Search for: All records

Overcoming challenges and transitioning from school to work is particularly problematic for individuals who are deaf or hard of hearing, presenting significant issues for both the labor market and vocational training institutions. Due to the lack of research addressing the career maturity and distinctive obstacles faced by this population, this paper endeavors to investigate performance disparities within the machining field. The specific focus is on assessing whether hearing loss may impact students' machining performance. Considering the essential human capabilities for perception in machining, especially in industrial settings, encompass a range of faculties including visualization, hearing, and tactile senses. Thus, addressing concerns related to accommodating individuals with disabilities is important, prompting inquiries into optimizing training programs and quantifying potential disparities in learning or schooling outcomes, behavioral patterns, and overall performance in future careers. The conducted studies involved multiple participants, including hearing, deaf, and hard-of-hearing students with various machining training backgrounds. The investigation will delve into data concerning the qualities of manual machining outputs and the subject’s self-rating feedback. The outcomes from this study are expected not only to allow to obtain more insights into human behavior in machining operations, but also to identify key differences between machinist trainees who exhibit no underlying hearing problems and ones who are deaf/hard of hearing. The findings of this work provide valuable takeaways concerning machinists with hearing loss, revealing little to no effect of hearing loss on trainee performance, alleviating concerns about potential performance weaknesses. The outcomes from this study have shown that trainee experience seems to relate directly to machining proficiency, regardless of hearing loss. 

All known life is homochiral. DNA and RNA are made from “righthanded” nucleotides, and proteins are made from “left-handed” amino acids. Driven by curiosity and plausible applications, some researchers had begun work toward creating lifeforms composed entirely of mirror-image biological molecules. Such mirror organisms would constitute a radical departure from known life, and their creation warrants careful consideration. The capability to create mirror life is likely at least a decade away and would require large investments and major technical advances; we thus have an opportunity to consider and preempt risks before they are realized. Here, we draw on an indepth analysis of current technical barriers, how they might be eroded by technological progress, and what we deem to be unprecedented and largely overlooked risks. We call for broader discussion among the global research community, policy-makers, research funders, industry, civil society, and the public to chart an appropriate path forward. 

Traits for prey acquisition form the phenotypic interface of predator–prey interactions. In venomous predators, morphological variation in venom delivery apparatus like fangs and stingers may be optimized for dispatching prey. Here, we determine how a single dimension of venom injection systems evolves in response to variation in the size, climatic conditions and dietary ecology of viperid snakes. We measured fang length in more than 1900 museum specimens representing 199 viper species (55% of recognized species). We find both phylogenetic signal and within-clade variation in relative fang length across vipers suggesting both general taxonomic trends and potential adaptive divergence in fang length. We recover positive evolutionary allometry and little static allometry in fang length. Proportionally longer fangs have evolved in larger species, which may facilitate venom injection in more voluminous prey. Finally, we leverage climatic and diet data to assess the global correlates of fang length. We find that models of fang length evolution are improved through the inclusion of both temperature and diet, particularly the extent to which diets are mammal-heavy diets. These findings demonstrate how adaptive variation can emerge among components of complex prey capture systems. 

Abstract Recent molecular analyses of transcriptome data from 94 species across 92 genera of North American Plecoptera identified the genus Kathroperla Banks, 1920 as sister group to Chloroperlidae + Perlodidae. Given that the genus Kathroperla has historically been included as a member of the family Chloroperlidae, this discovery indicated further investigation of the genus and the subfamily Paraperlinae was needed. Both transcriptome and genome sequencing datasets were generated from 32 species of the infraorder Systellognatha, including all described species of the Paraperlinae, to test the phylogenetic placement of these taxa. From these datasets, a large phylogenomic data matrix of 800 orthologous genes was produced, and multiple analyses were conducted, including both concatenated and coalescent analyses. Morphological comparisons were made among all Paraperlinae using light microscopy. All molecular results support a monophyletic Kathroperla, which is supported as sister taxon to the remaining Perloidea by five of six molecular analyses. Postocular head length is determined to be a distinct morphological character of this genus. Combined molecular and morphological evidence support the designation of Kathroperlidae, fam. n., as the seventeenth family of extant Plecoptera.