Showing papers by "Bowling Green State University published in 2023"

Ribosomal intergenic spacers are filled with transposon remnants

Abstract: Abstract Eukaryotic ribosomal DNA (rDNA) comprises tandem units of highly-conserved coding genes separated by rapidly-evolving spacer DNA. The spacers of all 12 species examined were filled with short direct repeats (DRs) and multiple long tandem repeats (TRs), completing the rDNA maps that previously contained unannotated and inadequately studied sequences. The external transcribed spacers also were filled with DRs and some contained TRs. We infer that the spacers arose from transposon insertion, followed by their imprecise excision, leaving short DRs characteristic of transposon visitation. The spacers provided a favored location for transposon insertion because they occupy loci containing hundreds to thousands of gene repeats. The spacers’ primary cellular function may be to link one rRNA transcription unit to the next, whereas transposons flourish here because they have colonized the most frequently-used part of the genome. Author Summary The DNA loci containing the ribosomal RNA genes (the rDNA) in eukaryotes are puzzling. The sections encoding the rRNA are so highly conserved that they can be used to assess evolutionary relationships among diverse eukaryotes, yet the rDNA sequences between the rRNA genes (the intergenic spacer sequences; IGS) are among the most rapidly evolving in the genome, including varying within and between species and between individuals of a species, and within cells of an individual. Here we report the presence of large numbers of direct repeats (DRs) throughout the IGSs of a diverse set of organisms. Parasitic DNA and RNA elements often leave short DRs when they are excised resulting in “molecular scars” in the DNA. These “scars” are absent from the coding sections of the rDNA repeats, indicating that the IGSs have long been targets for integration of these parasitic elements that have been eliminated from the coding sections by selection. While these integration events are mostly detrimental to the organism, occasionally they have caused beneficial changes in eukaryotes, thus allowing both the parasites and the hosts to survive and co-evolve.

Searching for Manicouagan: astrochronological predictions and tests of alternative age models in the Late Triassic Chinle Formation [Colorado Plateau Coring Project-1 (CPCP-1), Arizona, USA]

Abstract: The age of the ~100 km Manicouagan impact structure (Quebec, Canada) is ~215.5 Ma (1, 2), falling roughly in the middle of the Norian (228-206 Ma) of the Late Triassic, plausibly corresponding to the mid-Norian biotic crisis in the oceans (3) and Adamanian-Revueltian (4) biotic turnover on land. The latter is the largest apparent biotic disruption in the continental Triassic of North America, as documented in the Chinle Formation of the Colorado Plateau and environs in the southwestern USA. Funded by ICDP and NSF (2013-2016), CPCP-1 cored nearly the entire Norian part of the Chinle intersecting what should be the time of the giant impact and biotic transition. Analyses of detrital CA-ID-TIMS U-Pb zircon ages and magnetostratigraphy resulted in two alternative age models for the Chinle in the core (5, 6). Model A emphasized the one-to-one magnetostratigraphic match of polarity zones between the Chinle (5) and the Newark-Hartford Astrochronostratigraphic Polarity Time Scale (N-H APTS) (7) and is consisent with the youngest zircon ages, whereas Model B emphasized the mean of the youngest coherent cluster of ages at a specific level (6). Although both age models agree for the upper stratigraphic core section of the Chinle, they differ dramatically lower down with Model B having three additional accumulation rate segments, one of which is so low as to suggest a hiatus at the Adamanian-Revueltian turnover and Manicouagan impact, similar to a  previous CA-ID-TIMS outcrop study (8). Model A predicts no discernable change in rate or hiatus at the putative event level and only one other accumulation rate segment. Timeseries analysis using Model A reveals significant ~1.8 Myr and 405 kyr cycles in both accumulation rate segments for natural gamma radiation and the elemental XRF ratios, in phase in both segments with the chaotic Mars-Earth and metronomic Venus-Jupiter cycles in the N-H APTS (9). Model B, in contrast, lacks significant cycles at these periods for the lower three accumulation rate segments. Consilience between Model A and the independent astrochronological predictions suggests it is the better model. The discrepancy with Model B is parsimoniously explained by the youngest coherent age clusters tending to be dominated by recycled zircons in the lower part of the core as suggested by LA-ICP-MS data (10). The Adamanian-Revueltian biotic turnover and Manicouagan impact therefore should have a record in the higher accumulation rate part of the Chinle and not be cut out by a hiatus or in a condensed section. Additional coring and denser CA-ID-TIMS ages will be needed to fully test the robustness of this conclusion.1, Ramezani+ (2005) Geochim, Cosmochim. Acta 69:321. 2, Jaret+ (2018) EPSL 501:78. 3, Onoue+ (2016) Sci. Repts. 6:29609. 4, Parker & Martz (2011) EESTSE 101:231. 5, Kent+ (2019) Geochem. Geophys. Geosyst. 20:4654. 6, Rasmussen+ (2021) GSA Bull. 133:539. 7, Kent+ (2017) Earth-Sci. Rev. 166:153. 8, Ramezani+ (2014) AJS  314:981. 9, Olsen+ (2019) PNAS 116:10664. 10, Gehrels+ (2020) Geochronology 2:257.

“Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot, nothing is going to get better”: An environmental discourse analysis of animated films The Lorax (2012) and Tomorrow (2019)

Abstract: Abstract. Using environmental humanities discourse analysis, this article asks how environmental issues are exhibited in two environmentally focused animated films, The Lorax and Tomorrow, produced in Hollywood (United States) and Dhallywood (Bangladesh), respectively, and how people responded to these films on social media websites. The first part of the article is the analysis of selected social media pages to understand the impact of these two films on contemporary environmental discourse, and the second part comprises an analysis of the environmental narrative of the films. I selected these two films for four reasons: i) they are both environmental educational and pedagogical tools; ii) they use environmental storytelling; iii) they both address sustainability; and iv) they may have influenced some discourse on environmental issues on social media. The study demonstrates that environmentally driven animated films can shape the discourse of their audiences. This study also demonstrates how narratives from films such as The Lorax and Tomorrow can lead an audience to consider large-scale environmental issues.

Functional Data Analysis

Abstract: This chapter introduces functional data analysis (FDA) and selective topics in FDA, including functional principal component analysis (FPCA) and functional linear regression (FLR), with real data applications using a software package, which is publicly available. The methods in this chapter are based on local polynomial regression, a basic and important smoothing technique in nonparametric and semiparametric statistics. The approaches included in this chapter are not limited to the analysis of dense functional data but can also be used for the analysis of sparse functional/longitudinal data. In Sect. 4.1, we introduce FDA with some interesting examples of functional data and briefly describe FPCA and FLR. Section 4.2 details FPCA, one of the most important topics and tools in FDA. Topics such as the estimation of mean and covariance functions using nonparametric smoothing, choosing the number of principal components (PC) using subjective and objective methods, and prediction of trajectories are included and illustrated using a publicly available bike-sharing data set. Section 4.3 presents FLR based on FPCA described in Sect. 4.2. FLR is a generalization of traditional linear regression to the case of functional data. It is a powerful tool to model the relationship between functional/scalar response and functional predictors. This section is also illustrated using the same bike-sharing data set. We focus on the case when both response and predictor are functions in this section, but we mentioned other types of FLR topics in Sect. 4.4. Section 4.4 presents a short overview of other selected topics and software packages in FDA. These topics are either about functional data with more complex features than the simple and basic ones included in the previous two sections or about other statistical estimation and inference not covered before. The statistical software packages used in this chapter are written in Matlab and may be appropriate for the analysis of some basic types of functional data but not for others. Section 4.4 described other software packages written in different languages, such as R, and those packages have the flexibility to analyze various problems in functional data and different types of functional data.

