the feed-forward loop (FFL), introduce a range of complex behaviors to transcriptional regulatory networks, yet such properties are typically determined from their isolated study. We characterize the effects of crosstalk on FFL dynamics by modeling the cross regulation between two different FFLs and evaluate the extent to which these patterns occur in vivo. Analytical modeling suggests that crosstalk should overwhelmingly affect individual protein-expression dynamics. Counter to this expectation we find that entire FFLs are more likely than expected to resist the effects of crosstalk (approximate to 20% for one crosstalk interaction) and remain dynamically modular. The likelihood that cross-linked FFLs are dynamically correlated increases monotonically with additional crosstalk, but is independent of the specific regulation type or connectivity of the interactions. Just one additional regulatory interaction is sufficient to drive the FFL dynamics to a statistically different state. Despite the potential for modularity between sparsely connected network motifs, Escherichia coli (E. coli) appears to favor crosstalk wherein at least one of the cross-linked FFLs remains modular. A gene ontology analysis reveals that stress response processes are significantly overrepresented in the cross-linked motifs found within E. coli. Although the daunting complexity of biological networks affects the dynamical properties of individual network motifs, some resist and remain modular, seemingly insulated from extrinsic perturbations-an intriguing possibility for nature to consistently and reliably provide certain network functionalities wherever the need arise

The milliped family Tingupidae (Chordeumatida) on Kodiak Island, Alaska, USA, a geographically remote record of indigenous Diplopoda

With documentation of an unidentifiable adult female and juvenile Tingupidae (Chordeumatida), Kodiak Island, Alaska, becomes the westernmost indigenous diplopod locality in North America including continental islands. The northernmost and most proximate locality, Yakutat, lies ca. 935 mi (1,496 km) to the eastnortheast, while Haines, the type locality of Tingupa tlingitorum Shear and Shelley, some 1,196 mi (1,914 km) in this direction, is the most proximate familial site. Kodiak is also one of the most remote indigenous milliped localities in the Pacific, the most proximate ones to the west and south, Kamchatka, Russia, and the Hawaiian Islands, United States, being over 3,300 mi (5, 280 km) distant. Tingupidae is recorded for the first time from Canada excluding the Queen Charlotte Islands, and geographically remote, ostensibly indigenous records from the North Pacific Ocean and environs are tabulated

Government as a social machine - the implications of government as a social machine for making and implementing market-based policy

This is the second of two reports from the Government as a Social Machine project. The first report gave an overview of the evolution of electronic/digital government, and explored the concept of 21st century government as a \u27social machine\u27. This report identifies seven social machines developed by governments in Australia and New Zealand. These social machines harness digital technologies in order to deliver more effective and efficient services, develop better business practices, and enable better accountability and transparency. The report gives an overview of each social machine in context, describing the social need that is being met and the community that has developed it, and begins to unravel some of the socio-political consequences that might arise from the use of these social machines within the public policy context. These reports are not intended to be comprehensive (further educational materials are being developed as part of the ANZSOG Case Library), but they are intended to begin a conversation amongst those studying or practicing in public policy as to how governments can better understand, manage and employ these evolving social machines for better governance and social benefit

Adult Education Enters the Cultural Competency Craze

This paper will provide a brief overview of the literature on cultural competency as it relates to health care. Cultural competency is a strategy to reduce and eliminate inequities in health care that are related to race, ethnicity, socioeconomic status, gender, and sexual orientation. The paper will provide a framework for health profession educators to understand cultural competency through the lens of adult education

“By savage hands his steps were stayed!”: life and death on the Percy Isles, 1854

In October 1854, the ketch Vision arrived at Middle Percy Island off Mackay on the central Queensland coast. The botanist Walter Hill, naturalist Frederick Strange and crew members went ashore. Hill went off with three Aboriginal people while the crew stayed behind with six others. When Hill returned, he found the crew except Dalaipi (an Aboriginal crew member) dead. Nine Aboriginal people were later captured and sent to Sydney to be tried for the killings. They appeared before the Water Police Court in Sydney before the court ordered they be sent back to the Percy Isles, though they appear not to have made it beyond Port Curtis. The death of Strange was widely reported in newspapers across Australia and was portrayed as a clash between the “heroic explorer and scientist” and the “untutored savage”. The events on the Percy Isles and further contacts on islands off the coast of central Queensland occurred from a time of limited hostile contact through a period of growing shipping movement, to a time of more substantial and lethal contact involving the Native Police. Contact events on the central Queensland coast reviewed here provide insights into reasons for initial limited hostilities on the offshore islands prior to increasing hostile and lethal conflict on mainland coastal and inland frontiers

