The researchers found that both males exposed to mated females (and by extension cVA) as well as males exposed to decapitated virgin females (who lacked cVA) demonstrated a preference for alcohol. To confirm this finding, they also simply exposed a third group of males to the chemical by itself without a female present before testing their preference for alcohol. This third group too maintained a preference for alcohol. Based on this, they concluded that cVA could not be the driving cause for the observed alcohol preference, and that the effect was likely due to the actual sexual deprivation involved.

The researchers found that even these males who did not experience the social aspect of rejection by a female maintained a preference for alcohol. From this, they concluded that social rejection was not the main cause for the observed alcohol preference amongst virgin male flies.

26 of the 69 (37.6%) covariates found in the FGFP data had a comparable factor in the LLDeep cohort.

Similar to how red blood cell counts were associated with differing abundances of Faecaelibacterium, the researchers also showed that there were associations between other genera and hip circumference (the distance around the largest part of your hips or the widest part of your buttocks), uric acid concentrations (a compound that is excreted in urine; high uric acid concentrations can indicate poor kidney function and low concentrations can indicate gout, a form of arthritis), amoxicillin (a type of antibiotic) intake, and chocolate preference.

Of the 26 covariates that were comparable in both the FGFP and LLDeep data, 24 factors were found to be significantly associated with microbiome composition in the LLDeep cohort.

They found that medication influenced 63% of the interactions between variables and may confuse or bias results in clinical studies.

Since their metadata could only explain less than 8% of the variation, the researchers suggest that there are other factors that were not accounted for in their study. This may be intrinsic properties to microbes, such as interactions between species.

They showed that there is a significant association between the microbiome composition and body mass index. They also found new correlations, like red blood cell count, with the microbiome composition.

Medication has an impact on the microbiome composition and accounted for 10.04% of the differences between samples.

One of the properties of an LSH algorithm is that it can organize input points into a new, smaller-dimensional matrix while preserving the distances between points. The authors proved that the fly algorithm also has this property but uses a different approach than other known LSH options. The different approach, in part, is to expand the dimension, as opposed to contracting the dimension.

Therefore, the authors conclude that the fly's approach represents a completely new category of LSH algorithms.

The old definition of one fungus with one photobiont was helpful in guiding science's understanding of lichens. Yet, sometimes strict definitions can prevent us from asking good questions. This paper concludes that researchers should always push their investigations further. There might still be interactions we haven't identified in symbiotic relationships.

After concluding that gene expression in the two symbionts could not account for lichen differences, the authors continued to investigate what might account for vulpinic acid production. The results of the transcriptome analysis indicated that gene expression from a basidiomycete was correlated with the presence of vulpinic acid.

The authors found that the enzyme (ISF6_4831 protein) they determined was responsible for degrading PET in l. sakaiensis was better at degrading PET than its ability to degrade other molecules, in this case paranitrophenol linked aliphatic esters also called pNP-aliphatic esters, that don't look like PET.

Furthermore, the authors saw that other enzymes that are known to sometimes degrade PET degraded more pNP-aliphatic esters relative to PET than this new enzyme ISF6_4831. This led them to include that ISF6_4831 was specifically specialized at degrading PET.

Thus, the authors begin referring to the ISF6_4831 protein as PETase.

The authors added more protein to a sample of PET. The three previously discovered enzymes produced more product as the enzyme concentration increased. The new enzyme, PETase, did not increase the amount of product as more enzyme was added. The authors concluded that this was because PETase was attached to the film. So adding more enzyme once the film was already covered would not increase the rate.

The authors measured which genes were being used when the l. sakaiensis cells were exposed to PET. They found that when PET film was present, the l. sakaiensis cells used the genes that make the PETase enzyme much more often then they used them when PET was not present.

From this data, the authors concluded that either PET causes the cells to start making PETase or the enzyme production is induced by some degradation product of PET that they didn't test.

The authors exposed all of the enzymes to the different oligomers and measured the activity of each enzyme. The other enzymes did a better job of degrading substrates without aromatic groups, but ISF6_4831 did the best job degrading PET. From these results the authors concluded that ISF6_4831 had high specificity towards PET.

The authors found a part of I. sakaiensis's DNA that had 51% of the same patterns found in another protein known to degrade PET. They concluded that this stretch of DNA also made the protein that allowed l. sakaiensis to degrade PET.

The model calculations don't agree well with the experimental data when the contribution from VCPs is ignored. When the contribution from VCPs is included in the model calculations, the model agrees well with the experimental data. This change in model agreement can be seen in the models bias and R-squared values.

Model bias measures on average the percent error between the model calculations and the experimental measurements. Without the inclusion of VCPs the model was, on average, under predicting the concentrations of VOCs by 39% (Panel A of Figure 3). With the inclusion of VCPs the model was on average over predicting the concentration of VOCs by 1% (Panel B of Figure 3).

Ethanol was measured in the air. Less than 20% of the ethanol comes from mobile sources (gasoline and other automobiles). The remaining 80% comes from other sources, such as volatile chemical products.

Hear the lead author, Brian McDonald, talk about the findings of this work in the podcast, Science Friday.

https://www.sciencefriday.com/segments/theres-a-new-urban-air-polluter-on-the-block/

The efficiency of the water-harvesting relies on the temperature difference between the MOF and the condenser, as well as the relative humidity, for the condenser to be able to collect all the water vapor desorbed from the MOF. The authors found that at 10% RH, a difference of 45°C is needed to reach the maximum water-harvesting capability.

