The effect of retinal illuminance and chromatic imbalance on stereopsis

This study was designed to determine the effect on stereopsis of interocular retinal chromatic and illuminance imbalance in 30 subjects with normal binocularity. A Randot Circle Stereotest viewed through polarizing glasses was the control condition. In each of the other three conditions, illuminance and chromatic imbalances were created by combinations of neutral density filters, red and green filters, and polarizing filters. The effect of each of four experimental conditions on stereopsis was determined by comparing total stereo judgement errors on the Randot Circle Stereotest. Total average flux through the filter combinations was held constant by adjusting the luminance level of light reflected from the target. The chromatic imbalance created by the red-green filters significantly increased the number of stereo judgement errors (37%, p \u3c 0.05); however, the illuminance imbalance (0.2 log units) created by the red-green filters did not significantly increase the number of errors (2.9%, p \u3c 0.65); finally, the combined illuminance and chromatic imbalance created by the red-green filters significantly increased the error frequency (46%, p \u3c 0.05). The chromatic imbalance caused by red-green glasses significantly degrades stereopsis, whereas the illuminance imbalance caused by these filters has little effect on stereopsis

Viral metagenomics, protein structure, and reverse genetics: Key strategies for investigating coronaviruses

Viral metagenomics, modeling of protein structure, and manipulation of viral genetics are key approaches that have laid the foundations of our understanding of coronavirus biology. In this review, we discuss the major advances each method has provided and discuss how future studies should leverage these strategies synergistically to answer novel questions

The Rb binding domain of HPV31 E7 is required to maintain high levels of DNA repair factors in infected cells

Human papillomaviruses (HPV) exhibit constitutive activation of ATM and ATR DNA damage response (DDR) pathways, which are required for productive viral replication. Expression of HPV31 E7 alone is sufficient to activate the DDR through an unknown mechanism. Here, we demonstrate that the E7 Rb binding domain is required to increase levels of many DDR proteins, including ATM, Chk2, Chk1, the MRN components MRE11, Rad50, and NBS1, as well as the homologous recombination repair proteins BRCA1 and Rad51. Interestingly, we have found that the increase in these DNA repair proteins does not occur solely at the level of transcription, but that E7 broadly increases the half-life of these DDR factors, a phenotype that is lost in the E7 Rb binding mutant. These data suggest that HPV-31 upregulates DNA repair factors necessary for replication by increasing protein half-life in a manner requiring the E7 Rb binding domain

Computational Modeling of Lauric Acid at the Organic−Water Interface

Where water meets an immiscible liquid, the orientation and hydrogen bonding patterns of the molecules nearest the interface differ significantly from those in the bulk. These differences drive important interface-specific phenomena, including interfacial tension and the adsorption of other molecular species. Additionally, surfactants and other amphiphilic molecules present at the interface interact with both the aqueous and hydrophobic layers in a complex fashion that can dramatically change the characteristics of the interface as a whole. In this study, classical molecular dynamics computer simulations have been employed to investigate the accommodation of lauric acid at the water− hexane and water−carbon tetrachloride interfaces. Our results show that the behavior of surfactant molecules in the interfacial region is strongly influenced by the protonation of their headgroups. Deprotonated lauric acid molecules cause a larger increase in interfacial width than their protonated counterparts. The carboxylate headgroups of laurate anions in the interfacial region consistently point toward the water layer, while the orientation of the protonated lauric acid headgroups changes with depth into the water layer

