Natural-trap ursid mortality and the Kurtén Response

Ursid mortality data have long been used to evaluate associations between cave-bear remains (Ursus deningeri and U. spelaeus) and hominin (Homo sp.) remains. Typically, such ursid assemblages produce mortality patterns that indicate that juvenile and old bears died during hibernation, a pattern that is used to suggest that humans and bears occupied the same caves at different times. However, a different kind of mortality pattern can also be used to suggest human influence on cave bears, particularly under circumstances when bears and humans compete for habitat. In particular, data from Lawson Cave and Jerry Long Cave, Missouri indicate that young-adult North American black bears (Ursus americanus) are prone to capture in natural-trap caves. Similar faunal data from Sima de los Huesos in Spain, where cave-bear and hominin remains are found in the same deposit, might also suggest that the bears died from falling into a natural trap. It is concluded that mortality analysis of ursid remains from caves is a useful tool with which to evaluate accumulation histories of cave deposits and relations between humans, artifacts, and cave-bear remains. In particular, ursid mortality data are relevant to the Kurtén Response, a hypothesis reiterated in the recent literature that implicates human encroachment on ursid habitat (e.g., cave den sites) as a potential cause in cave-bear extinction.     

Summer feeding strategy of the little auk (Alle alle) from Bjørnøya, Barents Sea

Summer food of the little auks nesting on Bjornoya consisted of large copepods, decapod larvae and pelagic amphipods. Food items of 4–6?mm constituted the most common prey size fraction. This prey size range appears to be optimal (most profitable) with regard to the balance between mean individual mass and density of items in the surface layers of the sea. Little auks from Bjørnøya only sporadically take the abundant copepod Calanus finmarchicus (2–3.5?mm in length) but select the much less abundant and larger Calanus glacialis (3–6?mm).RID="ID=" Acknowledgements The authors would like to thank Dr. Monika Normant from the University of Gdansk for her assistance with caloric measurments, and Lech Illiszko and Adam Wajrak for their help with the fieldwork on Bj&;oslash;rn&;oslash;ya.RID="ID=" Correspondence to J. M. We&;cedil;s&;lstrok;awski     

Stratigraphie de la série tertiaire de Casamance (Sénégal)

The micropaleontological and sedimentological analysis of the cuttings and core-samples extracted from a certain number of borings conducted seaside Casamance, western Casamance and eastern Casamance (fig. 1), enabled the researches to determine Casamance stratigraphy and paleoecology during the tertiary period. The microfauna gathered (foraminifera and ostracoda) makes it possible to characterize the biozones P1 to P15/P16 followed by the biozones N1/N2 to N14, bringing into evidence the existence of Paleogene and Neogene which are separated by a gap of changeable amplitude.The sedimentological study has revealed the presence of a certein number of landmarks and lithologic mineralogical sets which seem to be constant in the studied boring.     

Structure of (dG)n · (dC)n Under Superhelical Stress and Acid pH

Abstract

We have recently shown that a (GA)_n · (TC)_n tract undergoes a sharp structural transition under superhelical stress (V.I. Lyamichev, S.M. Mirkin and M.D. Frank-Kamenetskii, J. Biomol. Struct. Dyn. 2, 327 (1985)). Unlike the well studied transitions to the cruciform and to the Z form, this novel transition was strongly pH-dependent. We have found the (dG)_n · (dC)_n insert to undergo a pH-dependent structural transition similar to that of the (GA)_n · (TC)_n tract. These new data meet our earlier expectations and disagree with the data of D.E. Pulleyblank, D.B. Haniford and A.R. Morgan, Cell 42, 271 (1985). We conclude that a novel DNA structure (the H-form) is typical of homopurine-homopyrimidine mirror repeats (the H palindromes) under superhelical stress and/or acid pH. In the H-form the homopyrimidine strand forms a hairpin while half of the homopurine strand interacts with the hairpin forming a triplex, the other half of the homopurine strand being unstructured (V.I. Lyamichev, S.M. Mirkin and M.D. Frank-Kamenetskii, J. Biomol. Struct. Dyn. 2, 3,667 (1986)).     

Palynologie des variants androgénétiques de Nicotiana plumbaginifolia (Solanaceae)

L'examen des grains de pollen de variants androgénétiques de Nicotiana plumbaginifolia a permis d'aborder une nouvelle approche de la variabilité des plantes cultivées in vitro. En plus de la morphométrie et de la MEB, techniques classiquement utilisées en palynologie, la mise en oeuvre de la spectrométrie X à sélection d'énergie et de la microfluorométrie de la sporopollénine, a permis de mettre en évidence des différences intraspécifiques très importantes pouvant aider à la compréhension de l'installation de la variation somaclonale.

Pollen grains of androgenetic variants of Nicotiana plumbaginifolia were studied using classical methods in palynology (morphometry, SEM) and by energy dispersive X-ray spectrometry or microfluorometry of sporopollenin can allow a new advance in variability studies in conjunction with in vitro plant production. It is also more interesting to study possible relationships between palynological parameters and ploidy level.     

Interferon inducing activity of (A)n·(U)n complexes of varying chain length

Evidence is presented that the interferon-inducing activity of (A)_n·(U)_n in primary rabbit kidney cells with respect to the chain length of the constituting (A)_n and (U)_n strands is governed by the following criteria: (1) the activity increases with the length of the uninterrupted double-stranded segment in the complex whereby both chains are equally important and the number of such segments for complex molecule is without effect, (2) at a constant total concentration of constituting nucleotides, the activity increases with the number of double-stranded molecular entities available to the cell, and (3) complexes with the (U)_n strand considerably overlapping the (A)_n strand are inactive due to the formation of triple-stranded structures.