An Example of Reinterpretation in American Historic House Museums

Despite their past importance, historic house museums have lost struggle to remain interesting to the general public because of the refusal to tell stories beyond those of wealthy, white men. In their 2018 restoration project on the Hampton-Preston Mansion, the Historic Columbia Foundation demonstrate how historic house museums can update their narratives to include the stories of marginalized people through the reinterpretation of their two Edward Troye paintings. This reinterpretation allowed Historic Columbia to tell a story that is not often told and represents the shift in new expectations for historic house museums in order to provide something meaningful to their community

Fate of Mississippi River diverted nitrate on vegetated and non-vegetated coastal marshes of Breton Sound Estuary

The Caernarvon Diversion meters Mississippi River water into coastal marshes of Breton Sound. Elevated levels of nitrogen in river water have sparked concerns that nutrient loading may affect marsh resilience and belowground biomass, as evidence from several marsh fertilization studies. These concerns resulted from observation that fresh and brackish Breton Sound marshes suffered extensive damage from Hurricane Katrina. The goal of this study is to determine the fate of nitrate (the dominant inorganic nitrogen form in the Mississippi River) in Breton Sound Estuary marshes. We hypothesized that most nitrate would be removed by denitrification and that nitrate loading would not affect belowground biomass. To test this hypothesis, a mass balance study was conducted using 15N-labeled nitrate. Twelve plant-sediment cores were collected from a brackish marsh located proximal to Delacroix, Louisiana. Six cores received dionized water (control), while another six (treatment) received 2 mg L-1 of 15N-labeled potassium nitrate twice a week for three months. A set of three control and treatment cores were destructively sampled after three months and analyzed for 15N in the above and below ground biomass, as well as the soil. The remaining three treatment cores received 20 mg L-1 of 15N-labeled potassium nitrate twice a week for one month, and a similar mass balance was determined to distinguish N removal, including denitrification, surface algae and microbial uptake and incorporation into aboveground and belowground biomass. Twelve hrs after the addition of 2 mg N L-1 water for each flooding event, nitrate levels were below detection (0.014 mg NO3- L-1. In comparison, after 24 hrs, 20 N mg L-1 water column nitrate levels were approximately zero. The 15N analyses determined 68, 65, and 74% of added labeled nitrate as unaccounted for, which represents gaseous losses. The remaining 15N was incorporated in plant and soil compartments. Labeled N data from the 2 mg N L-1 treatment and 20 mg N L-1 treatment suggests denitrification as the major removal pathway for nitrate in Caernarvon Diversion. Comparison of nitrate loss in bayou sediment and marsh soil suggests nitrate removal would be enhanced if diverted Mississippi River water flooded the marshes

U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Freshwater Harmful Algal Bloom Research & Development Initiative

Freshwater Harmful Algal Blooms (HABs) are particularly impactful to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE), which manages vast freshwater resources and waterways that provide a variety of services including navigation, flood risk reduction, recreation, fish and wildlife management, as well as potable water supply. The Water Resources Development Act of 2018 (WRDA 2018) authorized the U.S. Army Engineer Research Development Center (USACE-ERDC) to implement a 5-year technology demonstration program to deliver scalable technologies for HAB prevention, detection and management that will reduce HAB frequency and effects to our nation’s freshwater resources across scales (e.g. small waterbodies to river reaches), ecoregions (e.g. subtropical Florida to temperate Ohio and New York), and system types (e.g. reservoirs, riverine, lakes). The USACE-ERDC HAB Research & Development (R&D) portfolio features a range of HAB-combatting methods, models, and technologies that may be used alone or in combination to effectively reduce HAB frequency and impacts to water resource development projects across the nation. An overview of USACE-ERDC sponsored HAB R&D projects will highlight the range of HAB methods, models, and technologies in development, and will provide an opportunity to engage with federal, state, local, and university partners

The Drosophila Netrin receptor frazzled/DCC functions as an invasive tumor suppressor

