G Protein-Coupled Receptors in and on the Cell Nucleus: A New Signaling Paradigm?

Signaling from internalizing and endosomal receptors has almost become a classic GPCR paradigm in the last several years. However, it has become clear in recent years that GPCRs also elicit signals when resident at other subcellular sites including the endoplasmic reticulum, Golgi apparatus, and the nucleus. In this review we discuss the nature, function, and trafficking of nuclear GPCR signaling complexes, as well as potential sources of endogenous and exogenous ligands. Finally, we pose a series of questions that will need to be answered in the coming years to confirm and extend this as a new paradigm for GPCR signaling.     

Pre-Darwinian Taxonomy and Essentialism – A Reply to MaryWinsor

Mary Winsor (2003) argues against the received view that pre-Darwinian taxonomy was characterized mainly by essentialism. She argues, instead, that the methods of pre-Darwinian taxonomists, in spite of whatever their beliefs, were that of clusterists, so that the received view, propagated mainly by certain modern biologists and philosophers of biology, should at last be put to rest as a myth. I argue that shes right when it comes to higher taxa, but wrong when it comes the most important category of all, the species category.     

A Taxonomic Signature of Obesity in the Microbiome? Getting to the Guts of the Matter

Obesity is an important and intractable public health problem. In addition to the well-known risk factors of behavior, diet, and genetics, gut microbial communities were recently identified as another possible source of risk and a potential therapeutic target. However, human and animal-model studies have yielded conflicting results about the precise nature of associations between microbiome composition and obesity. In this paper, we use publicly available data from the Human Microbiome Project (HMP) and MetaHIT, both surveys of healthy adults that include obese individuals, plus two smaller studies that specifically examined lean versus obese adults. We find that inter-study variability in the taxonomic composition of stool microbiomes far exceeds differences between lean and obese individuals within studies. Our analyses further reveal a high degree of variability in stool microbiome composition and diversity across individuals. While we confirm the previously published small, but statistically significant, differences in phylum-level taxonomic composition between lean and obese individuals in several cohorts, we find no association between BMI and taxonomic composition of stool microbiomes in the larger HMP and MetaHIT datasets. We explore a range of different statistical techniques and show that this result is robust to the choice of methodology. Differences between studies are likely due to a combination of technical and clinical factors. We conclude that there is no simple taxonomic signature of obesity in the microbiota of the human gut.     

Algal Taxonomy in Limnology: An Example of the Declining Trend of Taxonomic Studies?

The recent decline in taxonomic studies is well recognized. Algae-related papers (390) published in five leading limnology journals (1971–2004) were consulted to assess similar trends in limnology by taking algae as a test aquatic group. The study showed a decrease of algae-only studies and an increase of multi-group studies (algae plus one or more aquatic groups). Identification of species decreased while mentioning of ecological groups (phytoplankton, epiphytes, etc.) increased while presenting results. Species identification, however, was not associated with number of aquatic groups or number of algal species included in a study. Problems probably lie with the old-fashioned image of taxonomy and it being threatened by the recent advancement in evolutionary and molecular biology. Issues like the changing research patterns in freshwater ecology, scope of limnological works, its workers and relevant journals are also shaping the status of traditional taxonomy in limnology. Practices such as giving of at least (algal) genera in community studies, and of the current names of studied species in physiological/molecular works and also in studies on particular supra-generic taxa (Class, Family, etc.), could help sustaining of taxonomy in limnology.     

On the Value of Taxonomy,Phylogeny, and Systematics to Orchid Conservation: Implications for China’s Yachang Orchid Reserve

Orchid classification has undergone a series of significant changes during the past decade as molecular phylogenetic studies have examined relationships at all taxonomic levels in the family. Today, the 750 genera and 25,000 species of Orchidaceae are organized into five subfamilies, the two largest of which (Epidendroideae and Orchidoideae) are further divided into 19 tribes and 43 subtribes. Whereas some of these groups are relatively small in terms of total species numbers, and may be of little horticultural or medicinal value, they are especially important for understanding orchid evolution and may deserve to be conserved for this reason alone. The question of which orchids to conserve is a complex one, but the science of systematics, including taxonomy and phylogenetics, has an undeniable role to play in answering that question. Among the many ways that phylogenetic trees can assist biologists in setting conservation priorities are by: 1) guiding taxonomists in naming species, which is essential for creating checklists within floras, monographs, and inventories; 2) discovering overlooked, rare or cryptic species that deserve recognition and protection; 3) determining whether or not a taxon is actually a species or simply a variant or hybrid; 4) predicting species that may be of value to humans for economic value; 5) identifying species that may have particularly important scientific value for better understanding the biology of plants. In the same way that we cannot protect all habitats, we may not be able to save every orchid species. Priorities must be established. The Yachang Orchid Reserve has been recognized as important not only because of the number of individual orchid plants that grow there, but also because of its great orchid diversity. Diversity is a product of evolution by natural selection, and the science of phylogenetics has a role to play in better understanding that process.     

