A tightly contested Senate race has helped bring Nevada to the national stage in this election.

In the lead-up to today’s election, the Silver State has been in the news, with a tightly contested Senate race between the Attorney General, Democrat Catherine Cortez Masto, and Republican Congressman, Joe Heck. Jennifer Ring writes that if Cortez Masto wins today, then she would be the first woman of Latin American descent in the Senate, and the first woman to be elected to the Senate from Nevada

Democrat Jacky Rosen may have a good chance of flipping Nevada’s Senate seat from flip-flopping Republican Dean Heller

In this year’s midterm elections, the contest for a US Senate seat in the Silver State is seen as the best opportunity for the Democratic Party to take a seat from the Republican Party in a year with a very challenging Senate election map for the Democrats. But will current US House Representative Jacky Rosen be able to beat incumbent Senator Dean Heller? Jennifer Ring writes in a Senate race which has been marked by acrimonious attack ads, Heller’s recent record of changing his mind on issues like healthcare and the Kavanaugh Supreme Court nomination may come back to haunt him

Spillover Through Shared Agendas: Understanding How Social Movements Set Agendas for One Another

Social movement spillover is an internal social movement sector outcome in which movements influence one another. Although research on social movement outcomes has advanced significantly in recent years, there has been less work on consequences that movements have on one another. One reason for this is that research on social movement spillover has been limited by its reliance on a small number of research methods, nearly all of which involve pre-selecting movements that are expected to be at risk of spillover. In this article, we contribute important new findings to the study of spillover in two ways. First, we examine a novel form of spillover: agenda spillover, which occurs when the goals of one movement come to be taken up by another movement in a serious or enduring manner (e.g., when racial justice goals become embedded in environmental goals). Second, using social network and computational methods, validated by significant pre-study testing, and event history analysis, we examine what factors seem to explain agenda spillover. We find that the social movement sector, characteristics of social movements themselves and, to a lesser extent, the political context, affect the propensity for movements to experience agenda spillover

Clinical application of a cancer genomic profiling assay to guide precision medicine decisions

AIM: Develop and apply a comprehensive and accurate next-generation sequencing based assay to help clinicians to match oncology patients to therapies. MATERIALS and METHODS: The performance of the CANCERPLEX(R) assay was assessed using DNA from well-characterized routine clinical formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded (FFPE) specimens and cell lines. RESULTS: The maximum sensitivity of the assay is 99.5% and its accuracy is virtually 100% for detecting somatic alterations with an allele fraction of as low as 10%. Clinically actionable variants were identified in 93% of patients (930 of 1000) who underwent testing. CONCLUSION: The test\u27s capacity to determine all of the critical genetic changes, tumor mutation burden, microsatellite instability status and viral associations has important ramifications on clinical decision support strategies, including identification of patients who are likely to benefit from immune checkpoint blockage therapies

Disordered eating behaviour is associated with blunted cortisol and cardiovascular reactions to acute psychological stress

Research suggests a potential dysregulation of the stress response in individuals with bulimia nervosa. This study measured both cardiovascular and cortisol reactions to a standardised laboratory stress task in individuals identified as showing disordered eating behaviour to determine whether dysregulation of the stress response is characteristic of the two branches of the stress response system. Female students (N = 455) were screened using two validated eating disorder questionnaires. Twelve women with disordered eating, including self-induced vomiting, and 12 healthy controls were selected for laboratory stress testing. Salivary cortisol and cardiovascular activity, via Doppler imaging and semi-automatic blood pressure monitoring, were measured at resting baseline and during and after exposure to a 10-min mental arithmetic stress task. Compared to controls the disordered eating group showed blunted cortisol, cardiac output, heart rate, and stroke volume reactions to the acute stress, as well as an attenuated vasodilatory reaction. These effects could not be accounted for in terms of group differences in stress task performance, subjective task impact/engagement, age, BMI, neuroticism, cardiorespiratory fitness, or co-morbid exercise dependence. Our findings suggest that disordered eating is characterised by a dysregulation of the autonomic stress-response system. As such, they add further weight to the general contention that blunted stress reactivity is characteristic of a number of maladaptive behaviours and states

Towards a national ecosystem assessment in Germany

We present options for a National Ecosystem Assessment in Germany (NEA-DE) that could inform decision-makers on the state and trends of ecosystems and ecosystem services. Characterizing a NEA-DE, we argue that its cross-sectoral, integrative approach would have the advantages of increased scientific understanding, addressing specific policy questions and creating science-policy dialogues. Challenges include objections against a utilitarian perspective, reservations concerning power relations, and responsibilities concerning the funding

Towards comprehensive understanding of bacterial genetic diversity:large-scale amplifications in Bordetella pertussis and Mycobacterium tuberculosis

Bacterial genetic diversity is often described solely using base-pair changes despite a wide variety of other mutation types likely being major contributors. Tandem duplication/amplifications are thought to be widespread among bacteria but due to their often-intractable size and instability, comprehensive studies of these mutations are rare. We define a methodology to investigate amplifications in bacterial genomes based on read depth of genome sequence data as a proxy for copy number. We demonstrate the approach with Bordetella pertussis , whose insertion sequence element-rich genome provides extensive scope for amplifications to occur. Analysis of data for 2430 B. pertussis isolates identified 272 putative amplifications, of which 94 % were located at 11 hotspot loci. We demonstrate limited phylogenetic connection for the occurrence of amplifications, suggesting unstable and sporadic characteristics. Genome instability was further described in vitro using long-read sequencing via the Nanopore platform, which revealed that clonally derived laboratory cultures produced heterogenous populations rapidly. We extended this research to analyse a population of 1000 isolates of another important pathogen, Mycobacterium tuberculosis . We found 590 amplifications in M. tuberculosis , and like B. pertussis , these occurred primarily at hotspots. Genes amplified in B. pertussis include those involved in motility and respiration, whilst in M. tuberuclosis, functions included intracellular growth and regulation of virulence. Using publicly available short-read data we predicted previously unrecognized, large amplifications in B. pertussis and M. tuberculosis . This reveals the unrecognized and dynamic genetic diversity of B. pertussis and M. tuberculosis , highlighting the need for a more holistic understanding of bacterial genetics