Biological Programs Research Articles

Examination of the Relationship between University Students’ Perceptions Regarding the Chemistry Laboratory Environment and their Chemistry Laboratory Anxiety

This research examined the relationship between university students’ perceptions of the chemistry laboratory environment and their chemistry laboratory anxieties. The method of the study is correlational research. The study was conducted on 281 university students who enrolled in biology, physics, chemistry, and science teaching programs and took the chemistry laboratory course. The chemistry laboratory classroom environment scale and the chemistry laboratory anxiety scale were used to collect research data. The obtained data were analyzed via the structural equation model. The research results revealed that students’ perceptions of the chemistry laboratory environment were a significant predictor for their chemistry laboratory anxiety. Furthermore, it was determined that 13% of the variance in laboratory anxiety was explained by the perceptions of the laboratory environment.

Meet the First Authors.

HomeCirculation ResearchVol. 132, No. 6Meet the First Authors Free AccessIn BriefPDF/EPUBAboutView PDFView EPUBSections ToolsAdd to favoritesDownload citationsTrack citationsPermissions ShareShare onFacebookTwitterLinked InMendeleyReddit Jump toFree AccessIn BriefPDF/EPUBMeet the First Authors Originally published16 Mar 2023https://doi.org/10.1161/RES.0000000000000603Circulation Research. 2023;132:672–673is related toGJA1-20k Rescues Cx43 Localization and Arrhythmias in Arrhythmogenic CardiomyopathySmooth Muscle MR in Post-Preeclampsia Hypertension (p 674)Download figureDownload PowerPointDr Lauren Biwer is a postdoctoral researcher in Dr Iris Jaffe’s lab at Tufts Medical Center. She became passionate about research in Dr Taben Hale’s lab at the University of Arizona and completed her PhD in Molecular Physiology at the University of Virginia with Dr Brant Isakson. When her sister developed preeclampsia, she became interested in mitigating future cardiovascular disease in women with complicated pregnancies. Lauren received a K99 grant to pursue this work and is thrilled to start her independent laboratory in the Yale Vascular Biology and Therapeutics program in November 2023. She enjoys traveling, outdoor activities, college sports and reading non-fiction. She can be found on Twitter @DrLaurenBiwer.Endosomal PI3Kγ Regulates Hypoxia Sensing (p 690)Download figureDownload PowerPointDr Yu Sun (Cynthia) earned her MD in Pathology from Shanghai Medical College at Fudan University in 2014. Following her clinical training, Cynthia joined the lab of Dr Naga Prasad in 2017 as a postdoctoral fellow to understand the mechanisms regulating βAR function in hypoxia. Unexpectedly, she found that hypoxia regulates endosomal βAR function by inhibition of resensitization through PI3K. Her current work focuses on dissecting the agonist-independent endosomal regulation of βARs, as acute hypoxia is the initial stress following ischemia. During her free time Cynthia enjoys reading and watching movies.Download figureDownload PowerPointKate Stenson is currently Senior Laboratory Technologist in the Department of Cardiovascular and Metabolic Sciences at Lerner Research Institute, Cleveland Clinic. She earned her undergraduate degrees in Marine Biology and Psychobiology from the University of New England in Maine. She joined Cleveland Clinic to further extend her hands-on approach from her undergraduate education to the mouse models of pathology, specifically heart failure. She is passionate about unraveling scientific discoveries through the use of animal models and during her spare time, when she is not imaging mice, she likes to play with her kids and take them to musicals.Dectin-1 Mediates Ang II Action in Heart (p 707)Download figureDownload PowerPointDr Shiju Ye earned his MS in Cardiovascular Disease at the Wenzhou Medical University, China, in 2019, and is now pursing his Cardiovascular Disease PhD at Sir Run Run Shaw Hospital, School of Medicine, Zhejiang University, China. Dr Ye’s recent research interests include Ang II related cardiac inflammation, heart failure, and the crosstalk between the cardiomyocytes and macrophages. Outside of the laboratory, he not only maintains an active social life and studies, but also focuses on learning clinical knowledge of cardiovascular disease.GJA1-20k Reduces Arrhythmias in ACM (p 744)Download figureDownload PowerPointDr Joseph Palatinus is an Assistant Professor of Medicine at the Nora Eccles Harrison Cardiovascular Research and Training Institute at the University of Utah and Critical Care Cardiologist at Intermountain Medical Center. He completed his residency at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and cardiology and critical care medicine fellowships at Cedars Sinai Medical Center. His postdoctoral work focused on gap junction trafficking in the laboratory of Dr Robin Shaw. The Palatinus Lab is focused on mechanisms contributing to disease progression in arrhythmogenic cardiomyopathy. Dr Palatinus’s clinical interests are focused on the care of patients with cardiogenic shock in the CCU. Previous Back to top Next FiguresReferencesRelatedDetailsRelated articlesGJA1-20k Rescues Cx43 Localization and Arrhythmias in Arrhythmogenic CardiomyopathyJoseph A. Palatinus, et al. Circulation Research. 2023;132:744-746 March 17, 2023Vol 132, Issue 6 Advertisement Article InformationMetrics © 2023 American Heart Association, Inc.https://doi.org/10.1161/RES.0000000000000603PMID: 36927179 Originally publishedMarch 16, 2023 PDF download Advertisement

