Space and Culture: Quarantine

The dead, not unlike the sick, are historically quarantined from the space of the living. Spatial separation is a constituent of civilization and this is epitomized by an architectural and urban separation, indeed division, between the space of the dead and the space of the living. Cemeteries are historically located on the periphery, quartered off by a clearly demarcated boundary, or in a separate site altogether as it is called, the City of the Dead. Architecture manifests a clarity of distinction between the living and the dead as spatially distinct building block of civilization. Yet we know this cannot be the whole story. This paper will draw on the death drive from psychoanalytic theory to discuss an architecture of quarantine.

Little evidence that lowering the pH of concrete supports greater biodiversity on tropical and temperate seawalls

Concrete is one of the most commonly used materials in the construction of coastal and marine infrastructure despite the well known environmental impacts which include a high carbon footprint and high alkalinity (~pH 13). There is an ongoing discussion regarding the potential positive effects of lowered concrete pH on benthic biodiversity, but this has not been investigated rigorously. Here, we designed a manipulative field experiment to test whether carbonated (lowered pH) concrete substrates support greater species richness and abundance, and/or alter community composition, in both temperate and tropical intertidal habitats. We constructed 192 experimental concrete tiles, half of which were carbonated to a lower surface pH of 7-8 (vs. control pH of >9), and affixed them to seawalls in the United Kingdom and Singapore. There were 2 sites per country, and 6 replicate tiles of each treatment were collected at 4 time points over a year. Overall, we found no significant effect of lowered pH on the abundance, richness, or community assemblage in both countries. Separate site- and month-specific generalised linear models (GLMs) showed only sporadic effects: i.e. lowered pH tiles had a small positive effect on early benthic colonisation in the tropics but this was later succeeded by similar species assemblages regardless of treatment. Thus, while it is worth considering the modification of concrete from an environmental/emissions standpoint, lowered pH may not be a suitable technique for enhancing biodiversity in the marine built environment.

PROMOTION OF AGRARIAN SCIENTIFIC JOURNALS THROUGH THE «PORTAL OF PUBLICATIONS OF THE DEPARTMENT OF AGRARIAN SCIENCES OF THE NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES OF BELARUS»

Most agricultural periodicals do not adhere to recommendations for the design of a scientific journal recognized by world standards, and do not have adequate information platforms for interacting with both search engines and international citation indices. On June 5, 2020 State Institution “I.S. Lupinovich Belarus Agricultural Library” of the National Academy of Sciences of Belarus was appointed the executor of generation and filling the “Portal of publications of the Department of Agrarian Sciences of the National Academy of Sciences of Belarus”. The portal will consist of two elements. The first element is the portal itself, which will provide unified information about the new, most cited and viewed articles on agricultural topics, agricultural science news and will have a single search line for all materials posted on the portal. The second element is completely self-contained scientific journal sites. Each of the journals included in the project will receive its own separate site, which will fully comply with modern scientific publishing practices and the requirements of international scientific databases. The “Portal of the publications of the Department of Agrarian Sciences of the National Academy of Sciences of Belarus” and the sites of the journals will be developed in conjunction with the system of comprehensive support and support of the scientific journal “Elpub” Non-for-profit partnership “National Electronic Information Consortium”. The library has signed an agreement on cooperation with four organizations of the Department of Agrarian Sciences of the National Academy of Sciences of Belarus to provide materials published in their journals for filling the portal and sites. The implementation of this project will serve as a foundation for the future entry of Belarusian scientific agricultural journals into international scientific databases and will help to acquaint the world scientific community with the developments of Belarusian agrarian scientists.

Innovation in biosafety oversight: The Harvard Catalyst Common Reciprocal IBC Reliance Authorization Agreement

Increasingly, basic, translational, and clinical research has become more collaborative, resulting in multi-institutional studies that involve common approaches to a central question. For multi-institutional projects that involve recombinant or synthetic nucleic acids, Institutional Biosafety Committee (IBC) review is generally required at each separate site. Duplicative review may result in both administrative costs and delays, without evidence of increased safety or protections, and investigator frustration. To address these inefficiencies, IBC leaders drafted a collaborative IBC Reliance Authorization Agreement. The Agreement allows one or more institutions to cede IBC review to a reviewing IBC that accepts the responsibility. The ability to cede IBC review, and the ability to rely on one decision on behalf of all collaborating institutions for a given protocol, removes delays in approval of multi-center protocols, and collaborating principal investigators are able to focus on research rather than administrative tasks. In the process, we found promotion of this collaborative model led to stronger connections among institutions and among IBC members. The requirement for IBC member representation from the local community, however, limits its broader dissemination; we make several recommendations to mitigate this challenge.

