A Guide to the Identification of Tailed Myxobolidae of the World: Dicauda, Hennegoides, Henneguya, Laterocaudata, Neohenneguya, Phlogospora, Tetrauromena, Trigonosporus and Unicauda

The phylum Myxozoa contains over 2100 species of parasites that principally infect fish, although some species infect amphibian and reptilian hosts (Kudo 1920; Lom and Dykova 2006; Yokoyama et al. 2012). Myxozoans are multicellular, comprised of 1 to 7 spore shell valves, 1-2 infective germ sporoplasms, and 2 to 7 polar capsules (Lom and Dyková 1992). The polar capsules contain an extrudible filament used for attachment to a host, similar to the stinging cells of Cnidaria. After attachment, 1 to 2 amoeboid sporoplasms infect the target tissue and begin development. See Lom and Dyková (1992) for details on development of the trophozooite, plasmodia, and mature spores. Several myxozoan parasites studied to date have a life cycle with two hosts: fish and aquatic oligochaete or polychaete worms (Lom and Dyková 2006). The myxospore stage infects the worm host when ingested, which produces the actinospore stage that infects the fish host. Yokoyama et al. (2012) listed 33 myxozoan species for which the corresponding actinospore stage has been identified. These species include Myxobolus cerebralis (Wolf and Markiw 1984), the first species deduced to have a complex two-host life cycle. Other species within Myxobolidae include M. cotti (El-Matbouli and Hoffman 1989), M. carassii (El-Matbouli and Hoffmann 1993), M. arcticus (Kent et al. 1993), M. drjagini (El-Mansy and Molnar 1997a), M. portucalensis (El-Mansy et al. 1998), M. hungaricus (El-Mansy and Molnar 1997b), M. psuedodispar (Székely et al. 2001), M. bramae (Eszterbauer et al. 2000), M. macrocapsularis (Székely et al. 2002), and M. parviformis (Kallert et al. 2005). Among Henneguya species, only H. exilis, H. ictaluri, H. mississippiensis and H. neusslini have had the actinospore stage discovered (aurantiactinomyxon or triactinomyxon; Yokoyama et al. 2012; Rosser et al. 2015). So, many species have not had their complete life cycle determined yet. Likely, future taxonomic revisions of Myxozoa will consider the morphology of the actinospore stage, which varies among the known life cycles (e.g., hexactinomyxon, raabeia, triactinomyxon; Lom and Dyková 2006). See Yokoyama et al. (2012) for a key to these actinospore types. The organisms in this guide are in the family Myxobilidae within suborder Platysporina, order Bivalvulida, class Myxosporea, phylum Myxozoa. The family Myxobolidae Thélohan 1892 is characterized by spores flattened parallel to the straight sutural line and two polar capsules (which may be unequal in length). The genera of Myxobolidae that lack tails, i.e., Myxobolus, Spirosutoria, Neothelohanellus, Thelohanellus, Neothelohanellus, are not covered in this guide. This summary covers the genera that have appendages that look like ‘tails’, i.e., Henneguya, Hennegoides, Neohenneguya, Unicauda, Dicauda, Laterocaudata, Phlogospora, and Tetrauronema, and Trigonosporus. The tailed spores of Myxobilatus (family Parvicapsulidae, suborder Variisporina), which look similar to Henneguyaspores, but have striated shells and the suture line bisects the polar capsules, are also not included in this guide, other than in the family key. I have chosen to use the word ‘tail’ instead of ‘caudal appendage’ or ‘caudal projection’ to make the guide more user friendly and to use less space in the text boxes. For similar reasons I have chosen to use the word ‘cyst’ instead of ‘trophozooite’.https://digitalcommons.usu.edu/oer_textbooks/1001/thumbnail.jp

Defect free global minima in Thomson's problem of charges on a sphere

Given $N$ unit points charges on the surface of a unit conducting sphere, what configuration of charges minimizes the Coulombic energy $\sum_{i>j=1}^N 1/r_{ij}$? Due to an exponential rise in good local minima, finding global minima for this problem, or even approaches to do so has proven extremely difficult. For \hbox{$N = 10(h^2+hk+k^2)+ 2$} recent theoretical work based on elasticity theory, and subsequent numerical work has shown, that for $N \sim >500$--1000 adding dislocation defects to a symmetric icosadeltahedral lattice lowers the energy. Here we show that in fact this approach holds for all $N$, and we give a complete or near complete catalogue of defect free global minima.Comment: Revisions in Tables and Reference

Effect of Diluent Type, Diluent:Sperm Ratio and Extender Use on Rainbow and Cutthroat Trout Egg Fertilization

