Editor's Note

As readers of Soviet Psychology are aware, it has been my policy over the years to present historical materials that are pertinent to understanding contemporary Soviet and world psychology. By and large, I have come upon such materials through discussions with Soviet scholars or by following the lead in relevant articles. When I first read Jaan Valsiner's lucid and informative book Developmental Psychology in the Soviet Union, I was immediately struck by the gold mine of materials to which Professor Valsiner had succeeded in gaining access. First among these was the work of Mikhail Basov, to whom Valsiner devoted an especially illuminating chapter in his monograph.     

Creating Learning Opportunities in Strange or Familiar Contexts: A Response to Gerald R. Fast's "'Africa, My Teacher!'"

Having had the opportunity to observe in classrooms throughout Zimbabwe as an external examiner about ten years ago and having spent time in other African countries since then, I found myself closely connecting to Fast's stories of living and teaching in Zimbabwe. If readers have not had the opportunity to immerse themselves in a foreign culture, Fast's stories may, on the surface, appear intriguing but distant from their own lives and ways of functioning. From these appealing stories, however, there is much for any reader to contemplate and better understand about teaching and learning in any culture. In my response, I will explore Fast's two main themes and highlight the need for similar learning opportunities for teachers even when they cannot travel to foreign countries or visit unfamiliar cultures.     

与微生物学密切相关的两门公共选修课教学改革初探

公共选修课程是人才培养方案的重要组成部分。"微生物资源开发与利用"与"土壤生物学"是与微生物学密切相关的两门公共选修课,全校不同年级的本科生都可选修。经过五年多来对课堂教学的不断改进,形成了一套相对完善的课堂教学和考核方法。首先设置了学生试听课,并详细介绍该门课程的主要学习内容、授课方式和考核方式等,让学生根据自己的兴趣和意愿决定是否选修,保证选修学生对该课程有一定的兴趣;其次是改进教师授课方式,老师系统讲授大部分内容,讲授主要采取互动式教学,部分内容采用先放视频,一些需要掌握的知识点,设置问答题、选择题或者改错题请学生们在课堂上讨论和总结,然后再回顾重点视频内容,小部分的课程内容鼓励学生进行PPT演讲;第三,改进课程考核方式和成绩考评机制,制定并优化了PPT演讲评分规则,鼓励学生阅读翻译高水平专业英文文献。五年多的教学实践表明,这些教学改革有效提升了公选课的教学质量。     

II.—Notes on Some Birds in Egypt

As a lover of birds who has noted regularly for over twenty-five years all he saw in Egypt I have been most interested to read Col. Meinertzhagen's 'Nicoll's Birds of Egypt' (1930). The following notes in most cases amplify those of Meinertzhagen; in others they show where my observations do not appear to have coincided with his.     

生物学教学中研究型教学方法与内容的探索

培养创新性人才是中国高校的教学目的之一, 实现这一目的需要改革传统的教学方法。为此, 许多学者引入了西方的研究型教学理念, 并讨论了这种教学理念对新时代教学改革的意义, 但仍然停留在理论探讨的层面上, 几乎没有提出对课堂教学有实用价值的研究型教学方法和具体内容。笔者根据自己多年的遗传学教学实践和经验, 结合目前大学教学普遍采用的教师主导型授课模式, 提出了适合生物学课堂教学的、比较全面而具体的研究型教学内容和评估方法, 认为研究型教学法至少应包含7个方面的措施：(1) 讲述科研历史, 学习提出科学问题的技巧; (2) 重演实验过程, 学习解决科学问题的研究技巧; (3) 分析实验结果, 学习从结果推出科学结论; (4) 设计虚拟实验, 学习立项组织科研; (5)侦探断案式的讲课方式, 学习科学探秘的逻辑; (6) 引导学生阅读, 学习查阅文献与梳理和总结研究进展的能力; (7) 因材施教, 提前单独培养优秀本科生。此外本文还讨论了在课程考试中如何考察研究型教学的效果。     

Why Trees Are Important

The Tree of Life is the result of the interplay of changes in information and speciation. Almost 100 years after publication of Darwin’s Origin, the inception of Phylogenetic Systematics has resulted in a revolution in data inference. I briefly trace the development of this revolution and show examples of how data are interpreted relative to phylogenetic trees. I then provide brief discussions of how to read tree diagrams and the need to access the quality of phylogenetic inference.     

Who owns the data?

About ten years ago, a group of scientists began to argue that it was unfair to ask other scientists to pay to read the results of research that had been publicly funded.     

