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EWC Community Saddened by Passing of Center's First Leader, Longtime Arts Coordinator

The East-West Center community is saddened by news of the recent passing of the Center’s first leader, Murray Turnbull, and longtime arts and exhibits coordinator Jeanette "Benji" Bennington.

"Murray Turnbull was the father of the concept of bringing the young people of the Asia Pacific region together, and the East-West Center was established because of him," said EWC President Charles E. Morrison. "And Benji was an incredible, invaluable resource during her decades of service at the Center. She embodied the EWC spirit, and her legacy remains with us all.”




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Lemon Sandwich Cookies

From Gourmet magazine. -- posted by Vicki Kaye




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COOKIES With Chocolate Milka

I decided to experiment and made cookies with Milka chocolate, which turned out to be divinely delicious. I recommend everyone to cook, I hope you enjoy the recipe!!! The video is on the channel https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WazucI_pYk8 -- posted by Anastasia M.




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China’s New Aid Agency and Trilateral Aid Cooperation

Webinar
Start Date: 
May 14 2020 - 5:00pm
End Date: 
May 14 2020 - 6:00pm
Timezone: 
US Eastern time
Description: 

The East-West Center in Washington invites you to an Indo-Pacific Political Economy and Trade Virtual Seminar and Book Discussion:

China’s New Aid Agency and Trilateral Aid Cooperation

Featuring:

Dr. Denghua Zhang
Research Fellow, Department of Pacific Affairs,
Australian National University

Dr. Ellen L. Frost (Discussant)
Senior Advisor,
East-West Center

Dr.  Satu P. Limaye (Moderator)
Vice President, East-West Center &
Director, East West Center in Washington


Dr. Zhang will highlight the main features of the China International Development Cooperation Agency established in April 2018, and China’s trilateral aid cooperation which is a new phenomenon in Chinese foreign aid programs. He will reflect on China’s trilateral aid projects in recent years including the China-US-Timor Leste project on food security. Dr. Frost will then offer comments on the feasibility of such collaborative aid for future projects.

This discussion draws from Dr. Zhang’s latest book, A Cautious New Approach: China’s Growing Trilateral Aid Cooperation, which is available for free download from Australian National University Press. During his time as an Asia Studies fellow at the East-West Center in Washington in 2018, Dr. Zhang also wrote on this topic for the East-West Center’s AsiaPacific Issues and Asia Pacific Bulletin series.

This seminar will take place entirely on Zoom via its Webinar platform.

Thursday, May 14

5:00 P.M. – 6:00 P.M. EST (7:00 A.M. – 8:00 A.M. ACT)

This seminar will be off-the-record.

 

To register for this program and receive approval to join, please click here: https://eastwestcenter.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_1DCBpx5AS7iXJaDxKlAO4A

Kindly send your reply by 3 P.M. EST on May 14.

 

ZOOM PROTOCOL

Upon registering for this webinar, our team will first approve your registration and you will then receive a confirmation email. If you do not, please check your Spam folder. If you still do not see the email within 24 hours or have other questions please email Mrs. Sarah Wang at wangs@eastwestcenter.org The confirmation email will provide you with a unique link to join the seminar. Do not share this with anyone else.

As an Attendee in a Zoom Webinar, your microphone will be muted and video turned off from the start of the presentation to cut down on noise interference and to maintain security.

The Q&A session will occur at the end of the webinar presentation. You are more than welcome to type your questions into the Q&A box throughout the presentation or flag a specific point for the panelists in the Chat feature. We will address questions in the order that they are asked.

NOTE: If you are planning to call in on a phone without smart capabilities, you will not be able to participate in the Q&A session.


Speaker Biographies

Dr. Denghua Zhang is a research fellow at the Department of Pacific Affairs, Australian National University. His research focuses largely on Chinese foreign policy, foreign aid, and China in the Pacific. Recently, he has published with journals such as The Pacific ReviewThird World QuarterlyThe Round Table and Asian Journal of Political Science. His book on Chinese foreign aid especially trilateral aid cooperation in Asia-Pacific was recently published by the Australian National University Press (free to download, https://press.anu.edu.au/publications/series/pacific-affairs/cautious-new-approach). He was an Asia Studies Visiting Fellow (ASVF) at the East-West Center in Washington in 2018.

