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Law School News: RWU Class Of 2025 Urged To Embrace Discomfort, Pursue Their Dreams And Careers With Purpose 05-16-2025
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Cooperative hydrodynamics accompany multicellular-like colonial organization in the unicellular ciliate Stentor
No full textMany single-celled organisms exhibit both solitary and colonial existence. An important step towards multicellularity, which is associated with benefits such as enhanced nutrient uptake, was the formation of colonies of unicellular organisms. However, the initial drivers that favoured individual cells aggregating into more complex colonies are less clear. Here we show that hydrodynamic coupling between proximate neighbours results in faster feeding flows for neighbouring ciliates, such that individuals within a dynamic colony have stronger average feeding flows than solitary individuals. Flows generated by individuals acting together reach higher velocities, thus allowing access to a wider range of prey resources than individuals acting on their own. Moreover, we find that accrued feeding benefits are typically asymmetric: whereas all individuals benefit from acting together, those with slower solitary currents gain more from partnering than those with faster currents. We find that colonial organization in simple unicellular organisms is beneficial for all its members. This provides fundamental insights into the selective forces favouring the early evolution of multicellular organization
Microinjection, gene knockdown, and CRISPR-mediated gene knock-in in the hard coral, Astrangia poculata
Get PDFCnidarians have become valuable models for understanding many aspects of developmental biology including the evolution of body plan diversity, novel cell type specification, and regeneration. Most of our understanding of gene function during early development in cnidarians comes from a small number of experimental systems including Hydra and the sea anemone, Nematostella vectensis. Few molecular tools have been developed for use in hard corals, limiting our understanding of this diverse and ecologically important clade. Here, we report the development of a suite of tools for manipulating and analyzing gene expression during early development in the northern star coral, Astrangia poculata. We present methods for gene knockdown using short hairpin RNAs, gene overexpression using exogenous mRNAs, and endogenous gene tagging using CRISPR-mediated gene knock-in. Combined with the fact that spawning can be induced in the laboratory, during the reproductive window, these tools make A. poculata a tractable experimental system for investigative studies of coral development. Further application of these tools will enable functional analyses of embryonic patterning and morphogenesis across Anthozoa and open new frontiers in coral biology research
Changemakers: Nate Reid : L\u2726 : The Surprising Impact Of Pro Bono Opportunities 09-02-2025
Get PDFResilient non-radicalisers: beating the odds through non-radicalisation despite significant suffering
No full textThis study explores how and why some individuals are resilient to radicalisation by focusing on individuals who were labelled “terrorists” for their alleged involvement or support for an attempted coup that took place in Turkey on 15 July 2016, yet who have shown no sign of violent radicalisation since. Drawing from 15 interviews, it assesses both the potential radicalisation risk factors that the participants display, such as political persecution, imprisonment, torture, social pressure and forced migration. Then, it explores participants’ explanation for why they have not become radicalised, including the role of the Hizmet doctrine, their religious adherence, individual personality traits and resources (e.g. social capital) through a socioecological framework. While terrorism studies have focused extensively on pathways towards radicalisation and countering radicalisation, this study contributes to a small body of research to explore the notion of “non-radicalisation”, informing the literature on resilience and protective factors towards larger populations