The results of experiments and simulations show that the device can, at the maximum, collect 0.3 liters of water per kg of MOF material in normal outdoor usage.

The result of the simulation shows that undergoing several cycles of adsoprtion-desoprtion can produce almost 3 liters of water per 24 hours with 1 kg of the MOF material. This is the case for a 1 mm-thick layer.

Porosity is a key parameter in the performance of the MOF material. If the porosity is too low, the adsoprtion process becomes slower because the molecules have to diffuse through the crystal. In contrast, if the porosity is too high, more MOF is required to harvest the same amount of water and the process is also slower.

The water harvesting rate measures liters per kilogram per second and varies during the experiment. To obtain the total amount of water harvested, the authors integrated the water harvesting rate over the whole duration of the experiment (100 minutes). In this time, the MOF water-harvesting device collected the equivalent of a small glass of water from the surrounding air.

The authors found that a key parameter in the water uptake capacity of this MOF is the geometry that the water molecules adopt inside the cavities, forming multiple hydrogen bonds. This phenomenon is explained principally by the size of the pores of the MOF.

As we can see from Figure 1, the northern/cold end of species' range limits are not shifting, whereas the southern end of the range have shifted northwards.

As we can see in Figure 1A, there was no shift in northern range limit for species (on average), in North America or Europe. As the authors point out, this is a surprising result because other marine and terrestrial ectotherms have been observed moving further north in recent years.

This is also surprising because we can see in Figure 1B that species' cool range limits have warmed by about 2.5°C.

Selectively targeting eNpHR to the excitatory neurons of the STN showed to be insufficient at impacting the rotational behavior in the hemiparkinsonian rats. This alludes to the possibility of another mechanism of action being involved other than strict inhibition of excitatory neurons.

Interestingly, northern species shifted lower down the mountains—the opposite of southern species!

As we can see in Table S3, the land-use and pesticide variables were not useful in predicting range shifts.

See the Supplementary Materials for more information.

As we can see from Figure 2, species with ranges further south moved to occupy higher elevation in recent years.

The authors were able to demonstrate the utility of selectively targeting specific excitatory neurons with an inhibitory opsin and then reversibly inhibit and record neural activity.

The model calculations for formation of secondary organic aerosols (SOAs) do not agree with experimental data if the contribution from VCPs is ignored. The inclusion of VCP emissions in the model calculations allows the calculations to better agree with the experimental data.

CUD patients may be at risk of developing habitual behavior due to their impairment in action-control behaviors.

The fact that CUD patients respond equally to pictures associated with values and those without an association suggests that they can no longer control their actions.

These reactions could indicate habitual behaviors, putting them at risk for compulsive behaviors.

Stressful life events, decreased accuracy in responding to training, and cocaine addiction are factors that predict how likely someone is to develop habitual behaviors.

The authors found that cocaine explained 13% of the variance in performance in this study. This means that addiction to cocaine seems to play a significant role in developing habitual behaviors, but that there are also other things that play a greater role.

CUD patients had more difficulty than controls in learning which pictures were no longer associated with a reward. They were also less able to change their responses based on new information, meaning that they continued to respond the same way even in the absence of a reward. Control participants, on the other hand, decreased their response when the reward was removed.

The authors concluded that Australopithecus afaransis males were generally of the same stature as early Homo individuals.

Using an analysis of both the footprints and femurs to estimate stature makes the findings more accurate. It appears to the authors that Australopithecus afaransis males were generally of the same stature as early Homo individuals.

Based on their findings, the authors concluded that Australopithecines were larger in stature than previously thought.

How weight was distributed along the foot as the individual walked provides information that supports that all the Laetoli footprints were made by Australopithecus afarensis. The footprints also establish a morphology and gait pattern very different from that of non-hominins.

Source: https://corewalking.com/chimpanzee-feet-vs-human-feet/

Identifying the species of animals that were present helped the authors to establish what the local environment was like during the time Australopithecus inhabited the region.

It is difficult to determine a relationship between a hypothetical group of hominins because external variables—such as geographic faults and fractures discussed earlier—make these extra-fine correlations generate uncertainty.

Through an analysis of soil strata, the authors determined that the new set of footprints was left at the same time and in the same layer of volcanic tuff. This is important when using the data obtained from the analysis of the footprints to determine stature and the degree of dimorphism.

It establishes that if the footprints in the original trackway were made by Australopithecus afaransis, the footprints in the newly discovered trackway were also made by A. afaransis.

The topic of body size and degree of sexual dimorphism present in Australopithecus afarensis continues to be hotly debated. The authors' analysis of the newly discovered footprints at Laetoli provides evidence that appears to support pronounced body-size dimorphism.

These transcripts are the most abundant in the cell and are therefore easily accessible for the deaminase. Multiple edits along the transcript may imply that the editing complex is able to stay bound to the mRNA long enough to modify not only the target A but also the surrounding adenosines.

The results show that there are much higher numbers of breeding seabirds on fox-free islands than on infested ones. This makes sense because foxes are predators of many types of birds which would lower the abundance of mating birds. This decrease in birds also had effects on the amount of guano being distributed across the land. This number decreased and in turn affected different nutrients that are derived in the soil from the bird guano such as phosphorous. Fox-free islands saw three times more soil phosphorus than fox infested islands. In this experiment, there is a chain effect of sorts going on where the presence or absence of foxes affects sea bird populations, which then affects guano inputs to the island and the soil nutrients derived from this are dependent again on sea bird populations that distribute the guano.

