The pro-life argument from substantial identity and the pro-choice argument from asymmetric value: a reply to Patrick Lee

Lee claims that foetuses and adult humans are phases of the same identical substance, and thus have the same moral status because: first, foetuses and adults are the same physical organism, and second, the development from foetus to adult is quantitative and thus not a change of substance. Versus the first argument, I contend that the fact that foetuses and adults are the same physical organism implies only that they are the same thing but not the same substance, much as living adults and their corpses are the same thing (same body) but not the same substance. Against Lee's second argument, I contend that Lee confuses the nature of a process with the nature of its result. A process of quantitative change can produce a change in substance. Lee also fails to show that foetuses are rational and thus have all the essential properties of adults, as required for them to be the same substance. Against the pro-choice argument from asymmetric value (that only the fact that a human has become conscious of its life and begun to count on its continuing can explain human life's asymmetric moral value, i.e. that it is vastly worse to kill a human than not to produce one), Lee claims that foetus's lives are asymmetrically valuable to them before consciousness. This leads to counterintuitive outcomes, and it confuses the goodness of life (a symmetric value that cannot account for why it is worse to kill a human than not produce one) with asymmetric value.     

Isoenzymatic analysis of some freshwater Anabaena strains from Southern Italy

Seven freshwater Anabaena sp. strains have been examined for esterase, malate dehydrogenase, acid phosphatase and aldolase isozyme patterns. The morphological differences among them did not allow a sure understanding of their relationships, whereas a phylogenetic analysis of the esterase and malate dehydrogenase patterns led to a single fully resolved tree. A phenetic analysis on the same data set resulted in the same pattern of relationships. Successive cultures of the same strains did not show identical band phenotypes, but nevertheless the phenetic and phylogenetic relationships among the various strains did not change.     

Circadian variations of haemolymph lipoprotein of Palaemon serratus

The electrophoretic behaviour of haemolymph lipoprotein was determined throughout a 24 h light-dark cycle. All of the 14 lipoprotein bands did not always appear at the same time, and their level did not remain constant, showing mainly tri- and tetracircadian variations. Values are not the same in males and females. Despite the fact that the lipoprotein variation was not closely synchronized with circadian periodicity, some lipoproteins were responsible for light-dark transition.     

Activités enzymatiques digestives chez Palaemon serratus: Variations annuelles de l''acrophase des rythmes circadiens

Evidence has been obtained for a circadian rhythm of digestive enzymatic activities in Palaemon serratus. This rhythm does not show the same characteristics during the course of a whole year. The number and intensity of activity maxima are not the same for both amylases and the proteases. On the other hand, the photophase plays a role in the temporal regulation of these rhythms but modifies its principal characteristics. Eyestalk ablation does not abolish these rhythms.     

Doppel and PrP(C) do not share the same membrane microenvironment

Doppel is a paralog of the normal prion protein, PrP^C. It has been suggested that Doppel can compensate for the absence of PrP^C in PrP^0/0 mice. In this work, we tested whether Doppel and PrP^C share the same cell location, thereby sharing the same neighboring cell components, probably required to share the same cell function. Our results show that, at detergent conditions in which membrane rafts were intact, neither PrP^C and Doppel co-immunoprecipitate with the appropriate antibodies, nor was Doppel retained by a Cu²⁺IMAC resin, as PrP^C does. This indicates that, although Doppel is a raft-associated protein as is PrP^C, both proteins are not present in the same membrane microenvironment, and they probably do not perform the same function.     

SPATIAL DISTRIBUTION OF FEEDING ACTIVITY IN THE WILD HOUSE-MOUSE (MUS MUSCULUS L.)

Solitary house mice confined in a large pen were supplied with wheat in wooden trays distributed evenly throughout the area, and the number of grains removed daily from each was counted. A mouse tended to feed sporadically over the whole area, but feeding was more intense at a few trays, not necessarily near the nest, and not the same on successive nights. When new sources of the same food were introduced a mouse tended to patronize them during the first night. At the same time there was a significant drop in the number of the old trays visited. This suggested that new food sources stimulated investigation rather than avoidance.     