Dr. Ellen L. Frost is a Senior Advisor and Fellow at the East-West Center and a Visiting Distinguished Research Fellow at the National Defense University's Institute of National Strategic Studies. She writes and lectures on Asia-related topics, especially Indo-Pacific political-economic issues and their strategic and security implications. Her most recent book is Asia's New Regionalism. She is also the author of For Richer, For Poorer: The New U.S.-Japan Relationship and Transatlantic Trade: A Strategic Agenda. Dr. Frost previously served in the US government as Counselor to the US Trade Representative (1993–95), Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Economic and Technology Affairs (1977-81), a career civil servant in the Treasury Department (1974–77), and a legislative assistant in the US Senate (1972–74). During the 1980s she worked for two multinational corporations. From 1996 to 2014 she was a senior fellow and subsequently a visiting fellow at the Institute for International Economics. Dr. Frost is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, the International Institute of Strategic Studies, and the U.S. Committee of CSCAP (Council on Security Cooperation in Asia Pacific). She received a Ph.D. from the Department of Government at Harvard University, an MA from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, and a BA from Radcliffe College, Harvard University.

Satu Limaye is Vice President of the East-West Center and the Director of the East-West Center in Washington where he created and now directs the Asia Matters for America initiative and is the founding editor of the Asia Pacific Bulletin. He is also a Senior Advisor at CNA Corp (Center for Naval Analyses) and Senior Fellow on Asia History and Policy at the Foreign Policy Institute at Paul H. Nitze School of International Studies (SAIS). He is a magna cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Georgetown University and received his doctorate from Oxford University (Magdalen College) where he was a George C. Marshall Scholar. Recent publications include: “America’s ‘Pacific Principle’ in an Indivisible Pacific Islands Region,” (Asia-Pacific Bulletin); “Despite Stumbles, America’s Engagement with Southeast Runs Deep,” (Global Asia); Raging Waters: China, India, Bangladesh, and Brahmaputra Water Politics (Marine Corps University Press); Russia’s Peripheral Relevance to US-Indo Pacific Relations (Center for the National Interest).

Location: 
Zoom Webinar
Related Link: 
https://eastwestcenter.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_1DCBpx5AS7iXJaDxKlAO4A
Contact Name: 
Sarah Wang




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East-West Center President Re-Elected Chairman of Pacific Economic Cooperation Council

East-West Center President Re-Elected Chairman of Pacific Economic Cooperation Council

Charles E. Morrison

HONOLULU (Aug. 18) – East-West Center President Charles E. Morrison was unanimously elected to a second term as chair of the Pacific Economic Cooperation Council (PECC) at a PECC Standing Committee meeting in Bangkok on July 26. He is the first chair to have served a three-year term and the first American to chair PECC since 1993.   PECC also named Mr. Jusuf Wanandi of Indonesia as the Asia co-chair, beginning in 2009.  Mr. Wanandi has served on the EWC’s Board of Governors and has chaired its International Advisory Panel.




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East-West Center Launches Cooperative India-Pakistan Research Project

Funded by the U.S. State Dept., cross-border project
focuses on ‘peri-urban’ development issues

HONOLULU (Feb. 3, 2012) – East-West Center environmental researchers have launched a new cooperative project with specialists in India and Pakistan to collaborate on studying development issues in critical ‘peri-urban’ areas that lie between cities and the countryside.

 This project “offers a rare opportunity for Indian and Pakistani researchers to work together on a shared exploration of the challenges and impacts of an issue that deeply affects both nations,” said EWC research fellow Sumeet Saksena, the project’s principal investigator.




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EWC to Coordinate 5-State Community College Initiative on Asian Studies

HONOLULU (March 1, 2012) -- The East-West Center has received a $360,000 award from the National Endowment for the Humanities for a collaborative project to work with 15 community colleges in five states on developing Asian studies curricula.




