Quantifying Equivocation for Finite Blocklength Wiretap Codes

This paper presents a new technique for providing the analysis and comparison of wiretap codes in the small blocklength regime over the binary erasure wiretap channel. A major result is the development of Monte Carlo strategies for quantifying a code's equivocation, which mirrors techniques used to analyze normal error correcting codes. For this paper, we limit our analysis to coset-based wiretap codes, and make several comparisons of different code families at small and medium blocklengths. Our results indicate that there are security advantages to using specific codes when using small to medium blocklengths.Comment: Submitted to ICC 201

Identifying the plant‐associated microbiome across aquatic and terrestrial environments: the effects of amplification method on taxa discovery

Plants in terrestrial and aquatic environments contain a diverse microbiome. Yet, the chloroplast and mitochondria organelles of the plant eukaryotic cell originate from free‐living cyanobacteria and Rickettsiales. This represents a challenge for sequencing the plant microbiome with universal primers, as ~99% of 16S rRNA sequences may consist of chloroplast and mitochondrial sequences. Peptide nucleic acid clamps offer a potential solution by blocking amplification of host‐associated sequences. We assessed the efficacy of chloroplast and mitochondria‐blocking clamps against a range of microbial taxa from soil, freshwater and marine environments. While we found that the mitochondrial blocking clamps appear to be a robust method for assessing animal‐associated microbiota, Proteobacterial 16S rRNA binds to the chloroplast‐blocking clamp, resulting in a strong sequencing bias against this group. We attribute this bias to a conserved 14‐bp sequence in the Proteobacteria that matches the 17‐bp chloroplast‐blocking clamp sequence. By scanning the Greengenes database, we provide a reference list of nearly 1500 taxa that contain this 14‐bp sequence, including 48 families such as the Rhodobacteraceae, Phyllobacteriaceae, Rhizobiaceae, Kiloniellaceae and Caulobacteraceae. To determine where these taxa are found in nature, we mapped this taxa reference list against the Earth Microbiome Project database. These taxa are abundant in a variety of environments, particularly aquatic and semiaquatic freshwater and marine habitats. To facilitate informed decisions on effective use of organelle‐blocking clamps, we provide a searchable database of microbial taxa in the Greengenes and Silva databases matching various n‐mer oligonucleotides of each PNA sequence.Peer Reviewedhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/138887/1/men12645.pdfhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/138887/2/men12645_am.pdfhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/138887/3/men12645-sup-0001-SupInfo.pd

Planning, implementation and scientific goals of the Studies of Emissions and Atmospheric Composition, Clouds and Climate Coupling by Regional Surveys (SEAC4RS) field mission

The Studies of Emissions and Atmospheric Composition, Clouds and Climate Coupling by Regional Surveys (SEAC4RS) field mission based at Ellington Field, Texas, during August and September 2013 employed the most comprehensive airborne payload to date to investigate atmospheric composition over North America. The NASA ER-2, DC-8, and SPEC Inc. Learjet flew 57 science flights from the surface to 20 km. The ER-2 employed seven remote sensing instruments as a satellite surrogate and eight in situ instruments. The DC-8 employed 23 in situ and five remote sensing instruments for radiation, chemistry, and microphysics. The Learjet used 11 instruments to explore cloud microphysics. SEAC4RS launched numerous balloons, augmented AErosol RObotic NETwork, and collaborated with many existing ground measurement sites. Flights investigating convection included close coordination of all three aircraft. Coordinated DC-8 and ER-2 flights investigated the optical properties of aerosols, the influence of aerosols on clouds, and the performance of new instruments for satellite measurements of clouds and aerosols. ER-2 sorties sampled stratospheric injections of water vapor and other chemicals by local and distant convection. DC-8 flights studied seasonally evolving chemistry in the Southeastern U.S., atmospheric chemistry with lower emissions of NOx and SO2 than in previous decades, isoprene chemistry under high and low NOx conditions at different locations, organic aerosols, air pollution near Houston and in petroleum fields, smoke from wildfires in western forests and from agricultural fires in the Mississippi Valley, and the ways in which the chemistry in the boundary layer and the upper troposphere were influenced by vertical transport in convective clouds

