An abbreviated synthesis of tetrahydropteridines

5,6,7,8-Tetrahydrobiopterin, the naturally occurring essential cofactor for the enzymatic hydroxylations of phenylalanine, tyrosine and tryptophan, and its synthetic analog 2-amino-6-methyl-5,6,7,8-tetrahydro-4(3H)-pteridinone, have been synthesized in good yield by the direct hydrogenation of 1-(2-amino-1,6-dihydro-5-nitro-6-oxopyrimidin-4-yl-amino)-1,5-dide oxy-L- erythro-pentulose and 2-amino-6-hydroxy-5-phenylazo-4-pyrimidylamino-acetone, respectively. The reactions were carried out at room temperature in trifluoroacetic acid over a platinum catalyst at 2 atm and the products, each containing a mixture of the two possible C-6 isomers, were isolated by precipitation. The simplicity of the preparative method suggests the procedure may be applied generally to the synthesis of all tetrahydropteridines derived from similar pyrimidine precursors.     

Research project: A history of health in Europe from the late Paleolithic era to the present

This article briefly describes a large, multidisciplinary research project that combines skeletal data in Europe over the past 10,000 years with information from sources in history, archaeology, geography and climate history to measure and analyze important aspects of human health. Over this era human health was significantly affected by climate change, the rise of settled agriculture, urbanization, new technologies, global exploration and colonization, and industrialization.     

The history of bronchial asthma from the Renaissance till the beginning of the twentieth century

The aim of the paper is to give an overview of the history of knowledge on asthma from the Renaissance till the beginning of the 20th century. During this period the clinical picture of bronchial asthma and some etiological factors--like familiarity of the disease, the role of the pollen, psychological factors were cleared. The disease was relatively rare in these periods--the epidemiological explosion came only in the second half of the 20th century. Data on pediatric asthma, before all in Hungary are demonstrated mostly based on the works of Schoepf and Bókai senior in the first half of the 19th century.     

Observations on the history of Dutch physical stature from the late-Middle Ages to the present

In the late-Middle Ages and at the onset of the early modern period, the Dutch population was taller than in the first half of the 19th century. This inference is partially based on skeletal evidence, mainly collected by the Dutch physical anthropologist George Maat and his co-workers. A spectacular increase in Dutch heights began in the second half of the 19th century and accelerated in the second half of the 20th century. At the end of the 20th century, the Dutch became tallest in the world.     

An abbreviated method for the isolation of mitochondria from storage tissues of oil seedlings

High yields of metabolically active mitochondria can be rapidly isolated from reserve storage tissues of castor bean (Ricinus communis L.), cucumber (Cucumis sativus L., cv. Early Green Cluster), cotton (Gossypium hirsutum L., cv. Coker 711), and soybean (Glycine max L., cvs Forrest and Centennial) seedlings by application of crude homogenates to discontinuous sucrose gradients, allowing for a rapid separation of organelles from detrimental factors present in cell homogenates.     

Life history constraints on the evolution of abbreviated life cycles in parasitic trematodes

Abbreviations of the complex life cycle of trematodes, from three to two hosts, have occurred repeatedly and independently among trematode lineages. This is usually facultative and achieved via progenesis: following encystment in the second intermediate host, the metacercaria develops precociously into an egg-producing adult, bypassing the need to reach a definitive host. Given that it provides relatively cheap insurance against a shortage of definitive hosts, it is not clear why facultative progenesis has only evolved in a few taxa. Here a comparative approach is used to test whether progenetic trematodes are characterized by larger body size and egg volumes, two traits that correlate with other key life history features, than other trematodes. These traits may constrain the evolution of progenesis, because precocious maturation might be impossible when the size difference between the metacercaria and a reproductive adult is too large. First, trematode species belonging to genera in which progenesis has been documented were found not to differ significantly from other trematode species. Second, using within-genus paired comparisons across 19 genera in which progenesis has been reported, progenetic species did not differ, with respect to body size or egg size, from their non-progenetic congeners. Third, using intraspecific paired comparisons in species where progenesis is facultative, no difference was observed in the sizes of eggs produced by worms in both the intermediate and definitive host, suggesting that opting for progenesis does not influence the size of a worm's eggs. Overall, the lack of obvious differences in body or egg size between trematodes with truncated life cycles and those with the normal three-host cycle indicates that basic life history characteristics are not acting as constraints on the evolution of progenesis; trematodes of all sizes can do it. Why facultative progenesis is not more widespread remains a mystery.     