ESS equations sometimes do not specify an ESS

The equations used to find an evolutionarily stable strategy in the basic game theory model (Maynard Smith, 1974, 1982; Maynard Smith & Price, 1973), and in sexual conflict models (Maynard Smith, 1977; Parker, 1979) do not, in fact, specify an ESS when the expected number of contests entered is not the same for each strategy. This means that the conclusions of many game theory models may be incorrect. This is particularly likely to be true when the mean durations of contests for different strategies are not the same, or when the probability that an individual enters a contest is not the same for all strategies. New ESS equations are developed which incorporate the expected number of contests entered.     

Species associations among larval helminths in an amphipod intermediate host

Larval helminths that share the same intermediate host may or may not also share the same definitive hosts. If one or more of these helminth species can manipulate the phenotype of the intermediate host, there can be great advantages or severe costs for other helminths resulting from co-occurring with a manipulator, depending on whether they have the same definitive host or not. Among 2372 specimens of the amphipod Echinogammarus stammeri collected from the river Brenta, northern Italy, there was a positive association between two acanthocephalan species with the same fish definitive hosts, the relatively common Pomphorhynchus laevis and the much less prevalent Acanthocephalus clavula.The number of cystacanths of P. laevis per infected amphipod, which ranged from one to five, did not influence the likelihood that the amphipod would also host A. clavula. A third acanthocephalan species, Polymorphus minutus,which matures in birds, showed no association with either of the two other species. These results show that associations among helminth species in intermediate hosts are not random, and are instead the product of selection favouring certain pathways of transmission.     

Limitation of microwave treatment for double immunolabelling with antibodies of the same species and isotype

Microwave treatment (MW) involves completely blocking contaminating staining in the double-labelling technique, using primary monoclonal antibodies from the same species and the same isotype as well as the same secondary antibody (ab). However, we noticed some limitations when locating proliferating cell types in cryostat and paraffin sections using the advantages presented by MW. Control experiments have shown that MW does not diminish contaminating staining when cytoplasmic (desmin, ASM-1) or nuclear (Ki-67) antigens have been labelled with antibodies in the first round of immunolabelling. In contrast to the cell surface antigen, CD18, where the primary ab had to be crosslinked by a secondary ab to obtain contaminating staining, this was observed for the detection of cytoplasmic or nuclear antigens only labelled with a primary ab. In conclusion, for double immunolabelling with abs from the same species and the same isotype, MW is not able to completely abolish contaminating staining.     

The predictability of helminth community structure in space: a comparison of fish populations from adjacent lakes

Patterns in helminth community structure can suggest that various processes are acting to shape parasite communities into organised, non-random assemblages of species. It is not clear, however, whether a pattern observed in one host population at one time would be observed again at another time, or at the same time in a different but comparable host population. Here, we test the repeatability of parasite community structure in space, and to a lesser extent time, with data on helminth parasites of two fish species, perch Perca fluviatilis and roach Rutilus rutilus, collected in different seasons from four adjacent lakes in Central Finland. Since populations of the same fish species harbour the same parasite species and were sampled in the same way, we would expect similar patterns in the structure of their helminth parasites if the same structuring processes are acting in all lakes. We found that no pairwise association between the most common helminth species were observed consistently between seasons within lakes, or among lakes during the same season. Similarly, nested subset patterns of species assembly were observed in some samples, but not consistently between seasons or among lakes. The lack of repeatability in space and between seasons shown by these analyses indicates that although helminth community structure often departs from randomness, it does not do so in a consistent and predictable manner. There may be some general, large-scale processes acting to structure helminth communities, but local or seasonal influences can often either mask their action, or play more important roles themselves.     

