BimD/SPO76 is at the interface of cell cycle progression, chromosome morphogenesis, and recombination

BIMD of Aspergillus nidulans belongs to a highly conserved protein family implicated, in filamentous fungi, in sister-chromatid cohesion and DNA repair. We show here that BIMD is chromosome associated at all stages, except from late prophase through anaphase, during mitosis and meiosis, and is involved in several aspects of both programs. First, bimD+ function must be executed during S through M. Second, in bimD6 germlings, mitotic nuclear divisions and overall cellular program occur more rapidly than in wild type. Thus, BIMD, an abundant chromosomal protein, is a negative regulator of normal cell cycle progression. Third, bimD6 reduces the level of mitotic interhomolog recombination but does not alter the ratio between crossover and noncrossover outcomes. Moreover, bimD6 is normal for intrachromosomal recombination. Therefore, BIMD is probably not involved in the enzymology of recombinational repair per se. Finally, during meiosis, staining of the Sordaria ortholog Spo76p delineates robust chromosomal axes, whereas BIMD stains all chromatin. SPO76 and bimD are functional homologs with respect to their roles in mitotic chromosome metabolism but not in meiosis. We propose that BIMD exerts its diverse influences on cell cycle progression as well as chromosome morphogenesis and recombination by modulating chromosome structure.

Late life second move housing choices of international retiree migrants

Purpose – Many international retirement migrants are amenity movers undertaking the first move in the late life course model of migration. The purpose of this paper is to examine second moves within the retirement destination community to test whether the model of late life course migration accurately portrays the motivations and housing choices local movers make after retiring to another country. Design/methodology/approach – The paper combines secondary data and survey results to examine the composition of the retiree migrant population in the Alicante province of Spain. The socioeconomic characteristics and housing choices of those who have made a second move since retiring to Spain are compared with those who have not moved through a series of t-tests and chi-square tests. Findings – The paper finds that those who have made a second move within Spain are somewhat typical of second movers in the late life course. They are likely to cite mobility or health problems as a reason for moving and appear to recognize the need for a home that provides living area on one floor. Yet, they are choosing to move within an area that does not provide them with access to informal family care givers. Research limitations/implications – The data are restricted to retirees of two nationalities in one province of Spain. Further research is suggested in other locations and with retirees of other nationalities for comparison. Practical implications – Because many international retirees do not plan to return to their countries of origin, they will create demand for formal in-home care services and supportive retiree housing in the near future in their retirement destination countries. Originality/value – This paper provides understanding of a growing consumer housing segment in retirement destinations.

The migration of Ukrainians in times of crisis. OSW COMMENTARY Number 187, 2015-10-19

Before the Russian annexation of Crimea and the outbreak of the conflict in eastern Ukraine, the scale of labour outward migration of Ukrainians had been characterised by a slight downward trend. Back in 2014, an increase in the number of Ukrainians who migrated to Russia was observed, although no similar increase was recorded for EU countries (excluding Poland). The year 2015 brought a more rapid surge in the number of Ukrainians migrating to the EU, again mainly to Poland. Due to the lack of current EU-wide data, estimates can be made based only on data compiled by national statistical offices in countries which are the most popular with Ukrainian migrants. In Poland, as of October 2015 Ukrainians held 52,000 valid residence cards. Much greater migration dynamics have been observed in the case of temporary migration – the number of declarations which enable an individual to take up a temporary job in Poland, issued in the first half of 2015, was a staggering 400,000. This means a more than twofold increase – in the whole of 2014 372,000 declarations were issued to Ukrainian citizens. No similar increase has so far been observed in other EU states, including Italy and the Czech Republic, which have always been popular destinations for Ukrainian migration. In late 2014, 233,000 Ukrainian migrants were registered in Italy (in late 2013 the figure was 191,000), whereas in the Czech Republic the number of Ukrainian migrants remains stable – 104,000 in June 2015.

Late Miocene and Pliocene dinoflagellate cysts, acritarchs and terrestrial palynomorphs from ODP Hole 642B, Vøring Plateau, Norwegian Sea

The globally warm climate of the early Pliocene gradually cooled from 4 million years ago, synchronous with decreasing atmospheric CO2 concentrations. In contrast, palaeoceanographic records indicate that the Nordic Seas cooled during the earliest Pliocene, before global cooling. However, a lack of knowledge regarding the precise timing of Nordic Seas cooling has limited our understanding of the governing mechanisms. Here, using marine palynology, we show that cooling in the Nordic Seas was coincident with the first trans-Arctic migration of cool-water Pacific mollusks around 4.5 million years ago, and followed by the development of a modern-like Nordic Seas surface circulation. Nordic Seas cooling precedes global cooling by 500,000 years; as such, we propose that reconfiguration of the Bering Strait and Central American Seaway triggered the development of a modern circulation in the Nordic Seas, which is essential for North Atlantic Deep Water formation and a precursor for more widespread Greenland glaciation in the late Pliocene.