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Serious Fraud Office clarifies its view of “cooperation”

The SFO finally issues long-awaited definitive guidance as to the expectations for corporate defendants seeking to gain cooperation credit The Serious Fraud Office (SFO), the UK authority responsible for prosecuting and investigating serious or com...




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Markus Naef: new Partner with Eversheds Sutherland and Brigadier General with the Swiss Armed Forces, currently National Coordinator for procurement in times of COVID-19

Eversheds Sutherland is pleased to announce the appointment of a new Partner in the fields of data protection and IT law. As an attorney and 2012 certified Senior Project Manager IPMA Level B, Markus Naef advises companies on legal safeguards and ex...




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Cooperation agreements between French large retailers to be reviewed by the French Competition Authority

The French Competition Authority (FCA) is entitled to give advisory opinions on any competition matter, in particular for the attention  of the French Government and the Parliament. The FCA has been recently asked to give its opinion on coopera...




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New decisions on the admissibility of cookies

There has long been discussion as to whether the use of cookies and other technologies for the purposes of web analysis, tracking and individualised advertising requires the explicit consent of those concerned or whether this can also be based on le...




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Article: Pre-ticked boxes aren’t “consent” for cookie placement

CJEU Ruling on Cookies On 1 October 2019, the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) gave a preliminary ruling1  on questions referred from the Bundesgerichtshof (Federal Court of Justice in Germany) that:   Consent is not validly ...




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Jordan- Planning Minister, British official discuss cooperation to combat COVID-19

(MENAFN - Jordan News Agency) Amman, May 9 (Petra) �� Minister of Planning and International Cooperation Wissam Rabadi Saturday discussed with British... ......




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Jordan- Planning minister, Cleverley discuss means of cooperation to combat Covid-19

(MENAFN - Jordan News Agency) Amman, May 9 (Petra)- Minister of Planning and International Cooperation, Dr. Wissam Rabadi, discussed with the British ... ......




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‘No US Involvement at All’, COO of Firm Behind Botched Venezuela Raid Says

President Nicolas Maduro has accused the US of being the mastermind behind the planned incursion in Venezuela, but Washington denies any involvement in the botched raid. ......




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Only Sustainable Investment & Global Cooperation Can Counter COVID’s Blow to SDGs

Jay Collins is Vice Chairman Banking, Capital Markets and Advisory, Citigroup*

The post Only Sustainable Investment & Global Cooperation Can Counter COVID’s Blow to SDGs appeared first on Inter Press Service.




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The Power of Education in Emergencies: Interview with Denmark’s Minister of Development Cooperation Rasmus Prehn

Denmark is Education Cannot Wait’s (ECW) third largest donor, with US$79.1 million in contributions to date. In this insightful interview with Denmark’s Minister for Development Cooperation, Rasmus Prehn, we explore the importance of girls’ education and gender equality, the humanitarian-development nexus, expanded engagement with the private sector, education in emergency response to the COVID-19 pandemic […]

The post The Power of Education in Emergencies: Interview with Denmark’s Minister of Development Cooperation Rasmus Prehn appeared first on Inter Press Service.




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Istanbul’s Kadıköy hailed among ‘world’s coolest neighborhoods’

The district of Kadıköy on Istanbul’s Asian side has been hailed as one of the top 50 coolest neighborhoods in the world by Time Out magazine. Click through for the story in photos...




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Craving chocolate cake? Bake it in your rice cooker

The versatile rice cooker can be used to steam, poach and bake, so you can prepare a complete meal from appetizer to dessert without turning ...




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The Eritrean cooking course teaching Israelis about asylum seekers


Kitchen Talks is a social project that aims to connect different groups in Israeli society.




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Shikaki: Annexation pressures Abbas to end Oslo, security coordination


“Keep in mind that Abbas is a status quo man. He does not like to rock the boat and this is not something that he would do easily, to do what he threatens to do,” said Professor Khalil Shikaki.




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The COVID-19 Pandemic and the Reinvention of the Spirit of Solidarity and Cooperation

Manssour Bin Mussallam, is Secretary General-elect of the Organisation of Educational Cooperation (OEC)

The post The COVID-19 Pandemic and the Reinvention of the Spirit of Solidarity and Cooperation appeared first on Inter Press Service.




