The Genetics Society of America (GSA) is pleased to announce the 2020 recipients of its annual awards for distinguished service in the field of genetics. The awardees were nominated and selected by their colleagues and will be recognized with presentations at The Allied Genetics Conference (TAGC), held April 22-26, 2020, in the metro Washington, DC area.

The award recognizes those who have demonstrated a strong commitment to the undergraduate experience through dedicated efforts in student organizations, athletics, community service, religious life, residential life and the arts.

Sure, the Oscars are exciting, but what about the film moments they don't celebrate? That's where the Envy Awards step in.

STATE PENSIONS are calculated by National Insurance contributions - but can you top up any missed years?

OBJECTIVE

To evaluate the respective contributions of short-term glycemic variability and mean daily glucose (MDG) concentration to the risk of hypoglycemia in type 1 diabetes.

The international group SNOMED International honored ADA member dentist Dr. Mark Jurkovich with the Award of Excellence for spearheading the important work the ADA has done on SNODENT, the group announced Jan. 16.

Dr. Leo M. Sreebny, Ph.D., who had a long and distinguished career in academia as a professor of dentistry and researcher, particularly in issues related to saliva and dry mouth, died April 5 from complications of COVID-19 at age 98.

There are two ways to think about the staggering amounts of money given by special interest groups to politicians -- the type of contributions that were detailed for the last quarter in reports filed yesterday by presidential candidates and members of Congress.

James O. Berger, Anirban DasGupta.

Source: Statistical Science, Volume 34, Number 4, 621--634.

Abstract:
This article gives a panoramic survey of the general area of parametric statistical inference, decision theory and foundations of statistics for the period 1965–2010 through the lens of Larry Brown’s contributions to varied aspects of this massive area. The article goes over sufficiency, shrinkage estimation, admissibility, minimaxity, complete class theorems, estimated confidence, conditional confidence procedures, Edgeworth and higher order asymptotic expansions, variational Bayes, Stein’s SURE, differential inequalities, geometrization of convergence rates, asymptotic equivalence, aspects of empirical process theory, inference after model selection, unified frequentist and Bayesian testing, and Wald’s sequential theory. A reasonably comprehensive bibliography is provided.

Nicole Bohme Carnegie.

Source: Statistical Science, Volume 34, Number 1, 90--93.

Abstract:
With a thorough exposition of the methods and results of the 2016 Atlantic Causal Inference Competition, Dorie et al. have set a new standard for reproducibility and comparability of evaluations of causal inference methods. In particular, the open-source R package aciccomp2016, which permits reproduction of all datasets used in the competition, will be an invaluable resource for evaluation of future methodological developments. Building upon results from Dorie et al., we examine whether a set of potential modifications to Bayesian Additive Regression Trees (BART)—multiple chains in model fitting, using the propensity score as a covariate, targeted maximum likelihood estimation (TMLE), and computing symmetric confidence intervals—have a stronger impact on bias, RMSE, and confidence interval coverage in combination than they do alone. We find that bias in the estimate of SATT is minimal, regardless of the BART formulation. For purposes of CI coverage, however, all proposed modifications are beneficial—alone and in combination—but use of TMLE is least beneficial for coverage and results in considerably wider confidence intervals.

Jared W. Young
Mar 4, 2009; 29:2663-2665
Journal Club

One person has curly hair; one person has straight hair. One person tans, another burns. One person can curl her lip, another can’t. This is all because of our genes and the differences in them. Diversity. It is the spice of life.  

We document that corporate pension contributions respond to tax-based incentives using the 2017 Tax Cut & Jobs Act (TCJA) as a natural experiment. The TCJA cut the U.S. federal corporate tax rate, temporarily increasing contribution incentives for sponsors of defined-benefit retirement plans. We exploit cross-sectional variation in ex-ante exposure to these incentives.

Delaware Secretary of Agriculture Michael T. Scuse recognized long-time Delaware State University Department Chair Dr. Richard Barczewski with the Secretary’s Award for Distinguished Service to Delaware Agriculture. With thirty-five years of dedicated service, Barczewski was recognized for developing Delaware’s agricultural industry though educating generations of agriculturalists, promoting animal agriculture, and service to agricultural organizations, including 4-H and FFA.

Trade unions are of the view that the retirement fund body should set a definite timeline for employers to deposit the money already deducted from employee’s monthly salary.

  1. Brexit Implications for Social Security Contributions 1.1 If the UK leaves the EU there may be social security implications for UK employers who have employees working in the EU, EEA or Switzerland. If there is a no deal Brexit then action...

