In-vitro circadian rhythm of murine bone marrow progenitor production

Hematopoietic processes display 24h rhythms both in rodents and in human beings. We hypothesized these rhythms to be in part generated by a circadian oscillator within the bone marrow. The ability of murine bone marrow granulo-monocytic (GM) precursors to form colonies following colony-stimulating factor (rm GM-CSF) exposure was investigated in liquid culture samples obtained every 3 h for a span of up to 198 h. The CFU-GM count varied rhythmically over the first 4 d of culture, with a reproducible maximum in the early morning hours, similar to that observed in vivo. These experiments provide the first evidence that bone marrow progenitors sustain in vitro circadian rhythmicity, and they demonstrate the presence of a circadian time-keeping system within these cells. The results support the potential usefulness of bone marrow cultures for investigating chronopharmacologic effects of anticancer drugs and cytokines on this target system.     

TrioMDR: Detecting SNP interactions in trio families with model-based multifactor dimensionality reduction

Single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) interactions can explain the missing heritability of common complex diseases. Many interaction detection methods have been proposed in genome-wide association studies, and they can be divided into two types: population-based and family-based. Compared with population-based methods, family-based methods are robust vs. population stratification. Several family-based methods have been proposed, among which Multifactor Dimensionality Reduction (MDR)-based methods are popular and powerful. However, current MDR-based methods suffer from heavy computational burden. Furthermore, they do not allow for main effect adjustment. In this work we develop a two-stage model-based MDR approach (TrioMDR) to detect multi-locus interaction in trio families (i.e., two parents and one affected child). TrioMDR combines the MDR framework with logistic regression models to check interactions, so TrioMDR can adjust main effects. In addition, unlike consuming permutation procedures used in traditional MDR-based methods, TrioMDR utilizes a simple semi-parameter P-values correction procedure to control type I error rate, this procedure only uses a few permutations to achieve the significance of a multi-locus model and significantly speeds up TrioMDR. We performed extensive experiments on simulated data to compare the type I error and power of TrioMDR under different scenarios. The results demonstrate that TrioMDR is fast and more powerful in general than some recently proposed methods for interaction detection in trios. The R codes of TrioMDR are available at: https://github.com/TrioMDR/TrioMDR.     

Spatial Multiobjective Optimization of Agricultural Conservation Practices using a SWAT Model and an Evolutionary Algorithm

Finding the cost-efficient (i.e., lowest-cost) ways of targeting conservation practice investments for the achievement of specific water quality goals across the landscape is of primary importance in watershed management. Traditional economics methods of finding the lowest-cost solution in the watershed context (e.g.,^5,12,20) assume that off-site impacts can be accurately described as a proportion of on-site pollution generated. Such approaches are unlikely to be representative of the actual pollution process in a watershed, where the impacts of polluting sources are often determined by complex biophysical processes. The use of modern physically-based, spatially distributed hydrologic simulation models allows for a greater degree of realism in terms of process representation but requires a development of a simulation-optimization framework where the model becomes an integral part of optimization.Evolutionary algorithms appear to be a particularly useful optimization tool, able to deal with the combinatorial nature of a watershed simulation-optimization problem and allowing the use of the full water quality model. Evolutionary algorithms treat a particular spatial allocation of conservation practices in a watershed as a candidate solution and utilize sets (populations) of candidate solutions iteratively applying stochastic operators of selection, recombination, and mutation to find improvements with respect to the optimization objectives. The optimization objectives in this case are to minimize nonpoint-source pollution in the watershed, simultaneously minimizing the cost of conservation practices. A recent and expanding set of research is attempting to use similar methods and integrates water quality models with broadly defined evolutionary optimization methods^{3,4,9,10,13-15,17-19,22,23,25}. In this application, we demonstrate a program which follows Rabotyagov et al.''s approach and integrates a modern and commonly used SWAT water quality model⁷ with a multiobjective evolutionary algorithm SPEA2²⁶, and user-specified set of conservation practices and their costs to search for the complete tradeoff frontiers between costs of conservation practices and user-specified water quality objectives. The frontiers quantify the tradeoffs faced by the watershed managers by presenting the full range of costs associated with various water quality improvement goals. The program allows for a selection of watershed configurations achieving specified water quality improvement goals and a production of maps of optimized placement of conservation practices.     

