The Embryo Project: An Integrated Approach to History,Practices, and Social Contexts of Embryo Research

This essay describes the approach and early results of the collaborative Embryo Project and its on-line encyclopedia (). The project is based on a relational database that allows federated searches and inclusion of multiple types of objects targeted for multiple user groups. The emphasis is on the history and varied contexts of developmental biology, focusing on people, places, institutions, techniques, literature, images, and other aspects of study of embryos. This essay introduces the ways of working as well as the long-term goals of the project. We invite others to join the effort, both in this particular project and in joining together in digital collection, archiving, and knowledge generation at the borders of biology and history.     

From "Easy Phonetics" to the Syllabary: An Orthographic Division of Labor in Cherokee Language Education

Drawing on classroom participant-observation and interviews conducted among the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians, this article describes the ways in which literacy practices in Cherokee language education perpetuate and teach local categories of knowledge, behavior, and persons. I describe the semiotic functioning of the native-developed Cherokee syllabary, as well as its place among four Cherokee orthographies. This work contributes to our understanding of the multiple functions and meanings of writing systems in use in language education and other cultural contexts, and demonstrates the importance of analyzing the full range of semiotic implications of any particular writing system.     

Federated learning for molecular discovery

Federated Learning enables machine learning across multiple sources of data and alleviates the risk of leaking private information between partners thereby encouraging knowledge sharing and collaborative modelling. Hence, Federated Learning opens the ways to a new generation of improved models. Domains involving molecular informatics, like Drug Discovery, are progressively adopting Federated Learning; this review describes the main projects and applications of Federated Learning for molecular discovery with a special focus on their benefits and the remaining challenges. All the studies demonstrate a real benefit of Federated Learning, namely the improvement of the performance of models as well as their applicability domain thanks to knowledge aggregation. The selected publications also reveal several remaining challenges to be addressed to fully exploit Federated Learning.     

Multiple pterygium syndrome in five Arab sibs

This report describes an Arab family in which the parents are first cousins and with 5 siblings having multiple pterygium syndrome. The last pregnancy which produced an affected sib was prenatally diagnosed by ultrasonography. Intrafamilial variability of clinical features is discussed. The report stresses the importance of the differentiation between various genetic entities with multiple pterygium.     

A good man is hard to find: overseas migration and the decentered family in the Tongan Islands

The impact of widespread international labor migration on the family in Tonga is examined. The author describes how migration has affected gender and kinship relations. She also examines the ways in which church and state ideologies encourage the development of the nuclear family, while overseas labor migration creates a need to maintain extended support systems among family networks.     

How to make methodological decisions when inferring social networks

Social network analyses allow studying the processes underlying the associations between individuals and the consequences of those associations. Constructing and analyzing social networks can be challenging, especially when designing new studies as researchers are confronted with decisions about how to collect data and construct networks, and the answers are not always straightforward. The current lack of guidance on building a social network for a new study system might lead researchers to try several different methods and risk generating false results arising from multiple hypotheses testing. Here, we suggest an approach for making decisions when starting social network research in a new study system that avoids the pitfall of multiple hypotheses testing. We argue that best edge definition for a network is a decision that can be made using a priori knowledge about the species and that is independent from the hypotheses that the network will ultimately be used to evaluate. We illustrate this approach with a study conducted on a colonial cooperatively breeding bird, the sociable weaver. We first identified two ways of collecting data using different numbers of feeders and three ways to define associations among birds. We then evaluated which combination of data collection and association definition maximized (a) the assortment of individuals into previously known “breeding groups” (birds that contribute toward the same nest and maintain cohesion when foraging) and (b) socially differentiated relationships (more strong and weak relationships than expected by chance). This evaluation of different methods based on a priori knowledge of the study species can be implemented in a diverse array of study systems and makes the case for using existing, biologically meaningful knowledge about a system to help navigate the myriad of methodological decisions about data collection and network inference.     

Alternate pathways for folding in the flavodoxin fold family revealed by a nucleation-growth model

A recent study of experimental results for flavodoxin-like folds suggests that proteins from this family may exhibit a similar, signature pattern of folding intermediates. We study the folding landscapes of three proteins from the flavodoxin family (CheY, apoflavodoxin, and cutinase) using a simple nucleation and growth model that accurately describes both experimental and simulation results for the transition state structure, and the structure of on-pathway and misfolded intermediates for CheY. Although the landscape features of these proteins agree in basic ways with the results of the study, the simulations exhibit a range of folding behaviours consistent with two alternate folding routes corresponding to nucleation and growth from either side of the central beta-strand.     

