Kevin Woods publishes in Semigroup Forum; Aaron Goldman in Journal of Molecular Evolution

Two new publications from Math and Biology faculty; as indexed in Web of Science 

Bogart, T., Goodrick, J. and Woods, Kevin (Professor and Chair of Mathematics). Periodic behavior in families of numerical and affine semigroups via parametric Presburger arithmetic. - Semigroup Forum DOI: 10.1007/s00233-021-10164-3 (Early access; no volume or pagination available)  Subscriber access at publisher's website (SpringerLink)

From the abstract: The tool we use is expressibility in the logical system of parametric Presburger arithmetic. Generalizing to higher dimensional families of semigroups, we also examine affine semigroups  𝑆𝑛⊆ℕ𝑚$S_n\subseteq {\mathbb{N}}^m$ generated by vectors whose coordinates are polynomial functions of n, and we prove that in this case the Betti numbers are also eventually quasi-polynomial functions of n.

Goldman, Aaron. D. (Associate Professor of Biology) and Kacar, B. Cofactors are Remnants of Life's Origin and Early Evolution. - Journal of Molecular Evolution  DOI: 10.1007/s00239-020-09988-4 (Early access; no volume or pagination available)  Free full text at publisher's website (SpringerLink)

From the abstract: The RNA World is one of the most widely accepted hypotheses explaining the origin of the genetic system used by all organisms today. It proposes that the tripartite system of DNA, RNA, and proteins was preceded by one consisting solely of RNA, which both stored genetic information and performed the molecular functions encoded by that genetic information. Current research into a potential RNA World revolves around the catalytic properties of RNA-based enzymes, or ribozymes....Evidence from prebiotic geochemistry, ribozyme biochemistry, and evolutionary biology, increasingly supports these hypotheses. Certain coenzymes and cofactors may bridge modern biology with the past and can thus provide insights into the elusive and poorly-recorded period of the origin and early evolution of life.

From LEED office buildings to Mars rover: new publications from John Scofield and Christina Smith

Recent publications from John Scofield, Professor of Physics, and Christina Smith, Visiting Assistant Professor of Physics, as reported in Web of Science

Scofield, John H., Brodnitz, S., Cornell, J., Liang, T. and Scofield, T. 2021. Energy and Greenhouse Gas Savings for LEED-Certified US Office Buildings.  Energies. 

From the abstract: [Here]we present results from the largest study of measured, whole-building energy performance for commercial LEED-certified buildings, using 2016 energy use data that were obtained for 4417 commercial office buildings... Only LEED offices certified at the gold level demonstrated statistically significant savings in source energy and greenhouse gas emissions as compared with non-LEED offices. 

Energies is a peer-reviewed, open access journal from MDPI, "a pioneer in scholarly open access publishing".

Smith, Christina L., Lemmon, M., Moores, J. E., et al. 2020. The Line-of-Sight Extinction Record at Gale Crater as Observed by MSL's Mastcam and Navcam through similar to 2,500 Sols.  Journal of Geophysical Research-Planets 125: e2020JE006465.

From the abstract: [Finding based on monitoring by Mars rover Curiosity]... Extinction as a function of azimuth and elevation angle were investigated and the extinction as a function of azimuth was generally found to be smooth and thus the dust well-mixed horizontally. The extinction as a function of elevation shows increased dust loading at lower elevations during dusty seasons, indicative of dust lifting from the base of the crater.

JGR-Planets is one of dozens of journals published by the American Geophysical Union, accessible in the Wiley Online Library.

Dan Stinebring collaborates in NANOGrav, resulting in three new publications

 These three articles were published in December 2020, from the North American Nanohertz Observatory for Gravitational Waves.  Professor of Physics Dan Stinebring has long collaborated in the NANOGrav Collective.

