Genome of the Asian Longhorned Beetle (\u3cem\u3eAnoplophora glabripennis\u3c/em\u3e), a Globally Significant Invasive Species, Reveals Key Functional and Evolutionary Innovations at the Beetle-Plant Interface

Background: Relatively little is known about the genomic basis and evolution of wood-feeding in beetles. We undertook genome sequencing and annotation, gene expression assays, studies of plant cell wall degrading enzymes, and other functional and comparative studies of the Asian longhorned beetle, Anoplophora glabripennis, a globally significant invasive species capable of inflicting severe feeding damage on many important tree species. Complementary studies of genes encoding enzymes involved in digestion of woody plant tissues or detoxification of plant allelochemicals were undertaken with the genomes of 14 additional insects, including the newly sequenced emerald ash borer and bull-headed dung beetle. Results: The Asian longhorned beetle genome encodes a uniquely diverse arsenal of enzymes that can degrade the main polysaccharide networks in plant cell walls, detoxify plant allelochemicals, and otherwise facilitate feeding on woody plants. It has the metabolic plasticity needed to feed on diverse plant species, contributing to its highly invasive nature. Large expansions of chemosensory genes involved in the reception of pheromones and plant kairomones are consistent with the complexity of chemical cues it uses to find host plants and mates. Conclusions: Amplification and functional divergence of genes associated with specialized feeding on plants, including genes originally obtained via horizontal gene transfer from fungi and bacteria, contributed to the addition, expansion, and enhancement of the metabolic repertoire of the Asian longhorned beetle, certain other phytophagous beetles, and to a lesser degree, other phytophagous insects. Our results thus begin to establish a genomic basis for the evolutionary success of beetles on plants

The Third Data Release of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey

This paper describes the Third Data Release of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS). This release, containing data taken up through June 2003, includes imaging data in five bands over 5282 deg^2, photometric and astrometric catalogs of the 141 million objects detected in these imaging data, and spectra of 528,640 objects selected over 4188 deg^2. The pipelines analyzing both images and spectroscopy are unchanged from those used in our Second Data Release.Comment: 14 pages, including 2 postscript figures. Submitted to AJ. Data available at http://www.sdss.org/dr

Genome of the Asian longhorned beetle (Anoplophora glabripennis), a globally significant invasive species, reveals key functional and evolutionary innovations at the beetle–plant interface

Background Relatively little is known about the genomic basis and evolution of wood-feeding in beetles. We undertook genome sequencing and annotation, gene expression assays, studies of plant cell wall degrading enzymes, and other functional and comparative studies of the Asian longhorned beetle, Anoplophora glabripennis, a globally significant invasive species capable of inflicting severe feeding damage on many important tree species. Complementary studies of genes encoding enzymes involved in digestion of woody plant tissues or detoxification of plant allelochemicals were undertaken with the genomes of 14 additional insects, including the newly sequenced emerald ash borer and bull-headed dung beetle. Results The Asian longhorned beetle genome encodes a uniquely diverse arsenal of enzymes that can degrade the main polysaccharide networks in plant cell walls, detoxify plant allelochemicals, and otherwise facilitate feeding on woody plants. It has the metabolic plasticity needed to feed on diverse plant species, contributing to its highly invasive nature. Large expansions of chemosensory genes involved in the reception of pheromones and plant kairomones are consistent with the complexity of chemical cues it uses to find host plants and mates. Conclusions Amplification and functional divergence of genes associated with specialized feeding on plants, including genes originally obtained via horizontal gene transfer from fungi and bacteria, contributed to the addition, expansion, and enhancement of the metabolic repertoire of the Asian longhorned beetle, certain other phytophagous beetles, and to a lesser degree, other phytophagous insects. Our results thus begin to establish a genomic basis for the evolutionary success of beetles on plants

Cumulative human impacts in the Bering Strait Region

<p><b>Introduction:</b>Human impacts on Arctic marine ecosystems are increasing in extent and intensity as sea ice shrinks and utilization of marine resources expands. The effects of climate change are being felt across the arctic while stressors such as commercial fishing and shipping continue to grow as the Arctic becomes more accessible. Given these emerging changes, there is need for an assessment of the current cumulative impact of human activities to better anticipate and manage for a changing Arctic. Cumulative human impacts (CHI) assessments have been widely applied around the world in a variety of ecosystem types but have yet to incorporate temporal dynamics of individual stressors. Such dynamics are fundamental to Arctic ecosystems.</p> <p><b>Outcomes:</b>Here, we present the first CHI assessment of an Arctic ecosystem to incorporate sea ice as a habitat and assess impact seasonality, using the Bering Strait Region (BSR) as a case study. We find that cumulative impacts differ seasonally, with lower impacts in winter and higher impacts in summer months. Large portions of the BSR have significantly different impacts within each season when compared to a mean annual cumulative impact map. Cumulative impacts also have great spatial variability, with Russian waters between 2.38 and 3.63 times as impacted as US waters.</p> <p><b>Conclusion:</b>This assessment of seasonal and spatial cumulative impacts provides an understanding of the current reality in the BSR and can be used to support development and evaluation of future management scenarios that address expected impacts from climate change and increasing interest in the Arctic.</p

