Rediscovery of Ooline, Cadellia pentastylis, near Gunnedah : notes on the habitat and ecology of this dry rainforest tree

Cadellia pentastylis F.Muell., (family Surianaceae), a dry rainforest tree with a conservation listing of Vulnerable at state and national levels, was first collected from the Gunnedah area by the botanical collector J.L. Boorman in 1907. We report the first record of Cadellia pentastylis from the Gunnedah area (30°58’49’’S, 150°15’15’’E) since 1907, and provide details of the community and habitat where it occurs, on the lower slopes of Black Jack Mountain. Although this population is one of the smallest in New South Wales, it is significant as it is at its southern distributional limit, and is found adjacent to semi-evergreen vine thicket, another type of dry rainforest, on the same hillslope. We list the New South Wales occurrences of this species and discuss aspects of its flowering phenology

A broad typology of dry rainforests on the western slopes of New South Wales

Dry rainforests are those communities that have floristic and structural affinities to mesic rainforests and occur in parts of eastern and northern Australia where rainfall is comparatively low and often highly seasonal. The dry rainforests of the western slopes of New South Wales are poorly-understood compared to other dry rainforests in Australia, due to a lack of regional scale studies. This paper attempts to redress this by deriving a broad floristic and structural typology for this vegetation type. Phytogeographical analysis followed full floristic surveys conducted on 400 m2 plots located within dry rainforest across the western slopes of NSW. Cluster analysis and ordination of 208 plots identified six floristic groups. Unlike in some other regional studies of dry rainforest these groups were readily assigned to Webb structural types, based on leaf size classes, leaf retention classes and canopy height. Five community types were described using both floristic and structural data: 1) Ficus rubiginosa–Notelaea microcarpa notophyll vine thicket, 2) Ficus rubiginosa–Alectryon subcinereus–Notelaea microcarpa notophyll vine forest, 3) Elaeodendron australe–Notelaea microcarpa–Geijera parviflora notophyll vine thicket, 4) Notelaea microcarpa– Geijera parviflora–Ehretia membranifolia semi-evergreen vine thicket, and 5) Cadellia pentastylis low microphyll vine forest. Floristic groupings were consistent with those described by previous quantitative studies which examined smaller portions of this study area. There was also general agreement between the present analytical study and a previous intuitive classification of dry rainforest vegetation throughout the study area, but little concurrence with a continental scale floristic classification of rainforest

Electric Propulsion Applications and Impacts

Most space missions require on-board propulsion systems and these systems are often dominant spacecraft mass drivers. Presently, on-board systems account for more than half the injected mass for commercial communications systems and even greater mass fractions for ambitious planetary missions. Anticipated trends toward the use of both smaller spacecraft and launch vehicles will likely increase pressure on the performance of on-board propulsion systems. The acceptance of arcjet thrusters for operational use on commercial communications satellites ushered in a new era in on-board propulsion and exponential growth of electric propulsion across a broad spectrum of missions is anticipated. NASA recognizes the benefits of advanced propulsion and NASA's Office of Space Access and Technology supports an aggressive On-Board Propulsion program, including a strong electric propulsion element, to assure the availability of high performance propulsion systems to meet the goals of the ambitious missions envisioned in the next two decades. The program scope ranges from fundamental research for future generation systems through specific insertion efforts aimed at near term technology transfer. The On-Board propulsion program is committed to carrying technologies to levels required for customer acceptance and emphasizes direct interactions with the user community and the development of commercial sources. This paper provides a discussion of anticipated missions, propulsion functions, and electric propulsion impacts followed by an overview of the electric propulsion element of the NASA On-Board Propulsion program

MARQUIS: A multiplex method for absolute quantification of peptides and posttranslational modifications

Absolute quantification of protein expression and posttranslational modifications by mass spectrometry has been challenging due to a variety of factors, including the potentially large dynamic range of phosphorylation response. To address these issues, we have developed MARQUIS—Multiplex Absolute Regressed Quantification with Internal Standards—a novel mass spectrometry-based approach using a combination of isobaric tags and heavy-labelled standard peptides, to construct internal standard curves for peptides derived from key nodes in signal transduction networks. We applied MARQUIS to quantify phosphorylation dynamics within the ​EGFR network at multiple time points following stimulation with several ligands, enabling a quantitative comparison of ​EGFR phosphorylation sites and demonstrating that receptor phosphorylation is qualitatively similar but quantitatively distinct for each ​EGFR ligand tested. MARQUIS was also applied to quantify the effect of ​EGFR kinase inhibition on glioblastoma patient-derived xenografts. MARQUIS is a versatile method, broadly applicable and extendable to multiple mass spectrometric platforms.United States-Israel Binational Science FoundationNational Institutes of Health (U.S.) (Grant U54 CA112967)National Institutes of Health (U.S.) (Grant R01 CA118705)National Institutes of Health (U.S.) (Grant R01 CA096504)Mayo Brain Tumor SPORE CA10896

Unconformities and Age Relationships, Tongue River and Older Members of the Fort Union Formation (Paleocene), Western Williston Basin, U.S.A.