Resistance of Soybean Plant Introductions to Three Colonies of Soybean Aphid (Hemiptera: Aphididae) Biotype 4

Soybean aphid, Aphis glycines Matsumura (Hemiptera: Aphididae), infestations of soybean, Glycine max (L.) Merr. (Fabales: Fabaceae), and the associated yield loss have led to a large dependence on insecticidal management in soybean throughout the Midwestern United States. However, several populations of pyrethroid-resistant soybean aphids have recently been found in Iowa, Minnesota, North Dakota and South Dakota, which highlights the importance of alternative management approaches. One such alternative method is host-plant resistance, which uses naturally occurring plant defenses in crop cultivars to reduce the potential for yield loss from a pest population. Current soybean aphid-resistant cultivars do not protect against all soybean aphids due to the presence of virulent biotypes. In particular, soybean aphid biotype 4 is virulent to Rag1 and Rag2 resistance genes both individually and in combination. However, we hypothesized that resistance to biotype 4 may exist in previously identified, but uncharacterized resistant soybean plant introductions (PIs). To test this, we evaluated 51 previously identified but uncharacterized soybean aphid-resistant PIs for their resistance to colonies of soybean aphid biotype 4 collected in separate site-years (Lomira, WI 2013; Volga, SD 2015, 2016). Free-choice tests identified 14 PIs with putative resistance to ‘Lomira13’, two to ‘Volga15’, and eight to ‘Volga16’ soybean aphid colonies. Follow-up, no-choice tests corroborated two to three resistant PIs per colony, and PI 437696, which was resistant to each of the three colonies and could aid in breeding efforts and an integrated approach to soybean aphid management.

THE RESEARCH OF PROBLEMS OF THE INFORMATION ALGORITHM FUNCTIONING IN THE PRESENCE OF PRESERVED NODES IN WIRELESS SENSOR NETWORKS

Sensor networks are one of the most relevant and promising technologies for wide application in various spheres of human life. Relatively inexpensive components, namely, sensor nodes are combined into one network. Due to the use of a significant number of nodes, in addition to the overall impact on functionality, this also leads to a decrease in the reliability of the network. Wireless connectivity has a number of limitations when it comes to the direct connection to the public communications network or the next-generation networks with optical components. For example, the relatively small distance to send information between constituent components. It follows next idea -sooner or later there will be the denial of nodes, which will lead to the isolation of other sensors. To avoid this, or at least to ensure the network connectivity during a failover, more nodes on a separate site need to be used. Also, due to the presence of connectivity between touch nodes, there are a number of general features that should be taken into account when designing such a network and deploying it in real-world conditions. One of these tasks is to ensure the accuracy of packets of information’s transfer between the sensor nodes, as violations of its integrity, quality, reliability and safety can lead to serious consequences. Due to insignificant volumes of memory, sensor nodes are not able to capture data about all nodes, their physical addresses, metrics for the fastest transmission of information packets. In view of this, the number of requests for the same node may exceed the critical rate at a certain time. However, there may also be a situation where a node that has not been earlier tested can be connected to the network. In this case, the question of the authenticity of the data that will circulate in the network from a similar, hidden node to others is sharply raised. Therefore, it is necessary to study the existing and the introduction of new algorithms for the transmission of information in the presence of hidden nodes in wireless sensory networks at the present stage of development.

Transcriptional control of IFNT expression

Once interferon-tau (IFNT) had been identified as a type I IFN in sheep and cattle and its functions were characterized, numerous studies were conducted to elucidate the transcriptional regulation of this gene family. Transfection studies performed largely with human choriocarcinoma cell lines identified regulatory regions of the IFNT gene that appeared responsible for trophoblast-specific expression. The key finding was the recognition that the transcription factor ETS2 bound to a proximal region within the 5′UTR of a bovine IFNT and acted as a strong transactivator. Soon after other transcription factors were identified as cooperative partners. The ETS2-binding site and the nearby AP1 site enable response to intracellular signaling from maternal uterine factors. The AP1 site also serves as a GATA-binding site in one of the bovine IFNT genes. The homeobox-containing transcription factor, DLX3, augments IFNT expression combinatorially with ETS2. CDX2 has also been identified as transactivator that binds to a separate site upstream of the main ETS2 enhancer site. CDX2 participates in IFNT epigenetic regulation by modifying histone acetylation status of the gene. The IFNT downregulation at the time of the conceptus attachment to the uterine endometrium appears correlated with the increased EOMES expression and the loss of other transcription coactivators. Altogether, the studies of transcriptional control of IFNT have provided mechanistic evidence of the regulatory framework of trophoblast-specific expression and critical expression pattern for maternal recognition of pregnancy.