A Multi-View Intelligent Editor for Digital Video Libraries

Silver is an authoring tool that aims to allow novice users to edit digital video. The goal is to make editing of digital video as easy as text editing. Silver provides multiple coordinated views, including project, outline, subject, storyboard, textual transcript and timeline views. Selections and edits in any view are synchronized with all other views. A variety of recognition algorithms are applied to the video and audio content and then are used to aid in the editing tasks. The recognition algorithms and metadata used to support intelligent editing are supplied by the Informedia Digital Library, which also serves as the repository and search mechanism. The metadata includes shot boundaries and a time-synchronized transcript, which are used to support intelligent selection and intelligent cut/copy/paste. Keywords Digital video editing, multimedia authoring, video library, Silver, Informedia. 1. INTRODUCTION Digital video is becoming increasingly ubiquitous. Most camcorders today..

Simplifying Video Editing Using Metadata

Digital video is becoming increasingly ubiquitous. However, editing video remains difficult for several reasons: it is a time-based medium, it has dual tracks of audio and video, and current tools force users to work at the smallest level of detail. Based on interviews with professional video editors, we developed a video editor, called Silver, that uses metadata to make digital video editing more accessible to novices. To help users visualize video, Silver provides multiple views with different semantic content and at different levels of abstraction, including storyboard, editable transcript, and timeline views. Silver offers smart editing operations that help users resolve the inconsistencies that arise because of the different boundaries in audio and video. We conducted a preliminary user study to investigate the effectiveness of the Silver smart editing. Participants successfully edited video after only a short tutorial, both with and without smart editing assistance. Our research suggests several ways in which video editing tools could use metadata to assist users in the reuse and composition of video

SILVER: Simplifying Video Editing With Metadata

Digital video is becoming increasingly ubiquitous. However, editing video remains difficult for several reasons: it is a time-based medium, it has dual tracks of audio and video, and current tools force users to work at the smallest level of detail. Based on interviews with professional video editors, we developed a video editor, called Silver, that uses metadata to make digital video editing more accessible to novices. To help users visualize video, Silver provides multiple views with different semantic content and at different levels of abstraction, including storyboard, editable transcript, and timeline views. Silver offers smart editing operations that help users resolve the inconsistencies that arise because of the different boundaries in audio and video

ABSTRACT Simplifying Video Editing Using Metadata

Digital video is becoming increasingly ubiquitous. However, editing video remains difficult for several reasons: it is a time-based medium, it has dual tracks of audio and video, and current tools force users to work at the smallest level of detail. Based on interviews with professional video editors, we developed a video editor, called Silver, that uses metadata to make digital video editing more accessible to novices. To help users visualize video, Silver provides multiple views with different semantic content and at different levels of abstraction, including storyboard, editable transcript, and timeline views. Silver offers smart editing operations that help users resolve the inconsistencies that arise because of the different boundaries in audio and video. We conducted a preliminary user study to investigate the effectiveness of the Silver smart editing. Participants successfully edited video after only a short tutorial, both with and without smart editing assistance. Our research suggests several ways in which video editing tools could use metadata to assist users in the reuse and composition of video

Simplifying Video Editing Using Metadata

Digital video is becoming increasingly ubiquitous. However, editing video remains difficult for several reasons: it is a time-based medium, it has dual tracks of audio and video, and current tools force users to work at the smallest level of detail. Based on interviews with professional video editors, we developed a video editor, called Silver, that uses metadata to make digital video editing more accessible to novices. To help users visualize video, Silver provides multiple views with different semantic content and at different levels of abstraction, including storyboard, editable transcript, and timeline views. Silver offers smart editing operations that help users resolve the inconsistencies that arise because of the different boundaries in audio and video.We conducted a preliminary user study to investigate the effectiveness of the Silver smart editing. Participants successfully edited video after only a short tutorial, both with and without smart editing assistance. Our research suggests several ways in which video editing tools could use metadata to assist users in the reuse and composition of video