Genetic and Environmental Influences on the Aggregation of Beetles

The red flour beetle, or Tribolium castaneum (Coleoptera: Tenebrionidae), is a worldwide pest of stored products, particularlyfeed grains (Baldwin and Faluso 2006). It's tiny body and agile legs allow this beetle to get into tiny niches and contaminate large amounts of stored grains. This beetle cannot feed on intact grains, however thrives on high moisture, cracked or hulled grain which can be a problem in facilities where grain is processed (Gerkin et al 2018). This attraction can lead to an offensive odor, mold growth, and can bring out a grey tint in the grain. It is unknown whether the red flour beetle aggregates based on their environmentordue to familiar, genetic pheromones in the air (Johnson). Therefore, the purpose of this research is to place two strains of red flour beetle together and observe theiraggregation preferences. The question is will the beetles solely aggregate with their genetic members, or will they associate with the unfamiliar strain. I believe that the beetles will aggregate in response to genetic cues in their environment. The results of this research are necessary to establishing a better way to manage thisfood storage pest. If the beetles are attracted to genetic pheromones within their environment, then progress can be made to control the pheromone. In turn, this research can help indicate a modified way of controling these beetles

Undecidable First-Order Theories of Affine Geometries

Tarski initiated a logic-based approach to formal geometry that studies first-order structures with a ternary betweenness relation (\beta) and a quaternary equidistance relation (\equiv). Tarski established, inter alia, that the first-order (FO) theory of (R^2,\beta,\equiv) is decidable. Aiello and van Benthem (2002) conjectured that the FO-theory of expansions of (R^2,\beta) with unary predicates is decidable. We refute this conjecture by showing that for all n>1, the FO-theory of monadic expansions of (R^2,\beta) is \Pi^1_1-hard and therefore not even arithmetical. We also define a natural and comprehensive class C of geometric structures (T,\beta), where T is a subset of R^2, and show that for each structure (T,\beta) in C, the FO-theory of the class of monadic expansions of (T,\beta) is undecidable. We then consider classes of expansions of structures (T,\beta) with restricted unary predicates, for example finite predicates, and establish a variety of related undecidability results. In addition to decidability questions, we briefly study the expressivity of universal MSO and weak universal MSO over expansions of (R^n,\beta). While the logics are incomparable in general, over expansions of (R^n,\beta), formulae of weak universal MSO translate into equivalent formulae of universal MSO. This is an extended version of a publication in the proceedings of the 21st EACSL Annual Conferences on Computer Science Logic (CSL 2012).Comment: 21 pages, 3 figure

Direct Measurement of Vanadium Crossover in an Operating Vanadium Redox Flow Battery

Measurements of Vanadium diffusion coefficients for transport across cation exchange membranes using dialysis cells have been reported in the literature. However, to date direct measurement of crossover coefficients in an operating Vanadium redox flow battery (VRB) cell have not been reported. Results are reported in this paper on experiments utilizing a special VRB cell which allows measurement of Vanadium ion transport across ion exchange membranes with and without the presence of current. The cell utilizes two additional flow regions which collect Vanadium ions which diffuse from the positive and negative half cells. The effects of the magnitude and direction of electrical current on transport can be measured directly with this cell. We observe that transport is greatly enhanced when the direction of the hydrogen ion flux is in the same direction as the density gradient driven vanadium flux and suppressed when the hydrogen ion flux is in the opposite direction. The cell has been used to of investigate the effects on transport of current densities up to 900 mA/cm(2).US Department of Energy ARPA-E program DE-AR00000149Materials Science and Engineerin

Plant MPSS databases: signature-based transcriptional resources for analyses of mRNA and small RNA

MPSS (massively parallel signature sequencing) is a sequencing-based technology that uses a unique method to quantify gene expression level, generating millions of short sequence tags per library. We have created a series of databases for four species (Arabidopsis, rice, grape and Magnaporthe grisea, the rice blast fungus). Our MPSS databases measure the expression level of most genes under defined conditions and provide information about potentially novel transcripts (antisense transcripts, alternative splice isoforms and regulatory intergenic transcripts). A modified version of MPSS has been used to perform deep profiling of small RNAs from Arabidopsis, and we have recently adapted our database to display these data. Interpretation of the small RNA MPSS data is facilitated by the inclusion of extensive repeat data in our genome viewer. All the data and the tools introduced in this article are available at

(+)-Z-Bisdehydrodoisynolic Acid Enhances Basal Metabolism and Fatty Acid Oxidation in Female Obese Zucker Rats

