Do Families Inspire

Does having children or being married inspire an artist to create more valuable works? This question stemmed from a recent article which suggests that when artists travel, they create more valuable art. After researching how having children or being married affects professions similar to artists, either in work process or wage type (like published researchers or the self-employed), it seems there is a connection. I then decided to apply economic models to evaluate art with regard to families. I gathered biographical data regarding artists, corresponding art auctions from 2013, and connected them on a yearly basis to determine if they were married, or had at least one child when the piece of art was completed. After performing several regressions, while correcting for other variables like size or the medium used, I found some evidence of a relationship. While in most of the regressions, both the child and marriage variables were insignificant, when using female interaction variables, both having a child and being married were found to be significant. The results suggest that for female artists being married or having a child is detrimental to the price of their art. It is important to note that the quantity of art produced is not what was measured, but the value art buyers were willing to pay in 2013. In addition to the family variables, I also included broad categorical variables of what each piece of art depicted as its subject, and found that together, these variables were jointly significant. While this was not the primary question, finding that these results were so strong was surprising. In short, my study suggests that having a family may negatively affect the value of a female artist’s work, and that subject choice may influence the price of art. This study was completed in May 2014

Counseling Students’ Cognitive Complexity in a Group Dynamics Course: A Thematic Analysis

Counselor education researchers maintain that cognitive complexity is an important ability for counselors-in-training (CIT) and professional counselors providing individual and group counseling (Duys & Hedstom, 2000; Granello, 2010; Welfare & Borders, 2010 Wilkinson, 2011). Cognitive complexity, simply defined as it relates to counseling, represents how CIT or professional counselors assemble multiple facets of a client’s situation for use in counseling (Granello, 2010). Research has linked the ability to construct a more or less complete picture from a client’s present circumstances to counseling effectiveness (Welfare & Borders, 2010). According to Bernard and Goodyear (2019) and Granello and Underfer-Babalis (2004), cognitive complexity is linked to a number of counseling competencies such as more detailed descriptions of clients, clearer conceptualizations of client problems, and higher levels of empathy. Moreover, research has demonstrated that higher levels of counselor cognitive complexity correlate to multicultural counseling competencies (Martinez & Dong, 2020) and improved counseling and therapeutic outcomes (Welfare & Borders, 2010). This research underscores the importance of enhancing cognitive complexity for CIT

An EAGLE’s View of Ex-situ Galaxy Growth

Modern observational and analytic techniques now enable the direct measurement of star formation histories and the inference of galaxy assembly histories. However, current theoretical predictions of assembly are not ideally suited for direct comparison with such observational data. We therefore extend the work of prior examinations of the contribution of ex-situ stars to the stellar mass budget of simulated galaxies. Our predictions are specifically tailored for direct testing with a new generation of observational techniques by calculating ex-situ fractions as functions of galaxy mass and morphological type, for a range of surface brightnesses. These enable comparison with results from large FoV IFU spectrographs, and increasingly accurate spectral fitting, providing a look-up method for the estimated accreted fraction. We furthermore provide predictions of ex-situ mass fractions as functions of galaxy mass, galactocentric radius and environment. Using z = 0 snapshots from the 100cMpc3 and 25cMpc3 EAGLE simulations we corroborate the findings of prior studies, finding that ex-situ fraction increases with stellar mass for central and satellite galaxies in a stellar mass range of 2× 107 - 1.9× 1012 M⊙. For those galaxies of mass M*>5× 108M⊙, we find that the total ex-situ mass fraction is greater for more extended galaxies at fixed mass. When categorising satellite galaxies by their parent group/cluster halo mass we find that the ex-situ fraction decreases with increasing parent halo mass at fixed galaxy mass. This apparently counter-intuitive result may be due to high passing velocities within large cluster halos inhibiting efficient accretion onto individual galaxies

Essential Gene Identification and Drug Target Prioritization in Aspergillus fumigatus