Cytokine receptor IL27RA is an NF-κB–responsive gene involved in CD38 upregulation in multiple myeloma

AbstractMultiple myeloma (MM) shows constitutive activation of canonical and noncanonical nuclear factor κB (NF-κB) signaling via genetic mutations or tumor microenvironment (TME) stimulations. A subset of MM cell lines showed dependency for cell growth and survival on the canonical NF-κB transcription factor RELA alone, suggesting a critical role for a RELA-mediated biological program in MM pathogenesis. Here, we determined the RELA-dependent transcriptional program in MM cell lines and found the expression of the cell surface molecules interleukin-27 receptor-α (IL-27Rα) and the adhesion molecule JAM2 to be responsive to RELA at the messenger RNA and protein levels. IL-27Rα and JAM2 were expressed on primary MM cells at higher levels than on healthy long-lived plasma cells (PCs) in the bone marrow. IL-27 activated STAT1, and to a lesser extent STAT3, in MM cell lines and in PCs generated from memory B cells in an IL-21–dependent in vitro PC differentiation assay. Concomitant activity of IL-21 and IL-27 enhanced differentiation into PCs and increased the cell-surface expression of the known STAT target gene CD38. In accordance, a subset of MM cell lines and primary MM cells cultured with IL-27 upregulated CD38 cell-surface expression, a finding with potential implications for enhancing the efficacy of CD38-directed monoclonal antibody therapies by increasing CD38 expression on tumor cells. The elevated expression of IL-27Rα and JAM2 on MM cells compared with that on healthy PCs may be exploited for the development of targeted therapeutic strategies that modulate the interaction of MM cells with the TME.

Shared Core Facilities Serve as Hubs for Biomedical Research Network at Institutions of Emerging Excellence.

We analyzed co-authorship patterns within the National Institutes of Health Center of Biomedical Research Excellence in Matrix Biology program from 2014 to 2022. In this study, we analyzed junior investigators, senior researchers, and research scientists within a shared core facility. Social network analysis techniques were applied to evaluate the co-authorship network based on journal publications from members of the center. The results indicated that co-authorship network visualization and analysis is a useful tool for understanding the relationship between a shared core facility and young investigators within a research center. Young investigators collaborated with and relied upon the individual research scientists of the shared core facility to serve as contributing members of their extended research team. This reliance on the shared core facility effectively increases the size and productivity of the research team led by the young investigator. Our results indicate that shared core facility staff may serve as hubs within the network of biomedical researchers, particularly at institutions with a growing research emphasis. Listen to this article.

Critically Assessing Undergraduate Field Experiences: Understanding Conceptualizations and Opportunities for Building Inclusive Programs.

Undergraduate field experiences (UFEs) are key components of many biology, ecology, and geoscience programs and important steps to successful recruitment into careers. Through semistructured interviews of diverse field program leaders, we seek to understand how field program leaders conceptualize both their scientific disciplines and the intentional design factors they implemented within the UFE itself. Additionally, this study explores critical considerations these program leaders use to approach designing inclusive UFEs as well as the institutional and practical challenges of designing and implementing their UFEs. We acknowledge the limitations of the small sample of respondents, and our intent with this article is to explore these responses as a way to share critical design factors for designing and implementing inclusive UFEs with the broader geoscience community. Building an early understanding of these factors will help new field program leaders address multiple, simultaneous challenges that currently foment the underrepresentation of students from marginalized backgrounds in biology, ecology, and the geosciences. Through these explicit conversations, we hope to support the professional development of a scientific community that values the creation of safe, encouraging field experiences in which students can enhance their self-identity in the sciences, build peer and professional networks, and develop memorable field experiences that support their trajectories toward successful careers.