Overall, the study found that the introduction of foxes turned the once-grassland into a tundra with less productive plants in its place because of the nutrient deprivation caused by fox predation on the birds, who are the main nutrient distributors on the archipelago.

This shows the indirect effects that predation can have on ecosystems that rely so heavily on nutrient distribution from other living organisms, such as the seabirds. This also provides further evidence that trophic cascades do not only have to be top down; predators do effect herbivory, but there can be indirect effects from predators to plant communities through nutrient deprivation from predation on nutrient source organisms.

The authors note that the specific process that the fly olfactory circuit uses to identify odors is similar to what other researchers have seen in other animals and other parts of the brain (see Table 1).

From this observation, they conclude that the locality-sensitive hashing approach that they've identified in the fly olfactory circuit may not be limited to flies or even to odor recognition, but could be a standard processing technique that the brain uses for many different purposes.

For all three data sets (SIFT, MNIST, and GLOVE), the authors were able to improve the performance of the LSH algorithm by increasing the number of Kenyon cells that they used in the calculation. That is, using more KCs made it easier for the LSH algorithm to correctly identify the nearest neighbors (most similar images or words) in the data sets.

The authors looked at how the LSH algorithm performed when using two different methods to create the tag:

1. The tag is created from a random selection of Kenyon cells
2. The tag is created from the Kenyon cells with the highest firing rates (this is the "winner takes all" or WTA approach)

The result was that the LSH performed better with the WTA approach. Note that the authors measured performance using the mean average precision (see Fig. 2B)

Figure 3 shows the number of pollen grains adhering on the y axis and on the x axis is the fishing line difference. There showed to be no significant difference between the line thickness as you can see from the lines on the graph the largest size fishing line showed the greatest amount of pollen grains.

Given how closely related and interbred they were, there was more genetic diversity in the Coccothrinax palms than expected.

The Palms from the Dominican Republic and Haiti were found to have similar average allele loci counts, but the Haitian ones have more on average.

Due to the small population of Coccothrinax jimenezii within Haiti and Dominican Republic, conservation efforts have been maximized to prevent extinction.

The author used results from video, electric images, and BEM simulations to depict the electrosensory pathways in the fish and where the fish has organs with receptors that are able to sense electric fields. By knowing the location of these electroreceptors, the author is able to determine where the organism is able to conduct electrolocation.

Table 1 indicates that plant height, competitive ability, and seed mass had significant intercepts, meaning these traits changed from the original population, but only plant height showed a significant slope, meaning that the other traits did not have a significant rate of change.

As the distance between populations increased, the distance seeds were dispersed followed a similar increase for evolving populations, regardless of the distance between populations. Non-evolving populations dispersed seeds shorter distances based on how big the gap was between populations.

VCPs are becoming more important for understanding air quality. Further research into these products and the potential health risks they pose is needed.

Predicting reactivity of hydroxyl radical is important for understanding many atmospheric processes. The inclusion of VCPs into the model calculations is needed to get better agreement with experimental data.

The agreement between experimental data and model calculations is still off by about 25%. The authors suggest that other VCPs that have not been included in the model could account for the difference.

About half of the VOCs in air can be shown to come from VCPs, the other half comes from transportation sources (driving, etc.) and upstream sources (extracting oil, refining gasoline, making chemical products, etc.)

If you just assume that VOCs in indoor air come from outdoor air sources, the model calculations and the experimental data have poor agreement.

The model calculations agree well with experimental data if you account for VCPs that are directly emitted into indoor air.

The model calculations do not consider certain types of chemicals because they do not correlate well with emissions from fossil fuels or from VCPs. Other sources of VOCs, such as those that come from cooking, are not included in this study.

The data suggested that some organism that grows well in the soil around the PET recycling plant is responsible for degrading PET. The authors do not know at this point what organism is responsible or how the organism breaks down the PET fibers.

Also note that the authors screened the different samples on low-crystallinity PET. PET is made with various degrees of crystallinity, or microscopic order, for different applications, and the authors cannot know from this data whether this same consortium would also be as effective at degrading higher-crystallinity film.

Indeed, the isolated protein was found to degrade PET.

The appendages allow the cells to remain close to the PET film that serves as their energy source and helps to degrade the PET more quickly.

When the authors isolated different types of microbes, they discovered a new organism which they identified as belonging to a family of closely related organisms called ldeonella, and called it ldeonella sakaiensis or l. sakaiensis. This specific bacterium can degrade PET even in absence of all the other microbes in the consortium the authors tested earlier in the paper.

Flowers typically pollinated by B. balteatus and B. sylvicola did not have a significant increase in pollinators during the recent history. This indicates that floral trait distribution are not what is causing the decrease in bee tongue lengths. This rejects the hypothesis that there is a direct correlation between flower depth and tongue length.

For the native alpine bee species, access to food has not decreased. This rejects the hypothesis that competition between foreign and native bee species for resources decreases the native bee’s range of accessible food.

The authors found that when mosquitoes had less sucrose to feed off of there were fewer enzymes to convert the JH acids into the juvenile hormones. These JHAMT (enzymes) are important for the final steps of JH biosynthetic pathway. If the mosquitoes drank water with 20% sucrose their JHAMT levels were significantly higher. Observations can be seen in Figure 2B.

The results of the experiment indicate that starving a mosquito ultimately decreases the production of JH due to a decrease in insulin signaling in the CA, which is located near an insect's brain. By being starved, the insulin receptor in the CA became more sensitive, so when a mosquito was fed, insulin levels rapidly increased due to this new sensitivity.

Dorado (also known as mahi mahi or dolphinfish) were overall the slowest, showing that they can't depend much on speed to catch their prey, rather more on their ability to maneuver to catch them.

