Does Micro-CT scanning damage DNA in museum specimens?

X-ray micro-computed tomography and DNA sequencing are useful and increasingly common tools in taxonomy and collections research. Whilst the benefits of each method are continually evaluated and debated individually, how the methods impact each other requires more attention. We compared DNA fragment length and the barcode sequence CO1 in samples throughout a CT-scanning protocol, for a range of X-ray exposures and energies. We found no evidence of DNA damage, but advise caution when using precious or archival material, highlighting the need for further investigations and considering potential areas for research.NatSCA supports open access publication as part of its mission is to promote and support natural science collections. NatSCA uses the Creative Commons Attribution License (CCAL) http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.5/ for all works we publish. Under CCAL authors retain ownership of the copyright for their article, but authors allow anyone to download, reuse, reprint, modify, distribute, and/or copy articles in NatSCA publications, so long as the original authors and source are cited. The attached file is the published version of the article

Investigation of Fungal Pathogens and Woodboring Beetles of Sugarbush Stands in the Central Appalachian Region

The production of maple syrup is a valuable source of income and cultural identity for many rural communities throughout the central Appalachian region. Regardless, maple syrup producers face difficulties maintaining the health and productivityof their stands due to various impacts of climate change, which have given rise to extreme weather events that exacerbate damage caused by pests and diseases. To ensure the long-term sustainability of the maple syrup industry, it is crucial to obtain a comprehensive understanding of the current biotic threats within the region, particularly woodboring insects and fungal pathogens. However, insufficient information exists regarding the community assemblages of these organisms present in stands managed for syrup production, particularly in the central Appalachian region. Providing up-to-date surveys of fungal pathogens and woodboring pests in these areas will help guide management recommendations to mitigate stressors and better inform various stakeholders in the region. Efforts of this study focused on: (i) identifying bark and ambrosia beetle (Coleoptera: Curculionidae: Scolytinae) and longhorn beetle (Coleoptera: Cerambycidae) species found in sugarbush stands within the region, (ii) providing contemporary baseline data on the occurrence of fungal species found in association with diseased maple trees, (iii) characterization and comparison of fungal and woodboring beetle communities associated with these stands, and (iv) elucidating their potential threats to syrup production in the region. In total, 2,603 beetles were collected across three locations, most of which encompassed Scolytinae, with the two most abundant genera being Xyleborinus and Xylosandrus. Additionally, the collection of the exotic beetles Dryoxylon onoharaense and Xyleborinus attenuatus represents, to the best of our knowledge, a first-time report of these species for the state of West Virginia. Of the fungi, a total of 414 isolates were collected and DNA sequenced. The two most commonly recovered orders were Hypocreales, and Xylariales, and some of the most commonly recovered genera included Tolypocladium, Clonostachys, and Fusarium. Several disease agents included Armillaria, Climacodon septentrionalis, and Eutypella parasitica. Additionally, phylogenetic analyses revealed two putative novel species of Tolypocladiumand one putative novel species of Melogramma. None of the fungal species or woodboring beetles recovered from these stands pose significant economic risk to syrup production, though continued monitoring is necessary to maintain stand health and detect future threats in the region

Effects of Aquatic Exercise on Executive Function in the Aging Population

Neurocognitive decline, including Alzheimer\u27s Disease and other forms of dementia, is considered to be the world\u27s fastest growing disease (Alzheimer\u27s Association, 2011). Due to this escalation, research focused on determining causes, accelerants, impeding factors, and preventative strategies has become a focus of interest within the field. One of the principal points of study is the role that exercise plays in the maintenance or fortification against neurocognitive decline. Though there is a robust library of research focused on the effects of land-based exercise on cognitive function, currently there is no research that discusses the impact of aquatic-based exercise on these parameters.;This mixed method study focused on identifying the effects of a 10-week aquatic exercise intervention on parameters of executive function in individuals aged 60 years or older. Additional research questions targeted changes in cardiovascular fitness, wellness, and psychosocial barriers as well as behavior change in relation to the incorporation of adult education, and accessibility to exercise. Thirty-four volunteers between the ages of 60 and 90 years were recruited for this study. The control group agreed to not alter their physical activity status while the intervention group took part in a 10-week aquatic exercise program employing progressive overload and adult education concepts. At the conclusion of the intervention, all participants (n = 34) returned for their physiological, psychosocial, and cognitive post assessments.;The findings revealed that the aquatic exercise intervention did not have global effects on cognitive function or physiological parameters. However, a statistically significant (p = 0.014) change favoring the intervention group was found for the spatial working memory (SWM) between errors score. Qualitative and quantitative data converged to denote no global change to executive function while displaying improvements in cognitive parameters aligned with SWM. Statistically significant positive changes were observed in the DBP (p = 0.014) favoring the intervention group, however results from the 6-minute walk test as well as SBP and RHR only displayed positive trends without reaching statistical significance.;In relation to psychosocial mediators, no statistically significant interactions between the intervention and control groups over time were found. Initial survey results revealed very few perceived barriers, high motivation, sound social support, and high self-efficacy from both the intervention and control groups presenting a potential ceiling effect upon post-test findings. A statistically significant group effect in the control group was noted for social support showing a perceived reduction in social support. Qualitative data corroborated these findings for the intervention group with predominantly positive, voluminous responses in reference to all psychosocial mediators discussed. Barriers were accounted for yet traversed with solid coping strategies; motivation was high within multiple factors producing great motive for program commencement and continuation; self-efficacy was positively perpetuated throughout the course of the intervention via health outcomes and ability levels; and social support was strong through multiple cohort channels.;The exercise intervention was built around an adult education framework consisting of (1) finding motivation to begin exercise, (2) begin integrating exercise that fits into individual lifestyles, and (3) maintain and gain on all fitness parameters. It seems that through the information provided by the focus group participants that a behavior change did occur for the vast majority of the intervention group. With 86% of the attendees devising a plan for continuation of physical activity in conjunction with multiple variations in lifestyle changes and benefit recognition, it seems that the intervention group may be newly initiated chronic exercisers.;In conclusion, this study revealed that aquatic exercise does positively affect selective components of executive function, cardiovascular fitness, and wellness. Whereas psychosocial mediators did not show improvement, the intervention groups\u27 maintenance of a positive association with these mediators following a 10-week aquatic exercise intervention is encouraging. Additionally, with the allowance of active participation in exercise via the aquatic medium, participants\u27 accessibility to exercise was promoted while the perceived improvements in physical ability endorsed a behavior change towards improved overall physical activity levels. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)

