An invaluable firsthand account of life during the Civil War, From Manassas to Appomattox, is the memior of Confederate Lieutenant General James Longstreet, the principle subordinate under General ...Robert E. Lee. An introduction and notes by prominent historian James I. Robertson Jr. and a new foreword by Christian Keller offer insight into the impact of Longstreet's career on American history.
Taxonomic identification of biological materials can be achieved through DNA barcoding, where an unknown "barcode" sequence is compared to a reference database. In many disciplines, obtaining ...accurate taxonomic identifications can be imperative (e.g., evolutionary biology, food regulatory compliance, forensics). The Barcode of Life DataSystems (BOLD) and GenBank are the main public repositories of DNA barcode sequences. In this study, an assessment of the accuracy and reliability of sequences in these databases was performed. To achieve this, 1) curated reference materials for plants, macro-fungi and insects were obtained from national collections, 2) relevant barcode sequences (rbcL, matK, trnH-psbA, ITS and COI) from these reference samples were generated and used for searching against both databases, and 3) optimal search parameters were determined that ensure the best match to the known species in either database. While GenBank outperformed BOLD for species-level identification of insect taxa (53% and 35%, respectively), both databases performed comparably for plants and macro-fungi (~81% and ~57%, respectively). Results illustrated that using a multi-locus barcode approach increased identification success. This study outlines the utility of the BLAST search tool in GenBank and the BOLD identification engine for taxonomic identifications and identifies some precautions needed when using public sequence repositories in applied scientific disciplines.
The first comparative study of censorship in theatre and cinema during the last century, this book examines notable twentieth-century cases involving the Lord Chamberlain's theatre censorship and the ...British Board of Film Censors (BBFC). Anthony Aldgate and James C. Robertson have written extensively on the subject of stage and screen censorship, and here they utilise previously unpublished Lord Chamberlain's censorship sources as well as hitherto unexplored BBFC files. They show how the two censorship agencies operated, with some interaction between them, over such controversial matters as sex, foreign affairs, juvenile crime, single-sex relationships, the 'swinging' 1960s, horror, religion and other contentious material. This wide-ranging study concludes by explaining why theatre censorship was abolished in 1968 whereas the BBFC has survived until the present day. Censorship in Theatre and Cinema is a valuable contribution to media history with implications for the practice of censorship in Britain today.Features* The first comparative study of censorship in both theatre and cinema* Accessible to both specialist and general readers alike* Covers both American and British stage and screen properties* Includes detailed analysis of various case studies to illustrate censorship procedures in action.
I acknowledge that we are meeting on the lands of the Gadigal people of the Eora nation, and I pay my respects to their elders, past, present and emerging.
Anatomical models are important training and teaching tools in the clinical environment and are routinely used in medical imaging research. Advances in segmentation algorithms and increased ...availability of three-dimensional (3D) printers have made it possible to create cost-efficient patient-specific models without expert knowledge. We introduce a general workflow that can be used to convert volumetric medical imaging data (as generated by Computer Tomography (CT)) to 3D printed physical models. This process is broken up into three steps: image segmentation, mesh refinement and 3D printing. To lower the barrier to entry and provide the best options when aiming to 3D print an anatomical model from medical images, we provide an overview of relevant free and open-source image segmentation tools as well as 3D printing technologies. We demonstrate the utility of this streamlined workflow by creating models of ribs, liver, and lung using a Fused Deposition Modelling 3D printer.
The Gliocentric Brain Robertson, James M
International journal of molecular sciences,
10/2018, Letnik:
19, Številka:
10
Journal Article
Recenzirano
Odprti dostop
The Neuron Doctrine, the cornerstone of research on normal and abnormal brain functions for over a century, has failed to discern the basis of complex cognitive functions. The location and mechanisms ...of memory storage and recall, consciousness, and learning, remain enigmatic. The purpose of this article is to critically review the Neuron Doctrine in light of empirical data over the past three decades. Similarly, the central role of the synapse and associated neural networks, as well as ancillary hypotheses, such as gamma synchrony and cortical minicolumns, are critically examined. It is concluded that each is fundamentally flawed and that, over the past three decades, the study of non-neuronal cells, particularly astrocytes, has shown that virtually all functions ascribed to neurons are largely the result of direct or indirect actions of glia continuously interacting with neurons and neural networks. Recognition of non-neural cells in higher brain functions is extremely important. The strict adherence of purely neurocentric ideas, deeply ingrained in the great majority of neuroscientists, remains a detriment to understanding normal and abnormal brain functions. By broadening brain information processing beyond neurons, progress in understanding higher level brain functions, as well as neurodegenerative and neurodevelopmental disorders, will progress beyond the impasse that has been evident for decades.