Abstract Background Loss of heterozygosity at 18q, which includes the Deleted in Colorectal Cancer (DCC) gene, has been linked to many human cancers. However, it is unclear if loss of DCC is the specific underlying cause of these cancers. The Drosophila imaginal discs are excellent systems in which to study DCC function, as it is possible to model human tumors through the generation of somatic clones of cells bearing multiple genetic lesions. Here, these attributes of the fly system were utilized to investigate the potential tumor suppressing functions of the Drosophila DCC homologue frazzled (fra) during eye-antennal disc development. Results Most fra loss of function clones are eliminated during development. However, when mutant clone cells generated in the developing eye were rescued from death, partially differentiated eye cells were found outside of the normal eye field, and in extreme cases distant sites of the body. Characterization of these cells during development indicates that fra mutant cells display characteristics of invasive tumor cells, including increased levels of phospho-ERK, phospho-JNK, and Mmp-1, changes in cadherin expression, remodeling of the actin cytoskeleton, and loss of polarity. Mutation of fra promotes basement membrane degradation and invasion which are repressed by inhibition of Rho1 signaling. Although inhibition of JNK signaling blocks invasive phenotypes in some metastatic cancer models in flies, blocking JNK signaling inhibits fra mutant cell death, thereby enhancing the fra mutant phenotype. Conclusions The results of this investigation provide the first direct link between point mutations in fra/DCC and metastatic phenotypes in an animal model and suggest that Fra functions as an invasive tumor suppressor during Drosophila development.http://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/112321/1/12861_2011_Article_642.pd

Top-Ranked Priority Research Questions for Soil Science in the 21st Century

Soils provide critical support essential for life on earth, regulate processes across diverse terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems, and interact with the atmosphere. However, soil science is constrained by a variety of challenges including decreasing funding prospects and a declining number of new students and young professionals. Hence, there is a crucial need to revitalize the impact, relevance, and recognition of soil science as well as promote collaboration beyond traditionally defined soil science research disciplines. Such revitalization and collaboration may be fostered by a shift from discipline-focused soil science research to cross-disciplinary research approaches and issue-driven research. In this paper, we present the outcomes of an initiative to identify priority research questions as a tool for guiding future soil science research. The collaborative approach involved four stages including (i) survey-based solicitation of questions; (ii) criteria-based screening of submitted candidate questions, (iii) criteria-based ranking of screened questions, and (iv) final revision of top ranked questions. The 25 top ranked research questions emerged from 140 submitted candidate questions within five predetermined thematic areas that represent current and emerging research areas. We expect that the identified questions will inspire both existing and prospective researchers, enhance multi-disciplinary collaboration both within and outside soil science, draw the attention of grant-awarding bodies, and guide soil science research to address pressing societal, agricultural, and environmental challenges. Furthermore, we hope that the approach and findings presented in this paper will advance soil sciences by fostering improved collaboration among soil science practitioners and researchers, as well as with other sciences, policy experts, and emerging professionals (including students) to meet societal needs

Predicting Landscape Effects of Mississippi River Diversions on Soil Organic Carbon Sequestration

Large Mississippi River (MR) diversions (peak water flow \u3e1416 m3/s and sediment loads \u3e165 kg/s) have been proposed as part of a suite of coastal restoration projects and are expected to rehabilitate and rebuild wetlands to alleviate the significant historic wetland loss in coastal Louisiana. These coastal wetlands are undergoing increasing eustatic sea-level rise, land subsidence, climate change, and anthropogenic disturbances. However, the effect of MR diversions on wetland soil organic carbon (SOC) sequestration in receiving basins remains unknown. The rate of SOC sequestration or carbon burial in wetlands is one of the variables used to assess the role of wetland soils in carbon cycling and also to construct wetland carbon budgets. In this study, we examined the effects of MR water and sediment diversions on landscape-scale SOC sequestration rates that were estimated from vertical accretion for the next 50 yr (2010–2060) under two environmental (moderate and less optimistic) scenarios. Our analyses were based on model simulations taken from the Wetland Morphology model developed for Louisiana’s 2012 Coastal Master Plan. The master plan modeled a “future-without-action” scenario as well as eight individual MR diversion projects in two of the hydrologic basins (Barataria and Breton Sound). We examined the effects that discharge rates (peak flow) and locations of these individual diversion projects had on SOC sequestration rates. Modeling results indicate that large river diversions are capable of improving basin-wide SOC sequestration capacity (162–222 g C.m-2.yr-1) by up to 14% (30 g C.m-2.yr-1) in Louisiana deltaic wetlands compared to the future-without-action scenario, especially under the less optimistic scenario. When large river diversions are placed in the upper receiving basin, SOC sequestration rates are 3.7–10.5% higher (6–24 g C.m-2.yr-1) than when these structures are placed in the lower receiving basin. Modeling results also indicate that both diversion discharge and location have large effects on SOC sequestration in low-salinity (freshwater and intermediate marshes) as compared to high-salinity marshes (brackish and saline marshes)