Prioritizing multiple-use landscapes for conservation: methods for large multi-species planning problems

Across large parts of the world, wildlife has to coexist with human activity in highly modified and fragmented landscapes. Combining concepts from population viability analysis and spatial reserve design, this study develops efficient quantitative methods for identifying conservation core areas at large, even national or continental scales. The proposed methods emphasize long-term population persistence, are applicable to both fragmented and natural landscape structures, and produce a hierarchical zonation of regional conservation priority. The methods are applied to both observational data for threatened butterflies at the scale of Britain and modelled probability of occurrence surfaces for indicator species in part of Australia. In both cases, priority landscapes important for conservation management are identified.     

Community context and the influence of non-indigenous species on juvenile salmon survival in a Columbia River reservoir

Non-indigenous species (NIS) have been called biological pollutants, which implies that reducing their numbers should reduce negative impacts. To test this hypothesis, we used food web models, parameterized with data from field studies, to ask how reducing the number of NIS co-occurring with endangered salmon would affect salmon mortality. Our analyses indicate that predation on Upper Columbia River spring chinook salmon Oncorhynchus tshawytscha and steelhead O. mykiss juveniles was affected very little by NIS reduction. The effects of removing NIS were partly or totally offset by indirect food web interactions, and were subtle compared to effects of native predator management. We predict that the most effective way of reducing predation on salmon smolts will involve managing native predators and targeted removals of specific NIS. Minimizing impact of established NIS thus entails not only reducing NIS prevalence, but also considering background management practices and community context.     

Attitudes to biotechnology: estimating the opinions of a better-informed public

Public familiarity with basic scientific concepts and principles has been proposed as essential for effective democratic decision-making (Miller, 1998). Empirical research, however, finds that public 'scientific literacy' is generally low, falling well short of what normative criteria would consider 'acceptable.' This has prompted calls to better engage, educate and inform the public on scientific matters, with the additional, usually implicit assumption that a knowledgeable citizenry should express more supportive and favourable attitudes toward science. Research investigating the notion that 'to know science is to love it' has provided only weak empirical support and has itself been criticised for representing science and technology as a unified and homogenous entity. In practice, it is argued, how knowledge impacts on the favourability of attitudes will depend on a multiplicity of actors, not the least of which is the particular area of science in question and the technologies to which it gives rise (Evans & Durant, 1992). This article uses a new method for examining the knowledge-attitude nexus on a prominent area of 21st century science--biotechnology. The idea that greater scientific knowledge can engender change in the favourability of attitudes toward specific areas of science is investigated using data from the 2000 British Social Attitudes Survey and the 1999 Wellcome Consultative Panel on Gene Therapy. Together the surveys measure public opinion on particular applications of genetic technologies, including gene therapy and the use of genetic data, as well as more general attitudes towards genetic research. We focus our analysis on how two different measures of knowledge impact on these attitudes; one a more general measure of scientific knowledge, the other relating specifically to knowledge of modern genetic science. We investigate what impact these knowledge domains have on attitudes toward biotechnology using a regression-based modelling technique (Bartels, 1996; Althaus, 1998; Sturgis, 2003). Controlling for a range of socio-demographic characteristics, we provide estimates of what collective and individual opinion would look like if everyone were as knowledgeable as the currently best-informed members of the general public on the knowledge domains in question. Our findings demonstrate that scientific knowledge does appear to have an important role in determining individual and group attitudes to genetic science. However, we find no support for a simple 'deficit model' of public understanding, as the nature of the relationship itself depends on the application of biotechnology in question and the social location of the individual.     

CGMIM: Automated text-mining of Online Mendelian Inheritance in Man (OMIM) to identify genetically-associated cancers and candidate genes

Background  

Online Mendelian Inheritance in Man (OMIM) is a computerized database of information about genes and heritable traits in human populations, based on information reported in the scientific literature. Our objective was to establish an automated text-mining system for OMIM that will identify genetically-related cancers and cancer-related genes. We developed the computer program CGMIM to search for entries in OMIM that are related to one or more cancer types. We performed manual searches of OMIM to verify the program results.     