Though the authors used statistical tests to determine that there was no statistically significant difference between the muscle temperatures of the fishes observed, so it shouldn't greatly affect the results, the fact still remains that it still has some effect.

Perhaps the reason why the little tunny had the highest size-corrected maximum speed is due to muscles -which were warmed than the other fish. As a result, its muscles had a higher speed measured than if its temperature had been even closer the the other fishes' muscle temperatures.

Unlike the other fish, the little tunny had muscle contraction times increasing from head to tail, implying that they used their head more than their tail for swimming fast. The authors compared this to another species of tuna, the bluefin tuna because it had a similar trend in muscle contraction. They analyzed this to mean that at high speeds, muscles from opposite sides of the fish (left and right) will contract so that the waves of contraction move towards each other and overlap, which makes the body stiff.

Here the author ties the goal of this study with the data collected. The goal of this study was to test whether earlier studies were correct in their estimations of maximum swimming speeds in sailfish. The author describes that the data collected disproves earlier studies and provides explanation as to why the data of the prior studies may have been skewed.

Sailfish are the fastest of the four fish observed, but that's because they're the largest. When the variable of fish size is put aside (size-corrected performance), sailfish are actually the slowest and the smallest fish, little tunny is the fastest.

Regardless from which part of the body the lowest contraction time (highest speed) was found, this time was used as the maximum swimming speed of that fish species. These higher measures for maximum swimming speed can be calculated about 1.25 times faster than the normal swimming speed of each fish.

The chemical properties of Piper allow it to ensure its success. By doing this it influences other plants and animals in its community. This can include suppression of other plants, eliminating certain herbivores from the area, etc.

The data suggest that the chemical products Pipers produce seems to be inversely proportional to their phylogenetic relatedness. So communities that tended to have a wider range of chemicals, were also the communities that were most closely related.

Although the experiments showed that Piper species that were chemically similar were not likely to coexist, this was not the case for phylogenetically related species. The data suggest that the species who were most closely related, were actually more likely to coexist is a patch.

There may be other traits of the Piper, other than chemical similarity, that may have an influence. The environment may push for the conservation of these traits.

The approach used in this study allowed the authors to conclude that the more similar plant metabolites are between Piper species, the least likely they are to be found next to each other.

A positive relationship in this case means that the more different species are chemically, the more likely they are to coexist.

Through the presence or absence of chemicals within the leaves of the sampled species, the researchers conducted the K statistic for the phylogenetic signal of the secondary chemicals. Through this analysis, the authors found that related Piper species were less likely to share their secondary chemical characteristics.

Based on the estimated sizes of the Laetoli trackway individuals at Sites S and G, the variability is most likely due to reproductive success. If the males had to compete for a chance to mate with females, larger stature would be a favorable adaptation leading to a high degree of sexual dimorphism.

The authors concluded that hominids did not become larger in size between 3.66 and 3.2 million years ago. By combining data from the two Laetoli sites with those from the Hadar region, it was discovered that African Pliocene hominins varied in size from large-bodied to small. There was no evidence of an increase in overall body size between the older Laetoli and more recent Hadar fossil samples.

The authors are confident that the footprints at Sites G and S were made at the same time by the same hominin species.

There are some differences between the soil layers observed at Site S and the layers described for Site G. The authors attribute these differences to environmental factors. Deposition is affected by numerous factors such as the mass and size of particles and the wind.

The authors determined through an analysis of soil layers that the Footprint Tuff in Sites G and S were the same age.

The weight would be on the front side of the foot, away from the midline, before it is passed along to the toes. It is when the weight reaches the toes that the foot pushes off the ground.

The presence of prints left by the same species of wildlife in Sites G and S helps to confirm that the Laetoli hominin prints in Sites G and S were made at the same time.

General relativity theory expands special relativity theory to include any reference frame (not just inertial ones).

With no constant frame of reference, general relativity theory cannot consider space and time as separable entities.

Instead, general relativity theory describes something called "space-time" which is warped by massive bodies. Objects traveling through space-time that has been warped by these bodies will follow a warped path (even though it may appear "straight" to the object). We call this effect "gravity."

General relativity theory allows us to describe space and time regardless of a choice of coordinate systems or reference frames.

Unlike special relativity, general relativity does not assume an inertial (i.e., static) frame of reference..

Special relativity theory concludes a relationship between mass and energy (E=mc²).

Therefore, the theory marries the conservation of mass and conservation of energy as one and the same law.

Einstein states a major consequence of special relativity: We can only say two events occur simultaneously when those events share a system of coordinates.

We can always put two events into the same coordinate system, but whether they are simultaneous depends on which coordinates we use.

Einstein uses a famous thought experiment to describe this. Imagine a train traveling on railway tracks and equidistant between two trees (one ahead, one behind). If lightning strikes both trees at the same time, an observer on the train will see the lightning strike ahead before the lightning strike behind. However, an observer standing still next to the tracks (also equidistant between the trees) will see both at the same time. Thus, whether the lightning strikes are simultaneous depends on the observer's frame of reference.

This is the second principle of special relativity:

Light can be thought of as many particles (called photons) that move through space. These particles always travel at the same constant speed regardless of the inertial system in which light is observed. This has been well established by the work of many physicists.

This means that it does not matter how fast you travel towards or away from a source of light—it will always travel at a constant velocity, the speed of light.

It is hoped that this number can be minimized through improved waste management techniques and infrastructure.