Spatial organization of the kelp microbiome at micron scales

Background: Elucidating the spatial structure of host-associated microbial communities is essential for understanding taxon-taxon interactions within the microbiota and between microbiota and host. Macroalgae are colonized by complex microbial communities, suggesting intimate symbioses that likely play key roles in both macroalgal and bacterial biology, yet little is known about the spatial organization of microbes associated with macroalgae. Canopy-forming kelp are ecologically significant, fixing teragrams of carbon per year in coastal kelp forest ecosystems. We characterized the micron-scale spatial organization of bacterial communities on blades of the kelp Nereocystis luetkeana using fluorescence in situ hybridization and spectral imaging with a probe set combining phylum-, class-, and genus-level probes to localize and identify > 90% of the microbial community. Results: We show that kelp blades host a dense microbial biofilm composed of disparate microbial taxa in close contact with one another. The biofilm is spatially differentiated, with clustered cells of the dominant symbiont Granulosicoccus sp. (Gammaproteobacteria) close to the kelp surface and filamentous Bacteroidetes and Alphaproteobacteria relatively more abundant near the biofilm-seawater interface. A community rich in Bacteroidetes colonized the interior of kelp tissues. Microbial cell density increased markedly along the length of the kelp blade, from sparse microbial colonization of newly produced tissues at the meristematic base of the blade to an abundant microbial biofilm on older tissues at the blade tip. Kelp from a declining population hosted fewer microbial cells compared to kelp from a stable population. Conclusions: Imaging revealed close association, at micrometer scales, of different microbial taxa with one another and with the host. This spatial organization creates the conditions necessary for metabolic exchange among microbes and between host and microbiota, such as provisioning of organic carbon to the microbiota and impacts of microbial nitrogen metabolisms on host kelp. The biofilm coating the surface of the kelp blade is well-positioned to mediate interactions between the host and surrounding organisms and to modulate the chemistry of the surrounding water column. The high density of microbial cells on kelp blades (10(5)-10(7) cells/cm(2)), combined with the immense surface area of kelp forests, indicates that biogeochemical functions of the kelp microbiome may play an important role in coastal ecosystems

Planning, implementation, and scientific goals of the studies of emissions and atmospheric composition, clouds and climate coupling by regional surveys (SEAC\u3csup\u3e4\u3c/sup\u3eRS) field mission

The Studies of Emissions and Atmospheric Composition, Clouds and Climate Coupling by Regional Surveys (SEAC4RS) fieldmission based at Ellington Field, Texas, during August and September 2013 employed the most comprehensive airborne payload to date to investigate atmospheric composition over North America. The NASA ER-2, DC-8, and SPEC Inc. Learjet flew 57 science flights fromthe surface to 20 km. The ER-2 employed seven remote sensing instruments as a satellite surrogate and eight in situ instruments. The DC-8 employed 23 in situ and five remote sensing instruments for radiation, chemistry, and microphysics. The Learjet used 11 instruments to explore cloud microphysics. SEAC4RS launched numerous balloons, augmented AErosol RObotic NETwork, and collaborated with many existing ground measurement sites. Flights investigating convection included close coordination of all three aircraft. Coordinated DC-8 and ER-2 flights investigated the optical properties of aerosols, the influence of aerosols on clouds, and the performance of new instruments for satellite measurements of clouds and aerosols. ER-2 sorties sampled stratospheric injections of water vapor and other chemicals by local and distant convection. DC-8 flights studied seasonally evolving chemistry in the Southeastern U.S., atmospheric chemistry with lower emissions of NOx and SO2 than in previous decades, isoprene chemistry under high and low NOx conditions at different locations, organic aerosols, air pollution near Houston and in petroleum fields, smoke from wildfires in western forests and from agricultural fires in the Mississippi Valley, and the ways in which the chemistry in the boundary layer and the upper troposphere were influenced by vertical transport in convective clouds

Hypoxia Alters Epigenetic and N-Glycosylation Profiles of Ovarian and Breast Cancer Cell Lines in-vitro

