Gene Regulatory Evolution During Speciation in a Songbird

Over the last decade, tremendous progress has been made toward a comparative un- derstanding of gene regulatory evolution. However, we know little about how gene regulation evolves in birds, and how divergent genomes interact in their hybrids. Because of the unique features of birds – female heterogamety, a highly conserved karyotype, and the slow evolution of reproductive incompatibilities – an understanding of regulatory evolution in birds is critical to a comprehensive understanding of regulatory evolution and its implications for speciation. Using a novel complement of analyses of replicated RNA-seq libraries, we demonstrate abundant divergence in brain gene expression between zebra finch (Taeniopygia guttata) subspecies. By comparing parental populations and their F1 hybrids, we also show that gene misexpression is relatively rare among brain-expressed transcripts in male birds. If this pattern is consistent across tissues and sexes, it may partially explain the slow buildup of postzygotic reproductive isolation observed in birds relative to other taxa. Although we expected that the action of genetic drift on the island- dwelling zebra finch subspecies would be manifested in a higher rate of trans regulatory divergence, we found that most divergence was in cis regulation, following a pattern commonly observed in other taxa. Thus, our study highlights both unique and shared features of avian regulatory evolution

War and Peace in American Seduction: Seduction Communities, Heterosexual Masculinity, and Mediated Intimacy in New York City

Don Juan clearly didn’t need any training in flirting skills, but many American men feel they need help. In nearly every major city of North America exists a seduction community: a community of men who train each other to pick up women. Along with digital means for meeting strangers, these communities have emerged over the past 15 years from a subculture to become a globalized industry in seduction training spanning from Brooklyn to Beijing. From online forums and subscription-based clubs to week-long intensive training courses known as bootcamps, hundreds of thousands of men participate in these groups at different levels of engagement. This dissertation asks, what gender does seduction training produce? Based on original ethnographic fieldwork carried out in New York City between 2015-2016, this dissertation explores how and why men pursue seduction training – and what becomes of them and their social relationships. I argue that seduction is a form of mediated intimacy that envisions the other person as a stage for self-aggrandizement. Two things follow: one, seducers lose out on the sense of human connection that they originally intended to get. Two, seduction training becomes less about seducing women than about masculine self-help. In other words, it’s about men learning to have connections and build relationships with other men that give them a meaningful sense of identity. In fact, seduction training both reproduces and contradicts cultural norms of so-called hegemonic masculinity in the U.S. It does so because these men experience culturally-specific ambivalences around norms of self-help – including ideas of freedom, dependency, and addiction – in ways that complicate heteronormative masculine identities. I furthermore assert that self-fashioning through seduction training invokes ideas of work and play to differentiate contradictory ethics of persuasion and self-expression, and that these ideas in turn instantiate different technologies of embodiment that reproduce inequalities between men along lines of race and class

Gaining Acceptance of Novel Plant Breeding Technologies

Ensuring the sustainability of agriculture under climate change has led to a surge in alternative strategies for crop improvement. Advances in integrated crop breeding, social acceptance, and farm-level adoption are crucial to address future challenges to food security. Societal acceptance can be slow when consumers do not see the need for innovation or immediate benefits. We consider how best to address the issue of social licence and harmonised governance for novel gene technologies in plant breeding. In addition, we highlight optimised breeding strategies that will enable long-term genetic gains to be achieved. Promoted by harmonised global policy change, innovative plant breeding can realise high and sustainable productivity together with enhanced nutritional traits

Proceedings of the CUNY Games Conference 5.0

The CUNY Games Network is an organization dedicated to encouraging research, scholarship and teaching in the developing field of games-based learning. We connect educators from every campus and discipline at CUNY and beyond who are interested in digital and non-digital games, simulations, and other forms of interactive teaching and inquiry-based learning. The CUNY Games Conference distills its best cutting-edge interactive presentations into a two-day event to promote and discuss game-based pedagogies in higher education, focusing particularly on non-digital learning activities that faculty can use in the classroom every day. The conference will include workshops lead by CUNY Games Organizers on how to modify existing games for the classroom, how to incorporate elements of play into simulations and critical thinking activities, as well as poster sessions, play testing, and game play. For the digitally minded, we will also offer a workshop in creating computer games in Unity

Marginal firms - kan deras egenskaper förklara avkastningsskillnader mellan små och stora företag?

Syfte: Vårt syfte är att undersöka huruvida småföretags eventuella högre avkastning på Stockholmsbörsen 1997-2002 beror på att små företag i högre grad än stora är marginal firms. Metod: Vi skapar sex portföljer, som jämförs i par. Ett par för storlek, ett för soliditet och ett för utdelning. Därefter beräknar vi deras avkastning för åren 1997-2002 och kontrollerar om signifikanta skillnader finns. Vi skattar även betavärden – både för marknadens riskpremie och egna faktorer – för storleksportföljerna. Teoretiska perspektiv: Flest teoretiska perspektiv hämtar vi från en studie av Chen och Chan (1991). Vi använder även teori från bl.a. Dichev (1998) och Ferguson och Shockley (2003). Resultat: Inga avkastningsskillnader visar sig vara signifikanta under perioden. Ett positivt samband finns mellan skillnaden i små- och storföretagens avkastning och skillnaden mellan sänkt- och höjd-utdelningsportföljens avkastning. Slutsats: Vår slutsats blir att vi inte kan påvisa några avkastningsskillnader mellan företag med marginal firmegenskaper och välmående företag. Dock finns, som nämnt, heller ingen signifikant avkastningsskillnad mellan små- och storföretag under perioden. Detta gör att vi inte utesluter att marginal firmegenskaperna kan vara orsaken till sådana skillnader under en period då de verkligen finns