Participants gave many points (of the 100 they were given) to the algorithm that sacrificed one pedestrian to save 10 other pedestrians, in each of the three categories listed in Figure 3B.

Participants did not give many points to the algorithm that sacrificed one pedestrian to save one other pedestrian, in each of the three categories listed in Figure 3B.

The two tags did not appear to affect the synthesis or location of the mRNA or the ribosomes.

Though this paper looks at all the plant ecosystems in the defined region, there are groups of plants that have been identified as characteristic of the Mediterranean climate, and biogeographers have identified regions where this mix of plants grow, generally distributed in the parts of the designated area that are closer to the Mediterranean Sea.

This specific mix of plants is not one of the biome types that is defined in the BIOME4 model, but the "warm mixed forest biome" shows a similar distribution, with two main exceptions.

Starting in 2030, the simulations for all four pathways start to differ in their biome change ratios. By 2100, the 1.5°C pathway, RCP2.6L, stays within the higher end of range of variation seen during the Holocene. The 2.0°C pathway, RCP2.6, has a level of change that is only seen in the single most extreme Holocene timeslice.

Both of the pathways with higher emissions have higher change ratios than those seen in any time in the Holocene.

Most simulations show the Mediterranean Basin warming more than the global average.

The modeling presented in this paper indicates that limiting warming to a global average of 1.5°C above the pre-industrial average will result in changes to ecosystems; but, those changes will be within the range of variation that was seen in the past ~10,000 years, which includes most of human history.

However, at an average temperature increase at or above 2°C, the models indicate that the changes to the ecosystems will be far beyond what was seen in that time frame.

In the past, ecosystem variation was largely due to reductions in rainfall and other precipitation, as opposed to the temperature-induced changes that are expected if the global average temperature increases.

Based on the study where market demand of Dendrobium within TCM has diminished its population, restoration-friendly cultivation will be needed to restore this epiphytic plant species back into the environment. This form of conservation will not only help preserve the integral population of orchids in China, but also sustain the economy for its increasing demand.

This is the first principle of Special Relativity:

The laws of physics are the same for all observers in uniform motion relative to one another.

Since the ants were found more in caterpillar at BNP authors assumed that the ants are the primary predators of caterpillars.

Some other predators also influence caterpillar mortality, but ants are more abundant.

Authors ended up concluding that the smaller the caterpillars, the higher the rate of mortality.

The authors conclude that since there is an absence of caterpillar it is assumed that there have been a sort of mortality for this species.

This is a result where the authors implied that the crawling insects are the major predators of the species studied.

The details of the ants captured by pitfall traps near the host plants of the Swallowtails. 5 of the 12 ant species captured were exotic and out of the total 243 individual ants caught, 144 were exotic

Disease stabilization is important in treating diseases because cancers can often become malignant, meaning they can spread to other parts of the body and cause other cancers. Therefore, this drug, together with other drugs, can prevent secondary cancers in other parts of the body (metastasis).

Antagonist "Bosentan" was tested in a study and showed to stabilize the disease. This means that the disease is neither progressing nor regressing in development.

The antagonist (inhibitor molecule that prevents the expression of Ednrb) also killed cells that were infected with the disease. This is another answer to the research question "If endothelin signaling were to be inhibited, would this serve as a new treatment for specific melanomas?".

This result answers the question raised in the editors introduction: "If endothelin signaling were to be inhibited, would this serve as a new treatment for specific melanomas?". Yes, research showed that interfering RNAs (RNA molecules that prevent the expression of a gene) and a specific antagonist (another interfering molecule) can prevent endothelin signal pathways from leading to melanoma.

Exposure to UV radiation, such as from the sun, caused melanocytes to continue developing. This is because the programmed cell death (apoptosis) function was compromised in the presence of UV radiation. As a result, Edn1 (one type of endothelin peptide) had an increase in production and caused pigmentation to increase.

Even though there are some contradictions to the research, generally, if there is more Ednrb activity (up-regulation) then there are more cancerous cells (melanomas). Because of this, observing the expression of the Ednrb gene can help researchers follow the progression of the disease.

This result contradicts the cancer cell model because the cell can be programmed to be cancerous by placing an oncogene (a mutated proto-oncogene that causes uncontrolled cell division) near a promoter (a region on DNA that allows for gene expression to occur via trascription/translation). Therefore, the cell does not have to follow the differentiation path to become cancerous.

Because cells that contained this "marker-positive" were able to differentiate into many different types of cells, the original idea of linear progression of melanoma may not be useful in monitoring the disease. This is because the cancer can arise at different steps and differentiation points.

The opposite of the previous statement is also true: If both of the signaling pathways are present, then there will be an increase of melanoblasts. This is because these pathways stimulate survival and cell division of melanoblasts.

This occurred because Edn3 works with Kitl (a signaling pathway) in order to stimulate the survival and cell division of melanoblasts (the cell stage that comes before the melanocyte). Therefore, the lack of these signaling pathways prevented melanoblats from forming.

Mice with white coats (the piebald lethal phenotype) and mice with the inserted gene (lacZ) had a decreased amount of melanoblasts (cells that come before melanocytes) by day 12.5 in embryonic development. Therefore, Ednrb signaling must be occurring at or around this time in development.

Mice with dark, black coats were found to have hyper-pigmentation and a correlation with melanoma (tumor of the cells that produce pigment).

Mice with white coats have a deadly mutation that kills the mice while they are very young. The phenotype (the physical expression from the gene) is called "piebald lethal". Mice with spotted coats have a similar outcome to mice with white coats and their phenotype is called "lethal spotting" or hypo-pigmentation (meaning lacking pigment).

