Malice's wonderland: Research funding and peer review

The players all played at once, without waiting for turns, quarreling all the while and fighting for the hedgehogs; and in a very short time the queen was in a furious passion and went stamping about, and shouting “off with his head” or “off with her head,” about once a minute. Alice began to feel very uneasy: to be sure she had not as yet had any dispute with the queen, but she knew that it might happen any minute, “and then” thought she, “what would become of me? They're dreadfully fond of beheading people here: the great wonder is, that there's any one left alive”.     

Testing a Return-Anticipating Dog,Kane

ABSTRACT

Many dog owners claim that their animals know when a member of the household is coming home, typically showing their anticipation by waiting at a door or window. In previous trials with a dog called Jaytee, recorded on videotape, it was found that he anticipated his owner's arrival more than ten minutes in advance, even when she was returning in unfamiliar vehicles such as taxis, when the people at home did not know when to expect her, and when she set off at randomly-selected times. This paper describes the results of a pre-planned series of ten videotaped trials with a dog called Kane, a Rhodesian ridgeback, who was said to wait by a window while his owner was on the way home. The window-area was filmed continuously while the dog's owner went to places more than 8 km away and came home at a variety of non-routine times, some of which were selected at random and communicated to her by a telephone pager. The time-coded videotapes were scored blind by a third party. In nine out of ten trials Kane spent most time at the window when his owner was on the way home. On average he was at the window 26 percent of the time while she was returning, and only one percent of the time throughout the rest of her absence. This difference was highly significant statistically. Possible explanations for this behavior are discussed.     

Albert Gaudry et l'émergence de la paléontologie darwinienne au xixe siècle

In this paper, paleontologists who, after the publication of “On the Origin of Species”, applied Darwin's research program on genealogy, are labeled Darwinians, not only evolutionists. A special attention is given to two paleontologists, Albert Gaudry and Gaston de Saporta. New data included in this article are Gaudry's notes written on his copy of “De l'origine des espèces” published in French in 1862. If one tries to grasp the impact of Darwin's work in the XIXth century, contrary to the common attitude, the defense of natural selection as the driven concept of evolution is not considered to be crucial. Later, Charles Depéret synthesized the growing knowledge of the second part of the XIX^th century but did not appear to be more Darwinian than his forerunners. From Darwin's writings it is concluded that the reference to biological progress inherent to Gaudry's and Saporta's works does not radically exclude these authors from the Darwinian realm.     

The death of dignity is greatly exaggerated: Reflections 15 years after the declaration of dignity as a useless concept

Fifteen years ago, Ruth Macklin shook the medical community with her claim in the BMJ that dignity is a useless concept. Her essay provoked a storm of reactions. What have we learned from the debate? In this article I analyse the responses to her essay and the following debate to investigate whether she was right that “[d]ignity is a useless concept in medical ethics and can be eliminated without any loss of content.” While some of the commentaries misconstrued her claim and argue against strawmen, others forcefully maintained that the concept of dignity has functions beyond “respect for persons and their autonomy.” One important point that came out of the debate is that dignity is a generic concept that covers more ground than “respect for persons or their autonomy.” In particular, dignity seems to have a wide range of protective functions as well as having reciprocal, relational, and social aspects. Dignity appears more attributional and norm-formative than respect for persons and autonomy. While the claim that dignity is unclear, vague, and can be used sloganistically seems highly relevant, it is argued that this vagueness fulfils important functions in ethics. Moreover, dismissing dignity because of its lack of clarity has implications for “respect for persons” and “autonomy,” which are also used vaguely and sloganistically. No doubt medical ethics should use as a clear concept as the context requires. Nonetheless, dignity still seems to be a widely used generic concept in ethical debates and doing as much ethical work as “respect for persons” or “respect for autonomy.” Therefore, the death of dignity seems to be greatly exaggerated.     