Neoliberalism and stories of racial redemption

Two contradicting ideas dominate political discussions of race in the United States. In the first, Americans of all political stripes glory in the idea that the country's race relations have improved, largely due to changes collectively labeled as ‘the civil rights movement.’ Yet when Americans move their gaze to broader issues—often presumed to be beyond “race”—of economics, public education, and civic life, they embrace a second, and seemingly opposed narrative of decline. There, social scientists have wedded this image of social decay into ideas of neoliberalism, which they take to be the state's steady disinvestment in public goods like education, healthcare, affordable housing and transportation. Though the rise of civil rights and neoliberalism have overlapped historically, social scientists have shown determined reluctance to make any connection between the two; and further, few have been willing to see the two processes as interwoven and collaborating in the production of the contemporary political economic landscape. This essay argues that academic neoliberal discourse has unwittingly functioned to relieve civil rights institutions of any responsibility for current racial conditions in the US by taking critical attention away from how federal agencies and local politicians have implemented racial reforms. In the current scenario, neoliberalism is to blame for undermining or retrenching the nation's commitment to racial equality, and civil rights victories are the victim. Ethnographic and historical material on race relations in Fayetteville NC, USA, is presented to argue instead that the relationship between the two turns out to be much more complex.

香港大蹄蝠出飞时间及其季节变化

于2014年5月至2015年4月,对香港低海拔栖息地的大蹄蝠夜晚出飞活动时间进行了研究。结果显示大蹄蝠出飞时间平均为日落后（14.6±6.1) min,出飞时间与民用曙暮光呈强正相关（r = 0.968, P < 0.0001）,而出飞结束时刻同样与民用曙暮光时间呈现显着相关(r = 0. 977, P < 0. 0001)。。在一年中较冷的12月和1月则没有蝙蝠出飞记录。大蹄蝠虽然在亚洲分布广泛,但是相对于温带地区的蝙蝠物种来说, 关于该物种的基础生态学研究较少。本文对大蹄蝠的季节性出飞行为所开展研究工作,以利有关长远保育的深入研究。     

Microbiological characterization of Civil cheese, a traditional Turkish cheese: microbiological quality, isolation and identification of its indigenous Lactobacilli

Summary The aim of this study was to investigate the microbiological quality and the indigenous lactic acid bacteria (Lactobacillus) of Civil cheese. In this study, for identification of lactic acid bacteria isolated from cheese samples, the Microbiology Identification System (MIS) was used. In the samples, average of total aerobic mesophilic bacteria, yeast and moulds, lactic acid bacteria and Staphylococcus aureus (Staph. aureus) were determined to be 3.0×10⁸, 2.0×10⁶, 1.4×10⁷, 4.10×10⁴ c.f.u./g, respectively. Coliform bacteria were lower than <10 c.f.u./g in 26.67 % of the samples. On the other hand, the coliform-positive samples showed an average of 4.2×10⁴ c.f.u./g. Staph. aureus was not detected in 33.33% of Civil cheese samples. Seventy-two strains of Lactobacillus isolated from Civil cheese were identified. Growth at 5, 10 and 37 °C, 2.5% and 6.5% NaCl and gas (CO₂) production from glucose of the isolated strains were also determined. Of the 72 isolates, 20 were identified as Lb. malefermentans, 18 as Lb. fermentum, 17 as Lb. parabuchneri, 10 as Lb. vaccinostercus, 2 as Lb. oris, 1 as Lb. bifermentans, 1 as Lb. delbruecki subsp. bulgaricus, 1 as Lb. cellobiosus, 1 as Lb. hilgardii, 1 as Lb. paracasei subsp. tolerans.     

