Waving through a window: Agricultural research faculty perspectives on science communication challenges.

This qualitative study explores agriculture research faculty's challenges with participating in Science Communication. To explore the challenges shared by faculty, we utilized the proposed Faculty Science Communication Engagement Framework, which identifies three dimensions that may cause challenges for faculty Science Communication work: personal, professional, and institutional. During interviews with 11 research faculty, we identified Science Communication challenges within these dimensions. Participant challenges within the personal dimension include allocation of time, the learning curve, audience familiarity, and mass-media concern. Professional dimension challenges were "it's not my job" and disciplinary norms, while challenges within the institutional dimension included a lack of support and resources. Across these dimensions, faculty challenges revolved around the time required to invest in Science Communication activities, the needed resources (personnel, technology, and financial), the value placed on efforts by their academic institution, and the lack of knowledge regarding Science Communication techniques and audience. These findings are described through rich data, and practical recommendations are provided for fostering future Science Communication engagement and interest among faculty. These include Science Communication training focused on specific content areas, hands-on training and support with Science Communication technologies, including Extension and non-Extension faculty in training sessions, creating structured and strategically implemented shared Science Communication resources at the institutional level, including Science Communication efforts in university strategic planning, and awarding and recognizing faculty who utilize Science Communication successfully.

When concentrated disadvantage happens: Exploring the nexus of energy and internet insecurities among vulnerable households.

Digital divide and energy insecurity are pervasive issues among underserved communities, issues that become prounoued during the COVID-19 lockdowns. These disparities underscore the critical need to address them promptly to narrow socio-economic gaps. Our study, based on an online survey of 2,588 respondents in the United Kingdom, explores how concentrated socio-economic disadvantage exacerbates insecurities relating to energy and internet access. Our findings reveal that marginalized groups including low-income households, women, renters, ethnic minorities, and individuals with lower educational attainment are disproportionately affected. Our research extends beyond financial implications to explore the broader social and psychological effects such as trust in utility and internet providers. The study also demonstrates how heightened burdens from energy and internet costs adversely affect the quality of indoor environments, underscoring the interconnected nature of these challenges. Based on these insights, we advocate for policy interventions that adopt comprehensive social justice frameworks to tackle these intersecting inequalities effectively.

mRNAid, an open-source platform for therapeutic mRNA design and optimization strategies.

Recent COVID-19 vaccines unleashed the potential of mRNA-based therapeutics. A common bottleneck across mRNA-based therapeutic approaches is the rapid design of mRNA sequences that are translationally efficient, long-lived and non-immunogenic. Currently, an accessible software tool to aid in the design of such high-quality mRNA is lacking. Here, we present mRNAid, an open-source platform for therapeutic mRNA optimization, design and visualization that offers a variety of optimization strategies for sequence and structural features, allowing one to customize desired properties into their mRNA sequence. We experimentally demonstrate that transcripts optimized by mRNAid have characteristics comparable with commercially available sequences. To encompass additional aspects of mRNA design, we experimentally show that incorporation of certain uridine analogs and untranslated regions can further enhance stability, boost protein output and mitigate undesired immunogenicity effects. Finally, this study provides a roadmap for rational design of therapeutic mRNA transcripts.

Effectiveness of diabetes education interventions in rural America: a systematic review.

The purpose of this systematic review is to summarize the characteristics of recent studies on diabetes education interventions in rural areas and identify the relative proportion of studies with characteristics of interest that showed a reduction in glycated hemoglobin (A1C). A systematic literature search was performed in Web of Science, PubMed and PsychInfo, using keywords and Medical Subject Heading terms. Articles conducted in rural areas of the United States tested an educational intervention for people with type 2 diabetes, and reported outcomes were identified. A total of 2762 articles were identified, of which 27 were included. Of the 27 articles, most were implemented in the Southeast (n = 13). Of the 21 interventions that measured A1C, 10 reported a statistically significant decrease in A1C. The proportion of studies with a significant A1C reduction was higher for the studies that used telehealth/online, delivered by a collaboration between health-care professionals and lay educators or included family or group components. Only three studies included their criteria in determining rurality. Future diabetes education interventions may consider including family members or group sessions, holding online sessions and partnering with local resources. Additionally, stronger research methods are needed to test practical and effective interventions to improve diabetes education in rural areas.

The impacts of COVID-19 on clean energy labor markets: Evidence from multifaceted analysis of public health interventions and COVID-health factors.