Franz Boas: cultural history for the present, or obsolete natural history?

Recently, some neo-Boasian anthropologists have portrayed Boas as an anthropologist with a deep sense of history, of the individual, and of agency. Focusing on Boas's ethnographic practice rather than his theoretical and programmatic statements, I first find an 'atomistic' (opposite of holistic) ethnographer, and a deep convergence between this atomism and Linnaean-type natural history. In Foucault and Jacob's interpretation of natural history, this means studying socio-cultural phenomena through their external manifestations, and removes historicity, and even individual cultures, from Boas's ethnography. Reviewing possible counter-evidence from the holistic Boas (his work on style, meaning, the 'genius of a people,' texts, secondary explanations, and psychology), I retrieve the same natural historian, and the same atomism. All these facets of his practice thus appear as surface manifestations of this underlying épistémè , which provides a single interpretative framework making it possible to integrate most of his ethnographic work. Overall, this worldview leaves little, or no, room for individuals and their agency.     

Grains from ear to ear: the morphology of spelt and free-threshing wheat from Roman Mursa (Osijek), Croatia

Cereals were a significant part of the Roman diet, yet knowledge about their cultivation, distribution and consumption in certain regions is particularly lacking. In Europe, studies generally suggest that from the Iron Age to the Roman period there was a reduction in barley cultivation, an increase in spelt over emmer, a preference for free-threshing wheat over glume wheats, as well as the increased cultivation of rye and oats. Up till now, there was little evidence on crop cultivation in Croatia, but the discovery of around 24,000 cereal grains from the oven of a 2nd-4th c. ad Roman villa in the modern town of Osijek provides important insights into diet and subsistence in the Roman province of Pannonia. Here, the dominance of free-threshing wheat, spelt and rye with only a relatively small amount of other cereals, chaff and weeds corresponds well with this pattern seen elsewhere in Europe. The relatively clean grain deposit suggests that this sample represents processed grain ready for final food preparation and consumption at the villa. The morphological variation and overlap seen between the carbonised spelt and free-threshing wheat grains, as well as the identification of ‘stunted’ cereal grains, is also discussed.

     

Diversification of rice yellow mottle virus and related viruses spans the history of agriculture from the neolithic to the present

The mechanisms of evolution of plant viruses are being unraveled, yet the timescale of their evolution remains an enigma. To address this critical issue, the divergence time of plant viruses at the intra- and inter-specific levels was assessed. The time of the most recent common ancestor (TMRCA) of Rice yellow mottle virus (RYMV; genus Sobemovirus) was calculated by a Bayesian coalescent analysis of the coat protein sequences of 253 isolates collected between 1966 and 2006 from all over Africa. It is inferred that RYMV diversified approximately 200 years ago in Africa, i.e., centuries after rice was domesticated or introduced, and decades before epidemics were reported. The divergence time of sobemoviruses and viruses of related genera was subsequently assessed using the age of RYMV under a relaxed molecular clock for calibration. The divergence time between sobemoviruses and related viruses was estimated to be approximately 9,000 years, that between sobemoviruses and poleroviruses approximately 5,000 years, and that among sobemoviruses approximately 3,000 years. The TMRCA of closely related pairs of sobemoviruses, poleroviruses, and luteoviruses was approximately 500 years, which is a measure of the time associated with plant virus speciation. It is concluded that the diversification of RYMV and related viruses has spanned the history of agriculture, from the Neolithic age to the present.     

The neuronal ceroid-lipofuscinoses: from past to present

The neuronal ceroid-lipofuscinoses (NCLs) are inherited lysosomal storage diseases and constitute the most common group of children's progressive encephalopathies. Most childhood forms of NCL are clinically characterized by progressive loss of vision as well as mental and motor deterioration, epileptic seizures, and premature death, while the rare adult forms are dominated by dementia. All forms of NCL share common pathomorphological features. Autofluorescent, periodic acid-Schiff- and Sudan black B-positive granules, resistant to lipid solvents, accumulate in the cytoplasm of most nerve cells, and there is progressive and remarkably selective neuronal degeneration and loss. For a long time, the NCLs were grouped under the heading of the "amaurotic family idiocies" and conceived as lipidoses. However, in the late 1980s and 1990s the NCL storage cytosomes were shown to consist largely of two hydrophobic proteins: either subunit c of mitochondrial ATP synthase or sphingolipid activator proteins A and D. Since 1995 numerous mutations in at least seven different genes have been shown to underlie the multiple human and animal forms of NCL. This review discusses the historical evolution of the NCL concept and the impact of the recent biochemical and molecular genetic findings on our views on the classification and pathogenesis of these devastating brain disorders.     