Aspergillus fumigatus is the most prevalent airborne filamentous fungal pathogen in humans, causing severe and often fatal invasive infections in immunocompromised patients. Currently available antifungal drugs to treat invasive aspergillosis have limited modes of action, and few are safe and effective. To identify and prioritize antifungal drug targets, we have developed a conditional promoter replacement (CPR) strategy using the nitrogen-regulated A. fumigatus NiiA promoter (pNiiA). The gene essentiality for 35 A. fumigatus genes was directly demonstrated by this pNiiA-CPR strategy from a set of 54 genes representing broad biological functions whose orthologs are confirmed to be essential for growth in Candida albicans and Saccharomyces cerevisiae. Extending this approach, we show that the ERG11 gene family (ERG11A and ERG11B) is essential in A. fumigatus despite neither member being essential individually. In addition, we demonstrate the pNiiA-CPR strategy is suitable for in vivo phenotypic analyses, as a number of conditional mutants, including an ERG11 double mutant (erg11BΔ, pNiiA-ERG11A), failed to establish a terminal infection in an immunocompromised mouse model of systemic aspergillosis. Collectively, the pNiiA-CPR strategy enables a rapid and reliable means to directly identify, phenotypically characterize, and facilitate target-based whole cell assays to screen A. fumigatus essential genes for cognate antifungal inhibitors

Análisis Comparativo de dos Panoramas Económicos en el Desarrollo de un Proyecto de Inversión para el Ejido Forestal Cieneguita de la Barranca, Chihuahua

El ejido Cieneguita de la Barranca cuenta con una posibilidad anual de 2,357.50 metros cúbicos rollo total árbol (m3 RTA) del género Pinus, en el año 2019 la comunidad consolidó un contrato de compra de madera en rollo de pino con el ejido Munerachi por un volumen de 1,319.05  m3 RTA. El ejido es parte de el 87 % de los ejidos y comunidades forestales se dedican solamente al derribo de árboles y su venta en rollo, debido a esta situación. El objetivo de esta investigación fue determinar la viablididad de un proyecto de inversión de industria forestal mediante un análisis comparativo de dos panoramas económicos establecidos por el método de venta de la madera aserrada producida. Mediante la comercialización de madera aserrada Mill Run el ejido puede alcanzar una utilidad anual por $241,325.95 con un Punto de Equilibrio a los 279.965 Millares producidos, sin embargo en cuanto a su indicadores financieros, todos resultan ser negativos. En cambio la clasificación de la madera generería utilidades a el ejido por$ 2,417,010.52 anuales con un Periodo de Recuperación de 1.12 años y un Punto de Equilibrio 50.00 Millares producidos, el Valor Actual Neto se estimó en 493,553.58, la Tasa Interna de Retorno es un 1.85 % superior a la TREMA y por ultimo la Relación Beneficio/Costo se ubica en 1.02, esto nos indica que el proyecto bajo estas condiciones es viable. Adicionalmente se recomienda analizar la riqueza de Dasylirion sereke para su posterior comercialización como no maderable

Fortalecimiento del capital económico del ejido forestal Agostadero de Aguirre, Chihuahua

El ejido Agostadero de Aguirre cuenta con 21,936.68 metros cúbicos rollo total árbol (m3  RTA) del género Pinus distribuidos en 15 anualidades de explotación, sin embargo, se encuentra presente en el mercado de venta de madera rolliza ya que no posee equipo de asierre. El objetivo en el presente estudio es analizar el potencial económico alcanzado por el ejido mediante la adquisición de equipo de transformación y comercialización regional de productos forestales maderables. Se concidera la adquisición de equipos de asierre de bajo rendimiento por un costo total de instalación y puesta en marcha por $ 1,123,495.00 MN bajo un financiamniento del % 70 a una tasa de interes del % 12 anual. En términos financieros se concluye que el proyecto es rentable debido a que cuenta con un VAN de 1,852,120.19, una TIR superior en 49.11 puntos porcentuales a la TREMA establecida del 10 % y una Rel. B/C de 1.29. En cuanto a los indicadores economicos evaluados se determinó un P.E. de 45,943.89 PT producidos y un P.R. de 1.67 años en base a un horizonte de cinco años, sin embargo, es necesario evaluar el mercado potencial mediante la compra de materia prima externa al ejido

Mechanism-of-Action Determination of GMP Synthase Inhibitors and Target Validation in Candida albicans and Aspergillus fumigatus