Background: Glycosylation is one of the most fundamental post-translational modifications. Importantly, glycosylation is altered in many cancers. These alterations have been proven to impact on tumor progression and to promote tumor cell survival. From the literature, it is known that there is a clear link between chemoresistance and hypoxia, hypoxia and epigenetics and more recently glycosylation and epigenetics. Methods and Results: Our objective was to investigate these differential parameters, in an in vitro model of ovarian and breast cancer. Ovarian (A2780, A2780cis, PEO1, PEO4) and triple negative breast cancer (TNBC) (MDA-MB-231 and MDA-MB-436) cells were exposed to differential hypoxic conditions (0.5–2% O2) and compared to normoxia (21% O2). Results demonstrated that in hypoxic conditions some significant changes in glycosylation on the secreted N-glycans from the ovarian and breast cancer cell lines were observed. These included, alterations in oligomannosylated, bisected glycans, glycans with polylactosamine extensions, in branching, galactosylation and sialylation in all cell lines except for PEO1. In general, hypoxia exposed ovarian and TNBC cells also displayed increased epithelial to mesenchymal transition (EMT) and migration, with a greater effect seen in the 0.5% hypoxia exposed samples compared to 1 and 2% hypoxia (p ≤ 0.05). SiRNA transient knock down of GATA2/3 transcription factors resulted in a decrease in the expression of glycosyltransferases ST3GAL4 and MGAT5, which are responsible for sialylation and branching, respectively. Conclusions: These glycan changes are known to be integral to cancer cell survival and metastases, suggesting a possible mechanism of action, linking GATA2 and 3, and invasiveness of both ovarian and TNBC cells in vitro

Revealing important nocturnal and day-to-day variations in fire smoke emissions through a multiplatform inversion

We couple airborne, ground-based, and satellite observations; conduct regional simulations; and develop and apply an inversion technique to constrain hourly smoke emissions from the Rim Fire, the third largest observed in California, USA. Emissions constrainedwithmultiplatform data show notable nocturnal enhancements (sometimes over a factor of 20), correlate better with daily burned area data, and are a factor of 2–4 higher than a priori estimates, highlighting the need for improved characterization of diurnal profiles and day-to-day variability when modeling extreme fires. Constraining only with satellite data results in smaller enhancements mainly due to missing retrievals near the emissions source, suggesting that top-down emission estimates for these events could be underestimated and a multi-platform approach is required to resolve them. Predictions driven by emissions constrained with multi-platform data present significant variations in downwind air quality and in aerosol feedback on meteorology, emphasizing the need for improved emissions estimates during exceptional events

Re-establishing the ‘outsiders’: English press coverage of the 2015 FIFA Women’s World Cup

In 2015, the England Women’s national football team finished third at the Women’s World Cup in Canada. Alongside the establishment of the Women’s Super League in 2011, the success of the women’s team posed a striking contrast to the recent failures of the England men’s team and in doing so presented a timely opportunity to examine the negotiation of hegemonic discourses on gender, sport and football. Drawing upon an ‘established-outsider’ approach, this article examines how, in newspaper coverage of the England women’s team, gendered constructions revealed processes of alteration, assimilation and resistance. Rather than suggesting that ‘established’ discourses assume a normative connection between masculinity and football, the findings reveal how gendered ‘boundaries’ were both challenged and protected in newspaper coverage. Despite their success, the discursive positioning of the women’s team as ‘outsiders’, served to (re)establish men’s football as superior, culturally salient and ‘better’ than the women’s team/game. Accordingly, we contend that attempts to build and, in many instances, rediscover the history of women’s football, can be used to challenge established cultural representations that draw exclusively from the history of the men’s game. In such instances, the 2015 Women’s World Cup provides a historical moment from which the women’s game can be relocated in a context of popular culture

Influence of lateral and top boundary conditions on regional air quality prediction: A multiscale study coupling regional and global chemical transport models

The sensitivity of regional air quality model to various lateral and top boundary conditions is studied at 2 scales: a 60 km domain covering the whole USA and a 12 km domain over northeastern USA. Three global models (MOZART-NCAR, MOZART-GFDL and RAQMS) are used to drive the STEM-2K3 regional model with time-varied lateral and top boundary conditions (BCs). The regional simulations with different global BCs are examined using ICARTT aircraft measurements performed in the summer of 2004, and the simulations are shown to be sensitive to the boundary conditions from the global models, especially for relatively long-lived species, like CO and O3. Differences in the mean CO concentrations from three different global-model boundary conditions are as large as 40 ppbv, and the effects of the BCs on CO are shown to be important throughout the troposphere, even near surface. Top boundary conditions show strong effect on O3 predictions above 4 km. Over certain model grids, the model’s sensitivity to BCs is found to depend not only on the distance from the domain’s top and lateral boundaries, downwind/upwind situation, but also on regional emissions and species properties. The near-surface prediction over polluted area is usually not as sensitive to the variation of BCs, but to the magnitude of their background concentrations. We also test the sensitivity of model to temporal and spatial variations of the BCs by comparing the simulations with time-varied BCs to the corresponding simulations with time-mean and profile BCs. Removing the time variation of BCs leads to a significant bias on the variation prediction and sometime causes the bias in predicted mean values. The effect of model resolution on the BC sensitivity is also studied