Three Approaches to the Study of Language and Gender

Gender across Languages: The Linguistic Representation of Women and Men. Vol. 2. Marlis Hellinger and Hadumod Bußmann eds. Amsterdam: John Benjamins, 2002. 348 pp.
Gender Identity and Discourse Analysis. Lia Litosseliti and Jane Sunderland eds. Amsterdam: John Benjamins, 2002. 335 pp.
Talking Gender and Sexuality. Paul McIlvenny. ed. Amsterdam: John Benjamins, 2002. 327 pp.     

Alcohol dehydrogenase thermostability variants in Drosophila melanogaster: Comparison of activity ratios and enzyme levels

Representatives of five allozymic classes of Drosophila alcohol dehydrogenase have been compared with respect to their activity levels on two alcohol substrates, quantities of ADH protein, and stability in crude extracts. Within each allozymic class, strains from widely diverse geographic locations differ in their enzyme activity levels but are identical for a measure known as "activity ratio," which is obtained by dividing the average activity reading on isopropanol by that obtained with ethanol. They are also similar in the rate at which ADH activity declines in crude extracts held at 25 degrees C. For several of the fast-resistant and fast-moderate strains, differences in ADH activity are associated with differences in the amount of enzyme present. The catalytic efficiencies of the fast-resistant forms are considerably lower than those of the fast-moderate allozymes. The origin and persistence of the rare but ubiquitous fast-resistant allozyme is discussed.     

Switch and Bait: Probing the Discriminative Basis of Odor Identification via Recognition Memory

When people misidentify everyday odors, as they often do, theirerrors may conceivably lie in faulty perceptions or in faultyaccess to the names. Discussions of the matter usually focuson the latter, as if people had no problems with perceptualaccuracy. (The problem of faulty access may get attention becauseits high subjective impact makes it particularly memorable,when it does occur.) However, studies have demonstrated breakdownsin ability to discriminate quality, from which it follows thatpeople will misidentify items through perceptual confusions.Furthermore, misidentifications often contain considerable informationabout the identities of items, as if people simply did not perceivethe items accurately, but perhaps fuzzily or with some perceptualbias. Recognition memory, with a 2-day interval between inspectionand test, provided a vehicle to address two questions on thistopic: (i) Would people notice that we had switched items andhad presented for recognition items that matched their misidentificationsrather than the original items inspected? (ii) Would peoplenot only fall for the false bait, but actually identify theswitched items correctly, and thereby imply that they were ‘tuned’to perceive those odors? People commonly failed to notice theswitches, i.e. took the bait and commonly identified the switcheditems with veridical names. Although subject to further study,the outcome suggests that when people give such names as garlicfor vinegar, orange for lime, soy sauce for molasses and manyothers, the errors often lie largely at a perceptual stage ofprocessing, i.e. at input rather than output. Chem. Senses 21:35–44, 1996.     

Inhibition of phosphate transport in human erythrocytes by water-soluble carbodiimides

Phosphate entry into human erythrocytes is irreversibly inhibited by treatment of the cells with the water-soluble carbodiimides 1-ethy1-3-(3-dimethylaminopropyl)carbodiimide hydrochloride (EDC) and 1-cyclohexyl-3-(2-morpholinoethyl)-carbodiimide metho-p-toluene sulfonate (CMC) in the absence of added nucleophile. EDC is the more potent inhibitor (40% inhibition, 2 mM EDC, 5 min, 37°C, 50% hematocrit, pH 6.9), while more than 20 mM CMC is required to give the same inhibition under identical conditions. EDC inhibition is temperature-dependent, being complete in 5 min at 37°C, and sensitive to extracellular pH. At pH 6.9 only 50% of transport is rapidly inhibited by EDC, but at alkaline pH over 80% of transport is inhibited. Inhibition is not prevented by modification of membrane sulfhydryl groups but is decreased in the presence of 4,4′-dinitrostilbene-2,2′-disulfonic acid (DNDS), a reversible competitive inhibitor of anion transport. EDC treatment leads to crosslinking of erythrocyte membrane proteins, but differences between the time course of this action and inhibition of transport indicate that most transport inhibition is not due to crosslinking of membrane proteins.     

Enucleation eliminates a differentiation-specific surface marker from normal and leukemic murine erythroid cells

Mammalian erythropoiesis includes a step in which the nucleus is extruded through the cell membrane. We have investigated the relationship between concanavalinA (conA) plasma membrane receptors, which are known to leave the incipient reticulocyte during enucleation, and regions of the plasma membrane which bind merocyanine 540, a differentiation-specific marker of hematopoietic cells. The distribution of these two fluorescent probes was examined on living cells from the spleens of neonatal mice and on erythroleukemia cells induced to enucleate in culture. In both cases, the region of the membrane extruded with the nucleus preferentially binds conA and merocyanine 540, whereas the plasma membrane which is left behind retains the capacity to bind another lectin, wheat germ agglutinin (WGA). The implications of these findings are discussed with respect to the mechanism by which markers are eliminated from the erythrocyte cell surface.     

The use of inorganic substances to stimulate gut evacuation in Daphnia magna

Observations were done on the effect of inorganic substances on the gut evacuation process in Daphnia magna. Procedures which accelerate this process are described.     

Correlations between epidermal cell structure and endogenous hormone titers during the fifth larval instar of the tobacco hornworm, Manduca sexta

Epidermal cell morphology and cuticle production in Manduca sexta are directly influenced by both ecdysterone and juvenile hormone. Up to day 6 of the last larval instar, post-molt endocuticle is continuously deposited even though cells undergo a partial and temporary separation from the overlying cuticle at the time when a small ecdysteroid peak is detected (approximately day 3.5). At about days 6--7 when another, larger ecdysteroid peak is present, apolysis occurs accompanied by the appearance of edcysial droplets. Following apolysis, layers of pupal cuticle are deposited. Increased quantities of rough endoplasmic reticulum characterize the epidermis at times of peak endocuticle deposition (day 3, larval cuticle; day 9, pupal cuticle). Dense pigment inclusions are found in epidermis from the day of ecdysis to the last larval instar until they are eliminated 5 days later. These dense bodies migrate from cell apex to base in the absence of juvenile hormone (or in the presence of a negligible amount of juvenile hormone) and probably contain insecticyanin.     

Vascular smooth muscle mitochondria: Magnesium content and transport

Endogenous magnesium content and magnesium transport of isolated bovine vascular smooth muscle mitochondria were studied. Mitochondria isolated from atherosclerotic bovine arteries contained two to three times as much magnesium (178 nmol/mg of mitochondrial protein) as those isolated from normal arteries (67 nmol/mg of mitochondrial protein). Electron-opaque granules were visible in the unstained unfixed mitochondria and could be shown with electron probe analysis to consist of magnesium, calcium, and phosphorus. At concentrations of external Mg²⁺ from 0 to 6 mm, the vascular smooth muscle mitochondria exhibited respiratory substrate-supported release of Mg²⁺ as studied with metallochromic indicator, eriochrome blue, using dual-wavelength spectrophotometry. The maximal velocity of energized release (3 nmol of Mg²⁺/s/mg of mitochondrial protein) was observed at 4 mm external Mg²⁺ and the half-maximal transport occurred at 0.5 mm.