Causation about What? Relevant to Whom?: Linking Psyche and Society A Commentary on Nissim Mizrachi's “From Causation to Correlation”

Culture, Medicine, and Psychiatry -     

Taxonomic and nomenclatural notes on the?genera Themus Motschulsky and Lycocerus Gorham (Coleoptera,Cantharidae)

The following taxonomic or nomenclatural changes are proposed: Themus (s.str.) regalis (Gorham, 1889), nom. rest.; Themus (s.str.) scutulatus Wittmer, 1983 = Themus (s.str.) hmong Kazantsev, 2007, syn. n.; Themus (Telephorops) coelestis (Gorham, 1889) = Themus violetipennis Wang & Yang, 1992, syn. n.; Themus (Telephorops) uniformis Wittmer, 1983, stat. n. = Themus (Telephorops) cribripennis Wittmer, 1983, syn. n.; Themus (Haplothemus) licenti Pic, 1938, stat. rev., resurrected from synonymy with Themus coriaceipennis (Fairmaire, 1889); Lycocerus aenescens (Fairmaire, 1889) = Lycocerus tcheonanus (Pic, 1922), syn. n.; Lycocerus asperipennis (Fairmaire, 1891) = Lycocerus wangi (Švihla, 2004), syn. n.; Lycocerus borneoensis nom. n. for Athemellus atricolor (Wittmer, 1972); Lycocerus bilineatus (Wittmer, 1995) = Lycocerus amplus (Wittmer, 1995), syn. n.; Lycocerus fairmairei nom. n. et stat. rev. for Athemus dimidiaticrus (Fairmaire, 1889), originally in Telephorus, resurrected from synonymy with Lycocerus orientalis (Gorham, 1889); Lycocerus confossicollis (Fairmaire, 1891), comb. n. hereby transferred from Cantharis = Lycocerus multiimpressus (Wittmer, 1997), syn. n.; Lycocerus inopaciceps (Pic, 1926) = Athemus (Athemellus) bimaculicollis (Švihla, 2005), syn. n.; Lycocerus nigratus nom. n. for Lycocerus nigricolor (Wittmer, 1972), originally in Podabrinus; Lycocerus plebejus (Kiesenwetter, 1874) = Lycocerus brunneonotaticeps (Pic, 1922), syn. n. = Cantharis rufonotaticeps Pic, 1921 syn. n.; Lycocerus swampingatus (Pic, 1916), comb. n., hereby transferred from Cantharis. The neotypes of Themus violetipennis Wang & Yang, 1992 and Athemus (s.str.) maculithorax Wang & Yang, 1992 are designated respectively.     

Medical Tourism: A Cost or Benefit to the NHS?

‘Medical Tourism’ – the phenomenon of people travelling abroad to access medical treatment - has received increasing attention in academic and popular media. This paper reports findings from a study examining effect of inbound and outbound medical tourism on the UK NHS, by estimating volume of medical tourism and associated costs and benefits. A mixed methods study it includes analysis of the UK International Passenger Survey (IPS); interviews with 77 returning UK medical tourists, 63 policymakers, NHS managers and medical tourism industry actors policymakers, and a review of published literature. These informed costing of three types of treatments for which patients commonly travel abroad: fertility treatment, cosmetic and bariatric surgery. Costing of inbound tourism relied on data obtained through 28 Freedom-of-Information requests to NHS Foundation Trusts. Findings demonstrate that contrary to some popular media reports, far from being a net importer of patients, the UK is now a clear net exporter of medical travellers. In 2010, an estimated 63,000 UK residents travelled for treatment, while around 52,000 patients sought treatment in the UK. Inbound medical tourists treated as private patients within NHS facilities may be especially profitable when compared to UK private patients, yielding close to a quarter of revenue from only 7% of volume in the data examined. Costs arise where patients travel abroad and return with complications. Analysis also indicates possible savings especially in future health care and social costs averted. These are likely to be specific to procedures and conditions treated. UK medical tourism is a growing phenomenon that presents risks and opportunities to the NHS. To fully understand its implications and guide policy on issues such as NHS global activities and patient safety will require investment in further research and monitoring. Results point to likely impact of medical tourism in other universal public health systems.     

Extinct or still out there? Disentangling influences on extinction and rediscovery helps to clarify the fate of species on the edge

Each year, two or three species that had been considered to be extinct are rediscovered. Uncertainty about whether or not a species is extinct is common, because rare and highly threatened species are difficult to detect. Biological traits such as body size and range size are expected to be associated with extinction. However, these traits, together with the intensity of search effort, might influence the probability of detection and extinction differently. This makes statistical analysis of extinction and rediscovery challenging. Here, we use a variant of survival analysis known as cure rate modelling to differentiate factors that influence rediscovery from those that influence extinction. We analyse a global data set of 99 mammals that have been categorized as extinct or possibly extinct. We estimate the probability that each of these mammals is still extant and thus estimate the proportion of missing (presumed extinct) mammals that are incorrectly assigned extinction. We find that body mass and population density are predictors of extinction, and body mass and search effort predict rediscovery. In mammals, extinction rate increases with body mass and population density, and these traits act synergistically to greatly elevate extinction rate in large species that also occurred in formerly dense populations. However, when they remain extant, larger‐bodied missing species are rediscovered sooner than smaller species. Greater search effort increases the probability of rediscovery in larger species of missing mammals, but has a minimal effect on small species, which take longer to be rediscovered, if extant. By separating the effects of species characteristics on extinction and detection, and using models with the assumption that a proportion of missing species will never be rediscovered, our new approach provides estimates of extinction probability in species with few observation records and scant ecological information.     

Ion binding or condensation to polyelectrolytes?: A detailed comparison,on the example of sodium heparinate

A modified Poisson-Boltzmann treatment is applied to aqueous solutions of sodium heparinate, in the presence of added salts (NaCl, LiCl, KCl, CaCl2). The results show that 23Na-NMR line widths for the counterions are determined nearly exclusively by Na+ in the immediate vicinity of the linear polyelectrolyte. Hence, two-state treatments, despite their crude character, can reproduce such experimental data rather well.