Late Cretaceous and Cainozoic bathyal Ostracoda of DSDP Site 62-463 in the Central Pacific (Fig. 3)

Cainozoic deep-sea ostracod assemblages from the summits of Mid-Pacific guyots point to high levels of endemism possibly as a result of their bathymetric separation from the surrounding sea floor. However, the interpretation of these fossil assemblages is hampered by the paucity of comparative material from surrounding non-guyot sites. Fifteen ostracod assemblages from DSDP Site 463 (Late Cretaceous-Pleistocene) were studied to compare with those from nearby guyots. Three distinct faunal assemblages are recognised at Site 463: Assemblage A (Maastrichtian-Eocene), Assemblage B (Oligocene-Upper Miocene) and Assemblage C (Upper Miocene-Pleistocene) although the palaeoenvironmental significance of these units is unclear. Sixty-two ostracod species are identified, the thirteen most abundant are discussed in the taxonomic section, five of which are described as new. Between 30 and 100% of the species encountered in each sample are considered as endemic to Site 463, while some of the remaining species were previously thought to be endemic to individual guyots. Similarly high levels of endemism on nearby guyots probably reflect an incomplete knowledge of deep-sea ostracod faunas rather than the establishment of geographically or bathymetrically restricted populations. The presence of globally pandemic and geographically widespread taxa on sites such as the Mid-Pacific Mountains, surrounded by abyssal depths which lie below the CCD, indicates that some faunal exchange or migration of ostracods does take place. This must be achieved within the intermediate waters and probably occurs passively.

Culture, ethnicity and migration after communism:the Pontic Greeks

This book addresses the issue of emerging transnationalism in the conditions of post-socialism through focussing on migrants’ identity as a social construction resulting from their experience of the ‘transnational circuit of culture’ as well as from post-Soviet shifts in political and economic conditions in their home regions. Popov draws upon ethnographic research conducted among Greek transnational migrants living on the Black Sea coast and in the North Caucasus regions of Russia who have become involved in extensive cross-border migration between the former Soviet Union (the Russian Federation, Kazakhstan and Georgia) and Greece (as well as Cyprus). It is estimated that more than 150,000 former Soviet citizens of Greek origin have resettled in Greece since the late 1980s. Yet, many of those who emigrate do not cut their connections with the home communities in Russia but instead establish their own transnational circuit of travel between Greece and Russia. This study demonstrates how migrants employ their ethnicity as symbolic capital available for investment in profitable transnational migration. Simultaneously they rework their practices of family networking, property relations and political participation in a way which strengthens their attachment to the local territory. The findings presented in the book imply that the social identities, economic strategies, political practices and cultural representation of the Russian Greeks are all deeply embedded in the shifting social and cultural landscape of post-Soviet Russia and extensively influenced by the global movement of ideas, goods and people.

Understandings of transnational families in debates on Migration and development

International migration sets in motion a range of significant transnational processes that connect countries and people. How migration interacts with development and how policies might promote and enhance such interactions have, since the turn of the millennium, gained attention on the international agenda. The recognition that transnational practices connect migrants and their families across sending and receiving societies forms part of this debate. The ways in which policy debate employs and understands transnational family ties nevertheless remain underexplored. This article sets out to discern the understandings of the family in two (often intermingled) debates concerned with transnational interactions: The largely state and policydriven discourse on the potential benefits of migration on economic development, and the largely academic transnational family literature focusing on issues of care and the micro-politics of gender and generation. Emphasizing the relation between diverse migration-development dynamics and specific family positions, we ask whether an analytical point of departure in respective transnational motherhood, fatherhood or childhood is linked to emphasizing certain outcomes. We conclude by sketching important strands of inclusions and exclusions of family matters in policy discourse and suggest ways to better integrate a transnational family perspective in global migration-development policy.

Migration and Residence Patterns of Salmonids in Puget Sound, Washington

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Washington, 2016-08

Early programming of the oocyte epigenome temporally controls late prophase I transcription and chromatin remodelling

Oocytes are arrested for long periods of time in the prophase of the first meiotic division (prophase I). As chromosome condensation poses significant constraints to gene expression, the mechanisms regulating transcriptional activity in the prophase I-arrested oocyte are still not entirely understood. We hypothesized that gene expression during the prophase I arrest is primarily epigenetically regulated. Here we comprehensively define the Drosophila female germ line epigenome throughout oogenesis and show that the oocyte has a unique, dynamic and remarkably diversified epigenome characterized by the presence of both euchromatic and heterochromatic marks. We observed that the perturbation of the oocyte's epigenome in early oogenesis, through depletion of the dKDM5 histone demethylase, results in the temporal deregulation of meiotic transcription and affects female fertility. Taken together, our results indicate that the early programming of the oocyte epigenome primes meiotic chromatin for subsequent functions in late prophase I.