Distastefulness as a defense mechanism in Aplysia brasiliana (Mollusca: Gastropoda)

An unusual courtship pattern for fiddler crabs is described from field observations in Panama. This behavior pattern, referred to here as “directing,” differs considerably from the more frequently observed communal courtship system found in close relatives of Uca deichmanni. A male involved in “directing” approaches a female and attempts to carry or maneuver her into his burrow for mating. The female usually struggles to escape from the male. This activity often attracts other males which attempt to “direct” the female if she escapes from the first male. A male is most successful in “directing” a female into his burrow if a) he is larger than the female, b) the female is wandering (a sign of physiological receptivity) prior to the “directing” attempt, and c) several males attempt to “direct” the female at once. The results suggest that females are choosing mates by inciting several males to compete for them. The males which successfully “direct” the struggling females are probably the most fit males.     

Succeeding in Science Despite the Odds; Studying Metabolism with NMR by Mildred Cohn

A Study of Oxidative Phosphorylation with O¹⁸-labeled Inorganic Phosphate(Cohn, M. (1953) J. Biol. Chem. 201, 735–750)Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Spectra of Adenosine Di- and Triphosphate. II. Effect of Complexing with Divalent Metal Ions(Cohn, M., and Hughes, T. R. (1962) J. Biol. Chem. 237, 176–181)Mildred Cohn was born in New York City in 1913. When she was young, her father told her she could achieve anything she chose to, but not without some difficulty because she was both female and Jewish. With her parents'' encouragement, Cohn moved rapidly through the New York public school system and graduated from high school at age 14. She decided to go to Hunter College in Manhattan, then an all-girls college, and majored in chemistry and minored in physics. Hunter''s attitude toward science education at that time can be summed up by the chairman of the chemistry department who declared that it was not ladylike for women to be chemists and that his sole purpose was to prepare his students to become chemistry teachers.When Cohn graduated from Hunter College in 1931 she tried to get a scholarship for graduate studies in chemistry but was unsuccessful. She enrolled in Columbia University nonetheless and used her savings to pay for her education. At Columbia, she studied under Nobel laureate Harold Urey but had to drop out after a year because of lack of money. She then took a job with the National Advisory Committee of Aeronautics and after a few years was able to earn enough money to return to Columbia. Working with Urey, she studied ways of separating different isotopes of carbon and received her Ph.D. in physical chemistry in 1937.Unfortunately, jobs were scarce in 1938, during the years of the Great Depression, and academic positions for women were even more scarce. Industrial recruiters regularly posted notices announcing that, “Mr. X of Y Company will interview prospective doctorate recipients—Male, Christian”(1).¹ With Urey''s help, Cohn was able to obtain a postdoctoral position at George Washington University with future Nobel prize winner Vincent du Vigneaud. In du Vigneaud''s laboratory, Cohn pioneered the effort to use isotopic tracers to follow the metabolism of sulfur-containing compounds, the subject of a previous Journal of Biological Chemistry (JBC) Classic (2). Cohn worked with du Vigneaud for 9 years and moved with him to New York when he went to Cornell Medical College.In 1946, Cohn went to Washington University in St. Louis to work with Carl and Gerty Cori, Nobel prize laureates and authors of a previous JBC Classic (3), who were studying biological catalysts. There, she did independent research, mainly focusing on using isotopes and NMR to study metabolic processes. Cohn was promoted to Associate Professor in Biochemistry in 1958 but left Washington University 2 years later to move to the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine. She became a full Professor in 1961 and retired as Benjamin Rush Professor Emerita of Biochemistry and Biophysics in 1982.Once, when asked what her most exciting scientific moments were (4), Cohn replied, “In 1958, using nuclear magnetic resonance, I saw the first three peaks of ATP (5). That was exciting. [I could] distinguish the three phosphorus atoms of ATP with a spectroscopic method, which had never been done before. Another paper, in 1962 (the second JBC Classic reprinted here), was about the effect of metal ions on the phosphorus spectrum of ATP. And earlier, I found that oxygen in inorganic phosphate exchanged with water through oxidative phosphorylation (the first JBC Classic reprinted here).”Cohn''s study of oxidative phosphorylation came at a time when it was known that phosphorylation occurred concomitantly with oxidation in the electron transport chain. However, no one had yet discovered the nature of the interaction of the electron transport system with phosphate or any part of the phosphorylating system. Cohn approached this problem by tracking the loss of O¹⁸ from inorganic phosphate during oxidative phosphorylation in rat liver mitochondria. In the first JBC Classic reprinted here, she describes her findings as, “a new reaction which occurs in oxidative phosphorylation associated with the electron transport system has been observed in the rat liver mitochondria with α-ketoglutarate, â-hydroxybutyrate, and succinate as substrates. This reaction manifests itself by a replacement of O¹⁸ with normal O¹⁶ in inorganic phosphate labeled with O¹⁸ and parallels the phosphorylation which is associated with the oxidation.” Cohn concluded that water must be involved in this reaction because there was no other source of oxygen large enough to account for the amounts she saw introduced into inorganic phosphate. In the second JBC Classic Cohn describes her use of NMR to examine the structural changes in ADP and ATP caused by various divalent metal ions. Cohn knew that divalent ions were involved in enzymatic reactions of ADP and ATP but didn''t know their functions. Using NMR, she measured the changes in the chemical shifts in the peaks of the ATP and ADP phosphorus nuclei in the presence of Mg²⁺, Ca²⁺, and Zn²⁺ as well as the paramagnetic ions Cu²⁺, Mn²⁺, and Co²⁺. By analyzing the resultant spectra, she was able to determine which metals bound to which phosphate groups and thus gained insight into the nature of the metal complexes formed.Cohn received many awards and honors for her contributions to science, including the National Medal of Science in 1982, “for pioneering the use of stable isotopic tracers and nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy in the study of the mechanisms of enzymatic catalysis,” as well as election to the National Academies of Science in 1971. She also served the American Society of Biological Chemists (ASBC), now American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (ASBMB), in many ways. She was President of the Society in 1978 and was on the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology (FASEB) Board from 1978 to 1980 as ASBC representative. In addition, Cohn was the first woman to be appointed to the JBC Editorial Board.Despite her success, Cohn''s father was right about the difficulties she would encounter in her life. “My career has been affected at every stage by the fact that I am a woman, beginning with my undergraduate education, which was very inferior in chemistry, and physics was not even offered [as a major] at Hunter College, unlike the excellent science education that my male counterparts received at City College,” she notes. “In my day, I experienced discrimination in academia, government, and industry.”     

