Double-strand break repair during meiosis is normally achieved using the homologous chromosome as a repair template. Heteromorphic sex chromosomes share little sequence homology, presenting unique ...challenges to the repair of double-strand breaks. Our understanding of how heteromorphic sex chromosomes behave during meiosis has been focused on ancient sex chromosomes, where the X and Y differ markedly in overall structure and gene content. It remains unclear how more recently evolved sex chromosomes that share considerably more sequence homology with one another pair and form double-strand breaks. One possibility is barriers to pairing evolve rapidly. Alternatively, recently evolved sex chromosomes may exhibit pairing and double-strand break repair that more closely resembles that of their autosomal ancestors. Here, we use the recently evolved X and Y chromosomes of the threespine stickleback fish (
Gasterosteus aculeatus
) to study patterns of pairing and double-stranded break formation using molecular cytogenetics. We found that the sex chromosomes of threespine stickleback fish did not pair exclusively in the pseudoautosomal region. Instead, the chromosomes fully paired in a non-homologous fashion. To achieve this, the X chromosome underwent synaptic adjustment during pachytene to match the axis length of the Y chromosome. Double-strand break formation and repair rate also matched that of the autosomes. Our results highlight that recently evolved sex chromosomes exhibit meiotic behavior that is reminiscent of autosomes and argues for further work to identify the homologous templates that are used to repair double-strand breaks on the X and Y chromosomes.
A striking analysis of popular board games' roots in imperialist reasoning—and why the future of play depends on reckoning with it.Board games conjure up images of innocuously enriching ...entertainment: family game nights, childhood pastimes, cooperative board games centered around resource management and strategic play. Yet in Playing Oppression, Mary Flanagan and Mikael Jakobsson apply the incisive frameworks of postcolonial theory to a broad historical survey of board games to show how these seemingly benign entertainments reinforce the logic of imperialism.Through this lens, the commercialized version of Snakes and Ladders takes shape as the British Empire's distortion of Gyan Chaupar (an Indian game of spiritual knowledge), and early twentieth-century “trading games” that fêted French colonialism are exposed for how they conveniently sanitized its brutality while also relying on crudely racist imagery. These games' most explicitly abhorrent features may no longer be visible, but their legacy still lingers in the contemporary Eurogame tendency to exalt (and incentivize) cycles of exploration, expansion, exploitation, and extermination.An essential addition to any player's bookshelf, Playing Oppression deftly analyzes this insidious violence and proposes a path forward with board games that challenge colonialist thinking and embrace a much broader cultural imagination.
Prosocial games often utilize a direct, explicit approach to engage players with serious real-life scenarios and present information about key societal issues. This approach, however, may limit a ...game’s persuasive impact and ability to produce beneficial outcomes, particularly when the apparent aims of the game trigger players’ psychological defenses or reduce players’ potential engagement with – and enjoyment of – the game experience. In contrast, the “Embedded Design” approach that we introduce here offers effective, evidence-based strategies for more stealthily or covertly delivering persuasive content in a game in a fashion that circumvents players’ psychological defenses and triggers a more receptive mindset. This paper provides an in-depth exploration of two key Embedded Design strategies: (1) intermixing: combining “on-topic” and “off-topic” game content in order to make the focal message or theme less obvious and more accessible and (2) obfuscating: using game genres or framing devices that direct players’ attention or expectations away from the game’s true aims. To illustrate the implementation and effectiveness of these strategies, we detail the design of two games that utilize a number of these techniques to reduce stereotypes and biases and present the methods and results of a set of empirical studies testing the prosocial impact of these games. In addition, we introduce a number of other Embedded Design strategies that have emerged in our work and discuss the most viable contexts for the use of this design approach.
Bone metastases are associated with increased morbidity and decreased quality of life in patients with solid tumors. Identifying patients at increased risk of bone metastases at diagnosis could lead ...to earlier interventions. We sought to retrospectively identify the incidence and predictive factors for bone metastases at initial diagnosis in a large population-based dataset.
The Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) database was used to identify patients 18 years-old or older diagnosed with solid cancers from 2010 to 2019. Patients with hematologic malignancies and primary tumors of the bone were excluded. We calculated the incidence and predictive factors for bone metastases according to demographic and tumor characteristics.