A coupled movement and bioenergetics model to explore the spawning migration of anchovy in the Bay of Biscay

Adult anchovies in the Bay of Biscay perform north to south migration from late winter to early summer for spawning. However, what triggers and drives the geographic shift of the population remains unclear and poorly understood. An individual-based fish model has been implemented to explore the potential mechanisms that control anchovy's movement routes toward its spawning habitats. To achieve this goal, two fish movement behaviors – gradient detection through restricted area search and kinesis – simulated fish response to its dynamic environment. A bioenergetics model was used to represent individual growth and reproduction along the fish trajectory. The environmental forcing (food, temperature) of the model was provided by a coupled physical–biogeochemical model. We followed a hypothesis-testing strategy to actualize a series of simulations using different cues and computational assumptions. The gradient detection behavior was found as the most suitable mechanism to recreate the observed shift of anchovy distribution under the combined effect of sea-surface temperature and zooplankton. In addition, our results suggested that southward movement occurred more actively from early April to middle May following favorably the spatio-temporal evolution of zooplankton and temperature. In terms of fish bioenergetics, individuals who ended up in the southern part of the bay presented better condition based on energy content, proposing the resulting energy gain as an ecological explanation for this migration. The kinesis approach resulted in a moderate performance, producing distribution pattern with the highest spread. Finally, model performance was not significantly affected by changes on the starting date, initial fish distribution and number of particles used in the simulations, whereas it was drastically influenced by the adopted cues.

Atlantic salmon in regulated rivers : Migration, dam passage, and fish behavior

Hydropower dams block migration routes and disrupt longitudinal connectivity in rivers, thereby posing a threat to migratory fish species. Various fish passage solutions have been implemented to improve connectivity with varying success. A well-functioning passage solution must ensure safe and timely passage routes that are used by a substantial portion of the migrating fish. In this thesis, I report the results from telemetry studies where the behavior and survival of migrating Atlantic salmon spawners, post-spawners and smolts have been evaluated in relation to hydropower dam passage. I evaluate downstream passage performance at dams with no passage solutions in the River Klarälven, and with simple passage solutions in in the Winooski River. In the River Ätran, I study both upstream- and downstream passage performance at a dam with sophisticated passage solutions based on the best available technology. In addition, I have studied the survival and behavior of post-spawners and hatchery-released smolts. A substantial portion of the spawners survived spawning and initiated downstream migration. Most males migrated downstream in autumn following spawning, whereas females tended to stay in the river until spring. For hatchery-reared smolts, early release was associated with faster initiation of migration and higher survival compared to late release. Multiple dam passage resulted in high mortality for both smolts and kelts. For smolts, dam passage, even with simple passage solutions, was associated with substantial delay and mortality. High spill levels were linked to high survival and short delay for downstream migrating salmon. The best available passage solution, which consisted of a nature-like fishway and a low sloping intake rack to guide fish to a bypass, resulted in rapid passage of a large portion of the adult migrants.

Impediments to Cosmopolitan Engagement: Technology and Late-Modern Cosmopolitanism

What characterises late modern variety of cosmopolitanism from its classical predecessors is the inherent connection between cosmopolitanism and technology. Technology enables a vital dimension of the cosmopolitan experience – to move beyond the cosmopolitan imagination to enable active, direct engagement with other cultures. Different types of technologies contribute to cosmopolitan practice but in this paper we focus on a specific set of these enabling technologies: technologies which play a crucial role in regulating the free movement of people and populations. We briefly examine how three of the great surveillance states of the 20th century – Nazi Germany, the Soviet Union, and the German Democratic Republic – used hightech solutions in pursuing an anti-cosmopolitanism. We suggest that in the period from 2001 to the present, important elements of the cosmopolitan ethos are being closed down, and once again high-tech is intimately connected to this moment. The increasing (and proposed) use of identity cards, biometric identification systems, ITS and GIS all work to make the globalised world much harder to traverse and inhibit the full expression and experience of cosmopolitanism. The result of these trends may be that the type of cosmopolitan sentiment exhibited in western countries is an ersatz, emptied out variety with little political-ethical robustness.

Hard Lessons : Reflections on Governance and Crime Control in Late Modernity

The essays in this book catalogue a wide and varied range of instances where 'things go wrong' in the practice of criminal justice. The contributions document instances where laws, policies and practices have produced unintended consequences of the most deleterious kind, drawing attention to 'boot camps', detention centres and specific penal policies such as 'short, sharp shock' and 'three strikes and you're out'. Also examined are policing practices such as 'zero tolerance', 'saturation policing' and punitive laws in the area of drug use, sex offences, and prostitution. It will be demonstrated that in each of these cases, the objectives of government resulted in the creation of new and unforeseen problems requiring further reform to the justice system.