Profiles of Pioneer Women Scientists: Katherine Esau

“Profiles of Pioneer Women Scientists: Katherine Esau” tells the story of a noted botanist, plant anatomist, and electron microscopist who was born in the Russian Ukraine (in 1898), forced to flee the Bolshevik Revolution with her family—her father a mayor of Ekaterinoslav under the Czar—to Germany, where she received a bachelor’s degree in agriculture, education she put to good use in America. Beginning in a sugarbeet field in Salinas, California, she progressed through the doctoral degree at the University of California at Davis (UC Davis) and there began her exceptional research on plant anatomy and plant viral diseases. Her textbookPlant Anatomy became known among college students as “Aunt Kitty’s Bible,” and all of her textbooks have gone into second, and some to third, editions. Transferring to the University of California at Santa Barbara (with its new Chancellor, V. I. Cheadle) only two years before retirement, she blossomed anew, producing some of her best work there and obtaining National Science Foundation support for a new electron microscope and other research funds through her 89th year. Katherine Esau started accruing awards and honors at a relatively early age (Faculty Research Lecturer at age 50, election to the National Academy of Sciences at 59) and has never stopped (the President’s Medal of Science at age 91, a UC Santa Barbara building named for her at age 93). It has been her good fortune to live to enjoy these honors. The short autobiography of her father, a truly enterprising engineer, is included here, as are the recollections of Celeste Turner Wright. Celeste, who arrived at UC Davis the same year as Katherine Esau, became an acclaimed poet, and chaired the English Department for many years. She has added a lively reminiscence of the days she and Katherine spent at UC Davis. The introduction to the book by one of Esau’s former graduate students, Ray Franklin Evert, himself a renowned plant pathologist, provides a heartfelt tribute to his greatly admired professor.     

