Patenting DNA: Balancing the Need to Incentivize Innovation in Biotechnology with the Need to Make High-Quality Genetic Testing Accessible to Patients

This is the published version

Prototype of an Educational Video Game for Knowledge Retention in Youth Health Education

There is some debate about the most effective and least controversial means of sex education in schools. In several states, state law does not require education about Sexually Transmitted Diseases and Human Immunodeficiency Virus Infection/Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome (STDs and HIV/AIDS.) There is also debate about the effect and pervasiveness of sexual situations in video games and its effect on the healthy sexual development of adolescents. This research therefore aims to try to solve these two problems and answer the following question: Is it possible to represent sex in a more realistic and educational way through a video game while teaching more medically accurate and necessary information? The completion of this study will be able to provide some insights on the feasibility and benefits of widespread implementation of serious video games for health education in the United States and also point to the necessity of future research into this topic

Grassland bird response to enhanced vegetation diversity in restoration plantings in the Spring Run Complex of northwestern Iowa

Loss of habitat is one of the primary factors affecting population declines of grassland birds, and recovery efforts have focused on increasing the amount of grassland habitat in the landscape. Assessing the value of habitat restorations for grassland birds is an essential component of grassland bird conservation. We compared grassland bird habitat use, reproductive success, nestling growth rates, nestling baseline corticosterone, and blood glucose levels among restored grasslands planted with seed mixes of varying plant species diversity. In addition, we tested the ability of a conspecific song playback system to attract Henslow\u27s sparrows to previously unoccupied restored habitat. We selected 4 grassland planting types, cool-season, warm-season (newly planted and mature), and high diversity for our study to encompass the range of planting mixtures typically available to land managers. The most common bird species we encountered were Bobolink (Dolichonyx oryzivorus), Common Yellowthroat (Geothlypis trichas), Red-winged Blackbird (Agelaius phoeniceus), and Sedge Wren (Cistothorus platensis). Bird densities overall were not consistently higher or lower in any one of the 4 planting types. Bobolink densities, however, were higher in Cool-season fields than in any of the other field types. Models of the relationships between bird density/bird species richness and habitat characteristics revealed that both vegetation characteristics and food resources were important in explaining grassland bird densities. Our habitat models showed that different species, even those within a species category, were influenced by different habitat characteristics. Given the importance of cool-season, non-native grass plantings for Bobolinks in our study, consideration must be given to the impact that elimination of these plantings may have on the future of Bobolink populations. Red-winged Blackbird nest survival was influenced by year, visual obstruction, and variation in the availability of invertebrate food resources throughout the nesting season. We found evidence for a difference in daily nest survival among planting types (P=0.06). Specifically, estimated nest survival was more than twice as high in mature warm-season fields (36%) than in cool-season fields (14%). Red-winged Blackbird nestling size at fledging differed among grassland planting type. Male nestlings were larger than females at fledging with regard to mass, wing, and tarsus measurements. Nestling growth rates did not differ either among grassland restoration planting types or between sexes. Invertebrate food resource availability did not appear to affect growth rates of nestling Red-winged Blackbirds. Red-winged nestling baseline corticosterone levels were lower in the warm-season planting type than in either cool-season or high diversity plantings. We found no evidence of differences in baseline corticosterone levels or blood glucose levels between males and females. We found no relationship between baseline corticosterone levels and body mass or between baseline corticosterone levels and blood glucose for male or female nestlings. Blood glucose levels in male nestlings had a significant positive relationship with nestling mass, but not in female nestlings. Management activity and brood size had positive relationships with baseline corticosterone, suggesting that more intensive management activity and larger brood sizes were related to increased stress levels. Nestling age and temperature during the nestling period were positively related to blood glucose levels. We successfully attracted Heslow\u27s Sparrows to 3 of 7 treatment plots using conspecific song playbacks and we found no Henslow\u27s Sparrows in control plots. The addition of social cues using playback systems in restored grassland habitats may aid conservation efforts of Henslow\u27s Sparrows to available habitat. We conclude a variety of planting types and management strategies may be necessary to successfully conserve grassland birds

Grassland butterfly responses to prairie restoration : effects of prescribed fire and grazing

