The sovereign citizen superconspiracy: Contemporary issues in native title anthropology

The Australian Native Title Act 1993 (Cth) provides for the recognition of rights and interests which arise from the traditional laws and customs of Australian First Nation peoples. Processing applications for a determination of native title can take many years and involves numerous stakeholders, presentation of evidence of ongoing connection with the land and sea within a claim area, negotiations with other parties including from industry and government, as well as negotiations between Indigenous groups. The process can be long, arduous, and often outcomes fail to satisfy the expectations of native title claimants. In this paper we investigate how individuals who either disagree with the premise underlying native title, or who have suffered negative impacts through the course of native title claims, may be either targeted by, or swept up in, Australian sovereign citizen rhetoric. We aim to contextualise presentations of sovereign citizen ideas in native title claim processes by providing an overview of the history of sovereign citizen thought, and examples of its contemporary expression in some Australian online forums. In doing this we aim to provide a broad foundation for future research into the issue. The dialogue in sovereign citizen online communities exposes people to extremism and superconspiracies. This article will provide a theoretical framework and historical context to the Australian sovereign citizen phenomena and describe online amplification of disinformation in Australia that has the potential to cause harm. We illustrate how stakeholders who are drawn to relatively moderate online content (such as opposing native title) may be radicalised through gradual exposure to extremist anti-government sentiment and hate speech. This article highlights the need for further research into sovereign citizenry in Australia, and strategies for native title practitioners to engage claimants who subscribe to and disseminate sovereign citizen disinformation in native title processes.     

Correction to: Exogenous dsRNA-mediated field protection against Pigeonpea sterility mosaic emaravirus

Journal of Plant Biochemistry and Biotechnology - Unfortunately, the title of the article was incorrectly published in the original publication. The correct title is updated.     

Chagas today

The study of the history of Chagas disease has undergone a revival in recent years. Questions about how that history ought to be investigated have aroused passionate debate in Brazil, England, and Germany. This article is intended as a contribution to a debate initiated by several colleagues. "Chagas Today": an ironic title for a serious debate.     

Erratum: Vol. 17, No. 1, pp. 57-61] Differentiation of Stem Cells Isolated from Rat Smooth Muscle

Due to a mis-communication between the authors and the editorial office, the title of this paper was incorrectly printed. The correct title should read as: Isolation of Muscle Derived Stem Cells from Rat and its Smooth Muscle Differentiation. The correct format of the title section is presented below. Citations to the article should use the original volume, issue, and page numbers.     

Correction to: Harvesting forage of the perennial grain crop kernza (Thinopyrum intermedium) increases root biomass and soil nitrogen cycling

Plant and Soil - In the published version, the article title was presented incorrectly. The word “cycling” was inadvertently deleted. The correct title is shown here.     

Consistency of financial interest disclosures in the biomedical literature: the case of coronary stents

Background

Disclosure of authors'' financial interests has been proposed as a strategy for protecting the integrity of the biomedical literature. We examined whether authors'' financial interests were disclosed consistently in articles on coronary stents published in 2006.

Methodology/Principal Findings

We searched PubMed for English-language articles published in 2006 that provided evidence or guidance regarding the use of coronary artery stents. We recorded article characteristics, including information about authors'' financial disclosures. The main outcome measures were the prevalence, nature, and consistency of financial disclosures. There were 746 articles, 2985 authors, and 135 journals in the database. Eighty-three percent of the articles did not contain disclosure statements for any author (including declarations of no interests). Only 6% of authors had an article with a disclosure statement. In comparisons between articles by the same author, the types of disagreement were as follows: no disclosure statements vs declarations of no interests (64%); specific disclosures vs no disclosure statements (34%); and specific disclosures vs declarations of no interests (2%). Among the 75 authors who disclosed at least 1 relationship with an organization, there were 2 cases (3%) in which the organization was disclosed in every article the author wrote.

Conclusions/Significance

In the rare instances when financial interests were disclosed, they were not disclosed consistently, suggesting that there are problems with transparency in an area of the literature that has important implications for patient care. Our findings suggest that the inconsistencies we observed are due to both the policies of journals and the behavior of some authors.     

Author self-citation in the general medicine literature

Background

Author self-citation contributes to the overall citation count of an article and the impact factor of the journal in which it appears. Little is known, however, about the extent of self-citation in the general clinical medicine literature. The objective of this study was to determine the extent and temporal pattern of author self-citation and the article characteristics associated with author self-citation.