RRM1 is mediated by histone acetylation through gemcitabine resistance and contributes to invasiveness and ECM remodeling in pancreatic cancer.

The invasiveness of pancreatic cancer and its resistance to anticancer drugs define its malignant potential, and are considered to affect the peritumoral microenvironment. Cancer cells with resistance to gemcitabine exposed to external signals induced by anticancer drugs may enhance their malignant transformation. Ribonucleotide reductase large subunit M1 (RRM1), an enzyme in the DNA synthesis pathway, is upregulated during gemcitabine resistance, and its expression is associated with worse prognosis for pancreatic cancer. However, the biological function of RRM1 is unclear. In the present study, it was demonstrated that histone acetylation is involved in the regulatory mechanism related to the acquisition of gemcitabine resistance and subsequent RRM1 upregulation. The current invitro study indicated that RRM1 expression is critical for the migratory and invasive potential of pancreatic cancer cells. Furthermore, a comprehensive RNA sequencing analysis showed that activated RRM1 induced marked changes in the expression levels of extracellular matrix‑related genes, including N‑cadherin, tenascin‑C and COL11A. RRM1 activation also promoted extracellular matrix remodeling and mesenchymal features, which enhanced the migratory invasiveness and malignant potential of pancreatic cancer cells. The present results demonstrated that RRM1 has a critical role in the biological gene program that regulates the extracellular matrix, which promotes the aggressive malignant phenotype of pancreatic cancer.

Insight from Biology Program Learning Outcomes: Implications for Teaching, Learning, and Assessment.

Learning goals and objectives are a key part of instruction, informing curricular design, assessment, and learning. These goals and objectives are also applied at the programmatic level, with program learning outcomes (PLOs) providing insight into the skills that undergraduate biology programs intend for their students to master. PLOs are mandated by all major higher education accreditation agencies and play integral roles in programmatic assessment. Despite their importance, however, there have not been any prior attempts to characterize PLOs across undergraduate biology programs in the United States. Our study reveals that many programs may not be using PLOs to communicate learning goals with students. We also identify key themes across these PLOs and differences in skills listed between institution types. For example, some Vision & Change core competencies (e.g., interdisciplinary nature of science; connecting science to society; quantitative reasoning) are highlighted by a low percentage of programs, while others are shared more frequently between programs. Similarly, we find that biology programs at 4-year institutions likely emphasize PLOs relating to computational skills and research more than at 2-year institutions. We conclude by discussing implications for how to best use PLOs to support student learning, assessment, and curricular improvements.

Interview with Thiago Rodrigo dos Santos, Molecular Microbiology Poster Award winner at 2nd Workshop in Microbial Molecular Biology in Campinas, Brazil.

Molecular Microbiology Poster Award—Thiago Rodrigo dos Santos, master's student at the University of São Paulo for their poster entitled ‘Characterization of an antibacterial Type IV Secretion System effector/inhibitor pair with nuclease activity in Xanthomonas citri’. My name is Thiago Rodrigo dos Santos. I have an undergraduate degree in biochemical engineering from the University of São Paulo (USP). And, I am a final year master's student at the Institute of Chemistry. Bacteria sharing the same niche must compete for nutrients and space. In this project, our goal was to understand the bactericidal type IV secretion system of Xanthomonas citri, an important phytopathogen that causes large damage to citrus crops. The type IV secretion system, which is part of a new family of type IV secretion systems, can transport several types of bactericidal proteins to the periplasm of other bacteria. I work under the supervision of Professor Shaker Chuck Farah, who is a pioneer in the study of this system. In this project, I worked with a putative effector-inhibitor pair of the type IV secretion system. Computational analyses predicted that this effector had nuclease activity, leading us to hypothesize that this effector acts as a toxin that degrades the target cell's DNA. We showed, by using heterologous expression, that the effector protein is toxic on microbial growth. Bacterial competition assays further showed that the effector confers a strong competitive advantage. Using a reporter strain, we then showed that the effector activates the E. coli DNA repair response, and that this protein can degrade plasmids in in vivo assays. We finally showed that the putative related inhibitor can suppress the activity of the effector, confirming that the proteins form an effector-inhibitor pair. After finishing my master's degree, I intend to continue developing studies with bacterial effectors. To this end, I intend to enroll in a doctoral program in biochemistry and molecular biology of microorganisms, probably in another research center, as this would allow me to have a greater variety of academic experiences. Thiago Rodrigo dos Santos, Institute of Chemistry, University of São Paulo. E-mail: [email protected]