Geometric reasoning via internet crowdsourcing

The ability to interpret and reason about shapes is a peculiarly human capability that has proven difficult to reproduce algorithmically. So despite the fact that geometric modeling technology has made significant advances in the representation, display and modification of shapes, there have only been incremental advances in geometric reasoning. For example, although today's CAD systems can confidently identify isolated cylindrical holes, they struggle with more ambiguous tasks such as the identification of partial symmetries or similarities in arbitrary geometries. Even well defined problems such as 2D shape nesting or 3D packing generally resist elegant solution and rely instead on brute force explorations of a subset of the many possible solutions. Identifying economic ways to solving such problems would result in significant productivity gains across a wide range of industrial applications. The authors hypothesize that Internet Crowdsourcing might provide a pragmatic way of removing many geometric reasoning bottlenecks.This paper reports the results of experiments conducted with Amazon's mTurk site and designed to determine the feasibility of using Internet Crowdsourcing to carry out geometric reasoning tasks as well as establish some benchmark data for the quality, speed and costs of using this approach.After describing the general architecture and terminology of the mTurk Crowdsourcing system, the paper details the implementation and results of the following three investigations; 1) the identification of "Canonical" viewpoints for individual shapes, 2) the quantification of "similarity" relationships with-in collections of 3D models and 3) the efficient packing of 2D Strips into rectangular areas. The paper concludes with a discussion of the possibilities and limitations of the approach

Pensions and the health of older people in South Africa: Is there an effect?

This paper critically reviews evidence from low and middle income countries that pensions are associated with better health outcomes for older people. It draws on new, nationally representative survey data from South Africa to provide a systematic analysis of pension effects on health and quality of life. It reports significant associations with the frequency of health service utilisation, as well as with awareness and treatment of hypertension. There is, however, no association with actual control of hypertension, self-reported health or quality of life. The paper calls for a more balanced and integrated approach to social protection for older people

Validation of purdue engineering shape benchmark clusters by crowdsourcing

The effective organization of CAD data archives is central to PLM and consequently content based retrieval of 2D drawings and 3D models is often seen as a "holy grail" for the industry. Given this context, it is not surprising that the vision of a "Google for shape", which enables engineers to search databases of 3D models for components similar in shape to a query part, has motivated numerous researchers to investigate algorithms for computing geometric similarity. Measuring the effectiveness of the many approaches proposed has in turn lead to the creation of benchmark datasets against which researchers can compare the performance of their search engines. However to be useful the datasets used to measure the effectiveness of 3D retrieval algorithms must not only define a collection of models, but also provide a canonical specification of their relative similarity. Because the objective of shape retrieval algorithms is (typically) to retrieve groups of objects that humans perceive as "similar" these benchmark similarity relationships have (by definition) to be manually determined through inspection

A laser probe ⁴⁰Ar /³⁹Ar and INAA investigation of four Apollo granulitic breccias

Infrared laser probe 40Ar/39Ar geochronology, instrumental neutron activation analysis (INAA) and analytical electron microscopy have been performed on four 0.5 x 1.0 x 0.3 cm polished rock tiles of Apollo 16 and 17 granulitic breccias (60035, 77017, 78155, and 79215). Pyroxene thermometry indicates that these samples were re-equilibrated and underwent peak metamorphic sub-solidus recrystallization at 1000 – 1100°C, which resulted in homogeneous mineral compositions and granoblastic textures. 40Ar/39Ar data from this study reveal that three samples (60035, 77017, and 78155) have peak metamorphic ages of ~4.1 Ga. Sample 79215 has a peak metamorphic age of 3.9 Ga, which may be related to Serenitatis basin formation. All four samples contain moderately high concentrations of meteoritic siderophiles. Enhanced siderophile contents in three of the samples provide evidence for projectile contamination of their target lithologies occurring prior to peak metamorphism. Post-peak metamorphism, low-temperature (<300ºC) events caused the partial resetting of argon in the two finer-grained granulites (60035 and 77017). These later events did not alter the mineralogy or texture of the rocks, but caused minor brecciation and the partial release of argon from plagioclase. Interpretation of the low-temperature data indicates partial resetting of the argon systematics to as young as 3.2 Ga for 60035 and 2.3 Ga for 77017. Cosmic ray exposure ages range from 6.4 to ~339 Ma. Our results increase the amount of high-precision data available for the granulitic breccias and lunar highlands crustal samples. The results demonstrate the survival of pre-Nectarian material on the lunar surface and document the effects of contact metamorphic and impact processes during the pre-Nectarian Epoch, as well as the low-temperature partial resetting of ages by smaller impact events after 3.9 Ga. The mineralogy and chemical composition of these rocks, as well as exhumation constraints, indicate that the source of heat for metamorphism was within kilometres of the surface via burial beneath impact melt sheets or hot ejecta blankets