Amphibian Declines in Latin America: Widespread Population Declines,Extinctions, and Impacts1

Amphibian populations are in decline throughout Latin America; all families of frogs have experienced declines, but the species associated with aquatic habitats in upland areas have been most affected. Declines in Latin America were most common during the 1980s, but new declines continue to be reported. The causes of declines are varied, but they have most often been associated with habitat loss, a pathogenic fungus, and climate change. Scientists are just beginning to grasp the ethical and biological implications of losses of this magnitude. In this Special Section, we provide a general summary of the phenomenon and introduce five contributed papers that provide new data and new insights into Latin American declines.     

Progress of Breast Cancer basic research in China

Breast cancer is the most commonly diagnosed and the most lethal cancer in females both in China and worldwide. Currently, the origin of cancer stem cells, the heterogeneity of cancer cells, the mechanism of cancer metastasis and drug resistance are the most important issues that need to be addressed. Chinese investigators have recently made new discoveries in basic breast cancer researches, especially regarding cancer stem cells, cancer metabolism, and microenvironments. These efforts have led to a deeper understanding of drug resistance and metastasis and have also indicated new biomarkers and therapeutic targets. These findings emphasized the importance of the cancer stem cells for targeted therapy. In this review, we summarized the latest important findings in this field in China.     

Nutrition from mushrooms, understanding and reconciling available data

Mushrooms are nutritionally valuable foods. They are high in proteins, including most essential amino acids and high in most water soluble vitamins and probably in pro-vitamin D. However, there have been many reports suggesting that they had little or no value. While the reports of little value were erroneous, other reports have claimed greater nutritional value than can be substantiated. Moreover, most of our knowledge of the nutritional value of mushrooms is based on chemical analysis. Some of the nutrients may be destroyed or unavailable to consumers. This paper looks at the available information and tries to reconcile it.     

Cryptococcus Neoformans Meningitis Cases Among China’s HIV-Infected Population may have been Severely Under-Reported

Cryptococcal meningitis (CM) is the leading fungal infection of the central nervous system. Globally, most CM cases have been reported from patients with compromised immunities, especially those infected with HIV. However, reports from China have shown that most CM infections were from HIV-negative, immunocompetent hosts. Here, we reviewed the published reports and found those studies were almost exclusively based on patients from hospitals associated with Chinese universities but not from specialized infectious diseases hospitals where most Chinese HIV-infected patients have been treated. Thus, we believe CM cases among China’s HIV-infected population may have been severely under-reported. Analyses of CM cases in specialized infectious diseases hospitals are needed to identify the true epidemiological pattern of CM in China.

     

Identification of small RNAs in diverse bacterial species

Small, non-coding bacterial RNAs (sRNAs) have been shown to regulate a plethora of biological processes. Up until recently, most sRNAs had been identified and characterized in E. coli. However, in the past few years, dozens of sRNAs have been discovered in a wide variety of bacterial species. Whereas numerous sRNAs have been isolated or detected through experimental approaches, most have been identified in predictive bioinformatic searches. Recently developed computational tools have greatly facilitated the efficient prediction of sRNAs in diverse species. Although the number of known sRNAs has dramatically increased in recent years, many challenges in the identification and characterization of sRNAs lie ahead.     

Pheromone perception and behavior in Drosophila

Pheromones have essential roles in the social behavior of most animals. Studies of pheromone-driven behaviors are especially attractive in Drosophila melanogaster, because these insects are genetically and molecularly well characterized, have relatively simple central nervous systems compared with vertebrates, and yet they display complex behaviors controlled by sophisticated sensory systems. Like most other aspects of biology, studies on pheromone-driven behaviors have entered a new area, as candidate pheromone receptors and signaling molecules have been identified through the deciphering of the Drosophila genome. These advances have made it possible to make specific manipulations of pheromone pathways for further investigation.     

The 'aerial plankton' and atmospheric convergence

Airborne migration is one of the most common adaptations for surviving and exploiting habitat variability. One weather feature that airborne migrants sometimes encounter, convergence, has the potential to concentrate populations in localities where climatic conditions have made a habitat temporarily favourable. Studies of migratory insects have now begun to establish which of several forms of atmospheric convergence are most likely to affect population processes.     

