William Jewell College

In 1882, Robert Koch and Fanny Hesse developed the agar plate, which enabled microbiologists to separate individual microbial cells from each other and create monocultures of a single strain of bacteria. This powerful tool has been used in the almost 150 years since to develop a robust understanding of how bacterial cells are structured, how they manage and process their information, and how they respond to the environment to produce behaviors that match their circumstances. We were curious about how the behavior of bacteria, as measured by their gene expression, changes between well-studied monoculture conditions and co-culture. We found that only specific growth conditions permit co-culture and that bacteria change their metabolic strategies in the presence of a partner.

Cosmic shear, galaxy clustering, and the abundance of massive halos each probe the large-scale structure of the Universe in complementary ways. We present cosmological constraints from the joint analysis of the three probes, building on the latest analyses of the lensing-informed abundance of clusters identified by the South Pole Telescope (SPT) and of the auto- and cross-correlation of galaxy position and weak lensing measurements (3×2pt) in the Dark Energy Survey (DES). We consider the cosmological correlation between the different tracers and we account for the systematic uncertainties that are shared between the large-scale lensing correlation functions and the small-scale lensing-based cluster mass calibration. Marginalized over the remaining Λ cold dark matter (ΛCDM) parameters (including the sum of neutrino masses) and 52 astrophysical modeling parameters, we measure Ωm=0.300±0.017 and σ8=0.797±0.026. Compared to constraints from primary cosmic microwave background (CMB) anisotropies, our constraints are only 15% wider with a probability to exceed of 0.22 (1.2σ) for the two-parameter difference. We further obtain S8≡σ8(Ωm/0.3)0.5=0.796±0.013 which is lower than the measurement at the 1.6σ level. The combined SPT cluster, DES 3×2pt, and datasets mildly prefer a nonzero positive neutrino mass, with a 95% upper limit ∑mν<0.25 eV on the sum of neutrino masses. Assuming a wCDM model, we constrain the dark energy equation of state parameter w=−1.15−0.17+0.23 and when combining with primary CMB anisotropies, we recover w=−1.20−0.09+0.15, a 1.7σ difference with a cosmological constant. The precision of our results highlights the benefits of multiwavelength multiprobe cosmology and our analysis paves the way for upcoming joint analyses of next-generation datasets. Published by the American Physical Society 2025

Little is known about how components of working memory (i.e., passive resonance of information in working memory, limited capacity working memory, and suppression of irrelevant information from working memory) impact near and far inferencing among adolescent readers. Using path analyses, the current study evaluated the relations of near and far inferencing, vocabulary, general knowledge, strategy use, and word reading efficiency as well as components of working memory among 1,085 students in Grades 7-12. Results indicated that near inferencing has the largest direct effect on far inferencing. Further, in a model that also included direct and indirect effects of cognitive processes on far inferences, results suggested that working memory (β = .08, p = .02), suppression (β = .07, p =.03), near inferencing (β = .25, p < .001) and vocabulary (β = .18, p < .001) had significant direct effects on far inferencing; whereas suppression (β = .13, p < .001), passive resonance in memory (β = .12, p <.001), background knowledge (β = .12, p = .005), and vocabulary β = .27, p < .001) had significant direct effects on near inferencing. In sum, results suggest that cognitive processes impact inferencing among adolescents.

Thrombotic thrombocytopenic purpura is a hematologic disease with a high mortality rate that affects multiple organ systems. It is caused by a deficiency of a metalloprotease known as the ADAMTS-13 enzyme. Patients can present with fever, hemolytic anemia, thrombocytopenia, kidney injury, and neurological symptoms. Here we present a case of a female with TTP who was initially diagnosed with benign paroxysmal positional vertigo (BPPV). Her initial symptoms were vertigo, blurry vision, and gait imbalance, which were accompanied by elevated total bilirubin, acute kidney injury, thrombocytopenia, and normal hemoglobin. When the patient followed up in her primary care clinic, she was found to have worsening renal function, hemolytic anemia, and severe thrombocytopenia. She was subsequently diagnosed with TTPand referred to the emergency department (ED) where she received emergent treatment with therapeutic plasma exchange (TPE) and later rituximab. This case stresses the importance of considering TTP in patients presenting with symptoms and laboratory values suggestive of the disease, even when anemia is not present.

ABSTRACT Extracting precise cosmology from weak lensing surveys requires modelling the non-linear matter power spectrum, which is suppressed at small scales due to baryonic feedback processes. However, hydrodynamical galaxy formation simulations make widely varying predictions for the amplitude and extent of this effect. We use measurements of Dark Energy Survey Year 3 weak lensing (WL) and Atacama Cosmology Telescope DR5 kinematic Sunyaev–Zel’dovich (kSZ) to jointly constrain cosmological and astrophysical baryonic feedback parameters using a flexible analytical model, ‘baryonification’. First, using WL only, we compare the $S_8$ constraints using baryonification to a simulation-calibrated halo model, a simulation-based emulator model, and the approach of discarding WL measurements on small angular scales. We find that model flexibility can shift the value of $S_8$ and degrade the uncertainty. The kSZ provides additional constraints on the astrophysical parameters, with the joint WL + kSZ analysis constraining $S_8=0.823^{+0.019}_{-0.020}$. We measure the suppression of the non-linear matter power spectrum using WL + kSZ and constrain a mean feedback scenario that is more extreme than the predictions from most hydrodynamical simulations. We constrain the baryon fractions and the gas mass fractions and find them to be generally lower than inferred from X-ray observations and simulation predictions. We conclude that the WL + kSZ measurements provide a new and complementary benchmark for building a coherent picture of the impact of gas around galaxies across observations.

