Development of Scientific Writing Skills Through Activities Embedded into Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Laboratory Courses

Scientific writing skills are important for a career in science and need to be developed. Rather than design courses solely focused on writing, we embedded writing activities into two bioscience laboratory courses at third year undergraduate level, where students wrote about their own data. Students completed writing exercises during breaks in experimental procedures and received feedback during the session. These activities focused on data presentation, data analysis and writing results and discussion paragraphs. These exercises provided a model to assist students in writing the remainder of the report. We probed student opinions regarding scientific writing and the exercises by anonymous pre- and post-course surveys using both closed and open questions. Confidence towards scientific writing and performing simple writing tasks significantly improved after experiencing the writing activities in the first course. Students related that undertaking writing activities in more than one class helped to further improve their writing skills. Independent assessors, with no knowledge of when the reports were written, evaluated reports that originated from the same course held in years before and after writing activities were incorporated. There was a significant improvement in scientific writing quality that correlated with the increase in students’ self-efficacy towards performing various writing tasks

Observations and Hypotheses Related to Low to Middle Free Tropospheric Aerosol, Water Vapor and Altocumulus Cloud Layers within Convective Weather Regimes: A SEAC4RS Case Study

The NASA Studies of Emissions and Atmospheric Composition, Clouds and Climate Coupling by Regional Surveys (SEAC4RS) project included goals related to aerosol particle life cycle in convective regimes. Using the University of Wisconsin High Spectral Resolution Lidar system at Huntsville, Alabama, USA, and the NASA DC-8 research aircraft, we investigate the altitude dependence of aerosol, water vapor and Altocumulus (Ac) properties in the free troposphere from a canonical 12 August 2013 convective storm case as a segue to a presentation of a mission-wide analysis. It stands to reason that any moisture detrainment from convection must have an associated aerosol layer. Modes of covariability between aerosol, water vapor and Ac are examined relative to the boundary layer entrainment zone, 0 ∘C level, and anvil, a region known to contain Ac clouds and a complex aerosol layering structure (Reid et al., 2017). Multiple aerosol layers in regions warmer than 0 ∘C were observed within the planetary boundary layer entrainment zone. At 0 ∘C there is a proclivity for aerosol and water vapor detrainment from storms, in association with melting level Ac shelves. Finally, at temperatures colder than 0 ∘C, weak aerosol layers were identified above Cumulus congestus tops (∼0 and ∼-20 role= presentation style= box-sizing: border-box; display: inline; line-height: normal; word-spacing: normal; overflow-wrap: normal; white-space: nowrap; float: none; direction: ltr; max-width: none; max-height: none; min-width: 0px; min-height: 0px; border: 0px; padding: 0px; margin: 0px; position: relative; \u3e∼−20 ∘C). Stronger aerosol signals return in association with anvil outflow. In situ data suggest that detraining particles undergo aqueous-phase or heterogeneous chemical or microphysical transformations, while at the same time larger particles are being scavenged at higher altitudes leading to enhanced nucleation. We conclude by discussing hypotheses regarding links to aerosol emissions and potential indirect effects on Ac clouds

The polygenic nature of telomere length and the anti-ageing properties of lithium

Telomere length is a promising biomarker for age-related disease and a potential anti-ageing drug target. Here, we study the genetic architecture of telomere length and the repositioning potential of lithium as an anti-ageing medication. LD score regression applied to the largest telomere length genome-wide association study to-date, revealed SNP-chip heritability estimates of 7.29%, with polygenic risk scoring capturing 4.4% of the variance in telomere length in an independent cohort (p = 6.17 × 10-5). Gene-enrichment analysis identified 13 genes associated with telomere length, with the most significant being the leucine rich repeat gene, LRRC34 (p = 3.69 × 10-18). In the context of lithium, we confirm that chronic use in a sample of 384 bipolar disorder patients is associated with longer telomeres (p = 0.03). As complementary evidence, we studied three orthologs of telomere length regulators in a Caenorhabditis elegans model of lithium-induced extended longevity and found all transcripts to be affected post-treatment (p  0.05). Consequently, this suggests that lithium may be catalysing the activity of endogenous mechanisms that promote telomere lengthening, whereby its efficacy eventually becomes limited by each individual's inherent telomere maintenance capabilities. Our work indicates a potential use of polygenic risk scoring for the prediction of adult telomere length and consequently lithium's anti-ageing efficacy