The EFF says it has contributed R6 million towards the Solidarity Fund and has challenged others who had pledged towards the fund to produce proof of their promised contributions.

Phagocytosis is the key mechanism for host control of Pseudomonas aeruginosa, a motile Gram-negative, opportunistic bacterial pathogen which frequently undergoes adaptation and selection for traits that are advantageous for survival. One such clinically relevant adaptation is the loss of bacterial motility, observed within chronic infections, that is associated with increased antibiotic tolerance and phagocytic resistance. Previous studies using phagocytes from a leukocyte adhesion deficiency type 1 (LAD-I) patient identified CD18 as a putative cell surface receptor for uptake of live P. aeruginosa. However, how bacterial motility alters direct engagement with CD18-containing integrins remains unknown. Here we demonstrate, with the use of motile and isogenic nonmotile deletion mutants of two independent strains of P. aeruginosa and with CRISPR-generated CD18-deficient cell lines in human monocytes and murine neutrophils, that CD18 expression facilitates the uptake of both motile and nonmotile P. aeruginosa. However, unexpectedly, mechanistic studies revealed that CD18 expression was dispensable for the initial attachment of the bacteria to the host cells, which was validated with ectopic expression of complement receptor 3 (CR3) by CHO cells. Our data support that surface N-linked glycan chains (N-glycans) likely facilitate the initial interaction of bacteria with monocytes and cooperate with CD18 integrins in trans to promote internalization of bacteria. Moreover, talin-1 and kindlin-3 proteins promote uptake, but not binding, of P. aeruginosa by murine neutrophils, which supports a role for CD18 integrin signaling in this process. These findings provide novel insights into the cellular determinants for phagocytic recognition and uptake of P. aeruginosa.

Genome-wide association studies have implicated thousands of noncoding variants across common human phenotypes. However, they cannot directly inform the cellular context in which disease-associated variants act. Here, we use open chromatin profiles from discrete mouse cell populations to address this challenge. We applied stratified linkage disequilibrium score regression and evaluated heritability enrichment in 64 genome-wide association studies, emphasizing schizophrenia. We provide evidence that mouse-derived human open chromatin profiles can serve as powerful proxies for difficult to obtain human cell populations, facilitating the illumination of common disease heritability enrichment across an array of human phenotypes. We demonstrate that signatures from discrete subpopulations of cortical excitatory and inhibitory neurons are significantly enriched for schizophrenia heritability with maximal enrichment in cortical layer V excitatory neurons. We also show that differences between schizophrenia and bipolar disorder are concentrated in excitatory neurons in cortical layers II-III, IV, and V, as well as the dentate gyrus. Finally, we leverage these data to fine-map variants in 177 schizophrenia loci nominating variants in 104/177. We integrate these data with transcription factor binding site, chromatin interaction, and validated enhancer data, placing variants in the cellular context where they may modulate risk.

The capacity of Listeria monocytogenes to adapt to environmental changes is facilitated by a large number of regulatory proteins encoded by its genome. Among these proteins are the uncharacterized LysR-type transcriptional regulators (LTTRs). LTTRs can work as positive and/or negative transcription regulators at both local and global genetic levels. Previously, our group determined by comparative genome analysis that one member of the LTTRs (NCBI accession no. WP_003734782) was present in pathogenic strains but absent from nonpathogenic strains. The goal of the present study was to assess the importance of this transcription factor in the virulence of L. monocytogenes strain F2365 and to identify its regulons. An L. monocytogenes strain lacking lysR (the F2365lysR strain) displayed significant reductions in cell invasion of and adhesion to Caco-2 cells. In plaque assays, the deletion of lysR resulted in a 42.86% decrease in plaque number and a 13.48% decrease in average plaque size. Furthermore, the deletion of lysR also attenuated the virulence of L. monocytogenes in mice following oral and intraperitoneal inoculation. The analysis of transcriptomics revealed that the transcript levels of 139 genes were upregulated, while 113 genes were downregulated in the F2365lysR strain compared to levels in the wild-type bacteria. lysR-repressed genes included ABC transporters, important for starch and sucrose metabolism as well as glycerolipid metabolism, flagellar assembly, quorum sensing, and glycolysis/gluconeogenesis. Conversely, lysR activated the expression of genes related to fructose and mannose metabolism, cationic antimicrobial peptide (CAMP) resistance, and beta-lactam resistance. These data suggested that lysR contributed to L. monocytogenes virulence by broad impact on multiple pathways of gene expression.