Methodology/Principal Findings

We performed a retrospective cohort study of articles published in three high impact general medical journals (JAMA, Lancet, and New England Journal of Medicine) between October 1, 1999 and March 31, 2000. We retrieved the number and percentage of author self-citations received by the article since publication, as of June 2008, from the Scopus citation database. Several article characteristics were extracted by two blinded, independent reviewers for each article in the cohort and analyzed in multivariable linear regression analyses. Since publication, author self-citations accounted for 6.5% (95% confidence interval 6.3–6.7%) of all citations received by the 328 articles in our sample. Self-citation peaked in 2002, declining annually thereafter. Studies with more authors, in cardiovascular medicine or infectious disease, and with smaller sample size were associated with more author self-citations and higher percentage of author self-citation (all p≤0.01).

Conclusions/Significance

Approximately 1 in 15 citations of articles in high-profile general medicine journals are author self-citations. Self-citation peaks within about 2 years of publication and disproportionately affects impact factor. Studies most vulnerable to this effect are those with more authors, small sample size, and in cardiovascular medicine or infectious disease.     

Interpretation of Results of Studies Evaluating an Intervention Highlighted in Google Health News: A Cross-Sectional Study of News

Background

Mass media through the Internet is a powerful means of disseminating medical research. We aimed to determine whether and how the interpretation of research results is misrepresented by the use of “spin” in the health section of Google News. Spin was defined as specific way of reporting, from whatever motive (intentional or unintentional), to emphasize that the beneficial effect of the intervention is greater than that shown by the results.

Methods

We conducted a cross-sectional study of news highlighted in the health section of US, UK and Canada editions of Google News between July 2013 and January 2014. We searched for news items for 3 days a week (i.e., Monday, Wednesday, and Friday) during 6 months and selected a sample of 130 news items reporting a scientific article evaluating the effect of an intervention on human health.

Results

In total, 78% of the news did not provide a full reference or electronic link to the scientific article. We found at least one spin in 114 (88%) news items and 18 different types of spin in news. These spin were mainly related to misleading reporting (59%) such as not reporting adverse events that were reported in the scientific article (25%), misleading interpretation (69%) such as claiming a causal effect despite non-randomized study design (49%) and overgeneralization/misleading extrapolation (41%) of the results such as extrapolating a beneficial effect from an animal study to humans (21%). We also identified some new types of spin such as highlighting a single patient experience for the success of a new treatment instead of focusing on the group results.

Conclusions

Interpretation of research results was frequently misrepresented in the health section of Google News. However, we do not know whether these spin were from the scientific articles themselves or added in the news.     

Detection and Enumeration of a Tagged Pseudomonas fluorescens Strain from Soil by Using Markers Associated with an Engineered Catabolic Pathway

Volume 63, no. 2, p. 602: the article title should read as shown above. [This corrects the article on p. 602 in vol. 63.].     

Silent chromatin in yeast: an orchestrated medley featuring Sir3p

The title for the review article published in BioEssays 20:30–40 should read ‘Silent chromatin in yeast: an orchestrated medley featuring Sir3p’. Please note corrections for Figure 3 as follows The publisher regrets these errors. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

An improved neutron autoradiography set-up for 10B concentration measurements in biological samples

Aim

Boron Neutron Capture Therapy (BNCT) is a binary hadrontherapy which exploits the neutron capture reaction in boron, together with a selective uptake of boronated substances by the neoplastic tissue. There is increasing evidence that future improvements in clinical BNCT will be triggered by the discovery of new boronated compounds, with higher selectivity for the tumor with respect to clinically used sodium borocaptate (BSH) and boronophenylalanine (BPA).

Background

Therefore, a ¹⁰B quantification technique for biological samples is needed in order to evaluate the performance of new boronated formulations.

Materials and methods

This article describes an improved neutron autoradiography set-up employing radiation sensitive films where the latent tracks are made visible by proper etching conditions.

Results

Calibration curves for both liquid and tissue samples were obtained.

Conclusions

The obtained calibration curves were adopted to set-up a mechanism to point out boron concentration in the whole sample.     

Use of Starvation Promoters To Limit Growth and Selectively Enrich Expression of Trichloroethylene- and Phenol-Transforming Activity in Recombinant Escherichia coli

Volume 61, no. 9, p. 3323: the title of the article should read as shown above. [This corrects the article on p. 3323 in vol. 61.].     

Gene bionetworks involved in the epigenetic transgenerational inheritance of altered mate preference: environmental epigenetics and evolutionary biology

Background

Mate preference behavior is an essential first step in sexual selection and is a critical determinant in evolutionary biology. Previously an environmental compound (the fungicide vinclozolin) was found to promote the epigenetic transgenerational inheritance of an altered sperm epigenome and modified mate preference characteristics for three generations after exposure of a gestating female.

