Hampshire College

About: Hampshire College is a education organization based out in Amherst Center, Massachusetts, United States. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Genetic programming & Population. The organization has 461 authors who have published 998 publications receiving 40827 citations.

Analyzing the stability of gene expression using a simple reaction-diffusion model in an early Drosophila embryo

Abstract: In all complex organisms, the precise levels and timing of gene expression controls vital biological processes. In higher eukaryotes, including the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster, the complex molecular control of transcription (the synthesis of RNA from DNA) and translation (the synthesis of proteins from RNA) events driving this gene expression are not fully understood. In particular, for Drosophila melanogaster, there is a plethora of experimental data, including quantitative measurements of both RNA and protein concentrations, but the precise mechanisms that control the dynamics of gene expression during early development and the processes which lead to steady-state levels of certain proteins remain elusive. This study analyzes a current mathematical modeling approach in an attempt to better understand the long-term behavior of gene regulation. The model is a modified reaction-diffusion equation which has been previously employed in predicting gene expression levels and studying the relative contributions of transcription and translation events to protein abundance [10,11,24]. Here, we use Matrix Algebra and Analysis techniques to study the stability of the gene expression system and analyze equilibria, using very general assumptions regarding the parameter values incorporated into the model. We prove that, given realistic biological parameter values, the system will result in a unique, stable equilibrium solution. Additionally, we give an example of this long-term behavior using the model alongside actual experimental data obtained from Drosophila embryos.

Indignation and Intelligibility: Contradictions that Place Vulnerable Populations ‘Off the Grid’

Abstract: English Abstract: Our paper draws on our ethnographic work regarding transnational adoption, unauthorized immigration, and deportation in order to examine the grids of intelligibility that produce adoptability and deportability. Adoptable babies, unauthorized migrants, and deportable aliens are, in some sense “off the grid” in that aspects of their pasts took place elsewhere, or are unknown or sealed, thus enabling them to be excluded or removed from particular polities. Such individuals appear to move – between statuses, territories, and states of being. At the same time, the very possibility of such movements, indeed, of alienability, unsettles the very grids of kinship, property, nationality, and belonging on which exclusions and removals are based. Adoption, migration, and deportation are therefore processes that disturb and fascinate, as evidenced by the numerous news articles about adoptees who return to discover their “roots,” or the hardships and successes of migrants. These stories are not only about the individuals involved but also the nations and assumptions about national “essences” that make it possible to “locate” persons. Our analysis seeks to interrogate these assumptions, while providing alternatives to the grids of deservingness and ideas about a child’s “best interest” that underpin immigration policy and adoption law.Spanish Abstract: Este articulo muestra el trabajo etnografico realizado sobre la adopcion transnacional, la inmigracion no autorizada, y la deportacion, para examinar las redes de inteligibilidad que fomentan la adopcion y deportacion. Bebes adoptables, inmigrantes no autorizados, y extranjeros deportables estan, en cierto sentido "fuera de juego", ya que su pasado se desarrollo en otros lugares, es desconocido o inaccesible, lo que favorece que sean excluidos o eliminados de politicas particulares. Parece que estas personas se mueven entre status, territorios y estados del ser. Al mismo tiempo, la posibilidad de tales movimientos, esto es, de extranjeria, perturba las redes de parentesco, propiedad, nacionalidad y pertenencia en que se basan las exclusiones. Adopcion, inmigracion y deportacion son por lo tanto, procesos que perturban y a la vez fascinan, como lo demuestran los numerosos articulos de prensa acerca de adoptados que vuelven a descubrir sus "raices", o las dificultades y los exitos de los inmigrantes. Estas historias no estan relacionadas unicamente con las personas involucradas, sino tambien con las naciones y las asunciones sobre las "esencias" nacionales que permiten "localizar" personas. Este analisis busca cuestionar estos supuestos, al tiempo que proporciona alternativas a las redes de merecimiento e ideas sobre el "interes superior" del nino en que se basa la politica de inmigracion y la ley de adopcion.

Genome Sequences of Frankineae sp. Strain MT45 and Jatrophihabitans sp. Strain GAS493, Two Actinobacteria Isolated from Forest Soil.

Abstract: Frankiaceae are bacterial endosymbionts that are also found free-living in soil. Here, we present the genome sequences of two novel bacterial members of the order Frankiales, class Actinobacteria, isolated from temperate terrestrial forest soils. The genomes for MT45 and GAS493 indicate a genetic capacity for carbohydrate degradation but not nitrogen fixation.