University of Houston

About: University of Houston is a education organization based out in Houston, Texas, United States. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Population & Poison control. The organization has 23074 authors who have published 53903 publications receiving 1641968 citations.

Political Parties, Public Opinion, and State Policy in the United States

Abstract: When comparing states in the United States, one finds little correlation between state opinion and party control of the state legislature or between party control and state policy. Although these low correlations seeming to indicate that partisan politics is irrelevant to the representation process, the opposite is true. State opinion influences the ideological positions of state parties, and parties' responsiveness to state opinion helps to determine their electoral success. Moreover, parties move toward the center once in office. For these reasons, state electoral politics is largely responsible for the correlation between state opinion and state policy.

Draft genome of the globally widespread and invasive Argentine ant (Linepithema humile).

Abstract: Ants are some of the most abundant and familiar animals on Earth, and they play vital roles in most terrestrial ecosystems. Although all ants are eusocial, and display a variety of complex and fascinating behaviors, few genomic resources exist for them. Here, we report the draft genome sequence of a particularly widespread and well-studied species, the invasive Argentine ant (Linepithema humile), which was accomplished using a combination of 454 (Roche) and Illumina sequencing and community-based funding rather than federal grant support. Manual annotation of >1,000 genes from a variety of different gene families and functional classes reveals unique features of the Argentine ant's biology, as well as similarities to Apis mellifera and Nasonia vitripennis. Distinctive features of the Argentine ant genome include remarkable expansions of gustatory (116 genes) and odorant receptors (367 genes), an abundance of cytochrome P450 genes (>110), lineage-specific expansions of yellow/major royal jelly proteins and desaturases, and complete CpG DNA methylation and RNAi toolkits. The Argentine ant genome contains fewer immune genes than Drosophila and Tribolium, which may reflect the prominent role played by behavioral and chemical suppression of pathogens. Analysis of the ratio of observed to expected CpG nucleotides for genes in the reproductive development and apoptosis pathways suggests higher levels of methylation than in the genome overall. The resources provided by this genome sequence will offer an abundance of tools for researchers seeking to illuminate the fascinating biology of this emerging model organism.

Hierarchical CoP/Ni5P4/CoP microsheet arrays as a robust pH-universal electrocatalyst for efficient hydrogen generation

Abstract: Highly active catalysts composed of earth-abundant materials, performing as efficiently as Pt catalysts, are crucial for sustainable hydrogen production through water splitting. However, most efficient catalysts consist of nanostructures made via complex synthetic methods, making scale-up quite challenging. Here we report an effective strategy for developing a very active and durable pH-universal electrocatalyst for the hydrogen evolution reaction (HER). This catalyst is constructed using a sandwich-like structure, where hierarchical cobalt phosphide (CoP) nanoparticles serve as thin skins covering both sides of nickel phosphide (Ni5P4) nanosheet arrays, forming self-supported sandwich-like CoP/Ni5P4/CoP microsheet arrays with lots of mesopores and macropores. The as-prepared electrocatalyst requires an overpotential of only 33 mV to achieve a benchmark of 10 mA cm−2, with a very large exchange current density and high turnover frequencies (TOFs) in acid media, superior to most electrocatalysts made of metal phosphides, well-known MoS2 and WS2 catalysts, and it performs comparably to state-of-the-art Pt catalysts. In particular, this electrocatalyst shows impressive operational stability at an extremely large current density of 1 A cm−2, indicating its possible application toward large-scale water electrolysis. Additionally, this electrocatalyst is very active in alkaline electrolyte (71 mV at 10 mA cm−2), which demonstrates its pH universality as a HER catalyst with outstanding catalytic activity. This simple strategy does not involve any solvothermal and hydrothermal processes, paving a new avenue toward the design of robust non-noble electrocatalysts for hydrogen production, aimed at commercial water electrolysis.