Results

The current study investigated gene networks involved in various regions of the brain that correlated with the altered mate preference behavior in the male and female. Statistically significant correlations of gene clusters and modules were identified to associate with specific mate preference behaviors. This novel systems biology approach identified gene networks (bionetworks) involved in sex-specific mate preference behavior. Observations demonstrate the ability of environmental factors to promote the epigenetic transgenerational inheritance of this altered evolutionary biology determinant.

Conclusions

Combined observations elucidate the potential molecular control of mate preference behavior and suggests environmental epigenetics can have a role in evolutionary biology.

Electronic supplementary material

The online version of this article (doi:10.1186/1471-2164-15-377) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.     

The Arctic Waters and the Northwest Passage: A Final Revisit

Climate change has reduced the extent and thickness of sea ice in the Arctic, making international shipping in the Northwest Passage a virtual certainty in the foreseeable future. Such future shipping raises the question of whether the Passage is or might become an international strait, with the consequent right of transit passage. This article examines the two possible legal bases for Canada's claim that the waters of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago are internal waters: a historic title and straight baselines. It also addresses the issue of the possible internationalization of the Passage, if Canada does not take preventive measures. Some such measures are recommended in the last part of the article.     

Structural Comparison of Human Mammalian Ste20-Like Kinases

Background

The serine/threonine mammalian Ste-20 like kinases (MSTs) are key regulators of apoptosis, cellular proliferation as well as polarization. Deregulation of MSTs has been associated with disease progression in prostate and colorectal cancer. The four human MSTs are regulated differently by C-terminal regions flanking the catalytic domains.

Principal Findings

We have determined the crystal structure of kinase domain of MST4 in complex with an ATP-mimetic inhibitor. This is the first structure of an inactive conformation of a member of the MST kinase family. Comparison with active structures of MST3 and MST1 revealed a dimeric association of MST4 suggesting an activation loop exchanged mechanism of MST4 auto-activation. Together with a homology model of MST2 we provide a comparative analysis of the kinase domains for all four members of the human MST family.

Significance

The comparative analysis identified new structural features in the MST ATP binding pocket and has also defined the mechanism for autophosphorylation. Both structural features may be further explored for inhibitors design.

Enhanced version

This article can also be viewed as an enhanced version in which the text of the article is integrated with interactive 3D representations and animated transitions. Please note that a web plugin is required to access this enhanced functionality. Instructions for the installation and use of the web plugin are available in Text S1.     

Elderly onset intramedullary epidermoid cyst in the conus medullaris: a case report

Introduction

Epidermoid cysts are known as embryonic or acquired ectopic aberrations of the ectoderm. To the best of our knowledge, there are only a few reports of elderly onset intramedullary epidermoid cysts. We report a case of elderly onset intramedullary epidermoid cyst at the conus medullaris.

Case presentation

A 63-year-old Japanese woman working as a farmer presented with slowly progressive gait disturbance and voiding dysfunction. A magnetic resonance imaging scan revealed an intramedullary mass lesion at L1 to L3. We diagnosed the lesion as an intramedullary spinal cord tumor. A laminectomy was performed at the level of Th12 to L3. Upon spinal cord dissection, a yellowish milky exudation erupted from the cystic lesion. We resected white cartilage-like pieces from the cystic cavity. Because the wall of the cystic lesion tightly adhered to the spinal cord parenchyma, we abandoned complete resection of the cyst wall. The pathological diagnosis was an epidermoid cyst.

Conclusions

We propose that evacuation of the cyst contents is preferable, especially in cases with elderly onset and congenital origin.

Electronic supplementary material

The online version of this article (doi:10.1186/1752-1947-9-7) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.     

Identification and distribution of the NBS-LRR gene family in the Cassava genome

Background

Plant resistance genes (R genes) exist in large families and usually contain both a nucleotide-binding site domain and a leucine-rich repeat domain, denoted NBS-LRR. The genome sequence of cassava (Manihot esculenta) is a valuable resource for analysing the genomic organization of resistance genes in this crop.

Results

With searches for Pfam domains and manual curation of the cassava gene annotations, we identified 228 NBS-LRR type genes and 99 partial NBS genes. These represent almost 1% of the total predicted genes and show high sequence similarity to proteins from other plant species. Furthermore, 34 contained an N-terminal toll/interleukin (TIR)-like domain, and 128 contained an N-terminal coiled-coil (CC) domain. 63% of the 327 R genes occurred in 39 clusters on the chromosomes. These clusters are mostly homogeneous, containing NBS-LRRs derived from a recent common ancestor.

Conclusions

This study provides insight into the evolution of NBS-LRR genes in the cassava genome; the phylogenetic and mapping information may aid efforts to further characterize the function of these predicted R genes.

Electronic supplementary material

The online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s12864-015-1554-9) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.