COVID-19 pandemic has affected clean energy labor market. Using real-time job vacancy data, this study analyzes the impacts of the pandemic on the U.S. clean energy labor market in 2020, including biomass, energy efficiency (EE), electric vehicle (EV), power/microgrid, solar, and wind industries. This study identifies how COVID-health factors and public health interventions influence clean energy job availability during the early COVID pandemic. Overall, California had the most energy jobs and experienced a significant decrease in April 2020. EV and solar had the highest percentages of job vacancies during the pandemic in general. Still, lockdowns had the most severe influence on EE and wind jobs. Stay-at-home orders negatively affected clean energy job vacancies in biomass, EV, power/microgrid, and wind. Social-gathering restrictions, however, did not have much influence. Increased COVID tests at the state level had the strongest and most positive influence on clean energy job postings, indicating the importance of a state's ability to manage public health infrastructure or crisis issues. COVID hospitalizations negatively influenced the job vacancies in biomass and wind but did not affect the other four sectors; conversely, as COVID death numbers increased, the number of jobs in biomass, EV, power grid, solar, and wind decreased, but not in EE jobs.

Arginine-Enriched Mixed-Charge Domains Provide Cohesion for Nuclear Speckle Condensation.

Low-complexity protein domains promote the formation of various biomolecular condensates. However, in many cases, the precise sequence features governing condensate formation and identity remain unclear. Here, we investigate the role of intrinsically disordered mixed-charge domains (MCDs) in nuclear speckle condensation. Proteins composed exclusively of arginine-aspartic acid dipeptide repeats undergo length-dependent condensation and speckle incorporation. Substituting arginine with lysine in synthetic and natural speckle-associated MCDs abolishes these activities, identifying a key role for multivalent contacts through arginine's guanidinium ion. MCDs can synergize with a speckle-associated RNA recognition motif to promote speckle specificity and residence. MCD behavior is tunable through net-charge: increasing negative charge abolishes condensation and speckle incorporation. Contrastingly, increasing positive charge through arginine leads to enhanced condensation, speckle enlargement, decreased splicing factor mobility, and defective mRNA export. Together, these results identify key sequence determinants of MCD-promoted speckle condensation and link the dynamic material properties of speckles with function in mRNA processing.

Evolutionary novelty in gravity sensing through horizontal gene transfer and high-order protein assembly.

Horizontal gene transfer (HGT) can promote evolutionary adaptation by transforming a species' relationship to the environment. In most well-understood cases of HGT, acquired and donor functions appear to remain closely related. Thus, the degree to which HGT can lead to evolutionary novelties remains unclear. Mucorales fungi sense gravity through the sedimentation of vacuolar protein crystals. Here, we identify the octahedral crystal matrix protein (OCTIN). Phylogenetic analysis strongly supports acquisition of octin by HGT from bacteria. A bacterial OCTIN forms high-order periplasmic oligomers, and inter-molecular disulphide bonds are formed by both fungal and bacterial OCTINs, suggesting that they share elements of a conserved assembly mechanism. However, estimated sedimentation velocities preclude a gravity-sensing function for the bacterial structures. Together, our data suggest that HGT from bacteria into the Mucorales allowed a dramatic increase in assembly scale and emergence of the gravity-sensing function. We conclude that HGT can lead to evolutionary novelties that emerge depending on the physiological and cellular context of protein assembly.

Cell cycle-independent phospho-regulation of Fkh2 during hyphal growth regulates Candida albicans pathogenesis.

The opportunistic human fungal pathogen, Candida albicans, undergoes morphological and transcriptional adaptation in the switch from commensalism to pathogenicity. Although previous gene-knockout studies have identified many factors involved in this transformation, it remains unclear how these factors are regulated to coordinate the switch. Investigating morphogenetic control by post-translational phosphorylation has generated important regulatory insights into this process, especially focusing on coordinated control by the cyclin-dependent kinase Cdc28. Here we have identified the Fkh2 transcription factor as a regulatory target of both Cdc28 and the cell wall biosynthesis kinase Cbk1, in a role distinct from its conserved function in cell cycle progression. In stationary phase yeast cells 2D gel electrophoresis shows that there is a diverse pool of Fkh2 phospho-isoforms. For a short window on hyphal induction, far before START in the cell cycle, the phosphorylation profile is transformed before reverting to the yeast profile. This transformation does not occur when stationary phase cells are reinoculated into fresh medium supporting yeast growth. Mass spectrometry and mutational analyses identified residues phosphorylated by Cdc28 and Cbk1. Substitution of these residues with non-phosphorylatable alanine altered the yeast phosphorylation profile and abrogated the characteristic transformation to the hyphal profile. Transcript profiling of the phosphorylation site mutant revealed that the hyphal phosphorylation profile is required for the expression of genes involved in pathogenesis, host interaction and biofilm formation. We confirmed that these changes in gene expression resulted in corresponding defects in pathogenic processes. Furthermore, we identified that Fkh2 interacts with the chromatin modifier Pob3 in a phosphorylation-dependent manner, thereby providing a possible mechanism by which the phosphorylation of Fkh2 regulates its specificity. Thus, we have discovered a novel cell cycle-independent phospho-regulatory event that subverts a key component of the cell cycle machinery to a role in the switch from commensalism to pathogenicity.