William Taylor

Communities Foundation of Texas (CFT) celebrated a record-breaking 16th annual North Texas Giving Day campaign on Sept. 19 with North Texans giving $68.3 million to over 3,000 local nonprofits spanning 25 cause areas.

– Women Take Flight: Fashion to Fission luncheon, presented by JSX, Frontiers of Flight Museum, flightmuseum.com.

In journalism, the building blocks of stories are the five Ws and an H: Who? What? When? Where? Why? and How? Dallas Country Club members want media outlets to leave out the Where whenever the Where is the DCC.

The Dallas Arboretum and Botanical Garden’s iconic fall festival, which runs through Nov. 3, takes guests on a journey into Texas history amidst the ground's 100,000 pumpkins, gourds and squash.

Some hobbyists embrace gardening, landscape painting, sewing, baking, or even desktop role-playing games.

During a pivotal and rare quiet moment in last summer’s wildly pink blockbuster Barbie, Margot Robbie in the title role notices an old woman sitting on the bench beside her.

Quantum Information Science and Technology (QIST) has advanced considerably in the past decade, moving beyond research labs into real-world industrial applications and products. This emerging field creates job opportunities for individuals with diverse technical backgrounds. As the industry grows, there is a pressing need to equip students with quantum-specific skills, quantum awareness, and broader STEM knowledge.

Collagenous connective tissue, found throughout the bodies of metazoans, plays a crucial role in maintaining structural integrity. This versatile tissue has the potential for numerous biomedical applications, including the development of innovative collagen-based biomaterials. Inspiration for such advancements can be drawn from echinoderms, a group of marine invertebrates that includes sea stars, sea cucumbers, brittle stars, sea urchins, and sea lilies. Through their nervous system, these organisms can reversibly control the pliability of their connective tissue components (i.e., tendons and ligaments) that are composed of mutable collagenous tissue (MCT). The variable tensile properties of the MCT allow echinoderms to perform unique functions, including postural maintenance, reduction of muscular energy use, autotomy to avoid predators, and asexual reproduction through fission. The changes in the tensile strength of MCT structures are specifically controlled by specialized neurosecretory cells called juxtaligamental cells. These cells release substances that either soften or stiffen the MCT. So far, only a few of these substances have been purified and characterized, and the genetic underpinning of MCT biology remains unknown. Therefore, we have conducted this research to identify MCT-related genes in echinoderms as a first step towards a better understanding of the MCT molecular control mechanisms. Our ultimate goal is to unlock new biomaterial applications based on this knowledge. In this project, we used RNA-Seq to identify and annotate differentially expressed genes in the MCT structures of the brittle star Ophiomastix wendtii. As a result, we present a list of 16 putative MCT modulator genes, which will be validated and characterized in forthcoming functional analyses.

November 3 - Chefs for Farmers food and wine festival: The Main Event, Old City Park

If you're like me, you are looking forward to days off and holiday feasting. But while we prepare to give thanks at the expense of a turkey's life, perhaps we should also be thinking about those who face more challenges when it comes to putting food on a table. Cody Baker, brand manager and director