Researchers were able to determine that Edn3 plays a vital role in melanocyte development by studying the pigmentation of mice coats. The coats vary in pigment depending on the mutation on gene Ednrb.

Opiate-dependent patients might have impaired avoidance habits.

Opiates are highly addictive drugs that are often used to treat chronic pain. Patients that are prescribed these medications sometimes experience withdrawal symptoms within hours of their last dose.

Some patients will misuse the drug in trying to cope with chronic pain as well to avoid their withdrawal symptoms. In one study, the authors inferred that patients' avoidance response to punishment or aversive treatment would be higher compared to cocaine users, since these behaviors can make someone more susceptible to opiate addiction in the first place.

To learn more about withdrawal management: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK310652/

Due to impairment in brain function, CUD patients are unable to control impulses and avoid negative outcomes.

Since CUD patients have an impairment in the brain regions that control responses to stimuli associated with both reward or punishment, it is likely that these impairments are what is giving rise to the high impulsive behaviors observed in CUD patients as compared to the control group.

Crawford et al. find evidence that genetic variants associated with dark skin pigmentation have a single origin within Africa. Not only is this interesting from an evolutionary standpoint, it demonstrates that using only skin pigmentation to infer modern population structure is highly ineffective and erroneous.

For example, if scientists wanted to explore the relationships between modern human populations, and used only the genetic variants associated with skin pigmentation to do so, they might end up lumping many of the African populations in with South Asian and Australo-Melanesian populations. Focusing solely on the genetic determinants of pigmentation would lead to inaccurate conclusions about relationships among modern human populations.

The results found from the experiment and those from ad hoc sampling can be used to enhance conservation of Neotropical forests.

Ad hoc typically means a solution designed for a specific problem. Therefore, ad hoc sampling means a sampling method that would solve the conservation methods problem.

This shows that there was higher species richness in species of 10 cm diameter versus 2.5 cm.

Many different plot methods were used in order to see which method would provide better carbon and biodiversity information.

The purpose of the experiment is to find a proper method to measure biodiversity and carbon stocks of a community. Doing so will allow for better conservation methods and help quantify the amount of carbon emissions that result from deforestation and degradation of forests.

Areas where heat are being stored and the ocean warmed over the two decade period between 1970-74 and 1988-92 are colored in red with positive values. Ocean regions which are releasing heat and thus becoming colder over that period are colored in blue with negative values.

Figure A focuses on the surface 300 m of the North Atlantic and suggest the higher latitudes, roughly 45°N to 70°N, were releasing heat while the regions below 45°N warmed over the two decades.

Figure B looks at where heat is accumulating over the two decades from the surface down to 3000 m. From 1970-74 to 1988-92 the Labrador Sea (southwest of Greenland) and the subarctic region were cooling while the western mid-latitudes (20°N to 45°N) warmed.

Most of the heat storage is occurring at depths below 300 m.

This figure focuses on the annual anomalies in heat content of the surface 300 m of the ocean basins. Every year from 1948 to 1998 is plotted as a bar on these charts of temperature anomalies. Positive values indicate an above-average warm year, while negative values indicate a below-average cool year.

Which ocean basins show a trend from cold, negative values to warm, positive values? Are the trends in one direction consistent over the full 50 year record or only for shorter periods of time?

Levitus and coauthors found:

• The Atlantic and Indian oceans overall show an increasing trend towards warming temperatures with time, a positive correlation.

• Temperatures were cooler before the mid-1970s and warmer after that.

• Of all the ocean basins, the North Atlantic ocean during the year 1998 saw the warmest temperatures of the last 50 years.

The areal extent of warming is colored in red, while the blue color represent areas that cooled between the time periods. The black contour lines are labeled with the exact extent of temperature change, where the thickest black line represents no change in temperature (0°) over the roughly 20 years between pentads.

Figure A is presenting how temperatures have changed between the late 1950s and early 1970s in the North Atlantic at a depth of 1750 m. Much of the North Atlantic appears to be warming, excluding the Mediterranean Outflow area.

Figure B presents the temperature change between the early 1970s and the 1990s. The Labrador Sea appears to have cooled substantially, with cooling also occurring in most of the rest of the North Atlantic.

The purpose of these experiments were to test the effects of nutrients on terrestrial carbon loss that ultimately leads to a change in ecosystems.

Learning the effects and ideal ratios of nitrogen to phosphorus for ecosystems will lead to better policies to protect them.

Detrivores have a different method of carbon depletion from streams. finer particulate organic carbon travels faster and further away from an area, deleting the area of carbon sources.

Invertebrates may leave the system if there are no food sources and alter the food chain.

Poultry producer is fined by $1.4 million for polluting a local stream.

Read more in WJCT: http://news.wjct.org/post/live-oak-poultry-producer-environmental-groups-reach-deal-over-suwannee-river-pollution

Fine POC export represents the movement of broken down carbon along the stream. Finer particles move faster and further down a stream as biological factors such as microbes and fungi decomposing the terrestrial organic carbon.

In the experiment, it was found that the addition of nutrients encouraged terrestrial organic carbon loss.

This was tested by observing the litterbags of the experimental streams and comparing the data to the litterbags of the control stream.

Since a large amount of mass was lost in the stream with nutrient additions, this gives some evidence that too many nutrients off-balances organic carbon levels.

Both nitrogen and phosphorus are contributing factors to changes in terrestrial carbon loss.

Within the ecosystem, different organisms require different ratios of nutrients to react and convert terrestrial carbon to carbon dioxide.

