In situ recovery of secondary metabolites using adsorption resins : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Philosophy at Massey University, Palmerston North, New Zealand

Almost without exception a two to three fold increase in microbial secondary metabolite concentration was measured when adsorption resins were added in-situ during a submerged liquid fermentation. Anguidine was produced at a final concentration of 440 mg/L after five days in a shake flask that contained adsorption resin, compared to 300 mg/L without resin. Rapamcyin was produced at a final concentration of 87 mg/L after six days in a shake flask that had resin present, compared to 28 mg/L without resin. Ansamitocin P3 was produced at a final concentration of 24 mg/L after six days in a shake flask with resin, compared to 9.75 mg/L without resin. The increase in secondary metabolite concentration confirmed that the resins used provided a positive influence on secondary metabolite production. Adsorption resins for shake flask studies were selected based on their ability to achieve maximum adsorption of specific secondary metabolites in various fermentation systems. A library of adsorbed concentrations was collected for the three secondary metabolites studied. The lipophilicty of the metabolite, calculated by several software packages, was compared to the polarity of the adsorption resin to generate a relationship. By using the preceding set of data it is possible to select adsorption resins that improved the produced concentrations of the target organic secondary metabolites. The fermentation media compositions tested appeared to have no effect on the final product concentration when adsorption resins were added in situ during the fermentations. Based on the lipohilictiy of the secondary metabolite and the polarity of the resins, it is possible to select a resin that achieves a high adsorption concentration of the target organic secondary metabolite

A Deep Generative Model of Vowel Formant Typology

What makes some types of languages more probable than others? For instance, we know that almost all spoken languages contain the vowel phoneme /i/; why should that be? The field of linguistic typology seeks to answer these questions and, thereby, divine the mechanisms that underlie human language. In our work, we tackle the problem of vowel system typology, i.e., we propose a generative probability model of which vowels a language contains. In contrast to previous work, we work directly with the acoustic information -- the first two formant values -- rather than modeling discrete sets of phonemic symbols (IPA). We develop a novel generative probability model and report results based on a corpus of 233 languages.Comment: NAACL 201

Anthropology and Open Access

While still largely ignored by many anthropologists, open access (OA) has been a confusing and volatile center around which a wide range of contentious debates and vexing leadership dilemmas orbit. Despite widespread misunderstandings and honest differences of perspective on how and why to move forward, OA frameworks for scholarly communication are now part of the publishing ecology in which all active anthropologists work. Cultural Anthropology is unambiguously a leading journal in the field. The move to transition it toward a gold OA model represents a milestone for the iterative transformation of how cultural anthropologists, along with diverse fellow travelers, communicate more ethically and sustainably with global and diverse publics. On the occasion of this significant shift, we build on the history of OA debates, position statements, and experiments taking place during the past decade to do three things. Using an interview format, we will offer a primer on OA practices in general and in cultural anthropology in particular. In doing so, we aim to highlight some of the special considerations that have animated arguments for OA in cultural anthropology and in neighboring fields built around ethnographic methods and representations. We then argue briefly for a critical anthropology of scholarly communication (including scholarly publishing), one that brings the kinds of engaged analysis for which Cultural Anthropology is particularly well known to bear on this vital aspect of knowledge production, circulation, and valuation. Our field’s distinctive knowledge of social, cultural, political, and economic phenomena should also—but often has not—inform our choices as both global actors and publishing scholars