Abstract P269: Associations Between Neighborhood Socioeconomic Deprivation During Pregnancy and Offspring Early Anthropometric Outcomes

Introduction: Residing in areas with lower neighborhood socioeconomic position (NSEP) is associated with adverse birth outcomes like small for gestational age and low birthweight. Lower NSEP is also associated with higher weight status and blood pressure in adolescence. However, few studies have assessed NSEP and indicators of cardiometabolic health in early childhood. We examined associations between NSEP during gestation and changes in early childhood weight in a North Carolina (NC) birth cohort. Hypothesis: We hypothesized that lower gestational NSEP would associate with rapid infant weight gain and increased odds of having overweight in early childhood. Methods: The sample was from the Newborn Epigenetics STudy (NEST) cohort. 2,681 gestational parent-offspring pairs were recruited from prenatal visits at obstetrics care facilities in Durham County, NC and enrolled between 2005-2011. For this study, offspring were assessed at birth (N=1,058), 6 months (N=1,268), 1 year (N=1,268), 2 years (N=1,033), and 3 years (N=1,038). NSEP was measured as Neighborhood Deprivation Index (NDI) tertiles at the 2010 US census block group level in NC using parent residential address at enrollment (high NDI=low NSEP). Offspring anthropometric outcomes included: (1) having vs not having overweight (weight for length or body mass index percentiles ≥85 th ) at each study visit; and (2) having rapid vs non-rapid infant weight gain from birth to 6 months and birth to 1 year. Multilevel logistic regression models estimated odds ratios (OR) and 95% confidence intervals (CI) for the relationship between NDI (ref=low) and weight, adjusting for gestational parent age, race, marital status, and education. Results: On average, gestational parents were 28 years old with college degrees (35%), followed by high school or equivalent (22%), and identifying as non-Hispanic (NH) Black (43%), followed by NH White (34%). Prior to covariate adjustment, children residing in neighborhoods with high vs low NDI had greater odds of having overweight at 6 months (OR=1.57, 95% CI=1.10-2.25), 1 year (OR=2.01, 95% CI=1.49-2.71), 2 years (OR=1.78, 95% CI=1.25-2.49), and 3 years (OR=1.35, 95% CI=0.96-1.89) and of experiencing rapid infant weight gain from birth to 6 months (OR=1.03, 95% CI=0.79-1.33) and to 1 year (OR=1.62, 95% CI=1.25-2.09). Associations were attenuated after adjustment, but children residing in neighborhoods with high vs low NDI had greater odds of having overweight at 1 year (OR=1.53, 95% CI=1.09-2.15). Conclusions: Low NSEP may associate with higher early childhood weight. This has important implications for later developmental milestones and health outcomes in childhood. Several potential mechanisms could explain this association, including biological programming and limited neighborhood opportunities for movement and healthy eating. Future work exploring these and other mechanisms is warranted.

The botany of the Stony Head Training Area: new records for a biodiverse remnant in northern Tasmania, Australia