Proterozoic history and present state of cyanobacteria

The paper delves into the main regularities of the distribution of fossil microorganisms in Precambrian rocks, beginning from the Archean Eon about 3.5 billion years ago and ending in the Cambrian Period about 0.5 billion years ago. The paper analyzes facial peculiarities in the lateral differentiation of microfossils in Proterozoic basins and the main stages of temporal changes in fossil cyanobacterial communities, which are based on the irreversible succession of physicochemical conditions on the Earth and the evolution of eukaryotic microorganisms and their incorporation into prokaryotic ecosystems. To gain insight into Proterozoic fossil records, modern stratified cyanobacterial mats built up from layers of prokaryotes are considered. The analysis of phosphatization, carbonatization, and silification processes in modern algal-bacterial communities suggests that analogous processes took place in Proterozoic microbiotas. A comparison of modern and Precambrian living forms confirms the inference that cyanobacterial communities are very conservative and have changed insignificantly both morphologically and physiologically during the past two billion years.     

The history of the Portulaca oleracea aggregate in the Emilia-Romagna Po Plain (Italy) from the Roman Age to the present

Portulaca oleracea L. is a cosmopolitan synanthropic species, of uncertain origin, known in Italy since the Roman Age. The aim of this work is to reconstruct the history of P. oleracea aggregate in the Emilia-Romagna Po Plain, by discovering the microspecies that have lived in this region. A qualitative study was carried out to determine the microspecies documented in the archaeological sites of Emilia-Romagna, from the Roman to Medieval/Renaissance periods. A comparison between archaeological seeds and recent and present records was made by sampling in historical herbaria and field collections. Seven different microspecies were identified: Portulaca papillatostellulata, P. trituberculata, P. cypria, P. sativa, P. oleracea (all hexaploid); P. granulatostellulata and P. nitida (both tetraploid = 4x). They are distinguished on the basis of seed coat morphology. The findings in archaeological sites and in the present collections are discussed. Two independent events of European colonization could be proposed: First to arrive were the hexaploid (6x) species, followed by the tetraploid species. In future, the application of similar analyses to the well-preserved archaeobotanical remains of purslane, particularly the microspecies from America, could be a good way to understand the history of this interesting species aggregate from a chronological and geographical standpoint.     

The health seeking process: An approach to the natural history of illness

Anthropological research on health-related behaviors in the United States has tended to emphasize folk illnesses among particular subcultural groups, obscuring the heterogeneity of popular culture health beliefs and practices in the lay health system. The development of theoretical models for this complex society will require research that stresses similarity as well as diversity within and between population groups. The health seeking process is proposed in this paper as a means to document natural histories of illness in any subculture. Concepts from medical anthropology and medical sociology are related to five components of health seeking — symptom definition, illness-related shifts in role behavior, lay consultation and referral, treatment actions, and adherence. Illustrative propositions to guide further research are proposed.1. This is a substantially revised and expanded version of the paper, Toward a Typology of Health Systems, given at the American Anthropological Association meetings in San Francisco, December 1975. Various stages in the conceptual development of the health seeking process have been presented in the following forums at the University of Washington: Colloquium in Nursing Research, November 1974; Behavioral Sciences Study Unit Seminar (Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences), February 1976; and the Seminar on Anthropological and Cross-Cultural Dimensions of Illness and Health Care, December 1976. Participants at these gatherings made many useful suggestions. The Office of Nursing Research in the School of Nursing (supported in part by grants NU 00369, DHEW, Division of Nursing, and RR 05758, DHEW, Division of Research Resources) provided bibliographic and typing assistance. Finally, I would like to thank Ursula Chrisman, Byron Good, Jennifer James, Arthur Kleinman, and Steve Shortell for their helpful comments on earlier drafts.     

The health seeking process: An approach to the natural history of illness

Culture, Medicine, and Psychiatry - Anthropological research on health-related behaviors in the United States has tended to emphasize folk illnesses among particular subcultural groups, obscuring...