Shedding light on black boxes in protein identification

Performing a well thought‐out proteomics data analysis can be a daunting task, especially for newcomers to the field. Even researchers experienced in the proteomics field can find it challenging to follow existing publication guidelines for MS‐based protein identification and characterization in detail. One of the primary goals of bioinformatics is to enable any researcher to interpret the vast amounts of data generated in modern biology, by providing user‐friendly and robust end‐user applications, clear documentation, and corresponding teaching materials. In that spirit, we here present an extensive tutorial for peptide and protein identification, available at http://compomics.com/bioinformatics‐for‐proteomics . The material is completely based on freely available and open‐source tools, and has already been used and refined at numerous international courses over the past 3 years. During this time, it has demonstrated its ability to allow even complete beginners to intuitively conduct advanced bioinformatics workflows, interpret the results, and understand their context. This tutorial is thus aimed at fully empowering users, by removing black boxes in the proteomics informatics pipeline.     

Errata

J. R. Gorst, M. Slaytor and R. A. de Fossard, Vol. 34, No. 148,pp. 1503–1515 P.1503. ABSTRACT, line 1 should read: Shoot explants from seedling-derived cultures ... P.1504. line 1 should read: Tlaskal, 1974)... P.I504. MA TERIALS AND METHODS, line 3 should read: calcium hypochlorite in 0.1% (v/v) 7X detergent ... P.1505. Twelfth line from bottom should read: Anatomical features were studied on 12,um ... P.1505. Third line from bottom should read: (c) 2000 µmol m^–2 s^–1— 0, 0.5, 1, 2,3,4, 5, 8, 10 min P.1507. RESULTS, line 2 should read: Root Types I and II ... P.1508. Lines 13–15 should read: ... explants on Medium R minus riboflavin would always producea Type II root system whilst those on Medium R plus riboflavinand incubated in the light would always produce a Type I rootsystem. P.1509. Paragraph 2, additional sentence: Cultures incubated in the dark for less than 9 d on Medium Rplus riboflavin could still produce Type I roots if exposedto light. P.1510. Table 2, second line of data should read: 2 5/9 0/9 3/9 0/9 1/10 0/10 P.I 510. Eleventh line from bottom should read: ... change in root morphogenesis. P.1511. Table 3, first column DB should read BD P.1514. LITERATURE CITED, line 2 should read: ... Botanical Sciences Section, 208–10, 102–5.     

Decoding with the A:I wobble pair is inefficient.

tRNAs with inosine (I) in the first position read three codons ending in U, C and A. However, A-ending codons read with I are rarely used. In Escherichia coli, CGA/U/C are all read solely by tRNAICGArg. CGU and CGC are very common codons, but CGA is very rare. Three independent in vivo assays show that translation of CGA is relatively inefficient. In the first, nine tandem CGA cause a strong rho-mediated polar effect on expression of a lacZ reporter gene. The inhibition is made more extreme by a mutation in ribosomal protein S12 (rpsL), which indicates that ribosomal binding by tRNAICGArg is slow and/or unstable in the CGA cluster. The second assay, in which codons are substituted for the regulatory UGA of the RF2 frameshift, confirms that aa-tRNA selection is slow and/or unstable at CGA. In the third assay, CGA is found to be a poor 5' context for amber suppression, which suggests that an A:I base pair in the P site can interfere with translation of a codon in the A site. Two possible errors, frameshifting and premature termination by RF2, are not significant causes for inefficiency at CGA. It is concluded that the A:I pair destabilizes codon:anticodon complexes during two successive ribosomal cycles, and it is suggested that these properties contribute to the rare usage of codons read with the A:I base pair.     

Internet access

A 65-year-old man undergoes a routine checkup before retiring. His wife has urged him to have his prostate examined, because she has read about testing for prostate cancer and a friend has just died of this disease. During the rectal examination, the man''s physician discovers some firmness in the right lobe of the prostate gland. The patient has had no urinary symptoms and is in excellent general health. Sexual function is normal. There is no history of prostate cancer; his father died of a stroke at age 86 years. Testing shows that the patient''s prostate-specific antigen level is 9.3 ng/mL, and he is referred to a urologist. Transrectal ultrasound-guided needle biopsy reveals adenocarcinoma with a Gleason score of 7 (intermediate grade). At a follow-up meeting with his physician, the patient says, "I have been doing some research, and it appears that I should have treatment. However, what is less clear to me is what form of therapy is best--surgery or radiation treatment. Please tell me what you can about the state of the art with respect to surgery."     

Seeing is believing? A beginners' guide to practical pitfalls in image acquisition

Imaging can be thought of as the most direct of experiments. You see something; you report what you see. If only things were truly this simple. Modern imaging technology has brought about a revolution in the kinds of questions we can approach, but this comes at the price of increasingly complex equipment. Moreover, in an attempt to market competing systems, the microscopes have often been inappropriately described as easy to use and suitable for near-beginners. Insufficient understanding of the experimental manipulations and equipment set-up leads to the introduction of errors during image acquisition. In this feature, I review some of the most common practical pitfalls faced by researchers during image acquisition, and how they can affect the interpretation of the experimental data.This article is targeted neither to the microscopy gurus who push forward the frontiers of imaging technology nor to my imaging specialist colleagues who may wince at the overly simplistic comments and lack of detail. Instead, this is for beginners who gulp with alarm when they hear the word "confocal pinhole" or sigh as they watch their cells fade and die in front of their very eyes time and time again at the microscope. Take heart, beginners, if microscopes were actually so simple then many people (including myself) would suddenly be out of a job!     