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The Unseen Link Between Clean Cooking and the COVID-19 Pandemic

The COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated inequalities and revealed to what extent current economic models are not sustainable. It has also shown that most countries are not equipped to cope with a health crisis. The World Food Program is warning that the lives and livelihoods of 265 million people in low and middle-income countries will be […]

The post The Unseen Link Between Clean Cooking and the COVID-19 Pandemic appeared first on Inter Press Service.




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European stockpiles, better coordination: how would Josep Borrell federalise future health policy?

1




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'Long live Europe, our home' - European leaders celebrate Europe Day in renovated cooperation spirit

1




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Ariel Winter recounts horrific cooking accident: 'I sliced off my thumb and threw it away'

Ariel Winter shocked her fans after revealing a harrowing accident she had once while cooking at her place




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Asia needs to get cooking when it comes to solar energy -- by Yongping Zhai (翟永平)

Solar power is helping Asia get electricity to people, particularly in rural and remote areas, but it has fallen behind in its use as a clean energy cooking source.




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A new era of clean energy cooperation along the old Silk Road -- by Ashok Bhargava

The historic spirit of cross-border trade in Central Asia is being revived in the energy sector.




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US accuses China, Russia of ‘coordination’ on virus conspiracies

WASHINGTON: The United States on Friday accused China and Russia of stepping up cooperation to spread false narratives over the coronavirus pandemic, saying Beijing was increasingly adopting techniques honed by Moscow.

“Even before the Covid-19 crisis we assessed a certain level of coordination between Russia and the PRC (Peoples Republic of China) in the realm of propaganda,” said Lea Gabrielle, coordinator of the State Department’s Global Engagement Center, which tracks foreign propaganda.

“But with this pandemic the cooperation has accelerated rapidly,” she told reporters.

“We see this convergence as a result of what we consider to be pragmatism between the two actors who want to shape public understanding of the Covid pandemic for their own purposes,” she said.

The Global Engagement Center earlier said that thousands of Russian-linked social media accounts were spreading conspiracies about the pandemic, including charging that the virus first detected last year in the Chinese metropolis of Wuhan was created by the United States.

China outraged the United States when a foreign ministry spokesman tweeted a conspiracy that the US military brought the virus to Wuhan, but the two countries reached an informal rhetorical truce in late March after telephone talks between President Donald Trump and his counterpart Xi Jinping.

Tensions have again soared as Secretary of State Mike Pompeo pushes the theory that the virus originated in a Chinese laboratory, even though both the World Health Organisation and the US government’s top epidemiologist say there is no evidence of this.

According to the Global Engagement Centre, China has again intensified its online campaign to defend its handling of the pandemic, which has killed some 270,000 people worldwide, and criticise the United States.

“Beijing is adapting in real time and increasingly using techniques that have long been employed by Moscow,” Gabrielle said.

China has increasingly used bot networks to amplify its message, Gabrielle said.

She said that official Chinese diplomatic accounts suddenly witnessed a surge in late March, going from adding around 30 new followers daily to more than 720, often from freshly created accounts.

She said that China was first observed using such online methods to “sow political discord” in its autonomous territory of Hong Kong, which has witnessed major pro-democracy demonstrations.

Published in Dawn, May 9th, 2020




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ADB President, AFD CEO Discuss Strengthening Cooperation on COVID-19

ADB President Masatsugu Asakawa and AFD Chief Executive Officer Rémy Rioux held discussions today on strengthening the partnership between ADB and AFD to respond to the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic.




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Regional Cooperation and Integration Fund, 2007–2019

ONGOING EVALUATION. : This evaluation will assess the performance of the Regional Cooperation and Integration Fund (RCIF) against its establishment objectives and provide recommendations for its future directions.




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Senior Regional Cooperation Specialist

ADB has a vacancy for the position of Senior Regional Cooperation Specialist in the Sustainable Development and Climate Change Department. The deadline for submitting applications is on 18 May 2020.