Shift from morphological to recent advanced molecular approaches for the identification of nematodes

Nematodes are the most diverse but most minor studied microorganisms found in soil, water, animals, or plants. Either beneficial or pathogenic, they significantly affect human and animal health, plant production and ultimately affect the environmental equilibrium. Knowledge of their taxonomy and biology are the main issues to answer the different challenges associated with these microorganisms. The classical morphology-based nematode taxonomy and biodiversity studies have proved insufficient to identify closely related taxa and have challenged most biologists. Several molecular approaches have been used to supplement morphological methods and solve these problems with markable success. The molecular techniques range from enzyme analysis, protein-based information to DNA sequence analysis. For several decades, efforts have been made to integrate molecular approaches with digital 3D image-capturing technology to improve the identification accuracy of such a taxonomically challenging group and communicate morphological data. This review presents various molecular techniques and provides examples of recent advances in these methods to identify free-living and plant-parasitic nematodes.     

Scale up aspects of sparged insect-cell bioreactors

Conclusion In this chapter we have attempted to evaluate the most important parameters which can be useful for the pur-pose of design and scale up. Insect cells and animal cells in general can be grown well in large vessels. However, none of the theories and parameters discussed in this chapter have been validated on a larger scale than laboratory and small pilot reactors. Selection of the most suitable design and scale-up method there-fore needs in particular studies in larger vessels. The Kolmogorov theory and the killing-volume model are in this respect the most promising approaches for the optimal design of large-scale animal-cell bioreactors.     

Testing life history predictions in a long-lived seabird: a population matrix approach with improved parameter estimation

Life history theory and associated empirical generalizations predict that population growth rate (λ) in long-lived animals should be most sensitive to adult survival; the rates to which λ is most sensitive should be those with the smallest temporal variances; and stochastic environmental events should most affect the rates to which λ is least sensitive. To date, most analyses attempting to examine these predictions have been inadequate, their validity being called into question by problems in estimating parameters, problems in estimating the variability of parameters, and problems in measuring population sensitivities to parameters. We use improved methodologies in these three areas and test these life-history predictions in a population of red-tailed tropicbirds ( Phaethon rubricauda ). We support our first prediction that λ is most sensitive to survival rates. However the support for the second prediction that these rates have the smallest temporal variance was equivocal. Previous support for the second prediction may be an artifact of a high survival estimate near the upper boundary of 1 and not a result of natural selection canalizing variances alone. We did not support our third prediction that effects of environmental stochasticity (El Niño) would most likely be detected in vital rates to which λ was least sensitive and which are thought to have high temporal variances. Comparative data-sets on other seabirds, within and among orders, and in other locations, are needed to understand these environmental effects.     

ORIGIN OF SEED PLANTS: AN ANEUROPHYTE/SEED-FERN LINK ELABORATED

Gymnosperm-like stem and frond fragments have been discovered in the same Devonian deposits of West Virginia that yield the most ancient seeds. The vegetative organs exhibit the stem/leaf differentiation and frond structure that are characteristic of seed ferns, but they have a stelar configuration and a protoxylem architecture that are most similar to aneurophytalean progymnosperms. This combination of features supports the hypothesis that aneurophytalean progymnosperms are ancestral to gymnosperms.     

ALS, what new 144 years after Charcot?

The most important challenge of ALS remains finding biomarkers. Clinical features remain of key importance in the diagnosis and for follow up. Neurophysiology remains difficult to use in clinical trials. Neuroimaging have some utility for upper motor neuron integrity and function. Among proteins and chemical markers, one of the most promising marker is the level of Nogo in muscle biopsy. In CSF, many candidate proteins have been suggested but their sensitivity and specificity remains disappointing. Recently, -omics technologies have been applied to try to discover biomarkers in ALS, including genomic, proteomic and metabolomic methodologies.     

Pithouse Architecture and the Economics of Household Formation in the Prehistoric American Southwest

Changes in prehistoric Southwestern architecture have been interpreted as the result of increasing dependence on agriculture through time which promoted greater sedentism. Recent archaeological research has produced data that point to changes in labor organization rather than agricultural productivity as the factors that most likely favored new forms of domestic architecture. In fact, some of the most striking temporal shifts in residential architecture may have been associated with declining agricultural productivity.     

Fingerprinting the diseased prostate: associations between BPH and prostate cancer

Two of the most common diseases which occur in ageing men relate to their prostate. BPH and prostate cancer are prevalent diseases which have an impact on most men as they age. The advent of gene expression analysis has provided an opportunity to examine these diseases in a novel fashion. These analyses, to date, have revealed associations between these two diseases which have not been previously identified. These commonalities include global genetic changes which occur throughout the prostates in individuals with these diseases. Understanding the fingerprints of these diseases is providing novel markers and treatment strategies for both BPH and prostate cancer.     