IMPORTANCE Listeria monocytogenes is the causative agent of listeriosis, an infectious and fatal disease of animals and humans. In this study, we have shown that lysR contributes to Listeria pathogenesis and replication in cell lines. We also highlight the importance of lysR in regulating the transcription of genes involved in different pathways that might be essential for the growth and persistence of L. monocytogenes in the host or under nutrient limitation. Better understanding L. monocytogenes pathogenesis and the role of various virulence factors is necessary for further development of prevention and control strategies.

STATE PENSIONS are calculated by National Insurance contributions - but can you top up any missed years?

A federal grand jury in Alexandria, Va., today returned an indictment charging William P. Danielczyk Jr. and Eugene R. Biagi with reimbursing $186,600 in contributions to the Senate and Presidential campaign committees of a candidate for federal office, and obstructing the Federal Election Commission (FEC) and the FBI.

A 10-count federal indictment was unsealed today in the Eastern District of Virginia charging Stephen Bekale, Reynaldo “Christian” Villarroel, Maritza Villarroel, Irma DeMartini and Jamal Ibraheem with conspiring to commit wire fraud, wire fraud and money laundering.

F. Harvey Whittemore, 55, of Reno, Nevada, was charged with one count of making excessive campaign contributions, one count of making contributions in the name of others and two counts of making a false statement to a federal agency.

Timothy F. Mobley, a real estate developer based in Tampa, Fla., and accountant Timothy F. Hohl pleaded guilty today in Jacksonville, Fla., federal court for their roles in illegal contributions to the Republican Party of Florida (RPOF) and the campaign of an elected member of the U.S. Congress.

William P. Danielczyk Jr. and Eugene R. Biagi pleaded guilty today to reimbursing $186,600 in contributions to the Senate and Presidential campaign committees of a candidate for federal office.

William P. Danielczyk Jr. was sentenced today to 28 months in prison and ordered to pay a $50,000 fine for illegally reimbursing $186,600 in contributions to the Senate and Presidential campaign committees of a candidate for federal office and then obstructing the subsequent law enforcement investigation.

William P. Danielczyk, theformer head of a Virginia-based defense contracting company, was sentenced today to serve 18 months in prison for failing to collect and pay more than $2.2 million in employee payroll taxes and engaging in theft of more than $186,000 from an employee pension plan.

Executive Summary Are climate finance contributor countries, multilateral aid agencies and specialized funds using widely accepted best practices in foreign assistance? How is it possible to measure and compare international climate finance contributions when there are as yet no established metrics or agreed definitions of the quality of climate finance? As a subjective metric, quality…

More than half of Americans, 55%, have or plan to change their retirement contributions — and of that group, 54% are contributing less to have more cash on hand. Here's how to figure out if you should make changes, too.

Malta's Minister for Finance, Edward Scicluna, recently announced the launch of a number of fiscal incentives, which are intended to boost the take-up of voluntary private pensions.

The G20 needs to go structural, social, and green! With fiscal and monetary policy room nearly exhausted, structural reforms are the best choices, sometimes the only choice. The OECD battle cry in this regard has been unchanged since 2008: “go structural!”.

Social security contributions and consumption taxes give way to personal income taxes, as corporate income taxes fail to recover

The G20 needs to go structural, social, and green! With fiscal and monetary policy room nearly exhausted, structural reforms are the best choices, sometimes the only choice. The OECD battle cry in this regard has been unchanged since 2008: “go structural!”.

In 2018, the OECD Working Group on Bribery launched its fourth phase of monitoring of Chile, Korea and Mexico's implementation of the OECD Anti-Bribery Convention. To assist this evaluation process, the OECD calls for interested parties to provide written submissions on the evaluated countries.

The G20 needs to go structural, social, and green! With fiscal and monetary policy room nearly exhausted, structural reforms are the best choices, sometimes the only choice. The OECD battle cry in this regard has been unchanged since 2008: “go structural!”.

Real GDP growth in the OECD area slowed to 0.2% in the second quarter of 2012, compared with 0.4% in the first quarter.

The G20 needs to go structural, social, and green! With fiscal and monetary policy room nearly exhausted, structural reforms are the best choices, sometimes the only choice. The OECD battle cry in this regard has been unchanged since 2008: “go structural!”.

Stockbuilding pushes OECD GDP growth up to 0.5% in the third quarter of 2016

Private consumption and investment main drivers of slowdown in OECD GDP growth in first quarter of 2017

Pick-up in private consumption and investment drives higher OECD GDP growth in second quarter of 2017

Slower private consumption and investment weigh down on OECD GDP growth in third quarter of 2017

FT survey estimates that 1 in 10 employers with defined benefit schemes may look to suspend payments

From next month the threshold at which payments start will rise from £8,632 to £9,500, putting an estimated £100 a year back in the pocket of 31 million workers.