Neutralino-hadron scattering in the NMSSM

We provide a scan of the parameter space for neutralino-hadron scattering in the next-to-minimal supersymmetric standard model using an updated value for the strange quark sigma commutator. These results also take into account constraints from WMAP data on the relic density and new constraints from the Large Hadron Collider. We find that the resultant spin-independent cross sections are smaller in magnitude than those found in recent results obtained within the constrained minimal supersymmetric standard model, yet still great enough to feasibly allow for detection in the case of bino-like neutralinos.Comment: 4 pages 5 figure

Stable isotope signals provide seasonal climatic markers for moss functional groups.

Living moss biomass and archival peat deposits represent key indicators of present and past climatic conditions, but prediction of future climatic impacts requires appropriate marker species to be characterized under a range of contemporary conditions. Stable isotope signals in high latitude moss deposits offer potential climatic proxies. Seasonal changes in δ13C and δ18O of organic material (cellulose) in representative functional groups, and associated photosynthetic activity (as chlorophyll fluorescence) have been compared across East Anglia, UK, as a function of tissue water content. Representative species from contrasting acid bog, heathland, and fen woodland habitats were selected for monthly sampling of recent growth tissues between spring 2017 and autumn 2018, with isotopic signals in purified cellulose compared with tissue water, precipitation, and nearby groundwater signals. Sphagnum and Polytrichum groups, which tend to dominate peat formation, provided contrasting and complementary indicators of seasonal variations in carbon assimilation. Cellulose δ18O signals from Sphagnum spp. demonstrate seasonal variations in source precipitation inputs; carbon isotope signals in Polytrichum spp. indicate evaporative demand and photosynthetic limitation

Liposarcoma: Molecular Genetics and Therapeutics

Sarcomas are a group of heterogeneous tumours with varying genetic basis. Cytogenetic abnormalities range from distinct genomic rearrangements such as pathognomonic translocation events and common chromosomal amplification or loss, to more complex rearrangements involving multiple chromosomes. The different subtypes of liposarcoma are spread across this spectrum and constitute an interesting tumour type for molecular review. This paper will outline molecular pathogenesis of the three main subtypes of liposarcoma: well-differentiated/dedifferentiated, myxoid/round cell, and pleomorphic liposarcoma. Both the molecular basis and future avenues for therapeutic intervention will be discussed

Production of HMF, FDCA and their derived products: a review of life cycle assessment (LCA) and techno-economic analysis (TEA) studies

The chemical industry is increasingly looking to develop bio-based alternatives to petroleum-based platform chemicals, in order to reduce dependence on diminishing fossil resources and to decrease GHG emissions. 5-Hydroxymethylfurfural (HMF) and 2,5-furandicarboxylic acid (FDCA) are two examples of bio-basedchemicals which could allow for the synthesis of a wide range of chemicals and materials, particularly polymers, from renewable feedstocks. This review paper summarises and critically evaluates results from existinglife cycle assessment (LCA) and technoeconomic analysis (TEA) studies of HMF and FDCA synthesis and, bydoing this, provides several points of advice for future investigations and assessments of synthetic routestowards these bio-based products. Chemical considerations such as choice of solvent system, catalyst andenergy production are reviewed; and methodological issues in LCA, such as treatment of biogenic carbonand allocation methods, are discussed. Overall, results suggest that the production of HMF and FDCA-basedproducts may offer lower impacts from CO2 emissions than their fossil-based counterparts, but this oftencomes with an increase in environmental impacts in other impact categories. Higher operating costs fromexpensive fructose feedstocks and high energy demands also make HMF and FDCA less economicallyviable than current chemicals. Moving forwards, further investigation into different lignocellulosic feedstocks, energy production units and the development of new catalytic systems may help in making HMFand FDCA production more favourable than the production of fossil-based counterparts

Preparing Instructional Leaders: Evaluating a Regional Program to Gauge Perceived Effectiveness

An instructional leadership program (ILP) has offered education and support to three cohorts of educational leaders in Nova Scotia, Canada, amounting to approximately 130 participants. Quantitative and qualitative feedback from a convenience sample (n = 90) suggests that the ILP offers an extremely useful practical program; in fact, 95 percent of the sample indicates advances in the categories of professional growth, improved instructional leadership, and tangible progress in administrative effectiveness. Systemic and school environment trends have dictated that educational leaders need a skill set that positions them to respond more aptly to issues of poverty, socioemotional health, and mental health while attending to improved community building both within the school and in the greater public. This study uses surveys, interviews, and focus groups to identify emerging and impending challenges

