Mutations in the DNA of somatic cells, resulting from inaccuracies in DNA<br/>replication or exposure to harsh conditions (ionizing radiation, carcinogens), may be<br/>loss-of-function mutations, and the compounding of these mutations can lead to cancer.<br/>Such mutations can come in the form of thymine dimers, N-𝛽 glycosyl bond hydrolysis,<br/>oxidation by hydrogen peroxide or other radicals, and deamination of cytosine to uracil.<br/>However, many cells possess the machinery to counteract the deleterious effects of<br/>such mutations. While eukaryotic DNA repair enzymes decrease the incidence of<br/>mutations from 1 mistake per 10^7 nucleotides to 1 mistake per 10^9 nucleotides, these<br/>mutations, however sparse, are problematic. Of particular interest is a mutation in which<br/>uracil is incorporated into DNA, either by spontaneous deamination of cysteine or<br/>misincorporation. Such mutations occur about one in every 107 cytidine residues in 24<br/>hours. DNA uracil glycosylase (UDG) recognizes these mutations and cleaves the<br/>glycosidic bond, creating an abasic site. However, the rate of this form of DNA repair<br/>varies, depending on the nucleotides that surround the uracil. Most enzyme-DNA<br/>interactions depend on the sequence of DNA (which may change the duplex twist),<br/>even if they only bind to the sugar-phosphate backbone. In the mechanism of uracil<br/>excision, UDG flips the uracil out of the DNA double helix, and this step may be<br/>impaired by base pairs that neighbor the uracil. The deformability of certain regions of<br/>DNA may facilitate this step in the mechanism, causing these regions to be less<br/>mutable. In DNA, base stacking, a form of van der Waals forces between the aromatic<br/>nucleic bases, may make these uracil inclusions more difficult to excise. These regions,<br/>stabilized by base stacking interactions, may be less susceptible to repair by<br/>glycosylases such as UDG, and thus, more prone to mutation.
Surveys have shown that several hundred billion weather forecasts are obtained by the United States public each year, and that weather news is one of the most consumed topics in the media. This indicates that the forecast provides information that is significant to the public, and that the public utilizes details associated with it to inform aspects of their life. Phoenix, Arizona is a dry, desert region that experiences a monsoon season and extreme heat. How then, does the weather forecast influence the way Phoenix residents make decisions? This paper aims to draw connections between the weather forecast, decision making, and people who live in a desert environment. To do this, a ten-minute survey was deployed through Amazon Mechanical Turk (MTurk) in which 379 respondents were targeted. The survey asks 45 multiple choice and ranking questions categorized into four sections: obtainment of the forecast, forecast variables of interest, informed decision making based on unique weather variables, and demographics. This research illuminates how residents in the Phoenix metropolitan area use the local weather forecast for decision-making on daily activities, and the main meteorological factors that drive those decisions.