Quantification Methodology of “Health Human Resources” Related to “Health Technologies” Based on Indicators “RhSan”, “TechSan” and “RhTech”: Application to Senegal

ObjectivesAfter a century of spectacular advances, healthcare systems are facing unprecedented crisis, linked to shortage of health human resources and health technologies. In fact, availability of care depends on both technological and human resources of health. The objective of this study is to develop indicators that can measure qualitatively human resources and technologies of health in healthcare facilities, in order to assess availability of care in sub-Saharan African countries.Materials and MethodsRegarding “health technology” related to “medical devices”, an indicator called “TechSan” for “Technologies de Santé” was previously developed and published (Ndione FB et al. (2019) [6]). To address the deficiencies in usual indicators related to health human resources, a second indicator called “RhSan” for “Ressources humaines de santé” in French is proposed. This indicator assigns a weight to each health worker taking into account his specific “level of medical knowledge” and “experience”. In order to correlate “RhSan” with “TechSan”, a third indicator called “RhTech” is also developed to assess matches between “health technologies” and “health human resources” and establish realistic availability of care. These indicators have the advantage to be consolidated by specialty such as laboratory, imaging, surgery, and “mother and child care”.ResultsThe application of TechSan, RhSan and RhTech to data collected in Senegal in 2016, enabled to assess the distribution of “health technology” and “health human resources” in this country. They also permit the mapping of care availability per specialty in Senegal. The results show a strong oversupply of Dakar in terms of both human resources and technologies of health compared to other Senegalese regions. Oppositely, Sedhiou, Kaffrine, Matam and Kédougou are poorly endowed showing limits of the Senegalese health pyramid system.ConclusionTechSan, RhSan and RhTech can provide reliable decision-making tools in order to elaborate health policies in sub-Saharan African countries on more rigorous basis.     

Women's mating strategies

What does a woman want? The traditional evolutionist's answer to Freud's famous query is that a woman's extensive investment in each of her children implies that she can maximize her fitness by restricting her sexual activity to one, or at most, a few high-quality males. Because acquiring resources for her offspring is of paramount importance, a woman will try to attract wealthy, high-status men who are willing and able to help her. She must be coy and choosy, limiting her attentions to men who are worthy of her and emphasizing her chastity so as not to threaten the paternity confidence of her mate. The lady has been getting more complicated of late, however. As Sarah Hrdy¹ predicted, we now have evidence that women, like other female primates, are also competitive, randy creatures. Women have been seen competing with their rivals using both physical aggression^2,3 and more subtle derogation of competitors.⁴ While they are still sometimes coy and chaste, women have also been described recently as sexy and sometimes promiscuous creatures, manipulating fatherhood by the timing of orgasm^5,6 and using their sexuality to garner resources from men. The real answer to Freud's query, of course, is that a woman wants it all; a man with the resources and inclination to invest, and with genes that make him attractive to other women so that her sons will inherit his success. Her strategies for attaining these somewhat conflicting aims, and her success in doing so, are shaped by her own resources and options and by conflicts of interest with men and other women.     

The Fort Lookout Trading Post Sites - A Reexamination

Abstract

A criticism is made of the identification of site 39LM57, the “Ft. Lookout II of the French Fur Trading Co.” in a recent publication of the River Basin Surveys Papers, Bureau of American Ethnology Bulletin, No. 176. Events in the history of the upper Missouri fur trade, 1822 to 1852, are examined to show that this site was not the location of a post operated by the “French Fur Trading Co. “between 1831 and 1840, or the “La Barge Post” of 1840-1851. The evidence is presented to substantiate the view that there was no “French Company” trading in the Fort Lookout area during the time indicated. Also it is stated that during the 1840’s, the post referred to as “Fort Lookout” was actually the Yankton trading house located on the east side of the Missouri, across the river from the traditional Fort Lookout area.     