An unconformable relationship is observed within the Paleocene Fort Union Formation in the western Williston Basin at the contact between the Tongue River Member and the underlying Lebo and Ludlow Members. Isotopic dates and pollen biozone data reported here are integrated with previously published data. A new correlation of these facies results in a revised history of localized depositional and tectonic events. One unconformity occurs at this lithological contact in the Pine Hills (PH), Terry Badlands (TB), and Ekalaka (E) areas west of the Cedar Creek anticline (CCA), and another unconformity occurs at the same lithological contact in the Little Missouri River (LMR) area east of the CCA. The two unconformities differ in age by about two million years. The older is the U2 and the younger is the U3 , which initially were recognized in the Ekalaka area of southeastern Montana (Belt et al., 2002). The U2 crops out in the TB, PH, and E areas, where at least 85 m of Tongue River strata bearing palynomorphs characteristic of biozone P-3 are found above the unconformity. Radiometric dates from strata (bearing palynomorphs characteristic of biozone P-2) below the U2 range in age from 64.0 to 64.73 Ma. The U2 unconformity west of the CCA thus occurs in strata near the base of the lower P-3 biozone. The U3 crops out in the LMR area (east of the CCA), where only 13 m of strata characterized by the P-3 pollen biozone occur above it. Radiometric dates from an ash \u3c1 m above the U3 in that area range in age from 61.03 to 61.23 Ma, and the P-3/P-4 pollen biozone boundary is located 13 m above the ashes. The U3 thus occurs in strata characterized by upper parts of the P-3 pollen biozone east of the CCA. The U3 is also identifiable in the middle of the ca. 200 m-thick Tongue River Member west of the CCA, where mammal sites 40 to 80 m above it are Tiffanian-3 in age. The strata below this unconformity are tilted gently to the northwest; strata above the unconformity are flat lying. This mid Tongue River unconformity probably correlates with the unconformity at the base of the Tongue River Member in the LMR area east of the CCA, where a Ti-2 mammal site (the “X-X” locality) occurs \u3c10 m above it. Depositional and tectonic events can be summarized using North American Mammal Age nomenclature as a relative time scale. From latest Cretaceous through Puercan time, paleodrainage was toward the east or southeast, in the direction of the Cannonball Sea. The Black Hills did not serve as an obstruction at that time. During early Torrejonian time, the Miles City arch (MCA) and Black Hills were uplifted and partially eroded, leading to the U2 unconformity. When deposition resumed, paleodrainages shifted to a northeasterly course. During middle and late Torrejonian time, facies of the lower Tongue River (“Dominy”) sequence and the Ekalaka Member of the Fort Union Formation were deposited in the middle of a subbasin between the MCA and the CCA. Simultaneously, smectite-rich components of the Ludlow Member were being deposited east of the CCA. During latest Torrejonian time, uplift of the Black Hills tilted the “Dominy” sequence toward the northwest and local erosion led to the U3 unconformity. Following this tilting, during Tiffanian time, deposition of the upper Tongue River (“Knobloch”) sequence shows continuity from western North Dakota across eastern Montana and into the northern Powder River Basin

A quantitative assessment of shoot flammability for 60 tree and shrub species supports rankings based on expert opinion

Fire is an important ecological disturbance in vegetated ecosystems across the globe, and also has considerable impacts on human infrastructure. Vegetation flammability is a key bottom-up control on fire regimes, and on the nature of individual fires. Although New Zealand (NZ) historically had low fire frequencies, anthropogenic fires have considerably impacted indigenous vegetation as humans used fire extensively to clear forests. Few studies of vegetation flammability have been undertaken in NZ, and only one has compared the flammability of indigenous plants; this was a qualitative assessment derived from expert opinion. We addressed this knowledge gap by measuring the flammability of terminal shoots from a range of trees and shrubs found in NZ. We quantified shoot flammability of 60 indigenous and exotic species, and compared our experimentally derived ranking with expert opinion. The most flammable species was the invasive exotic shrub Ulex europaeus, followed by Eucalyptus viminalis, Pomaderris kumeraho, Dacrydium cupressinum, and Lophozonia menziesii. Our experimentally derived ranking was strongly correlated with expert opinion, lending support to both methods. Our results are useful to ecologists seeking to understand how fires have and will influence NZ’s ecosystems, and for fire managers identifying high-risk landscapes, and low flammability species for ‘green firebreaks’

Evidence for Marine Influence on a Low-Gradient Coastal Plain: Ichnology and Invertebrate Paleontology of the Lower Tongue River Member (Fort Union Formation, Middle Paleocene), Western Williston Basin, U.S.A.

