Effects of dynamic impacts on human bones

Flat bones of human skeleton were subjected to dynamic indentation with ball indenters. The impacted surface was studied under high magnification and also by using the technique of multiple beam interferometry. The impulse caused the pile up of material at a little distance from the edge of the indent. The diameter of indent is found to increase as fourth root of the energy of impact. Bone structure also has the tendency to minimize the damage caused by external forces. There was about 90% recovery in deformation in the depth of indents due to internal stresses created inside the bone by the impact.     

A graph theoretic approach to the development of minimal phylogenetic trees

Summary The problem of determining the minimal phylogenetic tree is discussed in relation to graph theory. It is shown that this problem is an example of the Steiner problem in graphs which is to connect a set of points by a minimal length network where new points can be added. There is no reported method of solving realistically-sized Steiner problems in reasonable computing time. A heuristic method of approaching the phylogenetic problem is presented, together with a worked example with 7 mammalian cytochrome c sequences. It is shown in this case that the method develops a phylogenetic tree that has the smallest possible number of amino acid replacements. The potential and limitations of the method are discussed. It is stressed that objective methods must be used for comparing different trees. In particular it should be determined how close a given tree is to a mathematically determined lower bound. A theorem is proved which is used to establish a lower bound on the length of any tree and if a tree is found with a length equal to the lower bound, then no shorter tree can exist.     

Passive cable properties of hippocampal CA3 pyramidal neurons

The passive electrical cable properties of CA3 pyramidal neurons from guinea pig hippocampal slices were investigated by applying current steps and recording the voltage transients from 25 CA3 neurons, using a single intracellular microelectrode and a 3-kHz time-share system. Two independent methods were used for estimating the equivalent electrotonic length of the dendrites, L, and the dendritic to somatic conductance ratio, . The first method is similar to that used by Gorman and Mirolli (1972) and gave an average L of 0.96; the average was 2.44. The second method is derived here for the first time and assumes a finite-length cable with lumped soma. It is an exact solution for L and , using the slopes and intercepts of the first two peeled exponentials. The average L was 0.94; the average was 1.51. The results, using both methods, are in close agreement. The average membrane time constant for all 25 CA3 neurons was 23.6 ms, suggesting a large (23,600 cm²) average membrane resistivity. It is concluded that CA3 neurons are electronically short.This work was supported by Grants NS 11535 and NS 15772 from the National Institute of Neurological and Communicative Disorders and Stroke, National Institutes of Health, U.S. Public Health Service.     

Connections of the olfactory bulb in the piranha (Serrasalmus nattereri)

Summary The connections of the olfactory bulb were studied in the piranha using the Nauta and horseradish-peroxidase methods. Three olfactory tracts project to seven terminal fields in the telencephalon and one in the diencephalon, all of them bilaterally. The contralateral olfactory bulb also receives a small input. All contralateral projections decussate in the anterior commissure and are relatively weak compared to the ipsilateral projections. HRP-containing cells were found in all of the ipsilateral telencephalic aggregates receiving an olfactory tract projection; the contralateral side was free of labeled cell bodies. Although only about one fourth of the entire telencephalon receives a direct olfactory input, the high degree of differentiation of the olfactory system suggests that the piranha depends substantially on the sense of olfaction and that this species may be a good model for further studies on olfactory mechanisms.     

Physical violence,child abuse,and child homicide

The study of child abuse and child homicide has been based on the often implicit assumption that there is a continuum of violence ranging from mild physical punishment to severe abuse and homicide. Empirical data supporting this assumption are sparse. Existing data can be shown, however, to support an assumption that there are distinct forms of violence, not a continuum. This paper reviews these data and discusses their implications for the study of violence, abuse, and homicide in terms of substantive and methodological explanations. In addition, the implications of the assumption that violence consists of distinct behaviors as opposed to a continuum are discussed in light of sociobiological and evolutionary explanations of child abuse and child homicide. This paper was written under the auspices of the Family Violence Research Program at the University of Rhode Island. A complete list of books and articles is available upon request. Richard J. Gelles is Professor of Sociology and Anthropology and the Director of the Family Violence Research Program at the University of Rhode Island. He is the author or coauthor of 14 books and more than 90 articles and chapters on family violence. His most recent books areIntimate Violence, published in 1988 by Simon and Schuster;Physical Violence in American Families: Risk Factors and Adaptations in 8,145 Families, published by Transaction Books in 1990; andIntimate Violence in Families, published in 1990 by Sage Publications.     

Genetic distance and species formation in evolving populations

Summary We compare the behavior of the genetic distance between individuals in evolving populations for three stochastic models.In the first model reproduction is asexual and the distribution of genetic distances reflects the genealogical tree of the population. This distribution fluctuates greatly in time, even for very large populations.In the second model reproduction is sexual with random mating allowed between any pair of individuals. In this case, the population becomes homogeneous and the genetic distance between pairs of individuals has small fluctuations which vanish in the limit of an infinitely large population.In the third model reproduction is still sexual but instead of random mating, mating only occurs between individuals which are genetically similar to each other. In that case, the population splits spontaneously into species which are in reproductive isolation from one another and one observes a steady state with a continual appearance and extinction of species in the population. We discuss this model in relation to the biological theory of speciation and isolating mechanisms.We also point out similarities between these three models of evolving populations and the theory of disordered systems in physics. Offprint requests to: P.G. Higgs     

How to predict product yield in kinetically controlled enzymatic peptide synthesis

The published theory of kinetically controlled enzymatic peptide synthesis needed experimental verification. We carried out the measurement of the peptide yield and estimation of the key parameters alpha and beta for papain-catalyzed synthesis of Mal-L-Phe-L-Ala-LLeuNH(2) from Mal-L-Phe-L-AlaOMe and L-LeuNH(2). The experimental results demonstrate that this theory adequately describes the real process. (c) 1992 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

Evolution of structure and function of V-ATPases

Proton pumping ATPases/ATPsynthases are found in all groups of present-day organisms. The structure of V- and F-type ATPases/ATP synthases is very conserved throughout evolution. Sequence analysis shows that the V- and F-type ATPases evolved from the same enzyme already present in the last common ancestor of all known extant life forms. The catalytic and noncatalytic subunits found in the dissociable head groups of the V/F-type ATPases are paralogous subunits, i.e., these two types of subunits evolved from a common ancestral gene. The gene duplication giving rise to these two genes (i.e., encoding the catalytic and noncatalytic subunits) predates the time of the last common ancestor.Mapping of gene duplication events that occurred in the evolution of the proteolipid, the noncatalytic and the catalytic subunits, onto the tree of life leads to a prediction for the likely subunit structure of the encoded ATPases. A correlation between structure and function of V/F-ATPases has been established for present-day organisms. Implications resulting from this correlation for the bioenergetics operative in proto-eukaryotes and in the last common ancestor are presented. The similarities of the V/F-ATPase subunits to an ATPase-like protein that was implicated to play a role in flagellar assembly are evaluated.Different V-ATPase isoforms have been detected in some higher eukaryotes. These data are analyzed with respect to the possible function of the different isoforms (tissue specific, organelle specific) and with respect to the point in their evolution when these gene duplications giving rise to the isoforms had occurred, i.e., how far these isoforms are distributed.