Stress in native grasses under ecologically relevant heat waves

Future increases in the intensity of heat waves (high heat and low water availability) are predicted to be one of the most significant impacts on organisms. Using six native grasses from Eastern Australia, we assessed their capacity to tolerate heat waves with low water availability. We were interested in understanding differential response between native grasses of differing photosynthetic pathways in terms of physiological and some molecular parameters to ecologically relevant summer heat waves that are associated with low rainfall. We used a simulation heatwave event in controlled temperature cabinets and investigated effects of the different treatments on four stress indicators: leaf senescence, leaf water content, photosynthetic efficiency and the relative expression of two heat shock proteins, Hsp70 and smHsp17.6. Leaf senescence was significantly greater under the combined stress treatment, while declines in leaf water content and photosynthetic efficiency were much larger for C3 than C4 plants, particularly under the combined stress treatment. Species showed an increase in expression of Hsp70 associated with heat treatment, rather than drought stress. In contrast Hsp17.6 was only detected in two species, responding to heat rather than drought, although species\u27 responses were variable. Overall, the C3 species were less tolerant than C4 species. Variation in individual plants within species was evident, especially under multiple stresses, and indicates that losses of individual plants may occur during a heat wave associated with this variability in tolerance. Heat waves will impose significant stress on plant communities that would not otherwise occur when heat and drought stress are experienced singly. Using ecologically relevant heat stress is likely to yield better predictability of how native plants will cope under a hotter, drier future

Internalized Consensual Non-Monogamy Negativity and Relationship Quality Among People Engaged in Polyamory, Swinging, and Open Relationships

Drawing on an internalized homonegativity and minority stress framework, the present study sought to address whether people engaged in consensual non-monogamy (CNM) internalize stigma toward their relationship style, and if internalized CNM negativity is associated with poorer relationship quality and functioning. We recruited a community sample of 339 people engaged in CNM (open, swinging, or polyamorous relationship) with at least two concurrent partners. Participants completed a newly developed measure of internalized CNM negativity (which assessed personal discomfort, social discomfort, and public identification) and four measures of relationship quality for each partner. Regression analyses showed that personal discomfort with CNM (e.g., wanting to change one’s relationship style or endorsing CNM as unnatural) was associated with lower satisfaction with romantic and sexual relationship agreements, global relationship satisfaction, and commitment (but not sexual satisfaction) in both concurrent relationships. The other two dimensions of internalized CNM negativity, social discomfort and public identification, were not related to relationship quality with either partner. These findings provide support for the notion that prevailing mononormativity (idealization of monogamy in society) can become applied to the self and negatively impact relationship quality. Understanding the processes in which broader societal stigma toward CNM can become internalized and affect well-being provides a new direction for research at the intersection of public health, psychology, and sexuality

Selectron Mass Reconstruction and the Resolution of the Linear Collider Detector

We have used ISAJET and the JAS LCD fast simulation to explore the precision of Snowmass Point SPS1a selectron mass reconstruction for the Silicon Detector concept. Simulating collisions at E_cm = 1 TeV, we have found that most of the information constraining the selectron mass is carried in the forward (|cos(theta)| \u3e 0.8) region. We have also found that, for a beam energy spread of 1% (conventional RF design), detector resolution limitations compromise the selectron mass reconstruction only in the forward region. However, for a beam energy spread of less than 0.2% (superconducting RF design), the detector resolution compromises the selectron mass reconstruction over the full angular region

Sin Nombre Virus Infection in Field Workers, Colorado, USA

We report 2 cases of Sin Nombre virus (SNV) infection in field workers, possibly contracted through rodent bites. Screening for antibodies to SNV in rodents trapped in 2 seasons showed that 9.77% were seropositive. Quantitative real-time PCR showed that 2 of 79 deer mice had detectable titers of SNV RNA

Melanoma in a patient with DNMT3A overgrowth syndrome

Alterations in epigenetic regulators are increasingly recognized as early events in tumorigenesis; thus, patients with acquired or inherited variants in epigenetic regulators may be at increased risk for developing multiple types of cancer. DNMT3A overgrowth syndrome (DOS), caused by germline pathogenic variants in the DNA methyltransferase gen