'Yes:--no:--I have been sleeping--and now--now--I am dead': undeath, the body and medicine

In this paper I propose that, since the mid-eighteenth century medical science has simultaneously generated and disavowed 'undead' bodies, suspended between life and death. Through close analysis of three examples of 'undeath' taken from different moments in medical history, I consider what these bodies can tell us about medicine, its history, cultural meaning, scientific status and its role in shaping ideas of embodiment, identity and death. My first example is Edgar Allan Poe's story 'The facts in the case of M. Valdemar' which imagines the possibility of a man mesmerised at the point of death. I read this story as a response to the rise of professional, scientific medicine in the 1840s. I then look at the recurring issue of brain death in order to consider tensions within twentieth-century medical hegemony. Finally I read the Alder Hey scandal as a reactivation of undead anxiety in response to the emergent culture of medical consumerism at the end of the twentieth century.     

Methylated DNA labels for marking objects

We recently described a method for digitally labelling objects with DNA. Here we show that, using DNA methyltransferases to create polymorphic DNA templates, it is possible to significantly increase the number of labels that can be generated by this method. Nine double-stranded DNA templates of different length were methylated with either M.HaeIII or M.AluI methyltransferase, or both. Different mixtures of methylated and unmethylated versions of this template set were used to 'invisibly' label paper. The mixtures were eluted from the paper and the methylated status of the templates in each mixture successfully determined, and the labels read, by digestion with the complementary restriction endonuclease, followed by a polymerase chain reaction and agarose gel electrophoresis. One methylated DNA label was read after it had been left on paper for two months.     

I. P. Pavlov and W. B. Cannon: founders of modern physiological thought relative to behavior and the autonomic nervous system

It was almost a half century ago that I last attended an International Congress in Moscow and Leningrad--the IUPS Congress of 1935. My wife and I traveled far and saw the majesty of this land and its peoples. Here I met the great Pavlov and heard him present his thoughts concerning the conditioning of behavior. Cannon presented his concepts of transmitters and receptors. There were many other famous physiologists present, A. V. Hill and Lord Adrian; Kato of Japan demonstrated single nerve fiber studies. Someone talked of conditioned diuresis; I read a paper on hypothalamic control of the hypophysis. That was the dawn of neuroendocrinology, studies of hypothalamic function, sensory receptors, and the transmitter-receptor era. It was, like now, a time of great scientific endeavor, but there were clouds in the sky--Stalin and Hitler were coming to power, but the U.S.S.R. and America were friends, and in science it is still so. I wonder what some young man here will be able to report 50 years from now.     

Twenty years of research on primordial germ cells.

Just twenty years ago I was preparing a research project centred on establishing methods for the isolation and culture of mouse primordial germ cells (PGCs). The project had been suggested to me by Anne McLaren and was to be developed at the Medical Research Council (MRC) "Mammalian Development Unit" in London under the direction of Anne herself. At that time I was a young postdoctoral researcher at the Institute of Histology and Embryology of the University of Rome "La Sapienza" and did not imagine that my decision to be involved in this project would signal a profound switch in my scientific life. From then on my research would mostly concentrate on primordial germ cell biology. I feel like saying that the modern history of mammalian primordial germ cells began twenty years ago at the MRC Mammalian Development Unit under Anne McLaren's impulse. It is not surprising that among the most active researchers in the last twenty years in studying mammalian primordial germ cells, three, namely Chris Wylie, Peter Donovan and myself, began their studies under Anne McLaren's guidance. Over the years, Anne's suggestions and encouragement were always precious for my studies and her presence marked my most important findings on PGC biology. She often invited me to present the results obtained in my laboratory to workshops and congresses. In the present article some of these results particularly influenced by Anne's teaching and suggestions will be briefly reviewed.     

Transcranial electrical stimulation for human enhancement and the risk of inequality: Prohibition or compensation?

Non‐invasive brain stimulation is used to modulate brain excitation and inhibition and to improve cognitive functioning. The effectiveness of the enhancement due to transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) is still controversial, but the technique seems to have large potential for improvement and more specific applications. In particular, it has recently been used by athletes, both beginners and professionals. This paper analyses the ethical issues related to tDCS enhancement, which depend on its specific features: ease of use, immediate effect, non‐detectability and great variability of effects. If tDCS were to become widespread, there could be some potential side effects, especially the rise of inequality in many selective competitive contexts. I discuss two possible scenarios to counter this effect: that of prohibition and that of compensation, each supported by reasons and arguments that seem plausible and worthy of consideration. In conclusion, I show why I think the scenario of compensation is the preferable one.