Historic Real Estate: Market Morality and the Politics of Preservation in the Early United States

Abstract: Whitney Martinko's Historic Real Estate explores the intersection of multiple historiographic trends for the early republic, among them analysis of market revolution ambivalence, charting of the slow disentangling of “public” and “private,” examination of material culture, consideration of the built environment, and illuminating collective memory. Americans contested what to do with old buildings and landmarks—or whether to do away with them. Martinko examines these struggles over the difference between how, for a given site, Americans weighed its social value against its market value. Those differences could become complicated. From the 1780s, Martinko argues, promotion was more often linked to preservation, as an acceptable way to tout a property's attractiveness. However, by the late 1820s, attitudes toward such sites became more politicized. As an example, Martinko offers the Carpenters' Company, which, in 1829, kept Carpenters' Hall in Philadelphia, the first building where the Continental Congress met. The author notes that the company could be praised for maintaining the location, however, upkeep funding was raised by renting space in the building to an auctioneer—perhaps the personification of a crass market economy. Jacksonians, pressing for a morally regulated economy, could then turn their opprobrium toward what they portrayed as the snooty proprietors of private sites who surrendered to market pressures to tear down or sell houses that were architecturally or historically significant. By these standards, the owners of estates such as Thomas Jefferson's Monticello or Henry Clay's Ashland were saddled by the costs of upkeep and loss of privacy if they kept their properties intact but were excoriated when they tried to modify or sell such sites of public significance—even though neither states nor the federal government were willing to step in.

Assured Destruction: Building the Ballistic Missile Culture of the U.S. Air Force

Abstract: A cheating scandal on no-fail proficiency exams in 2014 briefly exposed the American public to the secretive, isolated, tedious, zero-defect, and career-limiting field of nuclear missileers in the U.S. Air Force. David Bath's slim volume based upon his doctoral dissertation identifies the origins of many of those occupational cultures, conditions, and limitations at the inception of the career field in the late 1950s and early 1960s. Bath was an air force missileer at the end of the Cold War, and he insightfully and sympathetically draws upon official histories, memoirs, military periodicals, and oral histories. He demonstrates how missileers, once seen as the ultimate warriors entrusted with the responsibility to maintain and launch some of the most devastating weapons ever created, became balkanized outcasts who suffered from lower prestige, pay, and promotion opportunities. The antagonists here are the combat-experienced pilots of manned aircraft, initially of strategic bombers then of fighters. They first viewed nuclear ballistic missiles and those who operated them as threats to their budgets, prestige, and strategic significance. Later, combat-rated pilots came to see missileers as nonwarriors, who (thankfully) never performed their wartime mission as others engaged in decades of persistent limited warfare. Bath emphasizes how pilots dominated not only the top ranks of the air force but also the top missile commands despite rarely having any operational experience with nuclear missiles.

Erratum: Stakeholders and Invasive Asian Carp in the Great Lakes

Abstract: Correction| May 24 2023 Erratum: Stakeholders and Invasive Asian Carp in the Great Lakes Shannon Orr Shannon Orr 1Political Science, Bowling Green State University, OH, USA Email: skorr@bgsu.edu Search for other works by this author on: This Site PubMed Google Scholar Email: skorr@bgsu.edu Case Studies in the Environment (2023) 7 (1): 1422170c. https://doi.org/10.1525/cse.2023.1422170c Connected Content This is a correction to: Stakeholders and Invasive Asian Carp in the Great Lakes Views Icon Views Article contents Figures & tables Video Audio Supplementary Data Peer Review Share Icon Share Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Tools Icon Tools Get Permissions Cite Icon Cite Search Site Citation Shannon Orr; Erratum: Stakeholders and Invasive Asian Carp in the Great Lakes. Case Studies in the Environment 23 January 2023; 7 (1): 1422170c. doi: https://doi.org/10.1525/cse.2023.1422170c Download citation file: Ris (Zotero) Reference Manager EasyBib Bookends Mendeley Papers EndNote RefWorks BibTex toolbar search Search Dropdown Menu toolbar search search input Search input auto suggest filter your search All ContentCase Studies in the Environment Search Keywords: Asian carp, stakeholders, environmental policy The manuscript contains the statement, “Since that time, they have been slowly swimming their way north and can now be found in 46 states, and most worrisome, just a few miles away from the Great Lakes—the largest freshwater ecosystem in the world with a commercial fishing industry worth more than US$7 billion” (p. 1). There have been recorded captures of grass carp in all of the Great Lakes except for Lake Superior [1]. However, there has only been three captures of any other type of carp (Bighead) and thus doesn’t fit the description. Not all have swum there; some were introduced [2]. The sentence should state, “Grass carp can now be found in 46 states, and most worrisome, in the Great Lakes—the largest freshwater ecosystem in the world with a fishing industry worth more than US$7 billion.” The manuscript contains the statement, “Such hopes however proved... View Original Article You do not currently have access to this content.