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Role of Regional Cooperation and Integration in Improving Energy Insecurity in South Asia

Energy security is a nation’s ability to meet the energy needs of its inhabitants uninterruptedly at an affordable price.




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Loan No. 3012-NEP: South Asia Subregional Economic Cooperation (SASEC) Road Connectivity Project [SRCP/NCB/PN/01]




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Trade Impact of Reducing Time and Costs at Borders in the Central Asia Regional Economic Cooperation Region

Trade facilitation, by reducing trade costs and raising the efficiency of moving goods across borders, is integral to international trade.




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Economic Integration in Central Asia Regional Economic Cooperation Member Countries: Financing Economic Corridors and Sovereign Bonds Market

The global financial architecture should focus on providing short-term lending facilities to improve the efficiency of developing projects.




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Role of Regional Cooperation and Integration in Improving Energy Insecurity in South Asia

Energy security is a nation’s ability to meet the energy needs of its inhabitants uninterruptedly at an affordable price.




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Indonesian villagers cooking with gas - from garbage

June 15 - A community in East Java, Indonesia, is turning methane from the local garbage dump into gas for more than 400 homes. Local authorities have set up a system where methane produced by rotting waste is extracted and pumped to villages nearby, turning greenhouse gas emissions into useful energy. Tara Cleary reports.




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Sharks are easier to catch in cooler waters, and we have no idea why

Tropical seas are ecological hotspots where predators should be active and easy to catch – but 50 years of data shows sharks are easier to catch in cooler seas




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Don't stress: The scientific secrets of people who keep cool heads

Studies of the world's most unflappable people point to ways we can all better manage stress – and are even inspiring the first stress vaccine




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Infrared-reflecting paint can cool buildings even when it is black

Black paint usually absorbs heat, but a new two-layer polymer paint reflects infrared light and keeps objects 16°C cooler, which could help make buildings more energy efficient




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Health Tip: Make Microwave Cooking Safe

Title: Health Tip: Make Microwave Cooking Safe
Category: Health News
Created: 5/1/2013 8:35:00 AM
Last Editorial Review: 5/1/2013 12:00:00 AM




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Cooking at Home Means Eating Better, Spending Less

Title: Cooking at Home Means Eating Better, Spending Less
Category: Health News
Created: 4/30/2017 12:00:00 AM
Last Editorial Review: 5/1/2017 12:00:00 AM




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FDA Cracks Down on Dangerous E-Cig Liquids That Resemble Cookies, Candy

Title: FDA Cracks Down on Dangerous E-Cig Liquids That Resemble Cookies, Candy
Category: Health News
Created: 5/1/2018 12:00:00 AM
Last Editorial Review: 5/2/2018 12:00:00 AM




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Broiling in a Heat Wave? Wet T-shirt Can Safely Cool You Down

Title: Broiling in a Heat Wave? Wet T-shirt Can Safely Cool You Down
Category: Health News
Created: 4/13/2020 12:00:00 AM
Last Editorial Review: 4/14/2020 12:00:00 AM




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Host and Symbiont Cell Cycle Coordination Is Mediated by Symbiotic State, Nutrition, and Partner Identity in a Model Cnidarian-Dinoflagellate Symbiosis

ABSTRACT

The cell cycle is a critical component of cellular proliferation, differentiation, and response to stress, yet its role in the regulation of intracellular symbioses is not well understood. To explore host-symbiont cell cycle coordination in a marine symbiosis, we employed a model for coral-dinoflagellate associations: the tropical sea anemone Aiptasia (Exaiptasia pallida) and its native microalgal photosymbionts (Breviolum minutum and Breviolum psygmophilum). Using fluorescent labeling and spatial point-pattern image analyses to characterize cell population distributions in both partners, we developed protocols that are tailored to the three-dimensional cellular landscape of a symbiotic sea anemone tentacle. Introducing cultured symbiont cells to symbiont-free adult hosts increased overall host cell proliferation rates. The acceleration occurred predominantly in the symbiont-containing gastrodermis near clusters of symbionts but was also observed in symbiont-free epidermal tissue layers, indicating that the presence of symbionts contributes to elevated proliferation rates in the entire host during colonization. Symbiont cell cycle progression differed between cultured algae and those residing within hosts; the endosymbiotic state resulted in increased S-phase but decreased G2/M-phase symbiont populations. These phenotypes and the deceleration of cell cycle progression varied with symbiont identity and host nutritional status. These results demonstrate that host and symbiont cells have substantial and species-specific effects on the proliferation rates of their mutualistic partners. This is the first empirical evidence to support species-specific regulation of the symbiont cell cycle within a single cnidarian-dinoflagellate association; similar regulatory mechanisms likely govern interpartner coordination in other coral-algal symbioses and shape their ecophysiological responses to a changing climate.