The utility of molecular dynamics (MD) simulations to model biomolecular structure, dynamics, and interactions has witnessed enormous advances in recent years due to the availability of optimized MD ...software and access to significant computational power, including GPU multicore computing engines and other specialized hardware. This has led researchers to routinely extend conformational sampling times to the microsecond level and beyond. The extended sampling time has allowed the community not only to converge conformational ensembles through complete sampling but also to discover deficiencies and overcome problems with the force fields. Accuracy of the force fields is a key component, along with sampling, toward being able to generate accurate and stable structures of biopolymers. The Amber force field for nucleic acids has been used extensively since the 1990s, and multiple artifacts have been discovered, corrected, and reassessed by different research groups. We present a direct comparison of two of the most recent and state-of-the-art Amber force field modifications, bsc1 and OL15, that focus on accurate modeling of double-stranded DNA. After extensive MD simulations with five test cases and two different water models, we conclude that both modifications are a remarkable improvement over the previous bsc0 force field. Both force field modifications show better agreement when compared to experimental structures. To ensure convergence, the Drew–Dickerson dodecamer (DDD) system was simulated using 100 independent MD simulations, each extended to at least 10 μs, and the independent MD simulations were concatenated into a single 1 ms long trajectory for each combination of force field and water model. This is significantly beyond the time scale needed to converge the conformational ensemble of the internal portions of a DNA helix absent internal base pair opening. Considering all of the simulations discussed in the current work, the MD simulations performed to assess and validate the current force fields and water models aggregate over 14 ms of simulation time. The results suggest that both the bsc1 and OL15 force fields render average structures that deviate significantly less than 1 Å from the average experimental structures. This can be compared to similar but less exhaustive simulations with the CHARMM 36 force field that aggregate to the ∼90 μs time scale and also perform well but do not produce structures as close to the DDD NMR average structures (with root-mean-square deviations of 1.3 Å) as the newer Amber force fields. On the basis of these analyses, any future research involving double-stranded DNA simulations using the Amber force fields should employ the bsc1 or OL15 modification.
Large-scale bacterial population genetics studies are now routine due to cost-effective Illumina short-read sequencing. However, analysing plasmid content remains difficult due to incomplete assembly ...of plasmids. Bacterial isolates can contain any number of plasmids and assembly remains complicated due to the presence of repetitive elements. Numerous tools have been developed to analyse plasmids but the performance and functionality of the tools are variable. The MOB-suite was developed as a set of modular tools for reconstruction and typing of plasmids from draft assembly data to facilitate characterization of plasmids. Using a set of closed genomes with publicly available Illumina data, the MOB-suite identified contigs of plasmid origin with both high sensitivity and specificity (95 and 88 %, respectively). In comparison, plasmidfinder demonstrated high specificity (99 %) but limited sensitivity (50 %). Using the same dataset of 377 known plasmids, MOB-recon accurately reconstructed 207 plasmids so that they were assigned to a single grouping without other plasmid or chromosomal sequences, whereas plasmidSPAdes was only able to accurately reconstruct 102 plasmids. In general, plasmidSPAdes has a tendency to merge different plasmids together, with 208 plasmids undergoing merge events. The MOB-suite reduces the number of errors but produces more hybrid plasmids, with 84 plasmids undergoing both splits and merges. The MOB-suite also provides replicon typing similar to plasmidfinder but with the inclusion of relaxase typing and prediction of conjugation potential. The MOB-suite is written in Python 3 and is available from https://github.com/phac-nml/mob-suite.
Ant-nest beetles (Paussus) are the quintessential Trojan horses of the insect world. They hack the complex communication system of ants, allowing them to blend into the ant society and be treated as ...royalty, all the while preying upon the ants and the ants’ brood and duping the ants into rearing their young 1–3. Here we present results of the first molecular-based phylogeny of ant-nest beetles, which reveals that this symbiosis has produced one of the most stunning examples of rapid adaptive radiation documented to date. The most recent ancestor of a Paussus clade endemic to Madagascar is only 2.6 million years old. This species gave rise to a remarkably phenotypically diverse clade of 86 extant species with a net diversification interval of 0.38–0.81 million years, a rate of radiation faster than classic textbook examples of large, recent, rapid radiations such as Anolis lizards on Caribbean islands, cichlids of the East African Great Lakes, finches on the Galápagos Islands, and Drosophila and tetragnathid spiders on the Hawaiian Islands 4–8. In order for Paussus to adapt to a new host ant species, the beetle’s ability to perceive, deceive, and communicate with the new host must evolve quickly and in synchrony in both the larval and adult life stages, resulting in unusually strong selective pressure levied by their host ants. Data on host associations suggest that the history of host shifts may help explain both the striking phenotypic diversity within the Malagasy radiation and the evolution of phenotypically similar yet distantly related species in Madagascar and Africa.
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•Ant-nest beetles are undergoing a rapid adaptive radiation in Madagascar•The Malagasy radiation contains species with remarkable phenotypic diversity•Phenotypically similar yet distantly related species live in Madagascar and Africa•Phenotypic diversity and putative ecomorphs are correlated with host shifts
Ant-nest beetles hack the complex communication system of ants, blend into the ant society, and prey upon their ant hosts. Moore and Robertson present results of the first molecular-based phylogeny of ant-nest beetles, which reveals that this symbiosis has produced one of the most stunning examples of rapid adaptive radiation documented to date.
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