 

• Alam, M. F., Arzoumanian, Z., Baker, P. T., et al. 2021a. The NANOGrav 12.5 yr Data Set: Observations and Narrowband Timing of 47 Millisecond Pulsars. - Astrophysical Journal Supplement Series 252: 4.
• Alam, M. F., Arzoumanian, Z., Baker, P. T., et al. 2021b. The NANOGrav 12.5 yr Data Set: Wideband Timing of 47 Millisecond Pulsars. - Astrophysical Journal Supplement Series 252: 5.
• Arzoumanian, Z., Baker, P. T., Blumer, H., et al. 2020. The NANOGrav 12.5 yr Data Set: Search for an Isotropic Stochastic Gravitational-wave Background. - Astrophysical Journal Letters 905: L34.

 Learn more about NANOGrav.

Access Astrophysical Journal Letters and Astrophysical Journal Supplement Series at The Institute of Physics, IOP Science website (subscribers only).

Research of Michael Moore and collaborators featured in "Plants Are Cool, Too!"

 Reposted from the Oberlin College Campus Digest, February 5, 2021: 

The research of Professor of Biology Mike Moore and collaborators (including several Oberlin students) on rare Hawaiian plants is the subject of the January 28, 2021 episode of the "Plants Are Cool, Too!" video series. The episode "How to save a species from going extinct," documents the many biologists involved in preventing the extinction of ultra-rare plants that grow only on the island of Kaua'i.

(see Faculty and Staff Notes)

Image extracted from the video

Roger Laushman publishes in Plant and Soil, with Jake Nash '16 (now at Duke Univ) and C. Schadt, Univ Tennesee

Nash, Jake, Laushman, Roger, Professor of Biology, & Schadt, Christopher. (2020). Ectomycorrhizal fungal diversity interacts with soil nutrients to predict plant growth despite weak plant-soil feedbacks. Plant and Soil, 453(1-2), 445-458. doi:10.1007/S11104-020-04616-Y  

From a special issue:  Agroforestry: a belowground perspective.

Burr Oak leaves and acorn, image from USDA
via Wikimedia Commons

Partial abstract: "We investigated whether plant-soil feedbacks of an ectomycorrhizal tree (Quercus macrocarpa) [Burr Oak] varied based on soil nutrient status and whether fungal community composition and diversity could explain feedback patterns. ...There was a positive home vs. away plant-soil feedback, though feedbacks with individual hosts were not significant regardless of fertilization. Still, hosts harbored distinctive fungal communities that were predictive of plant growth." 

Full-text at OhioLINK Electronic Journal Center

Senior Geology major Opal Perron-Feller is co-author in Current Biology

Lamsdell, J. C., V. E. McCoy, Opal A. Perron-Feller, and M. J. Hopkins. 2020. Air Breathing in an Exceptionally Preserved 340-Million-Year-Old Sea Scorpion. Current Biology 30:4316-+.

From the abstract: 

"Arachnids are the second most successful terrestrial animal group after insects and were one of the first arthropod clades to successfully invade land. Fossil evidence for this transition is limited, with the majority of arachnid clades first appearing in the terrestrial fossil record. Furthermore, molecular clock dating has suggested a Cambrian-Ordovician terrestrialization event for arachnids, some 60 Ma before their first fossils in the Silurian, although these estimates assume that arachnids evolved from a fully aquatic ancestor. ... Here, we present details of the respiratory organs of Adelophthalmus pyrrhae sp. nov. from the Carboniferous of Montagne Noire, France, revealed through micro computed tomography (m-CT) imaging. ... The discovery of air-breathing structures in eurypterids indicates that characters permitting terrestrialization accrued in the arachnid stem lineage and suggests the Cambrian-Ordovician ancestor of arachnids would also have been semi-terrestrial."  Published by Cell Press, online at Elsevier's ScienceDirect.com.

Full-text available in the OhioLINK Electronic Journal Center, for those at OhioLINK libraries.

Christopher Marx publishes in IMRN

 New publication for Christopher Marx, Associate Professor of Mathematics, as reported in Web of Science

Hislop, Peter D., and Christoph A. Marx. "Dependence of the Density of States on the Probability Distribution for Discrete Random Schrodinger Operators." International Mathematics Research Notices 2020.17 (2020): 5279-341. Web.

This Oxford University Press journal is accessible in the OhioLINK Electronic Journal Center.