The Legal Needs of Farmers: An Analysis of the Family Farm Legal Needs Survey

The Legal Needs of Farmer

Publication and research trends among neurological residents

Research is a critical aspect of residency training, but many programs lack a robust research component in their curriculum. Research publications are one way that physicians can advance their career in academic medicine, and the number of publications is often used as a criterion for determining suitable fellowship applicants. In this study, we evaluate the relationship between publications during and after residency in the field of neurology as well as analyze the relationship between number of publications and characteristics such as gender and career path. We randomly selected 50 ACGME Neurology residency programs from across the United States and recorded the number of publications, h-index, gender, fellowship choice, and career path for each graduate between 2013-2015. Each publication was sorted into time frames before residency, during residency, and after residency. The study included a total of 379 neurology residents from 25 different residency programs. Residents who pursued academic medicine had a significantly higher mean total publications (M = 10.1, SD 16.4) than those who pursued private practice (M = 4.2, SD 9.0) (t377 =-4.5, p <0.000). The mean total publications for male residents (M = 8.6, SD 16.5) was significantly higher than female residents (M = 4.1, SD 5.6) (t377 =-3.6, p <0.0002). Pearson correlation also revealed a correlation between publications during residency and publications after residency, with a Pearson product moment correlation of 0.61. The positive correlation between number of publications during residency and publications after residency, demonstrates the importance of implementing strong research principles and practice in a residency's curriculum. We also report a higher number of mean total publications by those who pursued academic medicine than those who pursued private practice. In addition, the results show an underrepresentation of females in neurology research, indicating a need to encourage more females to engage in neurology research and possibly STEM fields in general at an earlier stage in their educational career

The Concreteness of The Invisible

The project commenced with the assumption that the manifested physical form of city (the one which we verify through common perception as objectivization of the idea of city) is a deception

The Impact of HD Cooling on the Formation of the First Stars

We use numerical simulations to investigate the importance of HD formation and cooling on the first generation of metal-free stars in a LCDM cosmology. We have implemented and tested non-equilibrium HD chemistry in an adaptive mesh refinement simulation code and applied it to two situations. (1) It is first applied to the formation of 10^5 - 10^6 Msun halos which form in the absence of any ionizing source. We show, in agreement with previous work, that HD cooling is of only marginal importance for most halos; however, we find that for the lowest mass halos, HD cooling can equal or surpass the H2 cooling rate. This leads to a population of stars formed in halos with effective HD cooling that are less massive by a factor of ~6 compared to halos dominated by H2 cooling. (2) In the second part of the paper, we ionize the halos in order to explore the impact of HD cooling in the presence of an ample population of free electrons. This leads to cooler temperatures (due to the electron- catalyzed production of H2) and somewhat lower resulting proto-stellar mass. Adding HD chemistry lowers the temperature further, to the level of the CMB. We find that HD cooling dominates over H2 cooling in the density range 10^2 cm^-3 to 10^6 cm^-3, but above this density, the temperature rises and H2 cooling dominates again. Because of this, the accretion rate on to the protostar is almost the same as in the H2 case (at least for accreted masses below 50-100 Msun), therefore we argue that HD cooling in ionized halos will probably not result in a population of significantly lower mass stars.Comment: 13 pages, 11 figures, with referee suggestions; ApJ accepte

STATUS OF SOIL ELECTRICAL CONDUCTIVITY STUDIES BY CENTRAL STATE RESEARCHERS

Practical tools are needed to identify and advance sustainable management practices to optimize economic return, conserve soil, and minimize negative off-site environmental effects. The objective of this article is to review current research in non-saline soils of the central U.S. to consider bulk soil electrical conductivity (ECa) as an assessment tool for: (1) tracking N dynamics, (2) identifying management zones, (3) monitoring soil quality trends, and (4) designing and evaluating field-scale experiments. The interpretation and utility of ECa are highly location and soil specific; soil properties contributing to measured ECa must be clearly understood. In soils where ECa is driven by NO3-N, ECa has been used to track spatial and temporal variations in crop-available N (manure, compost, commercial fertilizer, and cover crop treatments) and rapidly assess N mineralization early in the growing season to calculate fertilizer rates for site-specific management (SSM). Selection of appropriate ECa sensors (direct contact, electromagnetic induction, or time domain reflectometry) may improve sensitivity to N fluctuations at specific soil depths. In a dryland cropping system where clay content dominates measured ECa, ECa -based management zones delineated soil productivity characteristics and crop yields. These results provided a framework effective for SSM, monitoring management-induced trends in soil quality, and appraising and statistically evaluating field-scale experiments. Use of ECa may foster a large-scale systems approach to research that encourages farmer involvement. Additional research is needed to investigate the interactive effects of soil, weather, and management on ECa as an assessment tool, and the geographic extent to which specific applications of this technology can be applied