Same Sex Marriage and the Perceived Assault on Opposite Sex Marriage

Background

Marriage benefits both individuals and societies, and is a fundamental determinant of health. Until recently same sex couples have been excluded from legally recognized marriage in the United States. Recent debate around legalization of same sex marriage has highlighted for anti-same sex marriage advocates and policy makers a concern that allowing same sex couples to marry will lead to a decrease in opposite sex marriages. Our objective is to model state trends in opposite sex marriage rates by implementation of same sex marriages and other same sex unions.

Methods and Findings

Marriage data were obtained for all fifty states plus the District of Columbia from 1989 through 2009. As these marriage rates are non-stationary, a generalized error correction model was used to estimate long run and short run effects of same sex marriages and strong and weak same sex unions on rates of opposite sex marriage. We found that there were no significant long-run or short run effects of same sex marriages or of strong or weak same sex unions on rates of opposite sex marriage.

Conclusion

A deleterious effect on rates of opposite sex marriage has been argued to be a motivating factor for both the withholding and the elimination of existing rights of same sex couples to marry by policy makers–including presiding justices of current litigation over the rights of same sex couples to legally marry. Such claims do not appear credible in the face of the existing evidence, and we conclude that rates of opposite sex marriages are not affected by legalization of same sex civil unions or same sex marriages.     

General mechanisms of regeneration as elucidated by experiments on planarians and by a new formulation of the morphogenetic field concept

Summary Embryonic and adult field do not exhibit the same properties because they are formed by cell populations whose activities cannot be compared in all respects. Dominant cells are not distributed in the same manner; the same mechanisms are not involved for remodelling of the field, especially after an amputation.In adult organisms, cell equilibrium is disturbed a first time by elimination of differentiated tissues which provokes dedifferentiation and proliferation, and a second time by healing, which restores cell equilibrium of a distal end. Undifferentiated cells begin to differentiate immediately after their production and they reform the missing levels, following a sequence either basipetal or basifugal according to the place of their production (the stump or an apical proliferation center). The differentiating regenerate temporarily exhibits embryonic field properties in various experimental conditions which suppress the dominance of the stump or supplies additional undifferentiated material.     

Lipid tracers of mycoplasma phylogeny

Comparison of the lipid composition between members of the Mycoplasmatales reveals a striking diversity of lipid structures, not only between the six genera but among species within the same genus. This is in contrast to nearly all other bacterial groups in which members of the same genus possess essentially the same lipids. There are in fact more similarities between lipids of a given species of mycoplasma and a genus of bacterium than there are between lipids of a given species of mycoplasma and a genus of bacterium than there are between mycoplasma species. Mycoplasmal lipids suggest that these organisms do not represent a phylogenetically related group at all, but are probably degenerative forms of bacteria, particularly gram-positive bacteria, which have lost the ability to synthesize a cell wall.     

Attachment and growth of mammalian cells on microcarriers with different ion exchange capacities

In the design of microcarriers for animal cell growth, the exchange capacity has been considered a critical factor. However, charge densities of microcarriers under culture conditions are not the same as the exchange capacities. Furthermore, the charge density requirement for optimum attachment is not necessarily the same as that required for optimum growth. We demonstrate that charge is not the sole factor affecting the attachment and growth of animal cells on microcarriers. We also show that supplemental serum in the growth medium has a negative effect on cell attachment to microcarriers.     

磷酸果糖激酶-1与磷酸果糖激酶-2不是同工酶

磷酸果糖激酶-1与磷酸果糖激酶-2催化的反应性质、底物都相同,但是它们的产物是不同的。因此．严格的说它们不是同工酶。     

Profile Analysis of Variance as a Tool for Analyzing Correlated Responses in Experimental Ecology

In ecological studies experiments are often designed in which the variables to be compared are not statistically independent. Examples include repeated measures of the same response by the same individual at different times, measurement of several traits on the same individual, and measurements taken from two or more types of organisms present together in the same experimental unit (e.g.) plot, cage, pond, etc.). This type of design violates several assumptions of the standard analysis of variance. These assumptions are examined and profile analysis, a modification of the standard analysis of variance which does not depend upon these assumptions, is presented. Simple instructions for performing profile analysis of variance using two common statistical packages for mainframe computers are provided in an appendix.     