The rhetoric of Islamophobia: an analysis of the means of persuasion in Hege Storhaug’s writings on Islam and Muslims

Few actors have had a greater impact on the “framing of Muslims” as a social and political “problem” in Norway since 2001 than Hege Storhaug of the government- and corporate billionaire funded civil society organization Human Rights Service (HRS). Using the methodological tools of the “rhetorical branch” of Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA), and applying the Aristotelian concepts of ethos, logos and pathos, we analyze the bestselling popular title on Islam and Muslims ever published in Norway, namely Storhaug’s self-published 2015 title “Islam – The Eleventh Plague”. We argue that Storhaug’s popular success must be understood in light of her rhetorical appeals to femonationalism, the critique of religion and “Enlightenment” values. We show how she in her writings incites fear of the Muslim “Other” through specific rhetorical devices and a positioning of herself as a defender of the “nation” and the “people” – against national and international “elites”.     

“Film!”—The Arab Revolutions and the Filmmaker as Amanuensis

In her recent memoir of the Egyptian revolution Ahdaf Soueif records how one day a woman came up to her on Tahrir Square and started instructing her on how to write down the “national epic” unfolding around them. Taking Soueif’s text as an allegory of the relationship between the individual and the people, I explore how an analogous process is enacted in one particular video shot in Cairo on January 25, 2011. Taken together, these two “texts” suggest the emergence of a distinctively revolutionary aesthetic, which is also a politics of obedience.     

A series of patients with purging type anorexia nervosa who do “tube vomiting”

Background

It is important for clinicians to assess their patients’ purging behavior. Various methods of purging, such as self-induced vomiting are well-known. Because patients do not always report their purging behavior, knowing the clinical signs that indicate the behavior is useful. However, we have experienced patients who did not have the reported physical signs of self-induced vomiting because they used hoses instead of their fingers to purge their stomach contents, which they call “tube vomiting”. No other previous studies have reported the use of hoses as a purging tool.

Case presentation

We present as our main case a 20-year-old Japanese woman with anorexia nervosa who engaged in “tube vomiting.” Although she recovered well under medical treatment in our hospital, she began to lose weight and blood potassium soon after discharge. We found that she used a garden hose instead of her fingers to perform self-induced vomiting,. She inserted the hose into her stomach and evacuated the stomach contents through it, without pain. She learned this technique through a blog about eating disorders. We also present two other similar cases. In fact, many patients discuss “tube vomiting” on the internet.

Conclusion

Our experience suggests that a sudden decrease in the weight and blood potassium level could indicate “tube vomiting”. In addition, because many information resources are available on the internet, medical practitioners should be aware of these sites.

     

How to make stone soup: Is the “Paleo diet” a missed opportunity for anthropologists?

For the past few years, people everywhere have been “going Paleo.” Websites and social media touting the benefits of eating a “Paleo diet” and following a “Paleolithic life style” serve as calls to arms for health‐conscious individuals seeking information about the latest health and fitness trends. Many of these people participate in programs such as Crossfit, which involve major social and life‐style modification components and therefore facilitate the dissemination of dietary fads.¹ The PALEOf(x)^TM conference, which bills itself as “the world's premier holistic wellness event,” has attracted sellout crowds of thousands of attendees for the last four years.² Consumers can wear Paleo clothing, download Paleo shopping and exercise apps to their smartphones, order prepackaged Paleo food, prepare it using Paleo cooking implements, or expediently buy Paleo convenience foods from Paleodiet? vending machines³ and “Cultured Caveman” food trucks.⁴ The Paleo diet is touted by movie stars, reality TV personalities, and professional athletes, including LeBron James and the entire Miami Dolphins NFL team.^5,6 Books with titles such as The Primal Blueprint,⁷ Cavewomen Don't Get Fat,⁸ and Paleo Perfected⁹ (the latter by the stodgy America's Test Kitchen) are legion, and many are bestsellers.     

