Developing retirement living standards

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The emergence of sequence-dependent structural motifs in stretched, torsionally 2 constrained DNA

The double-helical structure of DNA results from canonical base pairing and stacking interactions. However, variations from steady-state conformations resulting from mechanical perturbations in cells have physiological relevance but their dependence on sequence remains unclear. Here, we use molecular dynamics simulations showing sequence differences result in markedly different structural motifs upon physiological twisting and stretching. We simulate overextension on different sequences of DNA ((AA)12, (AT)12, (CC)12 and (CG)12) with supercoiling densities at 200 and 50 mM salt concentrations. We find that DNA denatures in the majority of stretching simulations, surprisingly including those with over-twisted DNA. GC-rich sequences are observed to be more stable than AT-rich ones, with the specific response dependent on the base pair order. Furthermore, we find that (AT)12 forms stable periodic structures with non-canonical hydrogen bonds in some regions and non-canonical stacking in others, whereas (CG)12 forms a stacking motif of four base pairs independent of supercoiling density. Our results demonstrate that 20–30% DNA extension is sufficient for breaking B-DNA around and significantly above cellular supercoiling, and that the DNA sequence is crucial for understanding structural changes under mechanical stress. Our findings have important implications for the activities of protein machinery interacting with DNA in all cells

A Minimum Income Standard for the UK 2008-2018: continuity and change

This is the 2018 update of the Minimum Income Standard for the United Kingdom, based on what members of the public think people need for an acceptable minimum standard of living. This report shows: the incomes different family types require in 2018 to meet the minimum standard; how this has changed in the ten years over which the Minimum Income Standards research has been conducted, and what this tells us about changes in society; and how changes in income requirements compare to trends in average incomes, in benefit levels, and in the incomes of people working for the minimum wage

Greenland ice sheet motion coupled with daily melting in late summer

We use ground-based and satellite observations to detect large diurnal and longer-period variations in the flow of the Greenland Ice Sheet (GrIS) during late summer that are strongly coupled with changes in its surface hydrology. The diurnal signals are associated with periodic changes in surface melting, and the longer-period signals are associated with the episodic drainage of supra-glacial lakes. Ice velocity doubles around 2 hours after peak daily melting and returns approximately to wintertime levels around 12 hours afterwards, demonstrating an intimate link between the surface and basal hydrology. During late summer, the ice sheet accelerates by 35% per positive degree-day of melting. The observed link between surface melting and enhanced flow is typical of Alpine glaciers, which may provide an appropriate analogue for the evolution of the GrIS in a warming climate

A Minimum Income Standard for London 2018

The new Minimum Income Standard (MIS) London report shows that 41% of Londoners cannot afford a basic decent standard of living. MIS is the income that people need in order to achieve a minimum socially acceptable standard of living in the UK today. It is based on what members of the public think about essential goods and services, and those which enable genuine participation in society. The new report provides an updated cost of a minimum budget, required for a minimum standard of living, in Inner and Outer London. The research also calculated the difference in a minimum household budget between the capital and elsewhere in the UK. The update is based on what is happening to rents, public transport, childcare costs and wages. This is the fourth in a series of reports by researchers at the Centre for Research in Social Policy at Loughborough University and is funded by the Trust

Macroinvertebrate communities and water quality upstream and downstream of Castor canadensis dams of various ages.

Beaver dams greatly alter stream ecosystems and the surrounding environment. This study aims to assess the effect of beaver dams of various ages on water quality and macroinvertebrate communities. Five beaver dams were located on Carp Creek and Maple River in Pellston, Michigan and classified according to their state of preservation, which roughly reflects dam age. At each dam, we took macroinvertebrate samples, dissolved oxygen (DO), flow, and substrate type measurements from four places both upstream and downstream from the dam. Water quality samples (total P, total N, conductivity, turbidity, and pH) were taken at two areas both upstream and downstream from the dam. We used the Shannon-Weiner Index and Sorensen’s Index along with SPSS to statistically analyze differences in macroinvertebrate densities and numbers. Water quality samples, flow, and DO were also analyzed.None of the water quality measures attained statistical significance. There was significantly more macroinvertebrate diversity downstream than upstream for two dams on Carp Creek (p<0.05). When macroinvertebrate data for all dams were grouped together, it was again found that there was significantly more diversity downstream (p<0.05). We observed that as dam class (i.e. age) increased, upstream and downstream macroinvertebrates trended towards becoming more similar.http://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/64580/1/Mantel_Shepherd_Brown_2009.pd

BCO-DMO Quick Guide

BCO-DMO, a repository funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF), supports the oceanographic research community’s data needs throughout the entire data life cycle. This guide describes the services available from BCO-DMO from proposal to preservation and highlights phases where researchers engage significantly with the office.Curating and providing open access to research data is a collaborative process. This process may be thought of as a life cycle with data passing through various phases. Each phase has its own associated actors, roles, and critical activities. Good data management practices are necessary for all phases, from proposal to preservation.NSF #143557

Towards Capturing Provenance of the Data Curation Process at Domain-specific Repositories

Presented at AGU Fall Meeting, American Geophysical Union, Washington, D.C., 10 – 14 Dec 2018Data repositories often transform submissions to improve understanding and reuse of data by researchers other than the original submitter. However, scientific workflows built by the data submitters often depend on the original data format. In some cases, this makes the repository’s final data product less useful to the submitter. As a result, these two workable but different versions of the data provide value to two disparate, non-interoperable research communities around what should be a single dataset. Data repositories could bridge these two communities by exposing provenance explaining the transform from original submission to final product. A subsequent benefit of this provenance would be the transparent value-add of domain repository data curation. To improve its data management process efficiency, the Biological and Chemical Oceanography Data Management Office (BCO-DMO, https://www.bco-dmo.org) has been adopting the data containerization specification defined by the Frictionless Data project (https://frictionlessdata.io). Recently, BCO-DMO has been using the Frictionless Data Package Pipelines Python library (https://github.com/frictionlessdata/datapackage-pipelines) to capture the data curation processing steps that transform original submissions to final data products. Because these processing steps are stored using a declarative language they can be converted to a structured provenance record using the Provenance Ontology (PROV-O, https://www.w3.org/TR/prov-o/). PROV-O abstracts the Frictionless Data elements of BCO-DMO’s workflow for capturing necessary curation provenance and enables interoperability with other external provenance sources and tools. Users who are familiar with PROV-O or the Frictionless Data Pipelines can use either record to reproduce the final data product in a machine-actionable way. While there may still be some curation steps that cannot be easily automated, this process is a step towards end-to-end reproducible transforms throughout the data curation process. In this presentation, BCO-DMO will demonstrate how Frictionless Data Package Pipelines can be used to capture data curation provenance from original submission to final data product exposing the concrete value-add of domain-specific repositories.NSF #143557