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"roadrunner"
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Fixed-target serial femtosecond crystallography using in cellulo grown microcrystals
The crystallization of recombinant proteins in living cells is an exciting new approach in structural biology. Recent success has highlighted the need for fast and efficient diffraction data collection, optimally directly exposing intact crystal-containing cells to the X-ray beam, thus protecting the in cellulo crystals from environmental challenges. Serial femtosecond crystallography (SFX) at free-electron lasers (XFELs) allows the collection of detectable diffraction even from tiny protein crystals, but requires very fast sample exchange to utilize each XFEL pulse. Here, an efficient approach is presented for high-resolution structure elucidation using serial femtosecond in cellulo diffraction of micometre-sized crystals of the protein HEX-1 from the fungus Neurospora crassa on a fixed target. Employing the fast and highly accurate Roadrunner II translation-stage system allowed efficient raster scanning of the pores of micro-patterned, single-crystalline silicon chips loaded with living, crystal-containing insect cells. Compared with liquid-jet and LCP injection systems, the increased hit rates of up to 30% and reduced background scattering enabled elucidation of the HEX-1 structure. Using diffraction data from only a single chip collected within 12 min at the Linac Coherent Light Source, a 1.8 Å resolution structure was obtained with significantly reduced sample consumption compared with previous SFX experiments using liquid-jet injection. This HEX-1 structure is almost superimposable with that previously determined using synchrotron radiation from single HEX-1 crystals grown by sitting-drop vapour diffusion, validating the approach. This study demonstrates that fixed-target SFX using micro-patterned silicon chips is ideally suited for efficient in cellulo diffraction data collection using living, crystal-containing cells, and offers huge potential for the straightforward structure elucidation of proteins that form intracellular crystals at both XFELs and synchrotron sources.
Journal Article
Cocky
\"Saucy, strutting Cocky, a rollicking little roadrunner, joins the baby jack rabbit Hop-a-long, and the other animals of the desert\"-- Provided by publisher.
Book
Railway scheduling reduces the expected project makespan over roadrunner scheduling in a multi-mode project scheduling environment
The Critical Chain Scheduling and Buffer Management (CC/BM) methodology, proposed by Goldratt (Critical chain,
1997
), introduced the concepts of feeding buffers, project buffers and resource buffers as well as the roadrunner mentality. This last concept, in which activities are started as soon as possible, was introduced in order to speed up projects by taking advantage of predecessors finishing early. Later on, the railway scheduling concept of never starting activities earlier than planned was introduced as a way to increase the stability of the project, typically at the cost of an increase in the expected project makespan. In this paper, we will indicate a realistic situation in which railway scheduling improves both the stability and the expected project makespan over roadrunner scheduling.
Journal Article
The Gravity of Cartoon Physics; or, Schrödinger’s Coyote
When Wile E. coyote goes off a cliff, instead of falling in a parabolic arc, he comes to a halt in mid-air, hangs there until he realizes that he is no longer on solid ground, then falls. Many critics and, indeed, the creators of the cartoons themselves, describe this as “cartoon physics,” which breaks the rules that appear to govern the real world, but several principles of modern physics are in fact depicted here. He is both falling and not falling; when he is able to observe his situation, the laws of quantum physics catch up with him. This, and the principle of relativity, govern the apparent paradoxes of the cartoon world. Although the coyote was, according to his creators, conceived as a parody of a modern scientist and played for laughs, he illustrates several paradoxes of modern science and the unease with which these are widely viewed. These cartoon physics have become a meme that has developed in later animated cartoons and live-action science fiction films, and is now even a part of modern-day science textbooks.
Journal Article
A Morphometric Sex Determination Model for Adult Greater Roadrunners (Geococcyx californianus)
Little is known of the greater roadrunner's (Geococcyx californianus; roadrunner) ecology and many demographic questions are difficult to answer because of our inability to determine adult bird sex in the field. We collected measurements from live-captured roadrunners of known sex in Fisher County, Texas, USA, and from roadrunner specimens frommuseums and university biological collections from 2003 to 2012 to develop a predictive logistic regression model for adult sex determination. We measured 433 adult birds of which 80% (n= 346) were randomly chosen to build potential models. Our best model included the variable estimate bill depth, which was found to be larger in males and correctly classified 80% of the birds. We validated the model with the remaining 20% of measurements (n= 87) and correctly identified the sex of 85% of the birds. Because this model incorporated roadrunners from across their range, it provides an easy, inexpensive, accurate, and field-relevant methodology for sex determination of adult roadrunners at the point of capture.
Journal Article
Nest defense behavior of Greater Roadrunners (Geococcyx californianus) in south Texas
The Greater Roadrunner (Geococcyx californianus) is a medium-sized predatory bird that occurs widely across the southwestern United States. Despite its prevalence in this region, studies examining the nesting and behavioral ecology of this species are limited. In 2015 and 2016, we examined relatively unknown aspects of roadrunner natural history by using infrared video cameras to observe antipredator behaviors associated with Greater Roadrunner nest defense. Nest predation accounted for all nesting failures in our study. The Great Plains rat snake (Pantherophis emoryi) accounted for 70.0% of nest predation. We observed rat snakes entering the nest and consuming eggs or nestlings for >6 min before roadrunners flushed from nest sites. We also observed 53.3% of roadrunners actively defending nest sites from snake predators and zero defending nests from coyotes (Canis latrans), likely because of the predator size. Active defense sessions in our study lasted 1 min 20 s (95% CI 1 min 17 s) and consisted of 12.0 (95% CI 3.4) bill strikes per min of active defense. We observed no successful nest defenses because partial nest contents were lost during each event; however, >50% of predation events with an active defense session resulted in preservation of at least one viable egg or chick, indicating nest defense was a valuable behavior. Examining nest defense behaviors in larger, predatory birds may elucidate risks and rewards associated with nest defense that may not be observed in studies focusing primarily on passerines.
Journal Article
Modeling Greater Roadrunners' Geococcyx californianus) habitat use in west Texas
We studied Greater Roadrunners' (Geococcyx californianus) habitat use during spring and summer of 2011 in the Red Rolling Plains of west Texas. We captured 10 roadrunners (one male and nine females) and fitted each with a 10-g backpack style radio-transmitter. Roadrunners were relocated 2-4 times per week from February-August. We used these data to build a logistic regression model to better understand the vegetative and topographic features important to roadrunners during the nesting season. The initial data set consisted of 30 random and 30 used locations. The best model showed both percent rock and percent litter to be higher at used locations and correctly classified 88% of the sites. Evaluation of the model with an additional 30 random and 30 used locations maintained significance of both the model and variables and correctly classified 83% of sites. Both variables were associated with the location's mesa ridge slopes. Litter dominated locations under shrubs on the ridge tops and slopes and likely provided security from predators, nest sites, and relief from extreme summer temperatures. Percent rock cover characterized locations on ridge tops and slopes which provided perch sites, travel lanes, and foraging sites where the roadrunners could find basking prey. Received 26 June 2013. Accepted 24 December 2013.
Journal Article