IMPORTANCE Biomass regulation is critical to the overall health of cnidarian-dinoflagellate symbioses. Despite the central role of the cell cycle in the growth and proliferation of cnidarian host cells and dinoflagellate symbionts, there are few studies that have examined the potential for host-symbiont coregulation. This study provides evidence for the acceleration of host cell proliferation when in local proximity to clusters of symbionts within cnidarian tentacles. The findings suggest that symbionts augment the cell cycle of not only their enveloping host cells but also neighboring cells in the epidermis and gastrodermis. This provides a possible mechanism for rapid colonization of cnidarian tissues. In addition, the cell cycles of symbionts differed depending on nutritional regime, symbiotic state, and species identity. The responses of cell cycle profiles to these different factors implicate a role for species-specific regulation of symbiont cell cycles within host cnidarian tissues.




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Cooperation and Cheating through a Secreted Aminopeptidase in the Pseudomonas aeruginosa RpoS Response

ABSTRACT

The global stress response controlled by the alternative sigma factor RpoS protects enteric bacteria from a variety of environmental stressors. The role of RpoS in other, nonenteric bacteria, such as the opportunistic pathogen Pseudomonas aeruginosa, is less well understood. Here, we employed experimental social evolution to reveal that cooperative behavior via secreted public goods is an important function in the RpoS response of P. aeruginosa. Using whole-genome sequencing, we identified rpoS loss-of-function mutants among isolates evolved in a protein growth medium that requires extracellular proteolysis. We found that rpoS mutants comprise up to 25% of the evolved population and that they behave as social cheaters, with low fitness in isolation but high fitness in mixed culture with the cooperating wild type. We conclude that rpoS mutants cheat because they exploit an RpoS-controlled public good produced by the wild type, the secreted aminopeptidase PaAP, and because they do not carry the metabolic costs of expressing PaAP and many other gene products in the large RpoS regulon. Our results suggest that PaAP is an integral part of a proteolytic sequence in P. aeruginosa that permits the utilization of protein as a nutrient source. Our work broadens the scope of stress response functions in bacteria.

IMPORTANCE Bacterial stress responses are generally considered protective measures taken by individual cells. Enabled by an experimental evolution approach, we describe a contrasting property, collective nutrient acquisition, in the RpoS-dependent stress response of the opportunistic human pathogen P. aeruginosa. Specifically, we identify the secreted P. aeruginosa aminopeptidase (PaAP) as an essential RpoS-controlled function in extracellular proteolysis. As a secreted "public good," PaAP permits cheating by rpoS mutants that save the metabolic costs of expressing RpoS-controlled genes dispensable under the given growth conditions. Proteolytic enzymes are important virulence factors in P. aeruginosa pathogenesis and constitute a potential target for antimicrobial therapy. More broadly, our work contributes to recent findings in higher organisms that stress affects not only individual fitness and competitiveness but also cooperative behavior.




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Coupled hydraulic and mechanical model of surface uplift due to mine water rebound: implications for mine water heating and cooling schemes

In order to establish sustainable heat loading (heat removal and storage) in abandoned flooded mine workings it is important to understand the geomechanical impact of the cyclical heat loading caused by fluid injection and extraction. This is particularly important where significantly more thermal loading is planned than naturally occurs. A simple calculation shows that the sustainable geothermal heat flux from abandoned coal mines can provide less than a tenth of Scotland's annual domestic heating demand. Any heat removal greater than the natural heat flux will lead to heat mining unless heat storage options are also considered.