A flora survey of the Stony Head Training Area, northern Tasmania, was conducted in 2020–2021 as a collaboration between the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery’s Expeditions of Discovery and the Australian Biological Resources Study Bush Blitz programs. With a long historical use as an artillery range, the 5000-ha area contains a range of geologies, has a low profile with average elevations under 100 m asl, and its vegetation consists largely of heathy woodlands and coastal heathlands. It contains a range of relatively undisturbed, high-quality native habitats and populations of several threatened species. The survey targeted vascular plants, bryophytes and lichens, and recorded a total of 575 taxa. Nine lichens are new records for Tasmania — <i>Buellia hypostictella</i>, <i>Caloplaca gilfillaniorum</i>, <i>Cladonia subradiata</i>, <i>Graphis geraensis</i>, <i>Lecanora intumescens</i> and <i>Opegrapha diaphoriza</i> — all previously also known from mainland Australia, and <i>Micarea rhabdogena</i>, <i>M. xanthonica</i> and <i>Pseudothelomma ocellatum</i>, which represent first records for the Southern Hemisphere. Biogeographical and ecological patterns in the flora, the contribution of vegetation remnants to flora conservation, and the ongoing importance of surveys and alpha-taxonomy for documenting biodiversity are discussed. Our findings are consistent with a body of research showing a trend of healthy populations of threatened taxa within military training areas.

Examining Lebanese Secondary Students’ Biology Learning Loss due to the Economic Crisis and COVID-19 Pandemic

The economic crisis and the COVID-19 pandemic since 2019 forced both public and private schools in Lebanon to close for an extended period of time. Many topics were suspended from the curriculum due to decreasing the number of learning days. The predominant causes of learning loss are lengthy gaps or cutouts in students’ education. This study aims to investigate the impact of school closure on students’ learning, specifically the learning loss in biology at the secondary level during the period between 2019-2022. This is a mixed research: qualitative data was collected through document analysis to compare the topics covered in biology and the official exams for grade 12-Life Science section during the last two academic years with those covered and implemented before the dual crisis; and quantitative data through teachers’ questionnaire implemented to address the biology learning loss. The results revealed a huge learning loss in biology, more than 50 % of the biology program was not covered in grades 10, 11-S and 12-LS, and a decline in the quality of the official exams. Similar results were obtained in a parallel study addressing Lebanese secondary students’ learning loss in mathematics.

Analysis of Biology Learning Problems in Urban Schools and Their Solutions

The achievement of learning objectives can be disrupted because of issues that occur in learning so that learning activities cannot be carried out optimally. As a result, it is important to identify the issues arising in order to select the most suitable solution to resolve them. The study aimed to identify problems with learning urban biology at one of the senior high schools in Jakarta and to find answers to those problems. The research method is using a case study method; a type of research that involves an in-depth examination of one individual, a group, an organization, and so on over a set period of time. The study's data collection methods included observation and interviewing. The study's findings reveal the following issues in learning biology at one of the senior high schools in Jakarta: 1) The biology program's implementation on practical indicators, 2) The redesigned 2013 curriculum, which is considered inconvenient for students and teachers to use, 3) Learning media selection and 4) Student learning interest. The solution to the problems of learning biology at senior high school in Jakarta is to understand the concept of implementing the 2013 curriculum so that it can provide innovative learning methods, can optimize the learning media that are being used, and understand the cognitive development of students with good communication skills.

Academics’ perspective on out-of-school learning environments

This study aims to ascertain academicians' opinions about out-of-school learning, awareness of it, and competency to plan learning activities in such situations for the purpose of teaching in out-of-school learning environments (OSLEs). The research group of this study, which was conducted as a case study, consists of 56 academics in the physics, chemistry, biology, and science education programs of education faculties in Türkiye. The Out-of-School Learning Environments Regulation Scale and a form containing four questions were used to data collection. The results from the scale, the average score was calculated as 4.41 for academics with experience in teaching OSLEs and 3.82 for academics without such experience. The qualitative results indicate that academics mostly prefer to focus on environmental education, astronomy, living things and life, and recycling issues through out-of-school learning activities and use different types of OSLEs such as science center, recycling facility and observatory. To conclude, despite the academics' high level of competency in performing out-of-school learning activities, it is evident that they underutilize these activities in their teaching.

