Faculty publish in Astrophysical Journal and Physics of the Dark Universe

Recent publications co-authored by faculty in Physics and Astronomy:

Scudder, Jillian M.

Pan H, Lin L, Hsieh B, Xiao T, Gao Y, Ellison SL, Scudder JM, Barrera-Ballesteros J, Yuan F, Saintonge A, Wilsons CD, Hwang HS, De Looze I, Gao Y, Ho LC, Brinks E, Mok A, Brown T, Davis TA, Williams TG, Chung A, Parsons H, Bureau M, Sargent MT, Chung EJ, Kim E, Liu T, Michalowski MJ, Tosaki T.

The effect of galaxy interactions on molecular gas properties. Astrophysical Journal 2018 DEC 1;868(2):132.

Stalnaker, Jason E.

Afach S, Budker D, DeCamp G, Dumont V, Grujic ZD, Guo H, Kimball DFJ, Kornack TW, Lebedev V, Li W, Masia-Roig H, Nix S, Padniuk M, Palm CA, Pankow C, Penaflor A, Peng X, Pustelny S, Scholtes T, Smiga JA, Stalnaker JE, Weis A, Wickenbrock A, Wurm D.

Characterization of the global network of optical magnetometers to search for exotic physics (GNOME). Physics of the Dark Universe 2018 DEC;22:162-80.


Stinebring, Daniel R.

Brook PR, Karastergiou A, McLaughlin MA, Lam MT, Arzoumanian Z, Chatterjee S, Cordes JM, Crowter K, DeCesar M, Demorest PB, Dolch T, Ellis JA, Ferdman RD, Ferrara E, Fonseca E, Gentile PA, Jones G, Jones ML, Lazio TJW, Levin L, Lorimer DR, Lynch RS, Ng C, Nice DJ, Pennucci TT, Ransom SM, Ray PS, Spiewak R, Stairs IH, Stinebring DR, Stovall K, Swiggum JK, Zhu WW. 

The NANOGrav 11-year data set: Pulse profile variability. Astrophysical Journal  2018 DEC 1;868(2):122.


Thompson, Katz and Sheehan: Chemical comparison of Prunus africana bark and pygeum products marketed for prostate health.

New publication from Rob Thompson, Professor of Chemistry, with senior Daniel Katz and Brendan Sheehan (OC'18, biochemistry).

Chemical comparison of Prunus africana bark and pygeum products marketed for prostate health.
Journal of Pharmaceutical and Biomedical Analysis Vol. 163, 30 January 2019, pp. 162-169

Access this title at the OhioLINK Electronic Journal Center or at the publisher's site, Elsevier's ScienceDirect.

From the introduction and conclusions:

"Pygeum is the powdered bark of Prunus africana (also called Pygeum africanum), an evergreen tree that grows across the mountainous regions of Africa. Both the powder and a lipophilic extract are sold commercially under the same name... Ingestion of pygeum has been found to inactivate the androgen receptor and inhibit prostate cancer cell growth."

[Conclusions after chemical analysis of samples of both bark and pygeum powder:]

Harvesting Prunus africana bark. 
Credit: SouthWorld, May 1, 2016

"The amounts per gram of the BPH-active compounds atranorin, atraric acid, total ferulic acid, and total beta-sitosterol and the fractions of free beta-sitosterol were quite different in bark from Prunus africana and in the contents of commercial pygeum capsules, contents purported to be derivatives of the same bark. This was unexpected and suggested that the BPH-active components in commercial pygeum may not be fully sourced from natural materials as labeled. Also unexpected was that no N-butylbenzene sulfonamide was found in any sample. The variation in the composition of four bark samples, two of which were botanical reference materials, demonstrated the need for a phytochemical standard for pygeum, with reference values for the BPH-active compounds studied here."

What Neil deGrasse Tyson Thinks Higher Ed Gets Wrong

In this interview with The Chronicle of Higher Education, Tyson discusses "how to explain science to the masses and [rips] into what he sees as higher education’s misguided incentive system, valuing research over teaching and public service and not creating space for people like him to flourish. 'It’s a sad fact,' he says, 'for the future of science in America.' "

Astrophysics for People in a Hurry is one of Tyson's most recent books.  The science library's copy is checked out, but there are plenty of other copies to borrow through OhioLINK.

Jordan Price and students publish in Journal of Bacteriology

New publication by Jordan Price, Assistant Professor of Biology, with students Kallie Jiang and Abby Galantowicz, and collaborators at Univ Calif Berkeley:

Price, Jordan V.; Jiang, Kallie; Galantowicz, Abby; Freifeld, A., & Vance, R. E. (2018). Legionella pneumophila is directly sensitive to 2-deoxyglucose-phosphate via its UhpC transporter but is indifferent to shifts in host cell glycolytic metabolism. Journal of Bacteriology, 200(16), 176. doi:10.1128/JB.00176-18 ER

Importance of this research:  "We explored the relationship between macrophage glycolysis and replication of an intracellular bacterial pathogen, Legionella pneumophila. Previous studies demonstrated that a glycolysis inhibitor, 2-deoxyglucose (2DG), blocks replication of L. pneumophila during infection of macrophages, leading to speculation that L. pneumophila may exploit macrophage glycolysis. We isolated L. pneumophila mutants resistant to the inhibitory effect of 2DG in macrophages, identifying a L. pneumophila hexose-phosphate transporter, UhpC, that is required for bacterial sensitivity to 2DG during infection. Our results reveal how a bacterial transporter mediates the direct antimicrobial effect of a toxic metabolite. Moreover, our results indicate that neither induction nor impairment of host glycolysis inhibits intracellular replication of L. pneumophila, which is consistent with a view of L. pneumophila as a metabolic generalist."

