"No matter what your story is, there is a place for you in science": Students' Ability to Relate to Scientists Positively Shifts after Scientist Spotlight Assignments, Especially for First-Generation Students and Women.

We evaluate the impact of a low-stakes easy-to-implement course-level intervention, Scientist Spotlight assignments, which feature personal and professional stories of diverse scientists. This work extends previous studies by examining whether shifts in relatability differ across student identities, particularly students who identify as first-generation students, a population that has not been the focus of previous investigations of this intervention. Using paired pre- and postcourse data from four implementations in an introductory biology course, we report a significant, positive shift in undergraduate students' self-reported ability to relate to scientists, and concomitant shifts in how students describe scientists after completing four or six Scientist Spotlight assignments.

A Novel Candidate Gene for Temperature-Dependent Sex Determination in the Common Snapping Turtle.

Temperature-dependent sex determination (TSD) was described nearly 50 years ago. Researchers have since identified many genes that display differential expression at male- vs. female-producing temperatures.

Evidence of positive selection at codon sites localized in extracellular domains of mammalian CC motif chemokine receptor proteins.

Background: CC chemokine receptor proteins (CCR1 through CCR10) are seven-transmembrane G-protein coupled receptors whose signaling pathways are known for their important roles coordinating immune system responses through targeted trafficking of white blood cells. In addition, some of these receptors have been identified as fusion proteins for viral pathogens: for example, HIV-1 strains utilize CCR5, CCR2 and CCR3 proteins to obtain cellular entry in humans. The extracellular domains of these receptor proteins are involved in ligand-binding specificity as well as pathogen recognition interactions.