Effects of bloom’s mastery learning model based on CBRN preparedness program on learning skills of nursing students: A randomized controlled trial

BackgroundExposure to chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear (CBRN) threats and hazards can have fatal or disabling consequences. One of the most risky groups in terms of secondary contamination in CBRN exposure is healthcare workers. Nurses need to have several competencies to be able to respond correctly to people exposed to CBRN agents and to protect themselves from secondary contamination. AimThis study aimed to investigate the effectiveness of a Bloom’s Mastery Learning Model-based Chemical, Biological, Radiological, Nuclear Threat and Hazards Preparedness Program for nursing students (MLM-CBRN Preparedness Program) as a means for improving knowledge, attitudes, self-efficacy and skills. DesignA parallel-group trial design was used. MethodsA total of 104 4th-year nursing students were randomized into intervention and control groups. The data from the participants were collected before the intervention, immediately after the intervention and in the 1st and 3rd months after the intervention. ResultsAfter the intervention, a significant difference was observed between the groups in terms of knowledge, attitude and self-efficacy scores. It was seen that there was a significant difference between the pre-intervention measurement (1st measurement) and the 2nd, 3rd and 4th measurements (Table 2). This was due to the increasing scores of the intervention group (p < 0.05). ConclusionsIt shows that the MLM-CBRN Preparedness Program is effective in increasing the knowledge, attitude, self-efficacy and skill development of student nurses about CBRN threats and dangers.

Descriptive and predictive analysis identify centenarians' characteristics from the Basque population.

Centenarians exhibit extreme longevity and have been postulated, by some researchers, as a model for healthy aging. The identification of the characteristics of centenarians might be useful to understand the process of human aging. In this retrospective study, we took advantage of demographic, clinical, biological, and functional data of deceased individuals between 2014 and 2020 in Guipúzcoa (Basque Country, Spain) taken from the Basque Health Service electronic health records data lake. Fifty characteristics derived from demographic, clinical, pharmaceutical, biological, and functional data were studied in the descriptive analysis and compared through differences in means tests. Twenty-seven of them were used to build machine learning models in the predictive analysis and their relevance for classifying centenarians was assessed. Most centenarians were women and lived in nursing homes. Importantly, they developed fewer diseases, took fewer drugs, and required fewer medical attendances. They also showed better biological profiles, exhibiting lower levels of glucose, hemoglobin, glycosylated hemoglobin, and triglycerides in blood analysis compared with non-centenarians. In addition, machine learning analyses revealed the main characteristics of the profiles associated with centenarians' status as being women, having fewer consultations, having fewer diagnoses of neoplasms, and having lower levels of hemoglobin. Our results revealed the main characteristics linked to centenarians in the Basque Country using Computational Biology programs. These results expand the knowledge on the characterization of the centenarian population and hence of human longevity.

Применение основ германской новой медицины в психологической реабилитации пациента дерматологического профиля

Modern reality, in its current version of development, has not been able to reduce the rate of development and prevalence of dermatological diseases. It is widely known that psychological factors play a significant role in the causes of these pathologies. There are often situations when this component is the only obvious determinant that provokes the active dynamics of a particular skin disease. Based on these trends, we can say that the need to create a solid theoretical concept that could be effectively used in clinical practice has maximum relevance in modern realities. One of such concepts is the German New Medicine (author – Raik Hamer). In this article, an attempt is made to introduce the theoretical foundations of this model into medical practice, a specific clinical case is described with a detailed analysis of most psychological aspects, one way or another, related to the influence of the stress component on the development of dermatological symptoms. The described clinical case was chosen as the most suitable, for the fullest possible reflection of the real functioning of special biolog-ical programs and laws. The data obtained with the standard psychological diagnosis are compared with the data obtained by applying the theoretical provisions of the German New Medicine to the clinical case. Additionally, the efficiency of this theory is checked by the correspondence of anamnestic information, a group of complaints, the actual condition of the patient, the subjective opinion of a specialist (medical psychologist) – a certain special biological program that obeys the first biological law according to R. Hamer. Thus, the results of psychodiagnostics confirm the ef-fectiveness of using the concept of Raik Hamer in actual clinical practice.

A database of marine macronutrient, temperature and salinity measurements made around the highly productive island of South Georgia, the Scotia Sea and the Antarctic Peninsula between 1980 and 2009