African Americans and the Self-help Revolution: A missing link in adult education

This roundtable discussion will recognize the significant role of self-help education and self-help literature in the lives of African American adults and to determine ways for adult educators to expand our knowledge base of self-help education for African Americans

Unethical Behavior, Academic Misconduct, & Incivility: Does it occur in Adult Education Classrooms?

The purpose of this research was to survey members of the CPAE listserv regarding personal experiences with ethical issues and dilemmas in the adult education classroom and to also obtain their perceptions of the most critical ethical issues adult educators encounter in the classroom

Missing the Beat: Adult Learning Through Religious Music in an African American Church

The purpose of this study was to understand the ways religious music contributes to learning and meaning making for African American adults within American society. Retrospective biographies were used to understand how the religious musical experiences of African American adults affect learning. The findings of the study are discussed

Gonadotrophin secretion in the GnRH challenged prepuberal beef heifer and its relationship to the follicular numbers and body weight

To examine the extent to which gonadotrophin concentration in peripheral blood is correlated with follicular numbers and body weight [birth, weaning (ADJ205) and yearling], prepuberal Angus (n=30) and Crossbreds (n=22) heifers were evaluated at 5, 7, 9, 11 and 14 mo of age. Basal and GnRH-stimulated gonadotrophin secretion was determined from the average of two bleedings effected at 1.5 hour intervals. Gonadotrophins (LH & FSH) were quantified by RIA. All heifers were synchronized and in luteal phase when ovariectomized at 16 mo of age. Ovaries were sectioned and stained for light microscopy. GnRH-stimulated gonadotrophin secretion changed with age. The FSH response increased significantly between 5 and 9 mo (p \u3c 0.01) and then decreased at 14 mo (p \u3c 0.01). LH release increased with age and concentrations were lower at 5, 7 and 9 mo than at 11 and 14 mo (p \u3c 0.01) . Basal concentrations of FSH and LH did not change between 5 and 14 mo (p \u3e 0.10) . However, FSH did show a downward trend as age increased. Basal and-GnRH stimulated concentrations of FSH were not associated with follicular numbers (p \u3e 0.10). However, when heifers were partitioned according to their gonadotrophin concentrations (low, medium or high) , associations between normal vesicular, atretic vesicular and total vesicular follicles and concentration of FSH were significant at 14 mo for basal and 7 mo for GnRH-stimulated secretion. Groups varying in FSH concentration were not different in follicular numbers at any age (p \u3e 0.10). In contrast, basal and GnRH-stimulated LH groups were significantly different in number of primary follicles at 14 mo (p \u3c 0.06). Additionally, basal LH was positively related to number of primary and secondary in the low (r= .68, p \u3c 0.03) and high groups (r= .56, p = 0.08), and number of secondary follicles was negatively correlated with GnRH stimulated LH secretion in the high group (r= -.64, p \u3c 0.05) . Body weight was inversely related to basal FSH concentration at 9, 11 and 14 mo and GnRH-stimulated secretion at 5, 7 and 9 mo. In contrast, GnRH-stimulated LH was positively associated with weaning and yearling weight at all ages except 9 and 14 mo, but basal LH was not associated with body weight (p \u3e 0.10). Basal and GnRH-stimulated FSH groups were not different in body weight at any age (p \u3e 0.10) . With LH, however, the high responders to GnRH at 5, 11 and 14 mo were heavier as yearlings (p \u3c 0.10). The results suggest that the combination of yearling weight and basal and GnRH-stimulated concentrations of gonadotrophins in peripheral blood could be useful indicators of number of follicles and this combination might be useful in identifying heifers of superior reproductive potential