Premature sperm activation can reduce fertilization.  Sperm extenders are a potential remedy.  In Test 1, rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss) sperm motility and motility duration were compared among three diluent types, three milt:diluent dilutions and between extended and un-extended milt.  Dilutions  ? 1:1 were sufficient for complete activation of un-extended rainbow trout sperm with all three diluents.  For extended milt, complete activation was observed in 4 of 5 replicates at 1:2 and all replicates of 1:3, but not at 1:1.  Sperm motility lasted from 21 to 52 s and was unaffected by extender, diluent type, or dilution.  In another test using extended and un-extended sperm to fertilize eggs at high female to male ratios (4:1), no significant difference in percent fertilization was observed between 4:1 and 1:1 ratios or between extended and control sperm treatments.   For cutthroat trout (O. clarkii pleuriticus) eggs fertilized with extended sperm, there was no significant difference in survival to eye-up.  The data indicated extender requires three-fold dilution, but did not negatively affect fertilization or duration of motility when common activating solutions were used

Colloidal diffusion and hydrodynamic screening near boundaries

The hydrodynamic interactions between colloidal particles in small ensembles are measured at varying distances from a no-slip surface over a range of inter-particle separations. The diffusion tensor for motion parallel to the wall of each ensemble is calculated by analyzing thousands of particle trajectories generated by blinking holographic optical tweezers and by dynamic simulation. The Stokesian Dynamics simulations predict similar particle dynamics. By separating the dynamics into three classes of modes: self, relative and collective diffusion, we observe qualitatively different behavior depending on the relative magnitudes of the distance of the ensemble from the wall and the inter-particle separation. A simple picture of the pair-hydrodynamic interactions is developed, while many-body-hydrodynamic interactions give rise to more complicated behavior. The results demonstrate that the effect of many-body hydrodynamic interactions in the presence of a wall is much richer than the single particle behavior and that the multiple-particle behavior cannot be simply predicted by a superposition of pair interactions

Hard Structure Aging Precision and Length-At-Age Data from Two Northern Leatherside Chub Populations

Northern leatherside chub Lepidomeda copei are an imperiled cyprinid fish native to the upper Snake River and upper Bear River basins in Utah and Wyoming.  Age and growth rates have been documented for only a few populations and the precision of scale and otolith age estimates have never been described for the species.  In this study, we describe the precision of scale and otolith derived age estimates for the northern leatherside chub.  We also document scale-derived estimates of age and growth rates of two populations, Ham's Fork, Wyoming and Yellow Creek, Utah.  Ages determined using scales agreed with those determined using otoliths in 70.8% of fish and agreement declined with age.  Scale derived age estimates were on average younger than otolith derived estimates.  The maximum age of the fish collected from Ham's Fork and Yellow Creek was three years.   At the end of the growing season, captured age 1, 2, and 3 fish had an average (range) total length of 86 (73-100), 105 (99-115), and 124 (100-135) mm, in Yellow Creek and 86 (63-96), 99 (89-117), and 112 (100-123) mm in Ham's Fork.  Growth rates did not differ between sexes in Ham's Fork, but females in Yellow Creek tended to grow faster than males.  The data from our study increases our understanding of age and growth rates in northern leatherside chub and how these parameters vary among populations

X-Ray Spectral Variability of PKS 2005-489 During the Spectacular November 1998 Flare

We report on monitoring of the BL Lac object PKS 2005-489 by the Rossi X-ray Timing Explorer (RXTE) in October-December 1998. During these months, the source underwent a spectacular flare; at its peak on November 10, its 2-10 keV flux was $3.33 \times 10^{-10} {\rm ~erg ~cm^{-2} ~s^{-1}}$, over 30 times brighter than in quiescence. During the rising phase, the X-ray spectrum of PKS 2005-489 hardened considerably, reaching $\alpha = 1.32~ (F_\nu \propto \nu^{-\alpha})$ near maximum. During the declining phase, the X-ray spectrum steepened rapidly, reaching $\alpha = 1.82$, then became somewhat harder towards the end of December ($\alpha \sim 1.6$). While such behavior has been seen before, the simplicity, magnitude and duration of this flare allowed us to study it in great detail. We argue that this flare was caused by either the injection of particles into the jet or {\it in situ} particle acceleration, and that the spectral steepening which followed the flare maximum was the result of synchrotron cooling. Contrary to other recently observed blazar flares (e.g., Mkn 501, 3C 279, PKS 2155-304), our results do not imply a major shift in the location of the synchrotron peak during this flare.Comment: ApJ Letters in press, 6 pages, 2 figures Corrected reference