New publications by Stinebring (Physics & Astronomy) and Moore (Biology)

Recent publications by Dan Stinebring, Francis D Federighi Professor of Physics; and Mike Moore, Professor of Biology:

Lam, M. T., Ellis, J. A., Grillo, G., Jones, M. L., Hazboun, … Daniel R. Stinebring, et al. (2018). A second chromatic timing event of interstellar origin toward PSR J1713+0747. Astrophysical Journal, 861(2), 132. 10.3847/1538-4357/aac770 ER

an Open Access journal
from Taylor & Francis

Zhu, Z., Wang, J., Cai, Y., Zhao, K., Michael J. Moore, & Wang, H. (2018). Complete plastome sequence of erythropalum scandens (erythropalaceae), an edible and medicinally important liana in china. Mitochondrial Dna Part B-Resources, 3(1), 139-140. 10.1080/23802359.2017.1413435 ER

Angie Roles publishes in Ecology and Evolution

Blandy Experimental Farm, Boyce, Virginia

Recent research by Associate Professor of Biology Angie Roles and collaborators "assessed phenotypes associated with survival and reproductive success in over 30,000 plants representing 100 mutation accumulation lines of Arabidopsis thaliana across four temporal environments at a single field site." The authors conclude, "The combination of large environmental variance with a mean effect of mutation near zero suggests that mutations could contribute substantially to standing genetic variation."

Rutter, Matthew T., Roles, Angela J., & Fenster, Charles B. (2018). Quantifying natural seasonal variation in mutation parameters with mutation accumulation lines. Ecology and Evolution, 8(11), 5575-5585. 10.1002/ece3.4085  (Open Access)

Dan Stinebring contributes as part of the NANOGrav collaboration.

published by Institute of Physics IOPScience

Dan Stinebring, Professor of Physics and Astronomy, is one of 60+ authors, representing 41 organizations and institutions, who contributed to the research described in this recent publication:

Arzoumanian, Z., Baker, P. T., Brazier, A., Burke-Spolaor, S., Chamberlin, S. J., Chatterjee, S., . . . NANOGrav Collaboration. (2018). The NANOGrav 11 Year Data Set: Pulsar-timing Constraints on the Stochastic Gravitational-wave Background. Astrophysical Journal, 859(1), 47. 10.3847/1538-4357/aabd3b

Partial abstract:
"We search for an isotropic stochastic gravitational-wave background (GWB) in the newly released 11. year data set from the North American Nanohertz Observatory for Gravitational Waves (NANOGrav). While we find no evidence for a GWB, we place constraints on a population of inspiraling supermassive black hole (SMBH) binaries, a network of decaying cosmic strings, and a primordial GWB. For the first time, we find that the GWB constraints are sensitive to the solar system ephemeris (SSE) model used and that SSE errors can mimic a GWB signal."   Learn more about NANOGrav

Michael Moore publishes two articles in American Journal of Botany: Tree of Life special issue

Associate Professor of Biology Michael Moore is among twenty-one collaborators on the first paper listed below, which also appears in Tree of Life virtual issue:

From cacti to carnivores: Improved phylotranscriptomic sampling and hierarchical homology inference provide further insight into the evolution of Caryophyllales.
Joseph F. Walker, … Michael J. Moore, Stephen A. Smith.
American Journal of Botany  105 (3): 446-462
First published: 08 May 2018 https://doi.org/10.1002/ajb2.1069  (open access)

Moore also co-authored this guide:
Using and navigating the plant tree of life.
Douglas E. Soltis, Michael J. Moore, Emily B. Sessa, Stephen A. Smith, Pamela S. Soltis.
American Journal of Botany, Special Issue
First Published: 27 April 2018
https://doi.org/10.1002/ajb2.1071 (open access)

Senior August Blackman publishes in Behavioral Ecology

Senior Augie Blackman is co-author of this paper resulting from research supported by the National Science Foundation Research Experience for Undergraduate program at Mountain Lake Biological Station, University of Virginia. 