Familial incidence of multiple births in a colony of chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes)

This paper describes the incidence of multiple births in the Yerkes Chimpanzee colony for a period of about 63 years. Pedigrees are presented for all multiple births. They demonstrate the recurrence of twins in relatively few family lines which can be traced back to a small number of ancestors. The findings suggest that twinning is a family trait in chimpanzees and they support the hypothesis that the incidence of multiple births is genetically influenced in this colony. In addition, a relatively high level of inbreeding may have enhanced the incidence of multiple births in these family lines. Similar findings are known from human populations.     

Genograms of exile and return families in Croatia--a medical anthropological approach

This article presents the most important results of an applied anthropological long-term study of the prolonged exile and return that many families are currently undergoing in Croatia. The results are elaborated with a special reflection upon two important overlapping issues concerning the methodological approach that was applied: firstly, it discusses the crucial questions which motivated the search for a tool that will not distort the experiences, reality and suffering of exile families; and secondly, it critically describes the application of the genogram (a tool borrowed from systemic family therapy) in the exile setting. This tool was not only useful in the clinical sense of psychotherapeutically helping the families, but was also a very flexible part of the methodology orientated towards evoking family history and providing valid knowledge about different family and living circumstances.     

Cluster of pulmonary blastomycosis in a rural community: Evidence for multiple high-risk environmental foci following a sustained period of diminished precipitation

Much of our understanding of the epidemiologic features of infection with Blastomyces dermatitidis has come from cluster and outbreak investigations which have established the association of human disease with recreational pursuits and the presence of infectious microfoci in areas of moist soil with high organic content. This report describes the clustering of eight cases of pulmonary blastomycosis without an apparent common source exposure which occurred during a 90 day period in a 96 square mile area (population 4,450) within Oconto County, Wisconsin. We conclude that multiple high-risk environmental foci may have existed following a sustained five-year period of diminished precipitation in the cluster area. A case-control study which included family and community controls concluded that multiple earth-disturbing activities engaged in by case-patients was statistically associated with illness. Lymphocyte-proliferation assays of whole blood samples detected previously unrecognized infection withB. dermatitidis among five of 32 family controls. This revised version was published online in June 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

A knowledge base of the chemical compounds of intermediary metabolism

This paper describes a publicly available knowledge base ofthe chemical compounds involved in intermediary metabolism.We consider the motivations for constructing a knowledge baseof metabolic compounds, the methodology by which it was constructed,and the information that it currently contains. Currently theknowledge base describes 981 compounds, listing for each: synonymsfor its name, a systematic name, CAS registry number, chemicalformula, molecular weight, chemical structure and two–dimensionaldisplay coordinates for the structure. The Compound KnowledgeBase (CompoundKB) illustrates several methodological principlesthat should guide the development of biological knowledge bases.I argue that biological datasets should be made available inmultiple representations to increase their accessibility toend users, and I present multiple representations of the CompoundKB(knowledge base, relational data base and ASN. 1 representations).I also analyze the general characteristics of these representationsto provide an understanding of their relative advantages anddisadvantages. Another principle is that the error rate of biologicaldata bases should be estimated and documented—this analysisis performed for the CompoundKB.     

一种基于微流控芯片和电化学自组装单层的多细胞表面构图方法

细胞表面构图技术对于研究细胞以及细胞间相互作用具有重要意义。近年来随着微加工技术与表面修饰技术的发展,出现了多种细胞表面构图方法。本研究介绍一种基于微流控芯片和电化学自组装单层修饰的多细胞表面构图方法。该方法通过软光刻技术加工具有2种细胞拦截坝结构阵列的微流控通道来实现2种细胞在芯片表面准确定位;通过表面修饰具有阻碍细胞贴壁特性自组装单层来实现对细胞生长区域的限制;最终实现2种不同细胞近距离表面构图。该方法的优点在于,可以使多种细胞根据需要进行准确的表面构图,细胞区域之间没有物理隔离共享培养微环境,允许不同种细胞通过细胞分泌因子进行相互作用,基底透明表面开放可以使用多种观测手段。该方法可以用于不同种细胞间相互作用的研究。     