Intramolecular Phenotypic Capacitance in a Modular RNA Molecule

Phenotypic capacitance refers to the ability of a genome to accumulate mutations that are conditionally hidden and only reveal phenotype-altering effects after certain environmental or genetic changes. Capacitance has important implications for the evolution of novel forms and functions, but experimentally studied mechanisms behind capacitance are mostly limited to complex, multicomponent systems often involving several interacting protein molecules. Here we demonstrate phenotypic capacitance within a much simpler system, an individual RNA molecule with catalytic activity (ribozyme). This naturally occurring RNA molecule has a modular structure, where a scaffold module acts as an intramolecular chaperone that facilitates folding of a second catalytic module. Previous studies have shown that the scaffold module is not absolutely required for activity, but dramatically decreases the concentration of magnesium ions required for the formation of an active site. Here, we use an experimental perturbation of magnesium ion concentration that disrupts the folding of certain genetic variants of this ribozyme and use in vitro selection followed by deep sequencing to identify genotypes with altered phenotypes (catalytic activity). We identify multiple conditional mutations that alter the wild-type ribozyme phenotype under a stressful environmental condition of low magnesium ion concentration, but preserve the phenotype under more relaxed conditions. This conditional buffering is confined to the scaffold module, but controls the catalytic phenotype, demonstrating how modularity can enable phenotypic capacitance within a single macromolecule. RNA’s ancient role in life suggests that phenotypic capacitance may have influenced evolution since life’s origins

Photovoltaic System Optimization for an Austere Location Using Time Series Data

In this work we test experimental photovoltaic, storage and generator technologies and investigate their potential to meet austere location energy needs. After defining the energy requirements and insolation of a 1,100-person base, we develop a microgrid model and simulation. Cost optimizations were then performed using hourly time-series data to explore the cost and performance trade-space of a PV-battery-generator system. The work highlights the cost of resiliency and the dependencies of optimum system component sizes on duration and the fully burdened cost of fuel

The Santa Fe Light Cone Simulation Project: I. Confusion and the WHIM in Upcoming Sunyaev-Zel'dovich Effect Surveys

We present the first results from a new generation of simulated large sky coverage (~100 square degrees) Sunyaev-Zeldovich effect (SZE) cluster surveys using the cosmological adaptive mesh refinement N-body/hydro code Enzo. We have simulated a very large (512^3h^{-3}Mpc^3) volume with unprecedented dynamic range. We have generated simulated light cones to match the resolution and sensitivity of current and future SZE instruments. Unlike many previous studies of this type, our simulation includes unbound gas, where an appreciable fraction of the baryons in the universe reside. We have found that cluster line-of-sight overlap may be a significant issue in upcoming single-dish SZE surveys. Smaller beam surveys (~1 arcmin) have more than one massive cluster within a beam diameter 5-10% of the time, and a larger beam experiment like Planck has multiple clusters per beam 60% of the time. We explore the contribution of unresolved halos and unbound gas to the SZE signature at the maximum decrement. We find that there is a contribution from gas outside clusters of ~16% per object on average for upcoming surveys. This adds both bias and scatter to the deduced value of the integrated SZE, adding difficulty in accurately calibrating a cluster Y-M relationship. Finally, we find that in images where objects with M > 5x10^{13} M_{\odot} have had their SZE signatures removed, roughly a third of the total SZE flux still remains. This gas exists at least partially in the Warm Hot Intergalactic Medium (WHIM), and will possibly be detectable with the upcoming generation of SZE surveys.Comment: 14 pages, 13 figures, version accepted to ApJ. Major revisions mad

Atmospheric Meteorological Effects on Forecasting Daily Lightning Occurrence at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station

As the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station and Kennedy Space Center increase their launch rate, any process that could assist in the automation of the currently-manual lightning forecast would be valuable. This work examines the possibility of machine-learning assistance with the daily lighting forecast which is produced by the 45th Weather Squadron. A dataset consisting of 34 lightning, pressure, temperature and windspeed measurements taken from 334 daily weather balloon (rawinsonde) launches in the timeframe 2012-2021 was examined. Models were created using recursive feature elimination on logistic regression and XGClassifier algorithms, as well as Bayesian and bandit optimization of neural network (NN) hyperparameters. The modeling process was repeated after eliminating 13 features related to windspeed. The best performing models on both datasets were the optimized NN models, with an F1 metric of 0.79 on the full dataset and 0.66 on the reduced dataset. For comparison, a model that predicted randomly achieved F1 = 0.47 on this dataset. The addition of 13 windspeed-related features more than doubled the complexity of the 21-feature no-wind model while increasing model performance by 13 percentage points. A notable inference from the statistical modeling is that the most important feature from both datasets was the Thompson convective index, which is related to temperature, dewpoint, relative humidity and lapse rate