The rise and stall of the Lake Nona biotech cluster

Following the commitment of the new College of Medicine to locate at Lake Nona, the development of “Medical City” at Lake Nona officially began. The impact of the new cluster was expected to be quick and substantial. A decade later, policymakers and the public are largely disappointed by the lackluster impact of the Lake Nona cluster. This paper aims to understand how and why Medical City at Lake Nona has failed to meet expectations and whether there is hope for the industrial cluster to regain traction and achieve the success once envisioned.Public AffairsBusiness Administratio

He Said, She Said, We Said: Dialogue and Allegory in Sawles Warde

This paper examines the formal use of address and the allegorical content of Sawles Warde alongside two other instructional texts for anchoresses, Ancrene Wisse and Hali Meiðhad, in order to argue that these texts represent a coherent pedagogical program that promotes the internalization of didactic dialogue. This comparative reading of the style of address employed in Ancrene Wisse, Hali Meiðhad, and Sawles Warde, highlights the way in which the speaker –reader relationship in Sawles Warde fosters a pedagogical partnership rather than the relationship of subordination that structures Ancrene Wisse and Hali Meiðhad. With this in mind, this paper also argues that the allegory of Sawles Warde disrupts misogynistic representations of gender relationships. The text does so by presenting the image of the hierarchically structured household as unstable, and offering in as an alternative, a vision of a more equitable and effective structure of the domestic space that relies on input from both masculine and feminine figures. By attending to this instruction coherence – reading these texts as interconnected – I argue that Sawles Warde emerges as a kind of pedagogical key, offering the anchoress a way of understanding and influencing the gendered relationship that structure her devotional education

Thermoelectric properties of Zn-doped Ca_5In_2Sb_6

The Zintl compound Ca_5Al_2Sb_6 is a promising thermoelectric material with exceptionally low lattice thermal conductivity resulting from its complex crystal structure. In common with the Al analogue, Ca_5In_2Sb_6 is naturally an intrinsic semiconductor with a low p-type carrier concentration. Here, we improve the thermoelectric properties of Ca_5In_2Sb_6 by substituting Zn^(2+) on the In^(3+) site. With increasing Zn substitution, the Ca_5In_(2−x)Zn_xSb_6 system exhibits increased p-type carrier concentration and a resulting transition from non-degenerate to degenerate semiconducting behavior. A single parabolic band model was used to estimate an effective mass in Ca_5In_2Sb_6 of m^* = 2m_e, which is comparable to the Al analogue, in good agreement with density functional calculations. Doping with Zn enables rational optimization of the electronic transport properties and increased zT in accordance with a single parabolic band model. The maximum figure of merit obtained in optimally Zn-doped Ca_5In_2Sb_6 is 0.7 at 1000 K. While undoped Ca_5In_2Sb_6 has both improved electronic mobility and reduced lattice thermal conductivity relative to Ca_5Al_2Sb_6, these benefits did not dramatically improve the Zn-doped samples, leading to only a modest increase in zT relative to optimally doped Ca_5Al_2Sb_6

The Concomitant Locomotion of the Microorganisms Inhabiting the Marine and Freshwater Niches of Antarcticas South Shetland Islands During the Summer

During the late summer, the author sailed to the Antarctic South Shetland Islands to survey the microorganisms living in marine (tidal pools) and freshwater (moss saturated with snow melt) environmental niches. Equipped with a microscope to take video of samples within hours of collection to capture a pristine condition, we found a dense and diverse ecology that included species with unique patterns of locomotion. The Ocean Tramp cruised for 12 days (beginning January 30, 2019) through 588 nautical miles 677 miles) of the South Shetland Islands, between -62.9 to -65.1 latitude and -60.5 to -64.1 longitude

The Concomitant Locomotion of the Microorganisms Inhabiting the Marine and Freshwater Niches of Antarctica's South Shetland Islands During the Summer

During the late summer, the author sailed to the Antarctic South Shetland Islands to survey the microorganisms living in marine (tidal pools) and freshwater (moss saturated with snow melt) environmental niches. Equipped with a microscope to take video of samples within hours of collection to capture a pristine condition, the authors found a dense and diverse ecology that included species with unique patterns of locomotion. Capturing the organism's movement expedited identification, but it also showed the dynamic way each organism's mobility fit together like a puzzle to create a complex ecosystem

The Effects of Stimulus Parameters on the Auditory Brainstem Response of Carassius auratus

