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Rapid advances in DNA synthesis techniques have made it possible to engineer viruses, biochemical pathways and assemble bacterial genomes. Here, we report the synthesis of a functional 272,871–base pair designer eukaryotic chromosome, synlll, which is based on the 316,617–base pair native Saccharomyces cerevisiae chromosome III. Changes to synIII include TAG/TAA stop-codon replacements, deletion of subtelomeric regions, introns, transfer RNAs, transposons, and silent mating loci as well as insertion of loxPsym sites to enable genome scrambling. SynIII is functional in S. cerevisiae. Scrambling of the chromosome in a heterozygous diploid reveals a large increase in a-mater derivatives resulting from loss of the MATα allele on synIII. The complete design and synthesis of synIII establishes S. cerevisiae as the basis for designer eukaryotic genome biology.

IntroductionGeorge Floyd’s death in 2020 galvanised large protests around the country, including the emergence of the Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone (CHAZ) in Seattle, Washington, a non-policed, organised protest region that may have differing injury risks than other regions. We sought to quantitatively describe characteristics of injuries related to protests documented at visits to two nearby major emergency departments, including the only Level 1 trauma centre in the state.MethodsUsing the International Classification of Diseases, 10th Revision code inclusion criteria, we identified 1938 unique patient visits across the two emergency departments from 29 May 2020 and 1 July 2020. We reviewed provider notes to identify keywords to determine if the visit was related to the CHAZ protest. We quantitatively described demographics and injury characteristics.ResultsWe identified 48 injury visits related to the protest, with 25 from assault, 11 from crowd-control weapons and 8 from ground-level falls. Crowd-control weapons consisted of five visits from pepper spray, five from tear gas and a smaller number from flash-bang grenades, rubber bullets or other projectiles or a baton. In terms of body region injuries, 23 involved the head, 13 involved the knee and lower leg and 11 involved the thorax. Five patients required transfer to the operating room for surgery and admission and two died.DiscussionThe demonstrations during the CHAZ in Seattle in 2020 resulted in several violent injuries. Given the high proportion of assault and head injuries, these injury patterns can help prepare healthcare workers and first responders to plan care needs during protests.

When critically ill pediatric patients arrive in the emergency department (ED), a rapid physical evaluation is performed in order to systematically evaluate and address life-threatening conditions. This is commonly referred to as the primary survey. At our institution, pediatric residents are frequently tasked with this role, but they have limited training for or experience with this task. Quality improvement review of real resuscitation recordings at our institution revealed delays in initiation and incomplete primary surveys. We sought to utilize gamification to standardize and optimize reproducible training for the primary survey task for pediatric residents using a low-fidelity paper doll model simulation to improve primary survey performance in actual resuscitations.

The hemlock woolly adelgid (HWA; Adelges tsugae) is responsible for widespread mortality of eastern hemlock (Tsuga canadensis) throughout its range. Models suggest that HWA-induced mortality could serve as a disturbance event that will increase large woody debris (LWD) loads in headwater streams. The objective of this research was to investigate the extent to which HWA infestation has impacted in-channel LWD loads in southern Appalachian headwater river systems. We surveyed 26 sites within the Blue Ridge Mountains with varying degrees of eastern hemlock composition, and HWA-induced decline. We combined these into a Hemlock Decline Index (HDI) that served as an explanatory variable for analyses. Results revealed that high HDI values were associated with higher LWD loads, higher frequency of LWD jams, and larger diameter LWD. These findings indicate that the HWA is significantly impacting LWD loads in streams, and subsequently impacting stream ecology. Additionally, the HDI developed here could be a useful tool for making regional comparisons of the impacts of the HWA on forest ecosystems.