The nutritional value of organic detrital aggregate in the diet of fathead minnows

1. The nutritional value of detrital aggregate, which refers to the mixture of plant debris (i.e. organic detritus) and microorganisms, in the diets of fathead minnows ( Pimephales promelas Rafinesque) was assessed in experiments using surface benthic samples from three sites in Clear Lake (Houghton County, Michigan, U.S.A.).
2. In the first experiment, fish were fed small (<250 μm) and large (250–1000 μm) particle detritus from one profundal and two littoral sites. Fish in all treatments lost weight. However, fish fed detritus from the littoral erosional site, where wild fish forage intensively, had significantly lower weight loss.
3. In the second experiment, fish were fed various quantities of Artemia with or without ad libitum erosional site detritus. Growth was proportional to the mass of Artemia consumed, yet minnows showed increased growth with the detritus supplement at low invertebrate rations.
4. This study shows that detrital aggregate produced by decompositional processes at the erosional site could be nutritionally valuable to minnows. It appears that a feeding strategy of consuming detritus with a higher nutritional quality (i.e. detrital aggregate) as a dietary supplement benefits fishes in temperate as well as tropical systems.     

Characterization of gibberellins from light-grown Phaseolus coccineus seedlings by combined GC-MS

Following extensive purification of an extract from 5000 light-grown Phaseolus coccineus seedlings by procedures including countercurrent distribution, Sephadex G10, polyvinylpyrrolidone, charcoal-celite and silicic acid partition column chromatography, TLC preparative GLC, gibberellins A₁, A₄, A₅ and A₂₀ were characterized by combined GC-MS. In addition, an unknown compound isomeric with gibberellin A₁₇ but lacking an hydroxyl group, was also detected.     

High-frequency chromosome transfer in Rhodopseudomonas sphaeroides promoted by broad-host-range plasmid RP1 carrying mercury transposon Tn501.

Insertion of the mercury resistance transposon Tn501 into broad-host-range plasmid RP1 greatly enhanced the ability of this plasmid to promote chromosome transfer in the photosynthetic bacterium Rhodopseudomonas sphaeroides. Compared with the wild-type RP1, which produced less than 10(-8) recombinants per donor cell, RP1::Tn501 produced between 10(-3) and 10(-7) recombinants per donor cell depending upon the marker selected. Plasmid RP1::Tn501 promoted polarized transfer of the chromosome from one or perhaps two origins on the chromosome, giving rise to two linkage groups. All of the biosynthetic and antibiotic resistance genes that have been mapped, including those involved in photosynthesis, occur on one or another of these linkage groups.     

Compliance with postpartum Rh isoimmunization prophylaxis in Alberta

A retrospective review of obstetric records for 1979 in two major Calgary hospitals was undertaken to determine the rate of compliance with postpartum Rh isoimmunization prophylaxis in Alberta. The charts of 4528 women ranging in age from 13 to 46 years were reviewed. The prevalence rate of Rh negativity was found to be 16%. Of the 710 Rh-negative women 490 (69%) were eligible to receive Rh immune globulin (RhIG); that is, they had no anti-D antibodies, and the baby/fetus was Rh-positive or Rh-unknown. RhIG had been administered to 93.6% of the eligible women; the compliance rate ranged from 66.7% for obstetric emergencies (i.e., spontaneous abortion, antepartum or early-pregnancy hemorrhage, or ectopic pregnancy) to 98.2% for postpartum diagnoses. In more than half (54.7%) of the women who underwent amniocentesis Rh type was not determined; the implications of this finding are discussed. Although poor compliance with postpartum RhIG administration is not a reason for withholding antepartum administration of RhIG, maximum compliance with the more cost-effective programs should be attained before antepartum programs are fully implemented.     

In Vivo Detection of Human TRPV6-Rich Tumors with Anti-Cancer Peptides Derived from Soricidin

Soricidin is a 54-amino acid peptide found in the paralytic venom of the northern short-tailed shrew (Blarina brevicauda) and has been found to inhibit the transient receptor potential of vallinoid type 6 (TRPV6) calcium channels. We report that two shorter peptides, SOR-C13 and SOR-C27, derived from the C-terminus of soricidin, are high-affinity antagonists of human TRPV6 channels that are up-regulated in a number of cancers. Herein, we report molecular imaging methods that demonstrate the in vivo diagnostic potential of SOR-C13 and SOR-C27 to target tumor sites in mice bearing ovarian or prostate tumors. Our results suggest that these novel peptides may provide an avenue to deliver diagnostic and therapeutic reagents directly to TRPV6-rich tumors and, as such, have potential applications for a range of carcinomas including ovarian, breast, thyroid, prostate and colon, as well as certain leukemia''s and lymphomas.     

Identifying Communities and Key Vertices by Reconstructing Networks from Samples

Sampling techniques such as Respondent-Driven Sampling (RDS) are widely used in epidemiology to sample “hidden” populations, such that properties of the network can be deduced from the sample. We consider how similar techniques can be designed that allow the discovery of the structure, especially the community structure, of networks. Our method involves collecting samples of a network by random walks and reconstructing the network by probabilistically coalescing vertices, using vertex attributes to determine the probabilities. Even though our method can only approximately reconstruct a part of the original network, it can recover its community structure relatively well. Moreover, it can find the key vertices which, when immunized, can effectively reduce the spread of an infection through the original network.