Fire and grazing are common methods used for prairie restoration and conservation. However, effects of restoration on grassland invertebrates have been evaluated with mixed results. We examined the effects of prairie restoration through fire and grazing and the relative contributions of the direct and indirect effects of time since fire on the grassland butterfly community of the Loess Hills of Iowa, USA. Both total and habitat-specialist (prairie-dependent) butterfly abundance were highest on prairies that were managed with grazing and burning, and lowest on those that were only burned. Butterfly species richness did not differ among any of the management types. Responses of individual butterfly species to management practices were variable. In the best predictive models, both habitat-specialist and total butterfly abundance were negatively associated with the percent cover of bare ground, total butterfly abundance was positively associated with the percent cover of forbs, and habitat-generalist butterfly abundance was positively associated with floral resource availability. Areas managed with fire, grazing, or a fire/grazing combination all maintained equally species rich, yet compositionally different, butterfly communities. Butterfly abundance increased as time since burn increased. The percent cover of warm season grasses and bare ground decreased while the cover of cool season grasses, forbs, and litter depth increased with time since burn. We used path analysis to examine direct and indirect effects of burning. For habitat-specialist species abundance path models, the total indirect effects of time since burn through floral resources, warm season grass cover, or bare ground were stronger relative to the direct effect of time since burn. The indirect pathway through bare ground had higher relative strength than other indirect paths in the models for habitat-specialist species. For the habitat-generalist species path models, the direct effect of time since burn was stronger relative to the indirect effects. Because of this variation in butterfly species responses to different management practices, we do not recommend a single type of management that would benefit all species or even all species within habitat-specialist or habitat-generalist habitat guilds. Our data illustrate the profound effects, both direct and indirect, of fire on grassland butterfly abundance

English Machine Reading Comprehension Datasets: A Survey

This paper surveys 60 English Machine Reading Comprehension datasets, with a view to providing a convenient resource for other researchers interested in this problem. We categorize the datasets according to their question and answer form and compare them across various dimensions including size, vocabulary, data source, method of creation, human performance level, and first question word. Our analysis reveals that Wikipedia is by far the most common data source and that there is a relative lack of why, when, and where questions across datasets.Comment: Will appear at EMNLP 2021. Dataset survey paper: 9 pages, 5 figures, 2 tables + attachmen

A research-inspired laboratory sequence investigating acquired drug resistance

Here, we present a six-session laboratory exercise designed to introduce students to standard biochemical techniques in the context of investigating a high impact research topic, acquired resistance to the cancer drug Gleevec. Students express a Gleevec-resistant mutant of the Abelson tyrosine kinase domain, the active domain of an oncogenic protein implicated in chronic myelogenous leukemia, and investigate the kinase activity of wild type and mutant enzyme in the presence of two cancer drugs. Techniques covered include protein expression, purification, and gel analysis, kinase activity assays, and protein structure viewing. The exercises provide students with a hands-on understanding of the impact of biochemistry on human health, and demonstrate their potential as the next generation of investigators.Howard Hughes Medical Institut

Assessing the Role of Conspecific Attraction in Habitat Restoration for Henslow’s Sparrows in Iowa

The presence of conspecific individuals may provide important cues about habitat quality for territorial songbirds. We tested the ability of a conspecific song playback system to attract Henslow’s sparrows to previously unoccupied restored habitat. We successfully attracted Heslow’s sparrows to 3 of 7 treatment plots using conspecific song playbacks and we found no Henslow’s sparrows in control plots. The addition of social cues using playback systems in restored grassland habitats may aid conservation efforts of Henslow’s sparrows to available habitat

STAT3 gain-of-function syndrome

STAT3 gain-of-function (GOF) syndrome is a multi-organ primary immune regulatory disorder characterized by early onset autoimmunity. Patients present early in life, most commonly with lymphoproliferation, autoimmune cytopenias, and growth delay. However, disease is often progressive and can encompass a wide range of clinical manifestations such as: enteropathy, skin disease, pulmonary disease, endocrinopathy, arthritis, autoimmune hepatitis, and rarely neurologic disease, vasculopathy, and malignancy. Treatment of the autoimmune and immune dysregulatory features of STAT3-GOF patients relies heavily on immunosuppression and is often challenging and fraught with complications including severe infections. Defects in the T cell compartment leading to effector T cell accumulation and decreased T regulatory cells may contribute to autoimmunity. While T cell exhaustion and apoptosis defects likely contribute to the lymphoproliferative phenotype, no conclusive correlations are yet established. Here we review the known mechanistic and clinical characteristics of this heterogenous PIRD

Dynamic processes of domain switching in lead zirconate titanate under cyclic mechanical loading by in situ neutron diffraction

The performance of ferroelectric ceramics is governed by the ability of domains to switch. A decrease in the switching ability can lead to degradation of the materials and failure of ferroelectric devices. In this work the dynamic properties of domain reorientation are studied. In situ time-of-flight neutron diffraction is used to probe the evolution of ferroelastic domain texture under mechanical cyclic loading in bulk lead zirconate titanate ceramics. The high sensitivity of neutron diffraction to lattice strain is exploited to precisely analyze the change of domain texture and strain through a full-pattern Rietveld method. These results are then used to construct a viscoelastic model, which explains the correlation between macroscopic phenomena (i.e. creep and recovered deformation) and microscopic dynamic behavior (i.e. ferroelastic switching, lattice strain).<br/