A Search for Jet Handedness in Hadronic Z0Z^0 Decays

We have searched for signatures of polarization in hadronic jets from $Z^0 \to q \bar{q}$ decays using the ``jet handedness'' method. The polar angle asymmetry induced by the high SLC electron-beam polarization was used to separate quark jets from antiquark jets, expected to be left- and right-polarized, respectively. We find no evidence for jet handedness in our global sample or in a sample of light quark jets and we set upper limits at the 95% C.L. of 0.063 and 0.099 respectively on the magnitude of the analyzing power of the method proposed by Efremov {\it et al.}Comment: Revtex, 8 pages, 2 figure

Impacts of climate change on plant diseases – opinions and trends

There has been a remarkable scientific output on the topic of how climate change is likely to affect plant diseases in the coming decades. This review addresses the need for review of this burgeoning literature by summarizing opinions of previous reviews and trends in recent studies on the impacts of climate change on plant health. Sudden Oak Death is used as an introductory case study: Californian forests could become even more susceptible to this emerging plant disease, if spring precipitations will be accompanied by warmer temperatures, although climate shifts may also affect the current synchronicity between host cambium activity and pathogen colonization rate. A summary of observed and predicted climate changes, as well as of direct effects of climate change on pathosystems, is provided. Prediction and management of climate change effects on plant health are complicated by indirect effects and the interactions with global change drivers. Uncertainty in models of plant disease development under climate change calls for a diversity of management strategies, from more participatory approaches to interdisciplinary science. Involvement of stakeholders and scientists from outside plant pathology shows the importance of trade-offs, for example in the land-sharing vs. sparing debate. Further research is needed on climate change and plant health in mountain, boreal, Mediterranean and tropical regions, with multiple climate change factors and scenarios (including our responses to it, e.g. the assisted migration of plants), in relation to endophytes, viruses and mycorrhiza, using long-term and large-scale datasets and considering various plant disease control methods

The effects of integrative reminiscence on depressive symptomatology and mastery of older adults.

A quasi-experimental (non-randomized) study was conducted to study the effects of a new intervention The story of your life that combines integrative reminiscence with narrative therapy. The program consists of seven sessions of two hours and one follow-up session after 8 weeks. It is directed at community-dwelling people of 55 years and older with mild to moderate depressive symptoms. After the intervention the participants showed significantly less depressive symptoms and higher mastery, also in comparison with a waiting-list control group. Demographic factors and initial levels of depressive symptomatology and mastery were not found to moderate the effects. The effects were maintained at 3 months after completion of the intervention. Although the new program was positively evaluated by the majority of the participants there is room for improvement. Adaptations should be made, and evaluated in a randomised controlled trial

Chemical and antimicrobial profiling of propolis from different regions within Libya.

Extracts from twelve samples of propolis collected from different regions of Libya were tested for their activity against Trypanosoma brucei, Leishmania donovani, Plasmodium falciparum, Crithidia fasciculata and Mycobacterium marinum and the cytotoxicity of the extracts was tested against mammalian cells. All the extracts were active to some degree against all of the protozoa and the mycobacterium, exhibiting a range of EC50 values between 1.65 and 53.6 μg/ml. The toxicity against mammalian cell lines was only moderate; the most active extract against the protozoan species, P2, displayed an IC50 value of 53.2 μg/ml. The extracts were profiled by using liquid chromatography coupled to high resolution mass spectrometry. The data sets were extracted using m/z Mine and the accurate masses of the features extracted were searched against the Dictionary of Natural Products (DNP). A principal component analysis (PCA) model was constructed which, in combination with hierarchical cluster analysis (HCA), divided the samples into five groups. The outlying groups had different sets of dominant compounds in the extracts, which could be characterised by their elemental composition. Orthogonal partial least squares (OPLS) analysis was used to link the activity of each extract against the different micro-organisms to particular components in the extracts

The rapid formation of functional monolayers on silicon under mild conditions

We report on an exceedingly mild chemical functionalization of hydrogen-terminated Si(100) with unactivated and unprotected bifunctional α,ω-dialkynes. Monolayer formation occurs rapidly in the dark, and at room temperature, from dilute solutions of an aromatic-conjugated acetylene. The method addresses the poor reactivity of p-type substrates under mild conditions. We suggest the importance of several factors, including an optimal orientation for electron transfer between the adsorbate and the Si surface, conjugation of the acetylenic function with a π-system, as well as the choice of a solvent system that favors electron transfer and screens Coulombic interactions between surface holes and electrons. The passivated Si(100) electrode is amenable to further functionalization and shown to be a viable model system for redox studies at non-oxide semiconductor electrodes in aqueous solutions