The finding that the light organ possesses the same proteins that are found in photoreceptors of the eye may mean that the light organ has the ability to sense light from both the environment and from the bacterial symbionts.

The ability to compare the two light sources would potentially allow the squid to control the light produced by the bacteria in order to match the light in the environment.

Global Changes influenced the expansion of selective logging, and brings questions about carbon emissions and the effects on recruitment and therefore diversity in forests.

The authors suggest that losing or damaging communities would have considerably more negative effects on the ecosystem even if the sites are still diverse.

Gap edges had more species that consumed higher amounts of sunlight (heliophiles).

Species that can grow in a closed forest canopy did not grow in sites that were logged after 20 years. These understory plants are important habitat and provide the forest with key services.

The authors did find that the relative number of species was lower in unlogged compared with logged habitats.

There was no difference in the diversity of logged and unlogged habitat on either the types of species present or the functions they serve the community.

The authors conclude that darker skin pigmentation possibly appeared ~2 million years ago, in the genus Homo (which we, as Homo sapiens, are part of), and that this pigmentation may have arisen as our ancestors lost their protective body hair, which would have previously protected them from some of the harmful effects of the sun.

The authors explored if luciferase expression could be driven by different haplotypes; in other words, if the haplotypes had an effect on the expression of the luciferase reporter gene.

If the expression from different haplotypes has the same distribution, the medians from the two groups would be equal, indicating that the different haplotypes have no impact on expression.

In this case, the distribution of expression is not the same, indicating that the median expression is not equal, and the haplotypes do have an effect on on expression.

The authors conclude that the gr/gr "grizzled" mice are gray because of a mutation in Mfsd12, which they identified by sequencing DNA from these mice, and that losing expression of Mfsd12 leads to the same coat color phenotype in wild-type agouti mice

The authors conclude that MFSD12 is important for skin pigmentation in vertebrates—they have data from humans, mice, and zebrafish, suggesting that this function is conserved in most animals.

MFSD12 functions in a cell-autonomous manner in melanocytes, meaning the protein acts on the cell that it is in. As they saw MFSD12 localizing with lysosomes, not eumelanosomes, it doesn't seem to function by directly affecting the production of melanin; rather they suggest that it could be modifying lysosomal function leading to different levels of melanin in the cells.

The authors note that while changes to MFSD12 have an effect on pigmentation, there are other nearby genes that might play a role as well.

An F_ST of 0.76 here indicates that 76% of the variation in the people in these populations occurs between the two populations, whereas the remaining 24% of genetic variation occurs within the individual populations.

When looking at the variants in the gene SLC24A5 across different populations, the authors found that the pattern (or signature) of variants suggests that this gene is under directional, positive selection.

Positive selection is a process leading to a particular trait being more common in the population than other traits. This leads to a higher number of low-frequency alleles than one would expect by chance, leading to an extreme, negative value of Tajima's D statistic.

Finding a signature consistent with positive selection at this locus suggests that the particular variant that under selection may provide an advantage to the people with that variant.

The authors note that many of the variants they identified as causal are in noncoding regions, which indicates the importance of regulatory regions in controlling skin pigmentation (this means that the amount of specific proteins is important to skin pigmentation, not just having the functional proteins present).

The authors conclude that this allele, rs4932620 (T), is identical by descent between Australo-Melanesians and Africans because the haplotype surrounding the allele is the same or similar. This suggests that they have a common ancestor.

The authors conclude that MFSD12 normally acts to reduce eumelanin content in melanocytes, because when they reduce the amount of MFSD12 in cells they see more eumelanin. Eumelanin is brown/black pigment.

The authors see the tagged MFSD12 protein in punctate structures, or small spots, throughout the cells. They were surprised to find that these puncta barely overlapped with pigmented melanosomes.

They had expected to see MFSD12 localizing with (existing in the same spot as) TYRP1, an enzyme that is involved with melanin synthesis, but instead they found that MFSD12 was found in the same spots (co-localized) with LAMP2, a protein that functions in lysosomes.

The authors have identified loci that are associated with pigmentation that were not known before, because they were the first to study such a diverse group of Africans. They note that the loci they identified have multiple effects in people, so the role for these loci in skin pigmentation may not be the only reason they are associated with particular populations.

The authors conclude that at this particular locus, their data suggest that Africans and non-Africans have been subjected to different selective pressures that have led to different haplotypes in the two populations.

The authors conclude that around 29% of the heritability (the amount of phenotype that can be attributed to a genotype) of skin pigmentation in Africans is due to changes in DNA in just four regions, which is fewer regions than they might have expected for a complex trait.

Using their mathematical models, the authors conclude that the TMRCA of the T allele, along with the positive Tajima's D value (which indicates an excess of intermediate alleles rather than rare alleles), suggest that there was balancing selection on this locus (selection to maintain multiple alleles at this locus).

The authors found that it is possible that the variation at the rs1426654 locus is due to selection for the A allele in African populations. However, there are other possible explanations for the variation observed that they can't rule out based on their data.

This is a remarkably large increase in fitness due to hybrid. According to Dr. Geiger most plant hybrids that he's studied have shown a significant increase of 5-10% would already be impressive.

Hybrids had significantly better fitness in all categories tested. They germinated faster, produced more seeds, and grew to a larger size than the other types.

Hybrid plants grew to the largest size of the three types.

Hybrids had the lowest rate of exit holes caused by predation due to the wasps, followed by eastern and western.

Hybrids had a significantly higher germination rate than the other two types. The other two types had no significant difference between each other. This may be a cause for hybrids higher fitness.