A scale to measure microbehaviors of oral contraceptive pill use

The ways in which contraceptive methods are actually used is of increasing interest to researchers, clinicians, and policy makers. Although contraceptive "use" has multiple dimensions, existing indicators measure only one aspect of use or combine unidimensional measures to produce a questionable pastiche. This study uses a subsample of 612 respondents from a larger study of first-time patients at a public-health-department family planning clinic to develop a new measure. Psychometric properties of this measure are examined and discussed.     

A novel family of mobile genetic elements is limited to the germline genome in Tetrahymena thermophila

In the ciliated protozoan Tetrahymena thermophila, extensive DNA elimination is associated with differentiation of the somatic macronucleus from the germline micronucleus. This study describes the isolation and complete characterization of Tlr elements, a family of approximately 30 micronuclear DNA sequences that are efficiently eliminated from the developing macronucleus. The data indicate that Tlr elements are comprised of an ~22 kb internal region flanked by complex and variable termini. The Tlr internal region is highly conserved among family members and contains 15 open reading frames, some of which resemble genes encoded by transposons and viruses. The Tlr termini appear to be long inverted repeats consisting of (i) a variable region containing multiple direct repeats which differ in number and sequence from element to element and (ii) a conserved terminal 47 bp sequence. Taken together, these results suggest that Tlr elements comprise a novel family of mobile genetic elements that are confined to the Tetrahymena germline genome. Possible mechanisms of developmentally programmed Tlr elimination are discussed.     

The importance of shedding of membrane proteins for cytokine biology

Most transmembrane proteins are subjected to limited proteolysis by cellular proteases. The recent molecular cloning of the TNF-a converting enzyme (TACE) revealed that this shedding enzyme belongs to a family of metalloproteinases which contain a disintegrin domain (ADAM family). The activity of these proteases seems to be tightly regulated. Mice lacking functional TACE are not viable demonstrating the importance of this enzyme for body homeostasis. This review describes the current knowledge of shedding enzymes, the ADAM protein family, the mechanism of shedding as well as physiological consequences of shedding of cytokines and cytokine receptors for cytokine biology.     

The nature of inhibition of DNA gyrase by the coumarins and the cyclothialidines revealed by X-ray crystallography.

This study describes the first crystal structures of a complex between a DNA topoisomerase and a drug. We present the structures of a 24 kDa N-terminal fragment of the Escherichia coli DNA gyrase B protein in complexes with two different inhibitors of the ATPase activity of DNA gyrase, namely the coumarin antibiotic, novobiocin, and GR122222X, a member of the cyclothialidine family. These structures are compared with the crystal structure of the complex with an ATP analogue, adenylyl-beta-gamma-imidodiphosphate (ADPNP). The likely mechanism, by which mutant gyrase B proteins become resistant to inhibition by novobiocin are discussed in light of these comparisons. The three ligands are quite dissimilar in chemical structure and bind to the protein in very different ways, but their binding is competitive because of a small degree of overlap of their binding sites. These crystal structures consequently describe a chemically well characterized ligand binding surface and provide useful information to assist in the design of novel ligands.     

Family therapy and anthropology

There has been among family therapists a widespread belief that anthropology is at least useful if not kindred to their field. The belief springs from the assumption that families in different cultural milieus have different ways of expressing their experience of intimacy in everyday life. If this is true, family organization transcends culture, and the latter is a mere language or mode of expression of the more basic pillar of family organization. However, the assumption is also strong that different cultural contexts produce different types of families, and the natural consequence of this hypothesis is that family therapy as developed in the United States would be restricted to dealing with American families, while the problems of family life elsewhere should be meted by the local cultural ways. These two hypotheses, namely that of family universality and that of cultural relativism, are far ends of a continuum. The more interesting and real cases lie somewhere in the middle.In the following argument I will discuss this subject by presenting a brief overview of family therapy's theories and practices for those readers who know nothing about it, by reviewing a recent book that makes the claim that family therapists will benefit from some kind of anthropological knowledge, and finally by turning the question on its head and addressing the interest family therapy may have for anthropologists.