As a first step, a steady-state, fully saturated, 2D coupled hydromechanical model of a generalized section of pillar-and-stall workings has been created. Mine water rebound was modelled by increasing the hydrostatic pressure sequentially, in line with monitored mine water-level data from Midlothian, Scotland. The modelled uplift to water-level rise ratio of 1.4 mm m–1 is of the same order of magnitude (1 mm m–1) as that observed through interferometric synthetic aperture radar (InSAR) data in the coalfield due to mine water rebound. The modelled magnitude of shear stress at the pillar corners, as a result of horizontal and vertical displacement, is shown to increase linearly with water level. Mine heat systems are expected to cause smaller changes in pressure than those modelled but the results provide initial implications on the potential geomechanical impacts of mine water heat schemes which abstract or inject water and heat into pillar-and-stall coal mine workings.

Thematic collection: This article is part of the SJG Collection on Early-Career Research available at: https://www.lyellcollection.org/cc/SJG-early-career-research




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Nup358 and Transportin 1 Cooperate in Adenoviral Genome Import [Virus-Cell Interactions]

Nuclear import of viral genomes is an important step during the life cycle of adenoviruses (AdV), requiring soluble cellular factors as well as proteins of the nuclear pore complex (NPC). We addressed the role of the cytoplasmic nucleoporin Nup358 during adenoviral genome delivery by performing depletion/reconstitution experiments and time-resolved quantification of adenoviral genome import. Nup358-depleted cells displayed reduced efficiencies of nuclear import of adenoviral genomes, and the nuclear import receptor transportin 1 became rate limiting under these conditions. Furthermore, we identified a minimal N-terminal region of Nup358 that was sufficient to compensate for the import defect. Our data support a model where Nup358 functions as an assembly platform that promotes the formation of transport complexes, allowing AdV to exploit a physiological protein import pathway for accelerated transport of its DNA.

IMPORTANCE Nuclear import of viral genomes is an essential step to initiate productive infection for several nuclear replicating DNA viruses. On the other hand, DNA is not a physiological nuclear import substrate; consequently, viruses have to exploit existing physiological transport routes. Here, we show that adenoviruses use the nucleoporin Nup358 to increase the efficiency of adenoviral genome import. In its absence, genome import efficiency is reduced and the transport receptor transportin 1 becomes rate limiting. We show that the N-terminal half of Nup358 is sufficient to drive genome import and identify a transportin 1 binding region. In our model, adenovirus genome import exploits an existing protein import pathway and Nup358 serves as an assembly platform for transport complexes.




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The asymmetry and cooperativity of tandem glycine riboswitch aptamers [ARTICLE]

Glycine riboswitches utilize both single- and tandem-aptamer architectures. In the tandem system, the relative contribution of each aptamer toward gene regulation is not well understood. To dissect these contributions, the effects of 684 single mutants of a tandem ON switch from Bacillus subtilis were characterized for the wild-type construct and binding site mutations that selectively restrict ligand binding to either the first or second aptamer. Despite the structural symmetry of tandem aptamers, the response to these mutations was frequently asymmetrical. Mutations in the first aptamer often significantly weakened the K1/2, while several mutations in the second aptamer improved the amplitude. These results demonstrate that this ON switch favors ligand binding to the first aptamer. This is in contrast to the tandem OFF switch variant from Vibrio cholerae, which was previously shown to have preferential binding to its second aptamer. A bioinformatic analysis of tandem glycine riboswitches revealed that the two binding pockets are differentially conserved between ON and OFF switches. Altogether, this indicates that tandem ON switch variants preferentially utilize binding to the first aptamer to promote helical switching, while OFF switch variants favor binding to the second aptamer. The data set also revealed a cooperative glycine response when both binding pockets were maximally stabilized with three GC base pairs. This indicates a cooperative response may sometimes be obfuscated by a difference in the affinities of the two aptamers. This conditional cooperativity provides an additional layer of tunability to tandem glycine riboswitches that adds to their versatility as genetic switches.