Leaf Micromorphology Aids Taxonomic Delineation within the Hypervariable Genus Metrosideros (Myrtaceae) on O\u27ahu

Variation in leaf micromorphology can aid delimitation of taxonomically difficult groups. The woody genus Metrosideros (Myrtaceae) dominates Hawai\u27i\u27s native forests and comprises striking, predominantly infraspecific, macromorphological variation, including many forms unrecognized in current taxonomic treatments. On taxonomically rich O\u27ahu, 10 taxa (varieties or unnamed morphotypes of M. polymorpha and other species) occur in a predictable sequence with overlapping ranges from low to high elevation along the numerous leeward ridges of the Ko\u27olau Range. We used scanning electron and light microscopy to examine mature, nonsenescing sun leaves from each of these 10 taxa. Parametric and nonparametric tests were used to compare stomatal complex (SC) traits and those of a newly described secretory structure (SS) across taxa. Correlations among traits and discriminant analyses were also done. Density and length of SCs were inversely related overall, and both measures varied significantly across taxa. Although abaxial SSs were consistently present only in the two highest-elevation glabrous taxa, adaxial SSs were present in all 10 taxa. Length and density of adaxial SSs and density of abaxial SSs varied across taxa, and densities of both SCs and SSs were greatest at high elevation. Combined, the SC and SS traits differentiated 100% of four glabrous varieties and two of three pubescent varieties of M. polymorpha. Variation in leaf micromorphology, including presence and density of a newly described SS, aids delimitation of closely related Hawaiian Metrosideros taxa and may refilect differential local adaptation across a heterogeneous landscape

Designing IS service strategy: an information acceleration approach

Information technology-based innovation involves considerable risk that requires insight and foresight. Yet, our understanding of how managers develop the insight to support new breakthrough applications is limited and remains obscured by high levels of technical and market uncertainty. This paper applies a new experimental method based on “discrete choice analysis” and “information acceleration” to directly examine how decisions are made in a way that is behaviourally sound. The method is highly applicable to information systems researchers because it provides relative importance measures on a common scale, greater control over alternate explanations and stronger evidence of causality. The practical implications are that information acceleration reduces the levels of uncertainty and generates a more accurate rationale for IS service strategy decisions

Richard Keating to John Kean, September 28, 1789

Richard Keating wrote to John Kean, addressed to Beaufort, SC. John had previously written asking him to pay his bond by the 20th. Keating wrote that he tried to collect debts owed to him to pay but was unsuccessful. He offered instead 15 or 20 barrels of rice when the harvest came in.https://digitalcommons.kean.edu/lhc_1780s/1313/thumbnail.jp

Landscape Aesthetics in Practice: A critical enquiry into the development and use of an arts practice as a constructive intervention within the context of landscape change, community action, Green Infrastructure planning and delivery and Landscape Character Assessment processes.

The research considers why aesthetics, the subjective ways in which we experience and value places, and nature's agency are not readily included in decision-making processes. This action research adopts a hopeful, participatory and auto-ethnographic inquiry into the potential for developing and applying a relational and environmental walking-art practice to overcome this disconnect; an approach which attempts to reconnect art and life, cultural and natural systems. Metaphor is used as a method to reflect upon an emergent art practice. The research considers Felix Guattari's ideas of transversality, developing an ethicoaesthetic paradigm as a critical framework, taking into account the work of relevant practitioners and specifically Grant Kester's arguments concerning reciprocal creative labour. The framework is developed through a weaving metaphor and applied to three community-led land-use change case studies; a canal restoration project, caring for a community woodland and Landscape Character Assessment. The weaving metaphor becomes both a process and an art work capable of revealing and helping to incorporate subjectivity into traditionally objective decision-making processes. As well as facilitating community-wide dialogue, the research has, in some cases, lead to action being taken alongside nature's agency. The research evaluates the transformation of the art practice and its impact, which suggests the positive agency of art as a practical aesthetic in a social and environmental context

Bi-Cultural Socialization and the Transition to Young Adulthood: Findings from the 2012 Parent Survey

China sent approximately 83,000 children to the U.S. between 1992 and 2012, the vast majority of whom were girls. Chinese adoptions in the U.S. peaked in 2005, with 7,906 in one year, but adoptions from China (and many other countries) have since been on the decline (Selman, 2012). The early cohorts of Chinese adoptees (those adopted in the early and mid-1990s) are now becoming young adults, and many more will in the next several years. The experiences of children adopted from China differ not only from Chinese-American youth being raised by parents of Chinese descent, but also from first generation immigrants to the United States who experience disruptions in language and culture compounded by economic adversity. In contrast, most children adopted from China grew up in upper middle class homes and in neighborhoods that mirrored the race and class characteristics of their adoptive parents, rather than the ethnic enclaves which are more characteristic of immigrant families. Their adoptive parents (who were mainly white and of European ancestry) tended to know little about Chinese culture. Many of them had never visited China until they went there to meet their child

Huntingtin-associated protein 1: Eutherian adaptation from a TRAK-like protein, conserved gene promoter elements, and localization in the human intestine

Open Access This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated.Background: Huntingtin-associated Protein 1 (HAP1) is expressed in neurons and endocrine cells, and is critical for postnatal survival in mice. HAP1 shares a conserved “HAP1_N” domain with TRAfficking Kinesin proteins TRAK1 and TRAK2 (vertebrate), Milton (Drosophila) and T27A3.1 (C. elegans). HAP1, TRAK1 and TRAK2 have a degree of common function, particularly regarding intracellular receptor trafficking. However, TRAK1, TRAK2 and Milton (which have a “Milt/TRAK” domain that is absent in human and rodent HAP1) differ in function to HAP1 in that they are mitochondrial transport proteins, while HAP1 has emerging roles in starvation response. We have investigated HAP1 function by examining its evolution, and upstream gene promoter sequences. We performed phylogenetic analyses of the HAP1_N domain family of proteins, incorporating HAP1 orthologues (identified by genomic synteny) from 5 vertebrate classes, and also searched the Dictyostelium proteome for a common ancestor. Computational analyses of mammalian HAP1 gene promoters were performed to identify phylogenetically conserved regulatory motifs. Results: We found that as recently as marsupials, HAP1 contained a Milt/TRAK domain and was more similar to TRAK1 and TRAK2 than to eutherian HAP1. The Milt/TRAK domain likely arose post multicellularity, as it was absent in the Dictyostelium proteome. It was lost from HAP1 in the eutherian lineage, and also from T27A3.1 in C. elegans. The HAP1 promoter from human, mouse, rat, rabbit, horse, dog, Tasmanian devil and opossum contained common sites for transcription factors involved in cell cycle, growth, differentiation, and stress response. A conserved arrangement of regulatory elements was identified, including sites for caudal-related homeobox transcription factors (CDX1 and CDX2), and myc-associated factor X (MAX) in the region of the TATA box. CDX1 and CDX2 are intestine-enriched factors, prompting investigation of HAP1 protein expression in the human duodenum. HAP1 was localized to singly dispersed mucosal cells, including a subset of serotonin-positive enterochromaffin cells. Conclusion: We have identified eutherian HAP1 as an evolutionarily recent adaptation of a vertebrate TRAK protein-like ancestor, and found conserved CDX1/CDX2 and MAX transcription factor binding sites near the TATA box in mammalian HAP1 gene promoters. We also demonstrated that HAP1 is expressed in endocrine cells of the human gut