Embodied Discourses of Literacy in the Lives of Two Preservice Teachers

This study examines the emerging teacher literacy identities of Ian and A.J., two preservice teachers in a graduate teacher education program in the United States. Using a poststructural feminisms theoretical framework, the study illustrates the embodiment of literacy pedagogy discourses in relation to the literacy courses’ discourse of comprehensive literacy and the literacy biographical discourses of Ian and A.J. The results of this study indicate the need to deconstruct how the discourse of comprehensive literacy limits how we, as literacy teacher educators, position, hear and respond to our preservice teachers and suggests the need for differentiation in our teacher education literacy courses

Origins of the Greenland shark (Somniosus microcephalus): Impacts of ice-olation and introgression

Herein, we use genetic data from 277 sleeper sharks to perform coalescent-based modeling to test the hypothesis of early Quaternary emergence of the Greenland shark (Somniosus microcephalus) from ancestral sleeper sharks in the Canadian Arctic-Subarctic region. Our results show that morphologically cryptic somniosids S. microcephalus and Somniosus pacificus can be genetically distinguished using combined mitochondrial and nuclear DNA markers. Our data confirm the presence of genetically admixed individuals in the Canadian Arctic and sub-Arctic, and temperate Eastern Atlantic regions, suggesting introgressive hybridization upon secondary contact following the initial species divergence. Conservative substitution rates fitted to an Isolation with Migration (IM) model indicate a likely species divergence time of 2.34 Ma, using the mitochondrial sequence DNA, which in conjunction with the geographic distribution of admixtures and Pacific signatures likely indicates speciation associated with processes other than the closing of the Isthmus of Panama. This time span coincides with further planetary cooling in the early Quaternary period followed by the onset of oscillating glacial-interglacial cycles. We propose that the initial S. microcephalus–S. pacificus split, and subsequent hybridization events, were likely associated with the onset of Pleistocene glacial oscillations, whereby fluctuating sea levels constrained connectivity among Arctic oceanic basins, Arctic marginal seas, and the North Atlantic Ocean. Our data demonstrates support for the evolutionary consequences of oscillatory vicariance via transient oceanic isolation with subsequent secondary contact associated with fluctuating sea levels throughout the Quaternary period—which may serve as a model for the origins of Arctic marine fauna on a broad taxonomic scale

Association studies of up to 1.2 million individuals yield new insights into the genetic etiology of tobacco and alcohol use.

Tobacco and alcohol use are leading causes of mortality that influence risk for many complex diseases and disorders1. They are heritable2,3 and etiologically related4,5 behaviors that have been resistant to gene discovery efforts6-11. In sample sizes up to 1.2 million individuals, we discovered 566 genetic variants in 406 loci associated with multiple stages of tobacco use (initiation, cessation, and heaviness) as well as alcohol use, with 150 loci evidencing pleiotropic association. Smoking phenotypes were positively genetically correlated with many health conditions, whereas alcohol use was negatively correlated with these conditions, such that increased genetic risk for alcohol use is associated with lower disease risk. We report evidence for the involvement of many systems in tobacco and alcohol use, including genes involved in nicotinic, dopaminergic, and glutamatergic neurotransmission. The results provide a solid starting point to evaluate the effects of these loci in model organisms and more precise substance use measures

Associations with photoreceptor thickness measures in the UK Biobank.

Spectral-domain OCT (SD-OCT) provides high resolution images enabling identification of individual retinal layers. We included 32,923 participants aged 40-69 years old from UK Biobank. Questionnaires, physical examination, and eye examination including SD-OCT imaging were performed. SD OCT measured photoreceptor layer thickness includes photoreceptor layer thickness: inner nuclear layer-retinal pigment epithelium (INL-RPE) and the specific sublayers of the photoreceptor: inner nuclear layer-external limiting membrane (INL-ELM); external limiting membrane-inner segment outer segment (ELM-ISOS); and inner segment outer segment-retinal pigment epithelium (ISOS-RPE). In multivariate regression models, the total average INL-RPE was observed to be thinner in older aged, females, Black ethnicity, smokers, participants with higher systolic blood pressure, more negative refractive error, lower IOPcc and lower corneal hysteresis. The overall INL-ELM, ELM-ISOS and ISOS-RPE thickness was significantly associated with sex and race. Total average of INL-ELM thickness was additionally associated with age and refractive error, while ELM-ISOS was additionally associated with age, smoking status, SBP and refractive error; and ISOS-RPE was additionally associated with smoking status, IOPcc and corneal hysteresis. Hence, we found novel associations of ethnicity, smoking, systolic blood pressure, refraction, IOPcc and corneal hysteresis with photoreceptor thickness