Associations Between Pornography Consumption Patterns, Pornography Consumption Motives, and Social Wellbeing among U.S. College Students: A Latent Profile Analysis with a Primarily Female Sample

Abstract: This study identified profiles of pornography motivations and outcomes and assessed differences between profiles on three measures of social well-being: social support, fear of intimacy, and loneliness. Latent profile analysis and group comparisons were conducted using cross-sectional data from college students (N = 389). Results indicated four profiles: low motivation/average distress, porn for enjoyment, high motivation/average guilt, low motivation/high distress. Those in the high motivation/average guilt profile reported more social well-being difficulties relative to the other profiles and non-pornography consumers. Results suggest that individuals who report varying pornography use motivations and negative outcomes may report difficulties with social well-being, with implications for intimate relationships.

Kleist and the Uncertainty of Things

Abstract: The appeal of things is that they insinuate a degree of stability, durability, firmness, and a degree of certainty in times of uncertainty. Unlike objects (Gegenstände), things are there even if we—humans who perceive, surround, use them—are not. The article draws on Heidegger’s 1950 essay “The Thing,” which uses the example of a jug, to reflect on Kleist’s things. Kleist’s things are not stable, not durable, and not a ground of certainty for the fickle mind. Nor are they merely fragile and transient. Rather, Kleist’s things are simultaneously both stable and fragile, durable and transient, certain and uncertain. Kleist’s writings show how the liminality of things extends into the social realm where things are recognized as a potential resource: as the singular, different, and surprising element that resists, that can change, but that also makes possible the general, the rule, the law. Focusing in particular on the broken jug in Kleist’s famous comedy by the same name, the article argues that Kleist finds in things an alternative to Kant’s “thing in itself” and to the Romantic absolute (as something Unbedingtes). Counter to the search for certainty and stable grounds advocated by some of the new materialists, Kleist’s episteme works toward a thinking that responds and recalls the uncertainty of things and with it their singularity and generative force.

Systemic Racism in Communication Sciences and Disorders Academic Programs: A Commentary on Trends in Racial Representation

Abstract: As a discipline, communication sciences and disorders (CSD) has struggled to address equity and inclusion for students, professionals, and scholars from historically excluded racial groups. Recent publications in this periodical that have begun to confront systemic racism in the discipline have been met with some expected resistance. In this commentary, I attempt to support and expand an argument made by Ellis and Kendall (2021), namely, that systemic racism has been and continues to be a normal and persistent feature of our academic programs. A comparison to U.S. Census data suggests that Asian, Black, Indigenous, Native, Latino/a/e, and multiracial CSD professionals are represented to a drastically lower rate compared with their representation in the population at large. Furthermore, publicly available data summaries indicate that there is a reduction in the level of racial diversity that is associated with an increase in White representation across the entire progression of the professional training and certification process, with the greatest level of diversity at the undergraduate level followed by the graduate and professional levels.A general knowledge of social and legal history in the United States would suggest that the relative reduction in representation across the academic and professional levels of the CSD disciplines results from policy and practice patterns that serve to preserve a White-dominant culture in our profession and exclude People of Color. Continued efforts broadly based in critical race studies may prove as a useful tool to identify, confront, and transform current policy and practice patterns in our national organization, academic programs, and accrediting bodies that have produced and sustained levels of inequality and White dominance in our programs and disciplines.