Return of the Ghosts of Dispersal Past: Historical Spread and Contemporary Gene Flow in the Blue Sea Star Linckia Laevigata

Marine animals inhabiting the Indian and Pacific oceans have some of the most extensive species ranges in the world, sometimes spanning over half the globe. These Indo-Pacific species present a challenge for study with both geographic scope and sampling density as limiting factors. Here, we augment and aggregate phylogeographic sampling of the iconic blue sea star, Linckia laevigata Linnaeus, 1758, and present one of the most geographically comprehensive genetic studies of any Indo-Pacific species to date, sequencing 392 base pairs of mitochondrial COI from 791 individuals from 38 locations spanning over 14,000 km. We first use a permutation based multiple-regression approach to simultaneously evaluate the relative influence of historical and contemporary gene flow together with putative barriers to dispersal. We then use a discrete diffusion model of phylogeography to infer the historical migration and colonization routes most likely used by L. laevigata across the Indo-Pacific. We show that estimates of genetic structure have a stronger correlation to geographic distances than to “oceanographic” distances from a biophysical model of larval dispersal, reminding us that population genetic estimates of gene flow and genetic structure are often shaped by historical processes. While the diffusion model was equivocal about the location of the mitochondrial most recent common ancestor (MRCA), we show that gene flow has generally proceeded in a step-wise manner across the Indian and Pacific oceans. We do not find support for previously described barriers at the Sunda Shelf and within Cenderwasih Bay. Rather, the strongest genetic disjunction is found to the east of Cenderwasih Bay along northern New Guinea. These results underscore the importance of comprehensive range-wide sampling in marine phylogeography

Regulating Highly Automated Robot Ecologies: Insights from Three User Studies

Highly automated robot ecologies (HARE), or societies of independent autonomous robots or agents, are rapidly becoming an important part of much of the world's critical infrastructure. As with human societies, regulation, wherein a governing body designs rules and processes for the society, plays an important role in ensuring that HARE meet societal objectives. However, to date, a careful study of interactions between a regulator and HARE is lacking. In this paper, we report on three user studies which give insights into how to design systems that allow people, acting as the regulatory authority, to effectively interact with HARE. As in the study of political systems in which governments regulate human societies, our studies analyze how interactions between HARE and regulators are impacted by regulatory power and individual (robot or agent) autonomy. Our results show that regulator power, decision support, and adaptive autonomy can each diminish the social welfare of HARE, and hint at how these seemingly desirable mechanisms can be designed so that they become part of successful HARE.Comment: 10 pages, 7 figures, to appear in the 5th International Conference on Human Agent Interaction (HAI-2017), Bielefeld, German

Magnificent dimensions, varied forms, and brilliant colors: The molecular ecology and evolution of the Indian and Pacific oceans

The tropical Indian and Pacific oceans form the world's largest and most speciose marine biogeographic region: the Indo-Pacific. Due to its size and political complexity, the Indo-Pacific is rarely studied as a whole, yet comprehensive studies of the region promise to teach us much about marine ecology and evolution. Molecular methods can provide substantial initial insights into the processes that create and maintain biodiversity in the region while also providing critical spatial information to managers. This special issue presents six synthetic papers that discuss the current state of molecular work in the Indo-Pacific region as well as best practices for the future. Following these synthetic papers are 15 empirical papers that extend our knowledge of the region considerably. A comprehensive understanding of the biodiversity that we stand to lose in the Indo-Pacific is going to require increased cooperation and collaboration among laboratories that study this region, as exemplified by papers in this special issue

Differential scattering with charge transfer to the 2s state of hydrogen from H/+/-He and H/+/-Ar collisions

Differential scattering with charge transfer to hydrogen 2s state from proton collisions with helium and argo

Opportunity for All: How the American Public Benefits From Internet Access at U.S. Libraries

Examines the use of free computer and Internet access in public libraries, by income level, age, race/ethnicity, and online activity. Explores libraries' role as a community resource for social media, education, employment, e-government, and other areas