Gene Flow Happens

Debate over what is a species was already considered old hat when Darwin wrote his seminal abstract (as he called it) more than 150 years ago.¹ Endless papers, workshops, and symposia have been presented in an effort to "solve" the species problem. Yet, here we are, at it again. Has there been any progress? I believe that there has been, and that among the many advances enabled by the genomics revolution, progress on species concepts and species recognition is among them. To quote Feder and colleagues,² we are on the brink of a “unified theory of speciation genomics.”     

Teilhard de Chardin,human evolution and “Piltdown Man”

Pierre Teilhard de Chardin was a French Jesuit paleontologist, priest, and philosopher. In the figures published in articles in 1943 and 1951, he attempted to draw a “plausible schematic reconstruction of the natural connections between fossil men” and a “phyletic composition of the human group”. I draw attention to Teilhard's reference to Eoanthropus (“Piltdown Man”) in small print in his figure that was first printed in 1943. Most suspiciously, there is no reference to this (supposedly important) genus in the associated text, nor is there any reference whatsoever to “Piltdown Man” in the article published in 1951. Even as early as January 1913, Teilhard may have been aware that “Piltdown Man” was a hoax or joke, artificially associating a human cranium with a modified orangutan mandible. A new suspect is Edgar Willett (rather than Charles Dawson). Teilhard may have been an advisory accomplice in a joke that went seriously wrong.     

An interview with Henri Cartier‐Bresson

Henri Cartier‐Bresson (born Paris, 1908) is arguably the best‐known photographer of the Twentieth Century. He, along with Robert Capa and David Seymour, pioneered the medium of photo‐reportage using the 35mm camera. Cartier‐Bresson's theory of photography requires that the photographer be as inconspicuous as possible in order to capture the subject more‐or‐less unawares in a series of “decisive moments”. His idea that the camera is an “extension of the eye”, used to evoke a certain “truth”, is reminiscent of the Soviet filmmaker Dziga Vertov's theory of kinoki, the cine‐eye. In 1947 Cartier‐Bresson helped found the famed Magnum agency in Paris, with a view to freeing creative photographers from the exploitation of agents. Although he rarely grants an interview, recently Cartier‐Bresson gave the following interview to the French journalist Michel Guerrin.¹     

H.J. Muller's contributions to mutation research

H. J. Muller is best known for his Nobel Prize work on the induction of mutations by ionizing radiation. Geneticists are less familiar with his contributions to mutation and how he related the process of mutagenesis to the gene and distinguished gene mutations from other genetic and epigenetic events such as polyploidy, chromosome rearrangements, and position effects. The hallmark of Muller's contributions is his design of genetic stocks to solve genetic problems and allow experimentation to reveal new phenomena. In this review I relate Muller's personality to his teaching and research and present a history of Muller's ideas on mutation from his first days in Morgan's fly lab to his final thoughts on what became called “Muller's ratchet”, a term he did not get to enjoy because it was coined seven years after his death.     

In memoriam: Napoleon A. Chagnon

Anthropologist Napoleon A. Chagnon was a central figure in the development and foundation of evolutionary approaches to human behavior. We highlight his ethnographic fieldwork, contributions to studies of kinship and marriage, and his foundational role in the development of evolutionary approaches to human behavior. As a holistic anthropologist Chagnon led anthropology toward the integration of cultural and evolutionary theory. Finally, his leadership was central in the foundation of the Human Behavior and Evolution Society.EpigraphRicardo, a Brazilian Protestant missionary who was assisting the scientific team and who has worked with the Yanomami for over 25 years … told me to run and get my camera. “There's going to be a fight,” he said. Then he turned to leave. “Aren't you going to stay?” I asked. “Nah, happens all the time. You stay, you're an anthropologist, should be interesting. Call me if anyone gets hurt.”