Abstract. We present a database from substantial collections of macronutrient data made on 20 oceanographic cruises, primarily from around the island of South Georgia and the Scotia Sea. This sector of the Southern Ocean was studied comprehensively during the Discovery Investigations between ∼1920 and 1950 and resulted in the hugely influential Discovery Reports. Following this pioneering research period, there was a lull of several decades prior to the British Antarctic Survey (BAS) initiation of an offshore biological programme to study the ecology of the South Atlantic sector of the Southern Ocean. These studies began in the late 1970s and have continued until the present day. Between 1980 and 2009, the programme included macronutrient measurements as part of an integrated ecosystem analysis. In addition to South Georgia and the Scotia Sea, measurements were also made in the Bellingshausen Sea and the waters to the west of the Antarctic Peninsula. Data were collected during all months of the year with the exceptions of May and June and compiled into a database. Vertical profile samples were taken from water bottles, while data along transects were collected by monitoring the ship's non-toxic seawater supply. Nutrients measured were silicate (Si(OH)4–Si), phosphate (PO4–P), nitrate (NO3–N), ammonium (NH4–N), and nitrite (NO2–N). Our database includes nutrient data along with contemporaneous temperature and salinity data where available. Further background and supporting information is included for context. The profile and underway sample data have been deposited at the UK Polar Data Centre and are publicly available in NetCDF and CSV formats from https://doi.org/10.5285/4014370F-8EB2-492B-A5F3-6DC68BF12C1E (Whitehouse et al., 2022).

Meet the First Authors.

Meet the First Authors.

Transcriptomic data analysis coupled with copy number aberrations reveals a blood-based 17-gene signature for diagnosis and prognosis of patients with colorectal cancer.

Background: Colorectal cancer (CRC) is the third most common cancer and third leading cause of cancer-associated deaths worldwide. Diagnosing CRC patients reliably at an early and curable stage is of utmost importance to reduce the risk of mortality. Methods: We identified global differentially expressed genes with copy number alterations in patients with CRC. We then identified genes that are also expressed in blood, which resulted in a blood-based gene signature. We validated the gene signature's diagnostic and prognostic potential using independent datasets of gene expression profiling from over 800 CRC patients with detailed clinical data. Functional enrichment, gene interaction networks and pathway analyses were also performed. Results: The analysis revealed a 17-gene signature that is expressed in blood and demonstrated that it has diagnostic potential. The 17-gene SVM classifier displayed 99 percent accuracy in predicting the patients with CRC. Moreover, we developed a prognostic model and defined a risk-score using 17-gene and validated that high risk score is strongly associated with poor disease outcome. The 17-gene signature predicted disease outcome independent of other clinical factors in the multivariate analysis (HR = 2.7, 95% CI = 1.3-5.3, p = 0.005). In addition, our gene network and pathway analyses revealed alterations in oxidative stress, STAT3, ERK/MAPK, interleukin and cytokine signaling pathways as well as potentially important hub genes, including BCL2, MS4A1, SLC7A11, AURKA, IL6R, TP53, NUPR1, DICER1, DUSP5, SMAD3, and CCND1. Conclusion: Our results revealed alterations in various genes and cancer-related pathways that may be essential for CRC transformation. Moreover, our study highlights diagnostic and prognostic value of our gene signature as well as its potential use as a blood biomarker as a non-invasive diagnostic method. Integrated analysis transcriptomic data coupled with copy number aberrations may provide a reliable method to identify key biological programs associated with CRC and lead to improved diagnosis and therapeutic options.

Ultrastructural characterization of the scale cover of crypticAspidiotusspp. (Hemiptera: Diaspididae) and the ovipositor of their parasitoids

AbstractCorrectly identifying target insect pests and their natural enemies is important in biological control management programs. In the scale insect outbreak that devastated the coconut industry of the Philippines in 2009, the misidentification of the destructive pest population resulted in an unsuccessful biological control application. The scale cover has been proposed as a diagnostic feature to identify the cryptic Aspidiotus species from one another. Here, we examined the scale cover of three Aspidiotus species at higher magnification using scanning electron microscopy (SEM) to validate the observed difference in scale cover characteristics reported in previous literature. SEM observations revealed that the cryptic species A. destructor and A. rigidus scale covers are ultrastructurally similar, having irregularly arranged and highly agglutinated wax ribbons, whereas A. nerii has highly agglutinated wax ribbons arranged in an overlapping concentric pattern. Additionally, a comparative observation of the ovipositor of the hymenopteran parasitoids directly associated with the two cryptic Aspidiotus species, A. rigidus and A. destructor, was done to provide structural evidence that links ovipositor structure to host specificity. The structure of the ovipositor tip of the hymenopteran parasitoids directly associated with the two Aspidiotus species examined under SEM is congruent with their mode of parasitization.