There are many different mutations that can cause autism. The mutations described in this paper are just one type.

In some patients with autism, the authors found deletions of genes involved in postnatal brain development, which are normally regulated by neural activity. They also saw deletions in regions that are important to gene expression.

Taken together, these findings suggest that abnormalities in the expression of neural activity-dependent genes can lead to some of the symptoms associated with autism.

The stages of brain development that occur after a child is born require input from the environment and regulation by neural activity. Some of this neural activity depends on a child's experiences. This is especially true during the later stages of development.

Several of the "candidate" genes (i.e., genes that may cause autism) the authors studied here are regulated by neural activity. Because of this, the authors suggest that disruptions in this regulation by neuron could be a potential cause of autism.

In addition to disease-causing autosomal and recessive mutations, the authors showed that in some cases regulatory elements and gene dosage can contribute to autism.

Heterozygous mutations can be deleterious if two copies of the functional gene are required for a pathway. Even having one copy of the functional gene may not be enough.

The authors suggest that looking at consanguineous families may help identify genes of interest in nonconsanguineous pedigrees, where there is more diversity.

The authors found the NHE9 nonsense mutation in two male siblings with autism, as well as their mother, who showed childhood signs of intellectual disability.

In addition, one of the siblings had epilepsy and the other had symptoms of epilepsy (though no diagnosis).

The authors did not find the mutation in any of the controls, even on resequencing.

The different ways that homozygous deletions affect the transcription of the three genes here suggests that abnormalities in neural-activity regulated genes may play a large role in autism.

Unlike c3orf58 and PCDH10, expression of NHE9 was not significantly altered by changes in neural activity alone. However, NHE9 is among a small number of genes whose transcription was altered when the neural-activity regulated transcription factor NPAS4 was inhibited.

MEF2 RNAi did not increase transcription of PCDH10 as much as it did c3orf58.

However, a fusion protein that contains MEF2 greatly increased transcription. This suggests that, even though MEF2 alone did not increase transcription, PCDH10 is a target of MEF2.

When the authors prevented MEF2 expression, they saw a corresponding inhibition of c3orf58 expression. This suggests that MEF2 either directly or indirectly mediates transcription of c3orf58.

A significant number of the genes identified by the authors in this study were transcription factors that are involved in the growth and development of the brain.

The authors found several smaller deletions in genes that are involved in the growth and development of the brain.

The authors point out that further evidence is needed to say these genes are causative of autism. However, they suggest that several of them are likely to be (specifically the larger deletions).

Another deletion the authors found in patient AU-3101 is in a gene that codes for a protein involved in the growth of neurons.

The deletion in patient AU-3101 removes c3orf58, which codes for a protein in the Golgi apparatus.

The deletion also removes part of the transcription initiation site for NHE9.

Although the authors did not sequence all linked regions (because of the time and cost associated with sequencing such large amounts of genetic material), they were surprised to find that several of the consanguineous families had rare inherited deletions.

The authors suggest that these large deletions may contribute to autism.

Only two families showed the same abnormality, in chromosome 2q. This abnormality has been previously found to contribute to autism.

The results of the authors' homozygosity mapping showed that there is considerable diversity between different consanguineous autism families. They also found that the abnormalities in the chromosomes of patients with autism were not shared between families.

Taken together, these results suggest multiple genetic origins for autism.

The higher proportion of affected women and the reduced rate of de novo CNVs in the consanguineous sample from this study both suggest a higher frequency of autosomal recessive causes for autism (and other neurological disorders) in consanguineous families.

The data showed that de novo CNVs were much less frequent in consanguineous families (both simplex and multiplex) and the amount of inherited CNVs was high.

As stated above, the low rate of de novo CNVs that segregate with disease suggests that inherited factors have a larger role.

The authors observed that the proportion of affected women from consanguineous multiplex families was double that of the HMCA as a whole, and triple that of simplex families.

This finding suggests an increased role of inherited autosomal mutations (as opposed to de novo mutations).

The low rate of de novo CNVs suggests that abnormalities in autistic patients' genomes came from mutations that were already present in the parents, rather than new mutations.

The authors found that A. berteroi is best pollinated by bees.

This is drawn from the fact that other visitors did not carry or deposit pollen well.

Apocynaceae flowers restrict visitors with mouthparts long enough to reach the base of the floral tube.

Previous data states that the A. berteroi species is only visited by skipper butterflies. However, the authors found they are also visited by long-tongued bees to the same extent.

These butterflies were taking the reward meant for true pollinators without actually aiding the plant in reproduction.

This study found a correlation between the thickness and effectiveness of feeding parts used by pollinators.

It is possible that a wide pollen receptacle results in a need to have thicker feeding parts.

The authors found that only flowers visited by long-tongued bees produced fruit after a single visit.

The authors also determined that non-skipper butterflies and short-tongued bees are less effective pollinators in comparison.

The Piper species that were sampled were found to contain secondary chemicals that likely function to protect the plant from herbivores.

Species with different chemical properties are less likely to compete with one another, therefore tend to coexist with each other.

Species that are closely related tend to coevolve, which allows them to coexist together more easily than non-related species.

The values of the Haitian population of palms were higher which means that there were more alleles that were associated non-randomly.

Genetic conservation of this population is important due to the few individuals left in Haiti and the Dominican Republic.

Upon meeting with the author, the difficulty of finding the purebred species was discussed as were the methods.

The authors concluded based off of the molecular data, that the two species of C. jimenezii could not be identified as two different taxa.