Plethodon glutinosus, from Caudata.org

Salamander climbing behavior varies among species and is correlated with community composition.
Tori D Mezebish, August Blackman, Alexander J Novarro.
Behavioral Ecology, Volume 29, Issue 3, 9 May 2018, Pages 686–692,
https://doi.org/10.1093/beheco/ary022 (open access)

Partial abstract: Species coexistence is often facilitated by behavioral strategies that minimize competition for limited resources. Terrestrial, kingless salamanders (genus Plethodon) coexist in predictable assemblages of body size guilds, but little is known about the behavioral mechanisms that promote such coexistence. Here, we considered the hypothesis that Plethodon salamanders use climbing behavior to reduce competitive interactions, thereby promoting coexistence through spatial partitioning.  (As indexed in Web of Science)

Galaxy pairs and galaxy mergers featured in new publication from Jillian Scudder

https://bit.ly/2wzalwx

New publication by Jillian Scudder, Assistant Professor, Physics and Astronomy

Violino, Giulio; Ellison, Sara L.; Sargent, Mark; Coppin, Kristen E. K.;

Scudder, Jillian M.; Mender, Trevor J.; Saintonge, Amelie.  Galaxy pairs in the SDSS - XIII. The connection between enhanced star formation and molecular gas properties in galaxy mergers.

Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 476 (2):2591-2604; 10.1093/mnras/sty345 MAY 2018 

Published by Oxford University Press, Academic on behalf of the Royal Astronomical Society.

Senior Jacob Rosenthal (Biology) co-authors paper in GBE

About GBE

Congratulations to Jacob Rosenthal, who co-authored this article in Genome Biology and Evolution, an open access journal published by Oxford University on behalf of the Society for Molecular Biology and Evolution:

"Patterns of Population Variation in Two Paleopolyploid Eudicot Lineages Suggest That Dosage-Based Selection on Homeologs Is Long-Lived."

AUTHORS:  Hao, Yue; Washburn, Jacob D.; Rosenthal, Jacob; Nielsen, Brandon; Lyons, Eric; Edger, Patrick P.; Pires, J. Chris; Conant, Gavin C.

GENOME BIOLOGY AND EVOLUTION  Volume: 10  Issue: 3  Pages: 999-1011
DOI: 10.1093/gbe/evy061  Published: MAR 2018
 
Partial abstract: Genes that are inherently subject to strong selective constraints tend to be overretained in duplicate after polyploidy. They also continue to experience similar, but somewhat relaxed, constraints after that polyploidy event. We sought to assess for how long the influence of polyploidy is felt on these genes' selective pressures. We analyzed two nested polyploidy events in Brassicaceae: the At-a genome duplication that is the most recent polyploidy in the model plant Arabidopsis thaliana and a more recent hexaploidy shared by the genus Brassica and its relatives... Our results paint a picture of the long-lived effects of polyploidy on plant genomes, suggesting that even yesterday's polyploids still have distinct evolutionary trajectories.

Co-authors include researchers from North Carolina State University, Cornell University, Clarion University of Pennsylvania, Michigan State University, and University of Missouri.  As indexed in Web of Science.

Brody WorkLounge Takes a Corner

Something new in the library - give it a try!  The Brody WorkLounge, by Steelcase, was delivered during Spring break.  It might become your new favorite.  Let us know what you think.  Leave a comment here or email the Science Library.  Enjoy.

New Books! So many, fantastic reading options. Take a look.

Catalog record on OBIS

So many new books have arrived in the past two months that we can't keep up with presenting them on our tumblr account.  Here are just two of the new book covers to entice you to view more, and look them up in OBIS.  Better yet, stop in the library and peruse the new book shelf!

Catalog record on OBIS

See many more book covers in a PowerPoint presentation.  Go ahead, judge a book by its cover.  Then come read it!

Recent publications: faculty, students and alumni in Biology, Chemistry and Physics

Listed below are publications from Oberlin College faculty, students and alumni, as indexed in The Web of Science during the past four weeks.  Oberlin affiliated authors are indicated in bold font: 

Fitzgerald, Stephen. A. (Professor of Physics), Shinbrough, Kai '17 ; Rigdon,  Katharine H. (current senior) ; Rowsell, Jesse L. C. (deceased, Assistant Professor of Chemistry); et al.  (2018). Temperature-programmed desorption for isotope separation in nanoporous materials. Journal of Physical Chemistry C, 122(4), 1995-2001. 10.1021/acs.jpcc.7b11048 (subscriber access)

Krasnoshchekov, S. V., Schutski, R. S., Craig, Norman C. (Emeritus Professor of Chemistry), Sibaev, M., & Crittenden, D. L. (2018). Comparing the accuracy of perturbative and variational calculations for predicting fundamental vibrational frequencies of dihalomethanes. Journal of Chemical Physics, 148(8), 084102. 10.1063/1.5020295 (open access)

Journal cover, from Science Direct (Elsevier)

Oberdick, S. D., ...  Hunt-Isaak, Ian '17 ; Pan, Hillary '17; Ijiri, Yumi (Professor of Physics); et al. (2018). Spin canting across core/shell Fe3O4/MnxFe3-xO4 nanoparticles. Scientific Reports, 8, 3425. 10.1038/s41598-018-21626-0 (open access)

Yan, M., Fritsch, P. W., Moore, Michael J. (Associate Professor of Biology), et al. (2018). Plastid phylogenomics resolves infrafamilial relationships of the Styracaceae and sheds light on the backbone relationships of the Ericales. Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution, 121, 198-211. 10.1016/j.ympev.2018.01.004  (access at OhioLINK Electronic Journal Center)