The Paleocene Tongue River Member of the Fort Union Formation contains trace-fossil associations indicative of marine influence in otherwise freshwater facies. The identified ichnogenera include: Arenicolites, Diplocraterion, Monocraterion, Ophiomorpha, Rhizocorallium, Skolithos linearis, Teichichnus, Thalassinoides, and one form of uncertain affinity. Two species of the marine diatom Coscinodiscus occur a few meters above the base of the member. The burrows occur in at least five discrete, thin, rippled, fine-grained sandstone beds within the lower 85 m of the member west of the Cedar Creek anticline (CCA) in the Signal Butte, Terry Badlands, and Pine Hills areas. Two discrete burrowed beds are found in the lower 10 m of the member east of the CCA in the little Missouri River area. Abundant freshwater ostracodes include Bisulcocypridea arvadensis, Candona, and Cypridopsis. Freshwater bivalves include Plesielliptio and Pachydon mactriformis. We recognize four fossil assemblages that represent fluvio-lacustrine, proximal estuarine, central estuarine, and distal estuarine environments. Biostratal alternations between fresh- and brackish-water assemblages indicate that the Tongue River Member was deposited along a low-gradient coastal plain that was repeatedly inundated from the east by the Cannonball Sea. The existence of marine-influenced beds in the Tongue River Member invalidates the basis for the Slope Formation

A Glass Polyalkenoate Cement Carrier for Bone Morphogenetic Proteins

This work considers a glass polyalkenoate cement (GPC)-based carrier for the effective delivery of bone morphogenetic proteins (BMPs) at an implantation site. A 0.12 CaO–0.04 SrO–0.36 ZnO–0.48 SiO2 based glass and poly(acrylic acid) (PAA, Mw 213,000) were employed for the fabrication of the GPC. The media used for the water source in the GPC reaction was altered to produce a series of GPCs. The GPC liquid media was either 100 % distilled water with additions of albumin at 0, 2, 5 and 8 wt% of the glass content, 100 % formulation buffer (IFB), and 100 % BMP (150 µg rhBMP-2/ml IFB). Rheological properties, compressive strength, ion release profiles and BMP release were evaluated. Working times (Tw) of the formulated GPCs significantly increased with the addition of 2 % albumin and remained constant with further increases in albumin content or IFB solutions. Setting time (Ts) experienced an increase with 2 and 5 % albumin content, but a decrease with 8 % albumin. Changing the liquid source to IFB containing 5 % albumin had no significant effect on Ts compared to the 8 % albumin-containing BT101. Replacing the albumin with IFB/BMP-2 did not significantly affect Tw. However, Ts increased for the BT101_BMP-2 containing GPCs, compared to all other samples. The compressive strength evaluated 1 day post cement mixing was not affected significantly by the incorporation of BMPs, but the ion release did increase from the cements, particularly for Zn and Sr. The GPCs released BMP after the first day, which decreased in content during the following 6 days. This study has proven that BMPs can be immobilized into GPCs and may result in novel materials for clinical applications

Long-term neural and physiological phenotyping of a single human

Psychiatric disorders are characterized by major fluctuations in psychological function over the course of weeks and months, but the dynamic characteristics of brain function over this timescale in healthy individuals are unknown. Here, as a proof of concept to address this question, we present the MyConnectome project. An intensive phenome-wide assessment of a single human was performed over a period of 18 months, including functional and structural brain connectivity using magnetic resonance imaging, psychological function and physical health, gene expression and metabolomics. A reproducible analysis workflow is provided, along with open access to the data and an online browser for results. We demonstrate dynamic changes in brain connectivity over the timescales of days to months, and relations between brain connectivity, gene expression and metabolites. This resource can serve as a testbed to study the joint dynamics of human brain and metabolic function over time, an approach that is critical for the development of precision medicine strategies for brain disorders

Whole-genome sequencing to understand the genetic architecture of common gene expression and biomarker phenotypes.

Initial results from sequencing studies suggest that there are relatively few low-frequency (<5%) variants associated with large effects on common phenotypes. We performed low-pass whole-genome sequencing in 680 individuals from the InCHIANTI study to test two primary hypotheses: (i) that sequencing would detect single low-frequency-large effect variants that explained similar amounts of phenotypic variance as single common variants, and (ii) that some common variant associations could be explained by low-frequency variants. We tested two sets of disease-related common phenotypes for which we had statistical power to detect large numbers of common variant-common phenotype associations-11 132 cis-gene expression traits in 450 individuals and 93 circulating biomarkers in all 680 individuals. From a total of 11 657 229 high-quality variants of which 6 129 221 and 5 528 008 were common and low frequency (<5%), respectively, low frequency-large effect associations comprised 7% of detectable cis-gene expression traits [89 of 1314 cis-eQTLs at P < 1 × 10(-06) (false discovery rate ∼5%)] and one of eight biomarker associations at P < 8 × 10(-10). Very few (30 of 1232; 2%) common variant associations were fully explained by low-frequency variants. Our data show that whole-genome sequencing can identify low-frequency variants undetected by genotyping based approaches when sample sizes are sufficiently large to detect substantial numbers of common variant associations, and that common variant associations are rarely explained by single low-frequency variants of large effect