The Identification of Resident Bacteria and the Comparison of the Gut and Skin Microbiome in Bat Rays (Myliobatis californica)

Undergraduate Theoretical Proposa

Behavioral Sentinel Surveillance Survey in Nigeria

This technical report presents results of the baseline Behavioral Sentinel Surveillance survey by Breakthrough RESEARCH in Nigeria in September and October 2019. From 2019 to 2021, baseline, midline, and endline surveys will assess the effectiveness of Breakthrough ACTION integrated social and behavior change activities for malaria, family planning, and maternal, newborn and child health plus nutrition in Kebbi and Sokoto in comparison to Breakthrough ACTION\u27s exclusively malaria activities in Zamfara state. Malaria activities were initiated in Zamfara in October 2019. This technical report presents detailed baseline results, including comparisons of results for the Breakthrough ACTION integrated and malaria-exclusive program areas. This report also presents findings about contextual factors influencing health behavior and service utilization outcomes, as these results have important and direct implications for Breakthrough ACTION program adaption and expansion

Challenges and Opportunities in the Hydrologic Sciences

This is the Table of Contents and Introduction of a Report published as Hornberger, G. M., E. Bernhardt, W. E. Dietrich, D. Entekhabi, G. E. Fogg, E. Foufoula-Georgiou, W. J. Gutowski, W. B. Lyons, K. W. Potter, S. W. Tyler, H. J. Vaux, C. J. Vorosmarty, C. Welty, C. A. Woodhouse, C. Zheng, Challenges and Opportunities in the Hydrologic Sciences. 2012: Water Science and Technology Board, Division on Earth and Life Studies, National Academy of Sciences, Washington, DC. 173 pp. Posted with permission.</p

Soy may help protect against cardiovascular disease

Diet and lifestyle choices are major factors contributing to the risk of cardiovascular disease, which is responsible for more deaths in the United States than any other cause. One dietary component that has received considerable attention for its potential cardioprotective effects is soybeans, which contain lean vegetable protein, dietary fiber and bioactive compounds known as isoflavones. Recent research investigating the relationship between soy and cardiovascular disease has identified several potential mechanisms for the observed protective effects, including cholesterol-lowering properties, antioxidant activity and gene regulation. This review highlights current understanding of the complex relationship between soy and the risk of cardiovascular disease

Osteological and Soft-Tissue Evidence for Pneumatization in the Cervical Column of the Ostrich (Struthio camelus) and Observations on the Vertebral Columns of Non-Volant, Semi-Volant and Semi-Aquatic Birds

© 2015 Apostolaki et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License [4.0], which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. The attached file is the published version of the article

The Science Performance of JWST as Characterized in Commissioning

This paper characterizes the actual science performance of the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), as determined from the six month commissioning period. We summarize the performance of the spacecraft, telescope, science instruments, and ground system, with an emphasis on differences from pre-launch expectations. Commissioning has made clear that JWST is fully capable of achieving the discoveries for which it was built. Moreover, almost across the board, the science performance of JWST is better than expected; in most cases, JWST will go deeper faster than expected. The telescope and instrument suite have demonstrated the sensitivity, stability, image quality, and spectral range that are necessary to transform our understanding of the cosmos through observations spanning from near-earth asteroids to the most distant galaxies.Comment: 5th version as accepted to PASP; 31 pages, 18 figures; https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1538-3873/acb29

The James Webb Space Telescope Mission

Twenty-six years ago a small committee report, building on earlier studies, expounded a compelling and poetic vision for the future of astronomy, calling for an infrared-optimized space telescope with an aperture of at least $4m$. With the support of their governments in the US, Europe, and Canada, 20,000 people realized that vision as the $6.5m$ James Webb Space Telescope. A generation of astronomers will celebrate their accomplishments for the life of the mission, potentially as long as 20 years, and beyond. This report and the scientific discoveries that follow are extended thank-you notes to the 20,000 team members. The telescope is working perfectly, with much better image quality than expected. In this and accompanying papers, we give a brief history, describe the observatory, outline its objectives and current observing program, and discuss the inventions and people who made it possible. We cite detailed reports on the design and the measured performance on orbit.Comment: Accepted by PASP for the special issue on The James Webb Space Telescope Overview, 29 pages, 4 figure

Collective Revolution: An Examination of Intentional Communities

My independent thesis is an examination of contemporary Christian intentional communities in the United States. Throughout this project, I attempted to form criteria for what a normative intentional community would be and how it would function. I explored leadership styles, decision making procedures, outreach programs, and spiritual life among other factors in such communities. I also provided a context for my paper by explaining how intentional communities exist in contrast to the prevailing value of individualism in American society. By examining a short history of intentional communities, I was able to find some basic uniting principles that have been proven to work in such communities. Once I had a firm grasp on the dynamics of a normative community, I applied this model to three communities that I visited. This application gave me a chance to test my model and see how the communities measured up against it. Throughout the course of this project, it has been my conviction that one of the reasons that intentional communities are so vital to our society is that they represent a vein of revolutionary thinking in terms of religion and society. In the realm of theology, life in intentional communities represents a revolutionary shift towards attempting to radically follow the calls of the prophets and the teachings of Jesus. In the realm of society, intentional communities represent a revolutionary preference for communal life in a world that worships individuality and pursuit of personal gain

The effect of 2,3-diphosphoglycerate on the solubility of deoxyhemoglobin S

Although highly charged polyanions, such as inositol hexaphosphate, have been clearly shown to decrease the solubility of deoxyhemoglobin S, the effect of 2,3-diphosphoglycerate (DPG), the endogenous allosteric effector within the red cell, has been more controversial. In this work we have compared the effect of DPG on the solubility of native deoxyhemoglobin S and a derivative in which the DPG binding site is blocked by crosslinking the two β82 lysine residues. At pH 6.6 and 30 °C the solubility of deoxyhemoglobin S was found to be decreased by 15% (i.e., from 18.8 to 16.0 g/dl) in the presence of saturating concentrations of DPG. Under the same conditions DPG had no effect on the solubility of the cross-linked derivative. This result establishes unequivocally that the binding of DPG within the β cleft directly facilitates the polymerization of deoxyhemoglobin S. Under physiological conditions, the solubility of deoxyhemoglobin S was found to be decreased by 6% in the presence of an equimolar concentration of DPG. A solubility decrease of this magnitude is sufficient to enhance the tendency of SS cells to sickle and may exacerbate the clinical symptoms of sickle cell disease. © 1986