The Effect of Historical Narratives and Flag Type

This research will examine the effect of mainstream or marginalized historical narratives and the Confederate or American flag on temporal distancing, patriotism, perception of injustice, and assimilationist national identity. We expect that participants exposed to marginalized narratives will indicate higher perceived distance, especially when exposed to the Confederate flag. We expect that participants exposed to mainstream narratives will be highest on blind patriotism, especially when exposed to the American flag. We expect that participants in the American flag marginalized narrative condition would perceive the most racism and would reject more assimilationist conceptions of national identity. For the dependent measures of patriotism, perception of injustice, and national identity, we expect to find differences within the Confederate flag condition according to the meaning participants associate with the Confederate flag. These results will help us understand how people may respond to threatening narratives, how flag exposure may impact that response, and how historical narratives or flags can be presented to increase social justice awareness

Vibrational Behavior of the M\u3csub\u3en+1\u3c/sub\u3e\u3cem\u3eAX\u3csub\u3en\u3c/sub\u3e\u3c/em\u3e Phases from First-Order Raman Scattering (\u3cem\u3eM\u3c/em\u3e=Ti,V,Cr, \u3cem\u3eA\u3c/em\u3e=Si, \u3cem\u3eX\u3c/em\u3e=C,N)

We report on the Raman spectra of Ti3SiC2 (312), M2AlC(211) (M=Ti, V, Cr, and Nb) and Ti4AlN3 (413), as representative compounds from the family of Mn+1AXn phases. Intense and narrow first-order Raman peaks are observed, and we present an analysis of the spectra based on symmetry considerations and from results of first-principles calculations of phonon frequencies. The agreement between experimental and calculated mode energies is excellent. The identification of the modes enables application of Raman scattering as a diagnostic tool for the detailed study of the structural and physical properties of this family of compounds and their engineered solid solutions

Printing in three dimensions with graphene

Responsive graphene oxide sheets form non‐covalent networks with optimum rheological properties for 3D printing. These networks have shear thinning behavior and sufficiently high elastic shear modulus (G′) to build self‐supporting 3D structures by direct write assembly. Drying and thermal reduction leads to ultra‐light graphene‐only structures with restored conductivity and elastomeric behavior

Identifying genomic regions for fine-mapping using genome scan meta-analysis (GSMA) to identify the minimum regions of maximum significance (MRMS) across populations

In order to detect linkage of the simulated complex disease Kofendrerd Personality Disorder across studies from multiple populations, we performed a genome scan meta-analysis (GSMA). Using the 7-cM microsatellite map, nonparametric multipoint linkage analyses were performed separately on each of the four simulated populations independently to determine p-values. The genome of each population was divided into 20-cM bin regions, and each bin was rank-ordered based on the most significant linkage p-value for that population in that region. The bin ranks were then averaged across all four studies to determine the most significant 20-cM regions over all studies. Statistical significance of the averaged bin ranks was determined from a normal distribution of randomly assigned rank averages. To narrow the region of interest for fine-mapping, the meta-analysis was repeated two additional times, with each of the 20-cM bins offset by 7 cM and 13 cM, respectively, creating regions of overlap with the original method. The 6–7 cM shared regions, where the highest averaged 20-cM bins from each of the three offsets overlap, designated the minimum region of maximum significance (MRMS). Application of the GSMA-MRMS method revealed genome wide significance (p-values refer to the average rank assigned to the bin) at regions including or adjacent to all of the simulated disease loci: chromosome 1 (p < 0.0001 for 160–167 cM, including D1), chromosome 3 (p-value < 0.0000001 for 287–294 cM, including D2), chromosome 5 (p-value < 0.001 for 0–7 cM, including D3), and chromosome 9 (p-value < 0.05 for 7–14 cM, the region adjacent to D4). This GSMA analysis approach demonstrates the power of linkage meta-analysis to detect multiple genes simultaneously for a complex disorder. The MRMS method enhances this powerful tool to focus on more localized regions of linkage

UBE2QL1 is Disrupted by a Constitutional Translocation Associated with Renal Tumor Predisposition and is a Novel Candidate Renal Tumor Suppressor Gene

Investigation of rare familial forms of renal cell carcinoma (RCC) has led to the identification of genes such as VHL and MET that are also implicated in the pathogenesis of sporadic RCC. In order to identify a novel candidate renal tumor suppressor gene, we characterized the breakpoints of a constitutional balanced translocation, t(5;19)(p15.3;q12), associated with familial RCC and found that a previously uncharacterized gene UBE2QL1 was disrupted by the chromosome 5 breakpoint. UBE2QL1 mRNA expression was downregulated in 78.6% of sporadic RCC and, although no intragenic mutations were detected, gene deletions and promoter region hypermethylation were detected in 17.3% and 20.3%, respectively, of sporadic RCC. Reexpression of UBE2QL1 in a deficient RCC cell line suppressed anchorage-independent growth. UBE2QL1 shows homology to the E2 class of ubiquitin conjugating enzymes and we found that (1) UBE2QL1 possesses an active-site cysteine (C88) that is monoubiquitinated in vivo, and (2) UBE2QL1 interacts with FBXW7 (an F box protein providing substrate recognition to the SCF E3 ubiquitin ligase) and facilitates the degradation of the known FBXW7 targets, CCNE1 and mTOR. These findings suggest UBE2QL1 as a novel candidate renal tumor suppressor gen

Methods for detecting gene × gene interaction in multiplex extended pedigrees

Complex diseases are multifactorial in nature and can involve multiple loci with gene × gene and gene × environment interactions. Research on methods to uncover the interactions between those genes that confer susceptibility to disease has been extensive, but many of these methods have only been developed for sibling pairs or sibships. In this report, we assess the performance of two methods for finding gene × gene interactions that are applicable to arbitrarily sized pedigrees, one based on correlation in per-family nonparametric linkage scores and another that incorporates candidate loci genotypes as covariates into an affected relative pair linkage analysis. The power and type I error rate of both of these methods was addressed using the simulated Genetic Analysis Workshop 14 data. In general, we found detection of the interacting loci to be a difficult problem, and though we experienced some modest success there is a clear need to continue developing new methods and approaches to the problem

Methods for detecting gene × gene interaction in multiplex extended pedigrees

Complex diseases are multifactorial in nature and can involve multiple loci with gene × gene and gene × environment interactions. Research on methods to uncover the interactions between those genes that confer susceptibility to disease has been extensive, but many of these methods have only been developed for sibling pairs or sibships. In this report, we assess the performance of two methods for finding gene × gene interactions that are applicable to arbitrarily sized pedigrees, one based on correlation in per-family nonparametric linkage scores and another that incorporates candidate loci genotypes as covariates into an affected relative pair linkage analysis. The power and type I error rate of both of these methods was addressed using the simulated Genetic Analysis Workshop 14 data. In general, we found detection of the interacting loci to be a difficult problem, and though we experienced some modest success there is a clear need to continue developing new methods and approaches to the problem