The ability to hear is crucial to an animal’s survival. Fish have developed complex hearing mechanisms that can be influenced by the environment. For example, in catfish, high water temperatures lower the auditory threshold, or the sound intensity required to produce a response in the brain. In bats, increasing a sound’s duration increases the latency, or the time it takes to initiate an electrical response in the brain, known as an auditory evoked potential (AEP). This indicates that their brain is responding to the end (offset) of a sound. The current study will investigate auditory evoked potentials in goldfish. Here, sounds of different durations will be played to goldfish in order to study the effect of duration on AEP latency. Since bats and goldfish are both selective for shorter sound durations, it is hypothesized that the response latency in goldfish will also increase with sound duration, meaning they would respond to sound offset. Additionally, the effects of water temperature will be examined by comparing auditory thresholds at two different temperatures. Based on what is seen in catfish, it is hypothesized that increasing the temperature will lower the auditory threshold in goldfish. This study will provide insight to the impact of environmental factors such as water temperature and surrounding sounds on fish hearing. Additionally, advancing knowledge in fish audiology is crucial to the continued application of fish acoustic systems as models for human hearing

Distribution of dopamine- and cAMP-dependent phosphoprotein (DARPP-32) in the developing and mature kidney

Distribution of dopamine- and cAMP-dependent phosphoprotein (DARPP-32) in the developing and the mature kidney. DARPP-32 is a dopamine- and cAMP-regulated inhibitor of protein phosphatase-1 (PP-1). Dopamine and DARPP-32 regulate sodium reabsorption in renal tubules by inhibiting the activity of Na+,K+-ATPase. We here report the pre- and postnatal distributions of DARPP-32 in the kidney as demonstrated by immunoblotting and immunohistochemistry. With immunoblotting we examined the abundance of DARPP-32 and the functionally similar but more widespread inhibitor of PP-1, inhibitor-1 (I-1). We compared their relative abundance in the renal cortex, renal medulla and neostriatum from the brain, where DARPP-32 is greatly enriched. DARPP-32 levels in the adult rat were fourfold higher in the neostriatum than in the renal medulla and 13-fold higher than in the renal cortex. I-1 levels were approximately the same in the neostriatum and in the renal medulla and 2.5-fold higher in neostriatum than in the renal cortex. Between postnatal day 10 (PN10) and 40 (PN40) DARPP-32 abundance increased 1.3-fold in the neostriatum, 1.4-fold in the renal cortex and sixfold in the medulla. The abundance of I-1 did not increase in the striatum from PN10 to PN40 but increased 1.5-fold in the renal cortex and threefold in the renal medulla. Thus, during the time of maturation of tubular transport function, the levels of both PP-1 inhibitors increased in the kidney, the largest increase being found in the renal medulla. With immunohistochemistry strong DARPP-32-like-immunoreactivity (DARPP-32-LI) was detected in the ureteral buds from gestational day 18 and up to postnatal day 8 when nephrogenesis was completed. No I-1-like immunoreactivity (I-1-LI) was found in the ureteral buds. From gestational day 21, DARPP-32-LI was identified in the proximal convoluted tubules. After postnatal day 8, DARPP-32-LI increased greatly in the medullary tubules of the thick ascending limb of Henle. These results suggest two separate roles for DARPP-32 in renal function. During tubulogenesis, DARPP-32 may participate in differentiation/proliferation. In the mature kidney, DARPP-32 participates in the regulation of sodium excretion

Improving Satellite Compatible Microdevices to Study Biology in Space

The technology for biology in space lags far behind the gold standard for biological experiments on Earth. To remedy this disparity, the Rothschild lab works on proof of concept, prototyping, and developing of new sensors and devices to further the capabilities of biology research on satellites. One such device is the PowerCell Payload System. One goal for synthetic biology in aiding space travel and colonization is to genetically engineer living cells to produce biochemicals in space. However, such farming in space presupposes bacteria retain their functionality post-launch, bombarded by radiation, and without the 1G of Earth. Our questions is, does a co-culture of cyanobacteria and protein-synthesizing bacteria produce Earth-like yields of target proteins? Is the yield sensitive to variable gravitational forces? To answer these questions, a PowerCell Payload System will spend 1 year aboard the German Aerospace Center's Euglena and Combined Regenerative Organic-food Production In Space (Eu:CROPIS) mission satellite. The PowerCell system is a pair of two 48-well microfluidic cards, each well seeded with bacteria. The system integrates fluidic, thermal, optical, electronic, and control systems to germinate bacteria spores, then measure the protein synthesized for comparison to parallel experiments conducted on the Earth. In developing the PowerCell Payload, we gained insight into the shortcomings of biology experiments on satellites. To address these issues, we have started three new prototyping projects: 1) The development of an extremely stable and radiation resistant cell-free system, allowing for the construction of proteins utilizing only cell components instead of living cells. This can be lyophilized on a substrate, like paper. (2) Using paper as a microfluidic platform that is flexible, stable, cheap, and wicking. The capillary action eliminates the need for pumps, reducing volume, mass, and potential failing points. Electrodes can be printed on the paper to sense for biochemicals. (3) Developing a modular, semi-autonomous microfluidic device that can be easily adapted for a variety of common biological experiments. This versatility will allow for quicker and cheaper experimentation. These improvements to satellite experiment platforms have the potential to radically increase the return from NASA's biological and field studies with reduced development time, mass, and cost with increased robustness data and interpretation