Phytoplankton Dynamics of Two North Carolina Coastal Plain Swamps: Species Composition, Seasonal Periodicity and Impact of Wastewater Discharge

INTRODUCTION: Wetland Values: Wetlands are valuable ecosystems which serve to interface land and water systems. Saturation of the soil and type of vegetation are major criteria which define wetlands (Cowardin, et al. 1979). These ecosystems support diverse plant and animal communities and the magnitude of primary productivity in wetlands is of global importance. In addition, wetlands provide sanctuary to many threatened and endangered species of plants and animals. Wetland ecosystems also have many valuable hydrologic functions. In palustrine forested wetlands, commonly called swamps, the inundation of the soil varies with the season and the amount of precipitation and runoff. One of the predominant values of wetlands is their capacity to serve as sites of water retention and flood control. They are also traps for suspended sediments and nutrients, thus improving the water quality downstream (Carter, et al.,1979). Because of their potential to improve water quality, wetlands have also been used as tertiary treatment for municipal wastewater discharge (Brinson and Westall, 1983; Richardson and Nichols, 1986), However, such uses are inappropriate if using the wetland as a site for sewage treatment will alter the valuable ecologic and hydrologic functions of the wetland.Master of Science in Public Healt

Finishing the euchromatic sequence of the human genome

The sequence of the human genome encodes the genetic instructions for human physiology, as well as rich information about human evolution. In 2001, the International Human Genome Sequencing Consortium reported a draft sequence of the euchromatic portion of the human genome. Since then, the international collaboration has worked to convert this draft into a genome sequence with high accuracy and nearly complete coverage. Here, we report the result of this finishing process. The current genome sequence (Build 35) contains 2.85 billion nucleotides interrupted by only 341 gaps. It covers ∼99% of the euchromatic genome and is accurate to an error rate of ∼1 event per 100,000 bases. Many of the remaining euchromatic gaps are associated with segmental duplications and will require focused work with new methods. The near-complete sequence, the first for a vertebrate, greatly improves the precision of biological analyses of the human genome including studies of gene number, birth and death. Notably, the human enome seems to encode only 20,000-25,000 protein-coding genes. The genome sequence reported here should serve as a firm foundation for biomedical research in the decades ahead

Implementation of preemptive DNA sequence–based pharmacogenomics testing across a large academic medical center: The Mayo-Baylor RIGHT 10K Study

The Mayo-Baylor RIGHT 10K Study enabled preemptive, sequence-based pharmacogenomics (PGx)-driven drug prescribing practices in routine clinical care within a large cohort. We also generated the tools and resources necessary for clinical PGx implementation and identified challenges that need to be overcome. Furthermore, we measured the frequency of both common genetic variation for which clinical guidelines already exist and rare variation that could be detected by DNA sequencing, rather than genotyping.Targeted oligonucleotide-capture sequencing of 77 pharmacogenes was performed using DNA from 10,077 consented Mayo Clinic Biobank volunteers. The resulting predicted drug response–related phenotypes for 13 genes, including CYP2D6 and HLA, affecting 21 drug–gene pairs, were deposited preemptively in the Mayo electronic health record.For the 13 pharmacogenes of interest, the genomes of 79% of participants carried clinically actionable variants in 3 or more genes, and DNA sequencing identified an average of 3.3 additional conservatively predicted deleterious variants that would not have been evident using genotyping.Implementation of preemptive rather than reactive and sequence-based rather than genotype-based PGx prescribing revealed nearly universal patient applicability and required integrated institution-wide resources to fully realize individualized drug therapy and to show more efficient use of health care resources

Indicative Distribution Maps for Ecological Functional Groups - Level 3 of IUCN Global Ecosystem Typology

This dataset includes the original version of the indicative distribution maps and profiles for Ecological Functional Groups - Level 3 of IUCN Global Ecosystem Typology (v2.0). Please refer to Keith et al. (2020). The descriptive profiles provide brief summaries of key ecological traits and processes for each functional group of ecosystems to enable any ecosystem type to be assigned to a group. Maps are indicative of global distribution patterns are not intended to represent fine-scale patterns. The maps show areas of the world containing major (value of 1, coloured red) or minor occurrences (value of 2, coloured yellow) of each ecosystem functional group. Minor occurrences are areas where an ecosystem functional group is scattered in patches within matrices of other ecosystem functional groups or where they occur in substantial areas, but only within a segment of a larger region. Most maps were prepared using a coarse-scale template (e.g. ecoregions), but some were compiled from higher resolution spatial data where available (see details in profiles). Higher resolution mapping is planned in future publications. We emphasise that spatial representation of Ecosystem Functional Groups does not follow higher-order groupings described in respective ecoregion classifications. Consequently, when Ecosystem Functional Groups are aggregated into functional biomes (Level 2 of the Global Ecosystem Typology), spatial patterns may differ from those of biogeographic biomes. Differences reflect the distinctions between functional and biogeographic interpretations of the term, biome

Public COAPI Toolkit of Open Access Policy Resources

The Coalition of Open Access Policy Institutions (COAPI, https://sparcopen.org/coapi ) is committed to sharing information and resources to assist in the development and implementation of institutional Open Access (OA) policies. The COAPI Toolkit includes a diverse collection of resources that COAPI members have developed in the course of their OA policy initiatives. These resources are openly accessible and published here under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 licenses, unless otherwise noted on the resources themselves