SummaryMechanism-of-action (MOA) studies of bioactive compounds are fundamental to drug discovery. However, in vitro studies alone may not recapitulate a compound's MOA in whole cells. Here, we apply a chemogenomics approach in Candida albicans to evaluate compounds affecting purine metabolism. They include the IMP dehydrogenase inhibitors mycophenolic acid and mizoribine and the previously reported GMP synthase inhibitors acivicin and 6-diazo-5-oxo-L-norleucine (DON). We report important aspects of their whole-cell activity, including their primary target, off-target activity, and drug metabolism. Further, we describe ECC1385, an inhibitor of GMP synthase, and provide biochemical and genetic evidence supporting its MOA to be distinct from acivicin or DON. Importantly, GMP synthase activity is conditionally essential in C. albicans and Aspergillus fumigatus and is required for virulence of both pathogens, thus constituting an unexpected antifungal target

A fish herpesvirus highlights functional diversities among Zα domains related to phase separation induction and A-to-Z conversion

Zalpha (Zα) domains bind to left-handed Z-DNA and Z-RNA. The Zα domain protein family includes cellular (ADAR1, ZBP1 and PKZ) and viral (vaccinia virus E3 and cyprinid herpesvirus 3 (CyHV-3) ORF112) proteins. We studied CyHV-3 ORF112, which contains an intrinsically disordered region and a Zα domain. Genome editing of CyHV-3 indicated that the expression of only the Zα domain of ORF112 was sufficient for normal viral replication in cell culture and virulence in carp. In contrast, its deletion was lethal for the virus. These observations revealed the potential of the CyHV-3 model as a unique platform to compare the exchangeability of Zα domains expressed alone in living cells. Attempts to rescue the ORF112 deletion by a broad spectrum of cellular, viral, and artificial Zα domains showed that only those expressing Z-binding activity, the capacity to induce liquid-liquid phase separation (LLPS), and A-to-Z conversion, could rescue viral replication. For the first time, this study reports the ability of some Zα domains to induce LLPS and supports the biological relevance of dsRNA A-to-Z conversion mediated by Zα domains. This study expands the functional diversity of Zα domains and stimulates new hypotheses concerning the mechanisms of action of proteins containing Zα domains

Seasonality of isoprene emissions and oxidation products above the remote Amazon

The Amazon rainforest is the largest source of isoprene emissions to the atmosphere globally. Under low nitric oxide (NO) conditions (i.e. at NO mixing ratios less than about 40 pptv), isoprene reacts rapidly with hydroxyl (OH) to form isoprene-derived peroxy radicals (ISOPOO), which subsequently react with the hydroperoxyl radical (HO2) to form isoprene epoxydiols (IEPOX). IEPOX compounds are efficient precursors to the formation of secondary organic aerosols (SOA). Natural isoprene emissions, therefore, have the potential to influence cloudiness, rainfall, radiation balance and climate. Here, we present the first seasonal analysis of isoprene emissions and concentrations above the Amazon based on eddy covariance flux measurements made at a remote forest location. We reveal the forest to maintain a constant emission potential of isoprene throughout the year (6.9 mg m-2 h-1). The emission potential of isoprene is calculated by normalising the measured fluxes to a set of standard conditions (303 K and 1500 mmol m-2 s-1). During the wet season a factor of two reduction in absolute emissions was observed but this is explained entirely on the basis of meteorology and leaf area index, not by a change in isoprene emissions potential. Using an innovative analysis of the isoprene fluxes, in combination with measurements of its oxidation products and detailed chemical box-modelling, we explore whether concentrations of IEPOX follow the same seasonal cycle as the isoprene precursor. Our analysis implies that during the dry season (Sep–Jan) air pollution from regional biomass burning provides a modest increase in NO concentrations (indirectly inferred from a combination of other anthropogenic tracer measurements and box-modelling) which creates a competing oxidation pathway for ISOPOO; rather than forming IEPOX, alternative products are formed with less propensity to produce aerosol. This competition decreases IEPOX formation rates by a factor of two in the dry season compared with a scenario with no anthropogenic NO pollution, and by 30% throughout the year. The abundance of biogenic SOA precursors in the Amazon appears not to be dictated by the seasonality of natural isoprene emissions as previously thought, but is instead driven by regional anthropogenic pollution which modifies the atmospheric chemistry of isoprene