The Influence of Repeated Releases on the Homing Behaviour of Sand Martins (Riparia riparia)

Data on the effect of repeated releases on the homing behaviour of sand martins released four times from the same site (beyond 50 km from the nesting colony) are presented. The results, obtained by two series of releases, show a progressive improvement of both the initial orientation and the homing performances. When the birds released four times from the same site were displaced in a new site, located roughly at the same distance, but in the opposite direction to the former, they do not change directional preferences with respect to the last experimental release; the homing speeds were also not different to those recorded for birds without any release experience. While the learning of orienting cues can not be excluded, the data point out that the habituation to the handling stress and a form of directional training seem to play a major role in determining the observed behaviour. The familiarity with a site does not seem to improve the homing behaviour of sand martins when released from a different one.     

Differences in the crista dentata structure of the ischium of the third maxilliped in Astacus leptodactylus (Eschscholtz, 1823)

The differences in the crista dentata structure of the ischium of third maxilliped in different size Astacus leptodactylus (36-80 mm carapace length) were investigated. The results showed that four different types of crista dentata structure and teeth number occur in the third maxillipeds of A. leptodactylus. These are: (1) same number of teeth in the crista dentata of right and left third maxilliped, but not in the same structure, (2) different number and structure of teeth in the crista dentata of right and left third maxilliped, (3) same number and structure ofteeth in the crista dentata of right and left third maxilliped, (4) same sturucture of teeth in the crista dentata of right and left third maxilliped, but not same number of irregular teeth. In conclusion, it is believed that the differences in the crista dentata structure and different tooth number of the ischium of maxilliped cause a different cutting edge and variations in the food choice of A. leptodactylus.     

Epistasis can lead to fragmented neutral spaces and contingency in evolution

In evolution, the effects of a single deleterious mutation can sometimes be compensated for by a second mutation which recovers the original phenotype. Such epistatic interactions have implications for the structure of genome space--namely, that networks of genomes encoding the same phenotype may not be connected by single mutational moves. We use the folding of RNA sequences into secondary structures as a model genotype-phenotype map and explore the neutral spaces corresponding to networks of genotypes with the same phenotype. In most of these networks, we find that it is not possible to connect all genotypes to one another by single point mutations. Instead, a network for a phenotypic structure with n bonds typically fragments into at least 2(n) neutral components, often of similar size. While components of the same network generate the same phenotype, they show important variations in their properties, most strikingly in their evolvability and mutational robustness. This heterogeneity implies contingency in the evolutionary process.     

Existence of a Free Form of a Specific Membrane Lipoprotein in Gram-Negative Bacteria

The existence of a free form of a specific lipoprotein of molecular weight 7,200 was examined in the envelopes of several gram-negative bacteria. When the envelope proteins were analyzed by sodium dodecyl sulfate polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis, distinct peaks were observed in Salmonella typhimurium, Serratia marcescens, and Pseudomonas aeruginosa at the same position as the free form of the lipoprotein of Escherichia coli. However, the peak was not observed in Proteus mirabilis. The protein at the peak in S. typhimurium was shown to contain little or no histidine as expected from the amino acid composition of the lipoprotein. Furthermore, antiserum against the highly purified lipoprotein from E. coli was shown to react with the proteins from S. typhimurium and S. marcescens and to form the specific immunoprecipitates. In contrast, the protein from P. aeruginosa did not react with the antiserum at all. Thus, it is concluded that S. typhimurium and S. marcescens have the free form of the lipoprotein in their envelopes as does E. coli. P. aeruginosa contains a protein of the same size as the lipoprotein, but it is not certain whether the protein is the same structural protein as the lipoprotein from E. coli. P. mirabilis may not have any free form of the lipoprotein, may have it in a very small amount, or may have a lipoprotein of different molecular weight serving the same function.