Policy Development for Environmental Licensing and Biodiversity Offsets in Latin America

Attempts to meet biodiversity goals through application of the mitigation hierarchy have gained wide traction globally with increased development of public policy, lending standards, and corporate practices. With interest in biodiversity offsets increasing in Latin America, we seek to strengthen the basis for policy development through a review of major environmental licensing policy frameworks in Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Mexico, Peru and Venezuela. Here we focused our review on an examination of national level policies to evaluate to which degree current provisions promote positive environmental outcomes. All the surveyed countries have national-level Environmental Impact Assessment laws or regulations that cover the habitats present in their territories. Although most countries enable the use of offsets only Brazil, Colombia, Mexico and Peru explicitly require their implementation. Our review has shown that while advancing quite detailed offset policies, most countries do not seem to have strong requirements regarding impact avoidance. Despite this deficiency most countries have a strong foundation from which to develop policy for biodiversity offsets, but several issues require further guidance, including how best to: (1) ensure conformance with the mitigation hierarchy; (2) identify the most environmentally preferable offsets within a landscape context; (3) determine appropriate mitigation replacement ratios; and (4) ensure appropriate time and effort is given to monitor offset performance.     

非人灵长类冲突后行为的研究进展

冲突后行为（post-conflict behavior）在非人灵长类中普遍存在。通过对旧大陆灵长类和类人猿的冲突后行为的观察,人们早期主要关注其和解行为,随着研究的不断深入,近些年来则对转向攻击行为、安慰行为和替代和解行为等其他冲突后行为也多有涉猎。目前主要应用匹配控制观察法来研究灵长类的冲突后行为,发现不同的物种往往有不同的冲突后行为模式,她们的统治风格、亲豫关系、等级地位远近及冲突起因等因素会对冲突后行为产生影响,进而发现不同的冲突后行为模式具有不同的功能,并且提出了社会认知、社会约束和关系价值假说。     

Monocot relationships: an overview

In 10 years, the monocots have gone from being one of the least studied and most phylogenetically misunderstood groups of the angiosperms to one of the best characterized. Based on analyses of seven genes representing all three genomes, the following clades have high bootstrap support: Acorales (with the single genus Acorus) is sister to the rest of the monocots, followed successively by Alismatales (including Araceae and Tofieldiaceae), Petrosaviales, Dioscoreales/Pandanales, Liliales, Asparagales, and finally a polytomy of Arecales, Commelinales/Zingiberales, Dasypogonaceae, and Poales. Many of these results also have support from at least some morphological data, but some are unique to the trees created from DNA sequence data. Monocots have been shown in molecular clock studies to be at least 140 million years old, and all major clades and most families date to well before the end of the Cretaceous. More data are required to clarify the positions of the remaining unclearly placed orders, Asparagles, Liliales, and Arecales, as well as Dasypogonaceae. More sequences from the nuclear and mitochondrial genomes are also needed to complement those from the plastid genome, which is the most sampled and thus far most pattern-rich.     

Auditory processing of vocal sounds in birds

The avian auditory system has become a model system to investigate how vocalizations are memorized and processed by the brain in order to mediate behavioral discrimination and recognition. Recent studies have shown that most of the avian auditory system responds preferentially and efficiently to sounds that have natural spectro-temporal statistics. In addition, neurons in secondary auditory forebrain areas have plastic response properties and are the most active when processing behaviorally relevant vocalizations. Physiological measurements show differential responses for vocalizations that were recently learned in discrimination tasks, and for the tutor song, a longer-term auditory memory that is used to guide vocal learning in male songbirds.     

Inducible DNA repair and differentiation in Bacillus subtilis: interactions between global regulons

The SOS response of Escherichia coli has become a paradigm for the study of inducible DNA repair and recombination processes in many different organisms. While these studies have demonstrated that the components of the SOS response appear to be highly conserved among bacterial species, as with most models, there are some significant variations. Perhaps the best example of this comes from an analysis of the SOS-like system of the developmental organism, Bacillus subtilis. Accordingly, the most striking difference is the complex developmental regulation of the SOS system as this organism differentiates into its competent state. In this review we have given an overview of the elements that comprise the SOS system of B. subtilis. Additionally, we have summarized our most recent findings regarding the regulation of this regulon. Using these results along with new findings from other laboratories we have provided provocative molecular models for the regulation of the B. subtilis SOS system in response to DNA damage and during competent cell formation.