Recent Hits Acquired by BLAST (ReHAB): A tool to identify new hits in sequence similarity searches

Background  

Sequence similarity searching is a powerful tool to help develop hypotheses in the quest to assign functional, structural and evolutionary information to DNA and protein sequences. As sequence databases continue to grow exponentially, it becomes increasingly important to repeat searches at frequent intervals, and similarity searches retrieve larger and larger sets of results. New and potentially significant results may be buried in a long list of previously obtained sequence hits from past searches.     

Does pulsatile urea excretion serve as a social signal in the gulf toadfish Opsanus beta?

This study evaluated the hypothesis that the pulsatile excretion of urea by toadfish could serve as a social signal. In the first experiment, physiological parameters were measured in pairs of dominant and subordinate toadfish. Subordinate toadfish had elevated concentrations of circulating plasma cortisol, an effect maintained even after cannulation. In the second experiment, one fish of a pair was injected with 14C-urea, and the occurrence of urea pulses during social encounters was documented. Social status did not influence the order of pulsing, that is, whether a dominant or subordinate fish pulsed first during a social encounter. However, in seven out of eight pairs, both toadfish pulsed within 2 h of each other, indicating some form of communication between fish. In the third and final experiment, the response of toadfish to urea (natural or synthetic) was observed. There was a tendency for toadfish to avoid synthetic urea but there was no apparent behavioural response to water containing toadfish urea. Pulsing events do not appear to play an integral role during social encounters as previously hypothesised, but the close timing of pulses in toadfish pairs suggests some transfer of information.     

Humic substances influence sodium metabolism in the freshwater crustacean Daphnia magna

Humic substances are ubiquitous components of natural waters with important roles in alleviating metal toxicity to aquatic organisms. Recent literature reports suggest that humic substances may also exert direct influences on biota. This study investigated the influence of two commercially available humic substances on sodium metabolism in Daphnia magna, a hyperregulating freshwater crustacean. Environmentally realistic levels of Suwannee River natural organic matter (SRN) and Aldrich humic acid (AHA) significantly enhanced sodium transport. This effect was described as an uncompetitive stimulation of sodium influx, as characterised by an increased maximal sodium transport rate (Jmax), accompanied by a decreased uptake affinity (increased Km). SRN exposure also significantly promoted the unidirectional loss of sodium from the daphnids to the water, an effect not observed in the presence of AHA. A 24-h preexposure to AHA before influx measurement had no effect on AHA-induced stimulation of sodium influx. Conversely, 24-h preexposure to SRN resulted in influx values that returned to control (humic-free) levels. Whole-body sodium levels reduced by SRN exposure were also restored to control levels following 24-h SRN preexposure. The significance and potential mechanisms of these actions are discussed, and the toxicological implications of these findings are assessed.     

A Cre gene directed by a human TSPY promoter is specific for germ cells and neurons

The testis-specific protein Y-encoded (TSPY) gene is a candidate for the gonadoblastoma locus on the Y chromosome and is expressed in normal testicular germ cells and gonadoblastoma cells of XY sex-reversed females. Although TSPY expression has been demonstrated in gonadoblastoma tissues, it is uncertain if such expression is involved in a causative or consequential event of the oncogenic process. We postulate that if TSPY is involved in gonadoblastoma development, its promoter should be functional in the female gonad before and/or at early stages of tumorigenesis. To test this hypothesis, we generated several lines of transgenic mice harboring a Cre-recombinase transgene directed by a 2.4-kb hTSPY promoter. These mice were crossed with the Z/EG reporter line that expresses EGFP only after a Cre-mediated recombination. Our results showed that hTSPY-Cre;Z/EG double transgenic mice expressed EGFP specifically in the germ cells of both male and female gonads. Further, neurons of the central and peripheral nervous systems also expressed EGFP as early as E12.5 embryonic stage. EGFP was particularly observed in the trigeminal nerve, trigeminal ganglion, dorsal root of the ganglia, and in postnatal and adult brains. These observations support the hypothesis that TSPY plays an active role in gonadoblastoma. The tissue-specific expression of the hTSPY-Cre transgene should also be useful in studies utilizing Cre-mediated gene activation/inactivation strategies in gamatogenesis and/or neurogenesis.