A heuristic inquiry : encountering the self with symbolic images

This heuristic journey to the Self occurred spontaneously from my life quest. While living with and gazing at symbolic images in my room, I captured their voices unfolding the same message about "going deep down inward to search for the Self." I followed the message coming from inner wisdom and realized that my symbolic images and their message were closely related to Cari Jung's perspective of the Self. In this heuristic self-inquiry, I have pursued the self-experience leading me to the essence of the Self, and the symbolic images along with reflexive knowledge were a major guideline to the self-experience of encountering the Self in a metaphoric, safe way. I experienced the symbolic manifestations of the Self by the images of the Shadow, pond, castle, mandala, apple, heart, Christ, and lotus flower. I also experienced fears, which caused resistance or hesitation in my heuristic journey to the Self. In the process of recognizing and resolving my fears, I could proceed with my heuristic self-inquiry and diminished my resistance. Then, I could expand my limited concepts of the Self, God, and my religion and reached a new understanding of the essence of the Self that the Self is a manifestation of God residing in the heart, deep inside of us. Also I discovered that a heuristic journey on a topic can have several layers of heuristic inquiry, like a spiral shape, in aiming at reaching the core of what is being investigated. I hope this heuristic self-inquiry can be beneficial to others to better understand the Self in their process of healing, maturity, or transformation, and as well to art therapists to better understand their clients within artwork processes in clinical practic

The contribution of evolutionarily volatile promoters to molecular phenotypes and human trait variation

BACKGROUND: Promoters are sites of transcription initiation that harbour a high concentration of phenotype-associated genetic variation. The evolutionary gain and loss of promoters between species (collectively, termed turnover) is pervasive across mammalian genomes and may play a prominent role in driving human phenotypic diversity. RESULTS: We classified human promoters by their evolutionary history during the divergence of mouse and human lineages from a common ancestor. This defined conserved, human-inserted and mouse-deleted promoters, and a class of functional-turnover promoters that align between species but are only active in humans. We show that promoters of all evolutionary categories are hotspots for substitution and often, insertion mutations. Loci with a history of insertion and deletion continue that mode of evolution within contemporary humans. The presence of an evolutionary volatile promoter within a gene is associated with increased expression variance between individuals, but only in the case of human-inserted and mouse-deleted promoters does that correspond to an enrichment of promoter-proximal genetic effects. Despite the enrichment of these molecular quantitative trait loci (QTL) at evolutionarily volatile promoters, this does not translate into a corresponding enrichment of phenotypic traits mapping to these loci. CONCLUSIONS: Promoter turnover is pervasive in the human genome, and these promoters are rich in molecularly quantifiable but phenotypically inconsequential variation in gene expression. However, since evolutionarily volatile promoters show evidence of selection, coupled with high mutation rates and enrichment of QTLs, this implicates them as a source of evolutionary innovation and phenotypic variation, albeit with a high background of selectively neutral expression variation. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s13059-022-02634-w

The Potential for Ontogenetic Vertical Migration by Larvae of Bathyal Echinoderms

Planktotrophy is a relatively common developmental mode among bathyal and abyssal echinoderms, but the sources of food used by deep-sea planktotrophic larvae remain generally unknown. Very few deep-sea echinoderm larvae have been collected in plankton samples, so we do not know whether larvae migrate to the euphotic zone to feed or if they rely on bacteria or detritus at greater depths. We approached this question indirectly by investigating whether larvae of bathyal echinoids can tolerate the temperatures they would encounter in the euphotic zone and whether they possess sufficient energy stores to migrate to the euphotic zone without feeding. Twenty-four hour survival at 20 and 24 °C was always much lower than survival at colder temperatures, but there were species-specific and stage-specific differences in temperature tolerances. A numerical model of the energy consumed by migrating larvae predicted that larvae should be able to reach adequate phytoplankton concentrations before exhausting parental reserves, unless they swim very slowly and have very high metabolic rates. These results suggest that long vertical migrations are more likely to be limited by physiological tolerances than by energy stores

Inter-Relationship Between Subtropical Pacific Sea Surface Temperature, Arctic Sea Ice Concentration, and the North Atlantic Oscillation in Recent Summers and Winters

The inter-relationship between subtropical western-central Pacific sea surface temperatures (STWCPSST), sea ice concentration in the Beaufort Sea (SICBS), and the North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO) are investigated for the last 37 summers and winters (1980-2016). Lag-correlation of the STWCPSST(-1) in spring with the NAO phase and SICBS in summer increases over the last two decades, reaching r = 0.4-0.5 with significance at 5 percent, while winter has strong correlations in approximately 1985-2005. Observational analysis and the atmospheric general circulation model experiments both suggest that STWCPSST warming acts to increase the Arctic geopotential height and temperature in the following season. This atmospheric response extends to Greenland, providing favorable conditions for developing the negative phase of the NAO. SIC and surface albedo tend to decrease over the Beaufort Sea in summer, linked to the positive surface net shortwave flux. Energy balance considering radiative and turbulent fluxes reveal that available energy that can heat surface is larger over the Arctic and Greenland and smaller over the south of Greenland, in response to the STWCPSST warming in spring. XXXX Arctic & Atlantic: Positive upper-level height/T anomaly over the Arctic and Greenland, and a negative anomaly over the central-eastern Atlantic, resembling the (-) phase of the NAO. Pacific: The negative height/T anomaly over the mid-latitudes, along with the positive anomaly over the STWCP, where 1degC warming above climatology is prescribed. Discussion: It is likely that the Arctic gets warm and the NAO is in the negative phase in response to the STWCP warming. But, there are other factors (e.g., internal variability) that contribute to determination of the NAO phase: not always the negative phase of the NAO in the event of STWCP warming (e.g.: recent winters and near neutral NAO in 2017 summer)