Open Online Courses in Public Health: experience from Peoples-uni

Open Online Courses (OOCs) are offered by Peoples-uni at http://ooc.peoples-uni.org to complement the courses run on a separate site for academic credit at http://courses.peoples-uni.org. They provide a wide range of online learning resources beyond those usually found in credit bearing Public Health courses. They are self-paced, and students can enrol themselves at any time and utilise Open Educational Resources free of copyright restrictions. In the two years that courses have been running, 1174 students from 100 countries have registered and among the 1597 enrolments in 14 courses, 15% gained a certificate of completion. Easily accessible and appealing to a wide geographical and professional audience, OOCs have the potential to play a part in establishing global Public Health capacity building programmes.

Open Online Courses in Public Health: experience from Peoples-uni

Open Online Courses (OOCs) are offered by Peoples-uni at http://ooc.peoples-uni.org to complement the courses run on a separate site for academic credit at http://courses.peoples-uni.org. They provide a wide range of online learning resources beyond those usually found in credit bearing Public Health courses. They are self-paced, and students can enrol themselves at any time and utilise Open Educational Resources free of copyright restrictions. In the two years that courses have been running, 1174 students from 100 countries have registered and among the 1597 enrollments in 15 courses, 15% gained a certificate of completion. Easily accessible and appealing to a wide geographical and professional audience, OOCs have the potential to play a part in establishing global Public Health capacity building programmes.

Allosteric Regulation of Lactobacillus plantarum Xylulose 5-Phosphate/Fructose 6-Phosphate Phosphoketolase (Xfp)

ABSTRACTXylulose 5-phosphate/fructose 6-phosphate phosphoketolase (Xfp), which catalyzes the conversion of xylulose 5-phosphate (X5P) or fructose 6-phosphate (F6P) to acetyl phosphate, plays a key role in carbohydrate metabolism in a number of bacteria. Recently, we demonstrated that the fungalCryptococcus neoformansXfp2 exhibits both substrate cooperativity for all substrates (X5P, F6P, and Pi) and allosteric regulation in the forms of inhibition by phosphoenolpyruvate (PEP), oxaloacetic acid (OAA), and ATP and activation by AMP (K. Glenn, C. Ingram-Smith, and K. S. Smith. Eukaryot Cell13:657–663, 2014). Allosteric regulation has not been reported previously for the characterized bacterial Xfps. Here, we report the discovery of substrate cooperativity and allosteric regulation among bacterial Xfps, specifically theLactobacillus plantarumXfp.L. plantarumXfp is an allosteric enzyme inhibited by PEP, OAA, and glyoxylate but unaffected by the presence of ATP or AMP. Glyoxylate is an additional inhibitor to those previously reported forC. neoformansXfp2. As withC. neoformansXfp2, PEP and OAA share the same or possess overlapping sites onL. plantarumXfp. Glyoxylate, which had the lowest half-maximal inhibitory concentration of the three inhibitors, binds at a separate site. This study demonstrates that substrate cooperativity and allosteric regulation may be common properties among bacterial and eukaryotic Xfp enzymes, yet important differences exist between the enzymes in these two domains.IMPORTANCEXylulose 5-phosphate/fructose 6-phosphate phosphoketolase (Xfp) plays a key role in carbohydrate metabolism in a number of bacteria. Although we recently demonstrated that the fungalCryptococcusXfp is subject to substrate cooperativity and allosteric regulation, neither phenomenon has been reported for a bacterial Xfp. Here, we report that theLactobacillus plantarumXfp displays substrate cooperativity and is allosterically inhibited by phosphoenolpyruvate and oxaloacetate, as is the case forCryptococcusXfp. The bacterial enzyme is unaffected by the presence of AMP or ATP, which act as a potent activator and inhibitor of the fungal Xfp, respectively. Our results demonstrate that substrate cooperativity and allosteric regulation may be common properties among bacterial and eukaryotic Xfps, yet important differences exist between the enzymes in these two domains.