Proceedings of the CUNY Games Conference 4.0: The Interactive Course

Proceedings of the CUNY Games Conference, held from January 22-23, 2018, at the CUNY Graduate Center and Borough of Manhattan Community College. Critical Play with History (Panel) - Composition & Storytelling - Health & Cognitive Sciences - Gaming Anthropology: Teaching Culture and Power Through Games and Design (Panel) - Twine & Writing Games - Easy Ideas II - STEM Games - Global Games for Change Catalog (Panel) - Comics & Active Learning - Fact Checking & Research - Computer Science & Game Design - SimGlobal: Building a Serious Roleplay Course for the Social Sciences (Panel) - Role Playing Games, Narrative, & Story - Course Review Through Games - Business & Finance Games - Game Design and Programming in Unity - What’s Your Game Plan? - The Allure of Play in the Classroo

Comments on alternative calculations of the broadening of spectral lines of neutral sodium by H-atom collisions

With the exception of the sodium D-lines recent calculations of line broadening cross-sections for several multiplets of sodium by Leininger et al (2000) are in substantial disagreement with cross-sections interpolated from the tables of Anstee and O'Mara (1995) and Barklem and O'Mara (1997). The discrepancy is as large as a factor of three for the 3p-4d multiplet. The two theories are tested by using the results of each to synthesize lines in the solar spectrum. It is found that generally the data from the theory of Anstee, Barklem and O'Mara produce the best match to the observed solar spectrum. It is found, using a simple model for reflection of the optical electron by the potential barrier between the two atoms, that the reflection coefficient is too large for avoided crossings with the upper states of subordinate lines to contribute to line broadening, supporting the neglect of avoided ionic crossings by Anstee, Barklem and O'Mara for these lines. The large discrepancies between the two sets of calculations is a result of an approximate treatment of avoided ionic crossings for these lines by Leininger et al (2000).Comment: 18 pages, 5 ps figures included, to appear in J Phys B: At. Mol. Opt. Phy

Evolution of a 3 \msun star from the main sequence to the ZZ Ceti stage: the role played by element diffusion

The purpose of this paper is to present new full evolutionary calculations for DA white dwarf stars with the major aim of providing a physically sound reference frame for exploring the pulsation properties of the resulting models in future communications. Here, white dwarf evolution is followed in a self-consistent way with the predictions of time dependent element diffusion and nuclear burning. In addition, full account is taken of the evolutionary stages prior to the white dwarf formation. In particular, we follow the evolution of a 3 \msun model from the zero-age main sequence (the adopted metallicity is Z=0.02) all the way from the stages of hydrogen and helium burning in the core up to the thermally pulsing phase. After experiencing 11 thermal pulses, the model is forced to evolve towards its white dwarf configuration by invoking strong mass loss episodes. Further evolution is followed down to the domain of the ZZ Ceti stars on the white dwarf cooling branch. Emphasis is placed on the evolution of the chemical abundance distribution due to diffusion processes and the role played by hydrogen burning during the white dwarf evolution. Furthermore, the implications of our evolutionary models for the main quantities relevant for adiabatic pulsation analysis are discussed. Interestingly, the shape of the Ledoux term is markedly smoother as compared with previous detailed studies of white dwarfs. This is translated into a different behaviour of the Brunt-Vaisala frequency.Comment: 11 pages, 11 figures, accepted for publication in MNRA

Near-IR spectroscopic ages of massive star clusters in M82

Like other starburst galaxies, M82 hosts compact, massive young star clusters that are interesting both in their own right and as benchmarks for population synthesis models. Can spectral synthesis models at resolutions around 1000 adequately reproduce the near-IR spectral features and the energy distribution of these clusters between 0.8 and 2.4 microns? How do the derived cluster properties compare with previous results from optical studies? We analyse the spectra of 5 massive clusters in M82, using data acquired with the spectrograph SpeX on the InfraRed Telescope Facility (NASA/IRTF) and a new population synthesis tool with a highly improved near-IR extension, based on a recent collection of empirical and theoretical spectra of red supergiant stars. We obtain excellent fits across the near-IR with models at quasi-solar metallicity and a solar neighbourhood extinction law. Spectroscopy breaks a strong degeneracy between age and extinction in the near-IR colours in the red supergiant-dominated phase of evolution. The estimated near-IR ages cluster between 9 and 30 Myr, i.e. the ages at which the molecular bands due to luminous red supergiants are strongest in the current models. They do not always agree with optical spectroscopic ages. Adding optical data sometimes leads to the rejection of the solar neighbourhood extinction law. This is not surprising considering small-scale structure around the clusters, but it has no significant effect on the near-IR based spectroscopic ages. [abridged]Comment: 14 pages, 20 figures, uses aa.cl