We have previously reported that the synthetic estrogen, (+)-Z-bisdehydrodoisynolic Acid [(+)-Z-BDDA], attenuated weight gain and cardiovascular risk in obese rodents. To determine if these antiobesity effects were attributed to changes in basal metabolism, we assessed indirect calorimetry and metabolic profile in female obese Zucker (OZR) rats provided (+)-Z-BDDA (0.0002% food admixture) for 11 weeks. Similar to our previous findings, (+)-Z-BDDA reduced weight gain and improved lipid and glucose homeostasis in OZR rats. Furthermore, resting energy expenditure was increased by (+)-Z-BDDA, as evident by heat production and oxygen consumption. We also observed a marked reduction in respiratory quotient (RQ) along with a corresponding induction of hepatic AMPK in rodents provided (+)-Z-BDDA. Collectively, these findings indicate that (+)-Z-BDDA partially attenuated obesity and associated pathologies through increased resting energy expenditure and fatty acid utilization. Further investigation is required to fully elucidate the mechanisms involved as well as to determine the potential therapeutic implications for (+)-Z-BDDA on obesity and its related pathologies

Expedited batch processing and analysis of transposon insertions

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>With advances in sequencing technology, greater and greater amounts of eukaryotic genome data are becoming available. Often, large portions of these genomes consist of transposable elements, frequently accounting for 50% or more in vertebrates. Each transposable element family may have thousands or tens of thousands of individual copies within a given genome, and therefore it can take an exorbitant amount of time and effort to process data in a meaningful fashion.</p> <p>Findings</p> <p>In order to combat this problem, we developed a set of bioinformatics techniques and programs to streamline the analysis. This includes a unique Perl script which automates the process of taking BLAST, Repeatmasker and similar data to extract and manipulate the hit sequences from the genome. This script, called Process_hits uses an object-oriented methodology to compile all hit locations from a given file for processing, organize this data into useable categories, and output it in multiple formats.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>The program proved capable of handling large amounts of transposon data in an efficient fashion. It is equipped with a number of useful sub-functions, each of which is contained within its own sub-module to allow for greater expandability and as a foundation for future program design.</p

On the benefits of the tryptophan metabolite 3-hydroxyanthranilic acid in Caenorhabditis elegans and mouse aging.

Tryptophan metabolism through the kynurenine pathway influences molecular processes critical to healthy aging including immune signaling, redox homeostasis, and energy production. Aberrant kynurenine metabolism occurs during normal aging and is implicated in many age-associated pathologies including chronic inflammation, atherosclerosis, neurodegeneration, and cancer. We and others previously identified three kynurenine pathway genes-tdo-2, kynu-1, and acsd-1-for which decreasing expression extends lifespan in invertebrates. Here we report that knockdown of haao-1, a fourth gene encoding the enzyme 3-hydroxyanthranilic acid (3HAA) dioxygenase (HAAO), extends lifespan by ~30% and delays age-associated health decline in Caenorhabditis elegans. Lifespan extension is mediated by increased physiological levels of the HAAO substrate 3HAA. 3HAA increases oxidative stress resistance and activates the Nrf2/SKN-1 oxidative stress response. In pilot studies, female Haao knockout mice or aging wild type male mice fed 3HAA supplemented diet were also long-lived. HAAO and 3HAA represent potential therapeutic targets for aging and age-associated disease

Equal Graph Partitioning on Estimated Infection Network as an Effective Epidemic Mitigation Measure

Controlling severe outbreaks remains the most important problem in infectious disease area. With time, this problem will only become more severe as population density in urban centers grows. Social interactions play a very important role in determining how infectious diseases spread, and organization of people along social lines gives rise to non-spatial networks in which the infections spread. Infection networks are different for diseases with different transmission modes, but are likely to be identical or highly similar for diseases that spread the same way. Hence, infection networks estimated from common infections can be useful to contain epidemics of a more severe disease with the same transmission mode. Here we present a proof-of-concept study demonstrating the effectiveness of epidemic mitigation based on such estimated infection networks. We first generate artificial social networks of different sizes and average degrees, but with roughly the same clustering characteristic. We then start SIR epidemics on these networks, censor the simulated incidences, and use them to reconstruct the infection network. We then efficiently fragment the estimated network by removing the smallest number of nodes identified by a graph partitioning algorithm. Finally, we demonstrate the effectiveness of this targeted strategy, by comparing it against traditional untargeted strategies, in slowing down and reducing the size of advancing epidemics