Bushmeat and bycatch: the sum of the parts

In many developing countries, the killing of wild animals for commercial purposes (the bushmeat trade) is a significant factor in the reduction of biodiversity, and probably represents a major threat to the survival of many more populations than we know. This includes marine species such as cetaceans, sea turtles and sirenians ("marine bushmeat"), which are often neglected in the discussion of this issue. Estimating the impact of the bushmeat trade anywhere is problematic because even the most thorough visual surveys of meat markets cannot easily translate an observed quantity of butchered products into the number of animals killed. In this issue of Molecular Ecology, Baker et al. provide a powerful new tool for such assessments: molecular identification of commercially available products from a depleted population of minke whales in South Korea is combined with genotyping and novel capture-recapture methods to estimate not only the number of individuals taken, but also the persistence of the resulting products in the marketplace.     

Stereocilia: the long and the short of it

Mutations in whirlin, a putative PDZ scaffold protein, have recently been shown to cause deafness and short cochlear hair cell stereocilia in whirler mice and recessive deafness (DFNB31) in humans. Through its PDZ domains, whirlin might organize a group of proteins into a functional complex required for stereocilia elongation. Identifying these protein partners will advance our understanding of the development of stereocilia and their function as mechanosensory organelles indispensable for normal hearing.     

Iron and infection: the heart of the matter

Bacterial resistance to antibiotics is a major threat to clinical medicine. However, natural resistance to bacterial infection, which does not depend on antibiotics, is a powerful protective mechanism common to all mankind. The availability of iron is the heart of the matter and the successful functioning of these antibacterial systems depends entirely upon an extremely low level of free ionic iron (10(-18) M) in normal tissue fluids. This in turn depends on well-oxygenated tissues where the oxidation-reduction potential (Eh) and pH control the binding of iron by unsaturated transferrin and lactoferrin. Bacterial virulence is greatly enhanced by freely available iron, such as that in fully-saturated transferrin or free haemoglobin. Following trauma a fall in tissue Eh and pH due to ischaemia, plus the reducing powers of bacteria, can make iron in transferrin freely available and abolish the bactericidal properties of tissue fluids with disastrous results for the host. Hyperbaric oxygen is a possible therapeutic measure that could restore normal bactericidal systems in infected tissues by raising the Eh and pH.     

Beauty and the body: the origins of cosmetics

Ancient cultures were as preoccupied with the aesthetics of appearance as individuals are today. Dermabrasion for skin resurfacing has been performed with salt, pumice, ground grains, bone, and horn. Chemical peels have been performed with acids, metals, botanical extracts, or animal fats. Tattoos, ear piercing, makeup, skin treatments, and massages have existed for the past 5000 years. According to history, when the rise of more complex societies brought an ever-increasing demand for cosmesis, perfumers, cosmetologists, barbers, and gentlewomen became pioneers, undertaking and developing the cosmetic practices that had evolved through the ages. With the consolidation of medical specialties concerned with the management of skin care, the scientific method has been applied to adapt and perfect many of the procedures that had been carried out with only empirical knowledge. To have a better perspective from which to envision future technical and technological developments, plastic surgeons should be familiar with the origins of cosmetics and some cosmetology practices that society demands.     

Phloem: the long and the short of it

The structure of phloem sieve-element-companion-cell complexes reflects a duality of function: to conduct photoassimilates throughout the plant, and to exchange solutes between the phloem and surrounding tissues. The conceptual integration of these long- and short-distance functions requires the abandonment of a long-cherished concept in phloem physicochemistry, that source-sink turgor differentials control flow. The manifest inability of decentralized organisms such as plants to control phloem translocation centrally disqualifies such differentials as control variables; besides, the phloem is maximally efficient if the pressure differentials are small. Testing this hypothesis and whether turgor differentials are small will require a significant recommitment to studying the quantitative anatomy of phloem.     

Transitions: Homo erectus and the Acheulian: the Ethiopian sites of Gadeb and the Middle Awash

Significant differences in activity-site patterning and artifact composition at Middle Pleistocene localities in Ethiopia's high plains and Afar Rift are indications of both single-episode, small-site residues from small groups and multi-purpose, multiple occupation sites from which larger, temporary groupings might be inferred. Reconstructions of palaeo-environments and geography show that large assemblages relate to relatively stable topography, such as stream channels or lake margins, while small assemblages are more common in deltaic situations of rapid sedimentation and burial in the Rift that preclude possibility of reoccupation. A model for Acheulian socio-economic behaviour within the drier African savanna, based (in part) on chimpanzee behaviour in open savanna habitats, is proposed. This takes the form of organization into relatively extensive territories, each with several more closed-vegetation core areas, of limited extent close to permanent water, surrounded by more extensive areas of drier, open savanna, regularly exploited and patrolled by small groups. Movement from one core area to another was rapid and made together as a group, to minimize danger from large predators and competition from other hominid groups.     

Hypothesis: RNA polymerase: Structural determinat of the chromatin loop and the chromosome

Current models for RNA synthesis involve an RNA polymerase that tracks along a static template. However, research on chromatin loops suggests that the template slides past a stationary polymerase; individual polymerases tie the chromatin fibre into loops and clusters of polymerases determine the basic structure of the interphase and metaphase chromosome. RNA polymerase is then both a player and a manager of the chromosome loop.     

Focus: The Aging Brain: Palliative Care and the Humanities: Centralizing the Patient at the End of Life

Palliative care is a quickly growing facet of modern medicine. While scientific advancements have broken new ground for the possibilities of end-of-life care, sensitive treatment of the patient as an individual has lagged behind and has frequently led to an unsatisfactory experience for patients, families, and the medical community at large. This essay argues that centralizing patients during the terminal phases of treatment by using humanistic perspectives has the potential to bring new meaning and improved effectiveness to patients and physicians alike.     

Modelling the Valuesphere and the Ecosphere:

Methods for Life Cycle Impact Assessment have to cope with two critical aspects, the uncertainty in values and the (unknown) system behaviour. LCA methodology should cope explicitly with these subjective elements. A structured aggregation procedure is proposed that differentiates between the technosphere and the ecosphere and embeds them in the valuesphere. LCA thus becomes a decision support system that models and combines these three spheres. We introduce three structurally identical types of LCA, each based on one coherent but different set of values. These sets of values can be derived from the Cultural Theory and are labeled as ‘egalitarian’, ‘individualistic’, and ‘hierarchic’. Within Life Cycle Impact Assessment, a damage oriented assessment model is complemented with both a newly developed precautionary indicator designed to address unknown damage and an indicator for the manageability of environmental damages. The indicators for unknown damage and for manageability complete the set of indicators judged to be relevant by decision makers. The weights given to these indicators are also value-dependent. The framework proposed here answers the criticisms that present LCA methodology does not strictly enough separate subjective from objective elements and that it fails to accurately model environmental impacts.