We present the angular diameter distance measurement obtained with the baryonic acoustic oscillation (BAO) feature from galaxy clustering in the completed Dark Energy Survey, consisting of six years (Y6) of observations. We use the Y6 BAO galaxy sample, optimized for BAO science in the redshift range $0.6&lt;z&lt;1.2$, with an effective redshift at ${z}_{\mathrm{eff}}=0.85$ and split into six tomographic bins. The sample has nearly 16 million galaxies over 4,273 square degrees. Our consensus measurement constrains the ratio of the angular distance to sound horizon scale to ${D}_{M}({z}_{\mathrm{eff}})/{r}_{d}=19.51\ifmmode\pm\else\textpm\fi{}0.41$ (at 68.3% confidence interval), resulting from comparing the BAO position in our data to that predicted by planck $\mathrm{\ensuremath{\Lambda}}\mathrm{CDM}$ via the BAO shift parameter $\ensuremath{\alpha}=({D}_{M}/{r}_{d})/({D}_{M}/{r}_{d}{)}_{\mathrm{PLANCK}}$. To achieve this, the BAO shift is measured with three different methods, angular correlation function (ACF), angular power spectrum (APS), and projected correlation function (PCF), obtaining $\ensuremath{\alpha}=0.952\ifmmode\pm\else\textpm\fi{}0.023$, $0.962\ifmmode\pm\else\textpm\fi{}0.022$, and $0.955\ifmmode\pm\else\textpm\fi{}0.020$, respectively, which we combine to $\ensuremath{\alpha}=0.957\ifmmode\pm\else\textpm\fi{}0.020$, including systematic errors. When compared with the $\mathrm{\ensuremath{\Lambda}}\mathrm{CDM}$ model that best fits planck data, this measurement is found to be 4.3% and $2.1\ensuremath{\sigma}$ below the angular BAO scale predicted. To date, it represents the most precise angular BAO measurement at $z&gt;0.75$ from any survey and the most precise measurement at any redshift from photometric surveys. The analysis was performed blinded to the BAO position, and it is shown to be robust against analysis choices, data removal, redshift calibrations, and observational systematics.

ABSTRACT Purpose This study investigated the reading profiles of middle school Spanish-speaking emergent bilinguals (EBs) with significantly below grade level reading comprehension and whether these profiles varied in their reading comprehension performance over time. Method Latent profile analyses were used to classify Grade 6 and 7 Hispanic EBs (n = 340; 39% female) into subgroups based on their word reading and vocabulary knowledge. Growth models were then fit within each profile to evaluate reading comprehension performance over time. Results Analyses revealed four latent profiles emerged: (a) very low word reading and low vocabulary (10%), (b) low word reading and low vocabulary (71%), (c) average word reading and low vocabulary (16%), and (d) high word reading and low vocabulary (3%). Subgroups varied in their reading comprehension initially and over one year. Students in the subgroup marked by very low word reading and low vocabulary showed the lowest reading comprehension performance initially; however, they also showed the greatest growth over one year. Conclusion These findings suggest that there is heterogeneity in the reading skill profiles of Spanish-speaking EBs with reading comprehension difficulties. They also underscore the prevalence of word reading difficulties among these students. These may be important factors to consider when developing interventions to prevent and remediate these difficulties.

The Lower Cretaceous Crato Konservat-Lagerstätte (CKL) preserves a rich flora that includes early angiosperms from northern Gondwana. From this area, the recently described fossil genus Santaniella was interpreted as a ranunculid (presumably Ranunculaceae). However, based on our examination of an additional specimen and a new phylogenetic analysis, we offer an alternative interpretation. The new fossil was collected from an active quarry for paving stones in the state of Ceará, northeastern Brazil. We assessed support for alternative phylogenetic hypotheses using a combined analysis of morphological data and DNA sequence data using Bayesian inference. We used a consensus network to visualize the posterior distribution of trees, and we used RoguePlot to illustrate the support for alternative positions on a scaffold tree. The new material includes a flower-like structure not present in the original material and also includes follicles preserved at early stages of development. The flower-like structure is a compact terminal cluster of elliptical sterile laminar organs surrounding internal filamentous structures that occur on flexuous axes. Phylogenetic analyses did not support the fossil placement among eudicots. Instead, Santaniella appears to belong in the magnoliid clade. The presence of seeds in a marginal-linear placentation and enclosed in a follicle supports the fossil as an angiosperm. However, even though most characters are clearly recognizable, its combination of characters does not provide strong support for a close relationship to any extant order of flowering plants. Its position in the magnoliid clade is intriguing and, based on plicate carpels, it is definitely a mesangiosperm.