Among 1,132,154 patients identified, 1,075,070 (95.0%) had known bone metastasis status and were eligible for the study. Bone metastases were detected in 55,903 patients (5.2% of those with known bone metastases status). Among patients with bone metastases, the most common primary tumors arose from lung (44.4%), prostate (19.3%), breast (12.3%), kidney (4.0%), and colon (2.2%). Bone metastases at presentation were most common in small cell lung cancer (25.2%), non-small cell lung cancer (18.0%), and esophageal adenocarcinoma (9.4%). In addition to stage classification, predictors for bone metastases included Gleason score (OR 95.7 (95% CI 73.1 - 125.4) for Grade Group 5 vs 1 and OR 42.6 (95% CI 32.3 - 55.9) for Group 4 vs 1) and PSA (OR 14.2 (95% CI 12.6 - 16.0) for PSA > 97 vs 0 - 9.9) for prostate cancer, HER2 and hormonal receptor (HR) status (OR 2.2 (95% CI 1.9 - 2.6) for HR+/HER2+ vs HR-/HER2-) for breast cancer, histology (OR 2.5 (95% CI 2.3 - 2.6) for adenocarcinoma vs squamous) for lung cancer, and rectal primary (OR 1.2 (95% 1.1 - 1.4) vs colon primary) and liver metastases (OR 8.6 (95% CI 7.3 - 10.0) vs no liver metastases) for colorectal tumors.
Bone metastases at presentation are commonly seen in solid tumors, particularly lung, prostate, breast, and kidney cancers. Clinical and pathologic factors are associated with a significantly increased risk for bone metastases.
Introduction: Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is caused by the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2. It typically presents with respiratory symptoms such as fevers, cough, and ...shortness of breath. As the number of cases increases, however, COVID-19 is being increasingly recognized as being associated with a variety of other respiratory pathologies.
Case Report: We present the case of a 59-year-old man with COVID-19 pneumonia who acutely decompensated after having been on the medicine floor for two weeks. He was found to have a tension pneumothorax. This was treated with a needle decompression followed by a chest tube insertion. The patient subsequently recovered and was discharged.
Conclusion: This case highlights the importance of considering tension pneumothorax as a possible cause of shortness of breath in patients with COVID-19 pneumonia.
Mary Flanagan, the Sherman Fairchild Distinguished Professor of Digital Humanities at Dartmouth College, creates artworks, situations, and games that seek transformative social encounters. Her work ...has been featured in the Whitney Museum, the Museum of Fine Art in Houston, and the Center for Art and Media (ZKM) in Karlsruhe, Germany. She is the recipient of an American Council of Learned Societies Digital Innovation Fellowship and commissions from the British Arts Council, the Baltimore Museum of Art, and the National Academy of Sciences. For twenty years, Flanagan has directed the social impact design laboratory Tiltfactor, creating and studying games from web-based games to virtual reality escape rooms, from board games to role-playing sports. Flanagan has spoken about biases and stereotypes in the digital arts in diverse communities from the Museum of Modern Art to the Tate Museum in London, from the Sorbonne to Oxford University, from the World Economic Forum to K-12 teachers' groups. Keywords: art; board games; colonialism; critical play; Dada; Fluxus; game design; Grow-a-Game; Tiltfactor; video games
In this book, scholars, essayists and short story writers offer their perspectives on skin - as boundary and surface, as metaphor and physical reality. The 21st century and its attendant technology ...call for a new investigation of the intersection of body, skin, and technology.
From football to the ultimatum game to chess to World of Warcraft, games have been used in social and personality psychology research for decades. Games are a unique and powerful method: They are ...engaging and have the potential to both manipulate and measure psychological constructs. In fact, researchers have used physical games, board games, behavioral economics games, and digital games to study a range of individual differences, interpersonal processes, and social cognitive processes. Furthermore, researchers have the opportunity to create their own games that can be targeted directly toward their topic of interest. Our review provides a primer for social and personality psychologists interested in using existing games or creating new games for their research as a method for understanding attitudes, behaviors, emotions, cognitions, and perceptions.
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