Does civil environmental protection force the growth of China's industrial green productivity? Evidence from the perspective of rent-seeking

Based on the decision analysis of heterogeneous enterprise between green technology innovation and rent-seeking, this paper formulates the Hybrid-Luenberger index considering undesirable outputs and studies difference in the response of regional industrial green productivity to civil environmental protection. Empirical study on China's regional industrial data from 1997 to 2011 shows that: (1) Compared with the intensity of environmental pollution and other passive environmental protection incentives, the public are more sensitive to per capita income level, education quality, health concern and other rational environmental protection incentives. (2) The increase in the civil environmental protection effect promotes the industrial green technology innovation, while the rent-seeking activities have a significant negative effect on green productivity. (3) The civil environmental protection of the eastern coastal area has more significant effect on the industrial green productivity compared with that of the central and western inland area. (4) As the quantile of the industrial green productivity increases from the low point to high level, the positive effects of the civil environmental protection on the industrial green productivity turn to be more significant, and the rational environmental protection have positive and negative effects on high and low quantile of the industrial green productivity, respectively, which proves that the “Potter Hypothesis” can only be established on the condition that producers are approaching to the technology frontier.     

The paradox of power-sharing: stability and fragility in postwar Lebanon

ABSTRACT

This article examines the consequences of civil war and power-sharing settlements for the development of sectarian networks of mobilization. While power-sharing presents a viable mechanism for ending civil war, it allows the participating militias-turned-parties access to state resources and leaves their population networks and organizations intact. This continuity reduces the militias-turned-parties’ start-up costs for violent mobilization in the future, enabling them to mobilize more effectively than new parties with no combat experience. I exploit rich variation in the wartime legacies and settlement status of the major postwar parties in Lebanon to explain whether and how parties mobilized during the clashes of May 2008, the most serious internal violence to plague Lebanon since the end of its civil war in 1990.     

Precision dating of Cook’s Mill,a Civil War era structure in West Virginia

Dendroarchaeology can provide critical understanding of a structure built during key historic periods, such as the American Civil War (1861–1865), when historical documentation is likely to be sparse or incomplete. Cook’s Mill is located in Greenville, West Virginia and extensive information derived from deeds, court records, wills, and oral history places the present mill’s original construction in 1857. The American Civil War began shortly after its construction and military conflict in the area led to the burning of several key structures, one of which was an unknown mill in Greenville (formerly Centerville). Written history suggests the mill is original and survived the American Civil War, however we used dendroarchaeology to confirm its precise date of construction. We collected 46 samples from the mill and 6 cross sections from a nearby exhumed bridge for dendrochronological dating. The mill was constructed with white oak (Quercus alba) and tulip poplar (Liriodendron tulipifera) logs and the bridge samples were white oak. We visually and statistically crossdated 32 white oak samples from the mill and bridge by comparing them to a local chronology developed for this study and two regional oak chronologies from the International Tree-Ring Data Bank. Based on terminal ring attributes and cutting date years we were able to provide a suggested construction date of the spring or early summer of 1868. This date suggests Cook’s Mill was the mill burned during military conflict in the area and that the current structure was subsequently rebuilt following the conclusion of the war.     

Effect of stressful conditions on the carotenogenic activity of a Colombian strain of Dunaliella salina

The objective was evaluate the carotenogenic activity of Dunaliella salina isolated from the artificial salt flats of municipality of Manaure (Department of La Guajira, Colombia). Two experimental testings were designed, in triplicate, to induce the reversibility of the cell tonality depending on the culture conditions. In the first test (A), to induce the reversibility from green to red tonality in D. salina cells, these were cultured in J/1 medium at a concentration of 4.0 M NaCl, 390 µmol m^?2 s^?1, 0.50 mM KNO₃. In the second test (B), to induce the reversibility from red to green cell tonality, the cultures were maintained in J/1 medium 1 M NaCl, 190 µmol m^?2 s^?1, 5.0 mM KNO₃ and pH 8.2. The population growth was evaluated by cell count and the pigment content was performed by spectrophotometric techniques. It was found that in both tests the culture conditions influenced the population growth and the pigments production of D. salina. There was a significant difference between the mean values of total carotenoids in the test A with 9.67 ± 0.19 μg/ml and second test with 1.54 ± 0.08 μg/ml at a significance level of p < 0.05. It was demonstrated that the culture conditions of test A induce the production of lipophilic antioxidants, among these carotenoids. The knowledge of the stressful conditions for the production of carotenoids from D. salina isolated from artificial saline of Manaure opens a field in implementation of this biotic resource for biotechnological purposes, production of new antibiotics, nutraceuticals and/or biofuels production.