The 12 Item Social and Economic Conservatism Scale (SECS)

Recent years have seen a surge in psychological research on the relationship between political ideology (particularly conservatism) and cognition, affect, behaviour, and even biology. Despite this flurry of investigation, however, there is as yet no accepted, validated, and widely used multi-item scale of conservatism that is concise, that is modern in its conceptualisation, and that includes both social and economic conservatism subscales. In this paper the 12-Item Social and Economic Conservatism Scale (SECS) is proposed and validated to help fill this gap. The SECS is suggested to be an important and useful tool for researchers working in political psychology.     

Modulation of Synaptic Vesicle Exocytosis in Muscle-Dependent Long-Term Depression at the Amphibian Neuromuscular Junction

We have labeled recycling synaptic vesicles at the somatic Bufo marinus neuromuscular junction with the styryl dye FM2-10 and provide direct evidence for refractoriness of exocytosis associated with a muscle activity-dependent form of long-term depression (LTD) at this synapse. FM2-10 dye unloading experiments demonstrated that the rate of vesicle exocytosis from the release ready pool (RRP) of vesicles was more than halved in the LTD (induced by 20 min of low frequency stimulation). Recovery from LTD, observed as a partial recovery of nerve-evoked muscle twitch amplitude, was accompanied by partial recovery of the refractoriness of RRP exocytosis. Unexpectedly, paired pulse plasticity, another routinely used indicator of presynaptic forms of synaptic plasticity, was unchanged in the LTD. We conclude that the LTD induces refractoriness of the neuromuscular vesicle release machinery downstream of presynaptic calcium entry.     

Seasonal geochemistry of an arctic tundra drainage basin

The snow melt food at Imnavait Creek takes place sometime between 12 May and 2 June and constitutes the single most important hydrological and geochemical event. Three years of study indicate this event spans 7 to 10 days and that peak discharge can be expected to be between 0.6 and 0.9 cu. mes. Ion concentrations peak during the first 15% of the event while pH is at a minimum. In all cases, ion concentrations in the spring runoff are 4 to 9 times those of the snow pack, Precipitaion, including dryfall, contributes significant amounts of Ca, Mg, K, Na, Cl and SO₄. Postassium is present in surface waters only during melt-off and for a short time after. Calcium. Mg. suspended solids and electrical conductivity all reach broad, poorly defined peaks in mid-summer. Only pH shows a significant relationship to discharge. On a seasonal basis a substantial charge imbalance favoring cations occurs. It seems probable that the, as yet, unmeasured negative charge is associated with organic anions. No seasonal trends were recorded for Mg, K or Mn in subsurface flow in the surrounding slopes. Calcium. Fe and Al showed a late season peak, and the concentration of Na and Si decreased as the melt season progressed.     

FURTHER CHEMICAL STUDIES ON BLOOD-AQUEOUS HUMOR DYNAMICS

The proportion of SCN, Br, PO₄, urea, levulose, and Fe which remains freely diffusible when added to plasma has been determined by ultrafiltration and "differential" dialysis through a cellophane membrane. After injecting each of these substances as well as Mg and Li into rabbits a continuous record of their concentration in the plasma was obtained for each animal and the concentration in the aqueous humor was also determined and related to the maximum diffusible concentration in the plasma.     

Evidence that the tightly bound magnesium in tubulin is associated with the N-site GTP

In an attempt to determine whether the tightly bound Mg2+ found in purified tubulin in associated with the N-site GTP or the E-site GDP or GTP, we removed the E-site nucleotide by several means: (i) alkaline phosphatase treatment; (ii) displacement using excess GMPPCP; and (iii) polymerizing tubulin in the presence of alkaline phosphatase and non-hydrolyzable analogues. The Mg2+ content remained equal to about 1 mol/mol tubulin under conditions where denaturation did not occur. Moreover, the Mg/GTP ratio always remained equal to 1. These results indicate that the Mg2+ is associated with the N-site GTP.     

A novel ubiquitin-specific protease is dynamically associated with the PML nuclear domain and binds to a herpesvirus regulatory protein.

Herpes simplex virus type 1 immediate-early protein Vmw110 is a non-specific activator of gene expression and is required for efficient initiation of the viral lytic cycle. Since Vmw110-deficient viruses reactivate inefficiently in mouse latency models it has been suggested that Vmw110 plays a role in the balance between the latent and lytic states of the virus. The mechanisms by which Vmw110 achieves these functions are poorly understood. Vmw110 migrates to discrete nuclear structures (ND10) which contain the cellular PML protein, and in consequence PML and other constituent proteins are dispersed. In addition, Vmw110 binds to a cellular protein of approximately 135 kDa, and its interactions with the 135 kDa protein and ND10 contribute to its ability to stimulate gene expression and viral lytic growth. In this report we identify the 135 kDa protein as a novel member of the ubiquitin-specific protease family. The protease is distributed in the nucleus in a micropunctate pattern with a limited number of larger discrete foci, some of which co-localize with PML in ND10. At early times of virus infection, the presence of Vmw110 increases the proportion of ND10 which contain the ubiquitin-specific protease. These results identify a novel, transitory component of ND10 and implicate a previously uncharacterized ubiquitin-dependent pathway in the control of viral gene expression.     

Structuring features of lake districts: landscape controls on lake chemical responses to drought

1. Within a lake district of relatively homogeneous geomorphology, the responses of lakes to climate are influenced by the complexity of the hydrogeologic setting, position in the landscape, and lake‐specific biological and physical features. We examined lake chemical responses to drought in surface water‐ and groundwater‐dominated districts to address two general questions. (1) Are spatial patterns in chemical dynamics among lakes uniform and synchronous within a lake district, suggesting broad geomorphic controls; variable in a spatially explicit pattern, with synchrony related to landscape position, suggesting hydrologic flowpath controls; or spatially unstructured and asynchronous, suggesting overriding control by lake‐specific factors? (2) Are lake responses to drought a simple function of precipitation quantity or are they dictated by more complex interactions among climate, unique lake features, and hydrologic setting? 2. Annual open‐water means for epilimnetic concentrations of chloride, calcium, sulfate, ANC, DOC, total nitrogen, silica, total phosphorus, and chlorophyll a measured between 1982 and 1995 were assembled for lakes in the Red Lake and ELA districts of north‐western Ontario, the Muskoka – Dorset district in south‐central Ontario, and the Northern Highland district of Wisconsin. Within each district, we compared responses of lakes classified by landscape position into highland or lowland, depending on relative location within the local to regional hydrologic flow system. Synchrony, defined as a measure of the similarity in inter‐annual dynamics among lakes within a district, was quantified as the Pearson product‐moment correlation (r) between two lakes with observations paired by year. To determine if solute concentrations were directly related to interannual variations in precipitation quantity, we used regression analysis to fit district‐wide slopes describing the relationship between each chemical variable and annual (June to May) and October to May (Oct–May) precipitation. 3. Among lakes in each of the three Ontario districts, the pattern of chemical response to interannual shifts in precipitation was spatially uniform. In these surface water‐ dominated districts, solute concentrations were generally a simple function of precipitation. Conservative solutes, like calcium and chloride, tended to be more synchronous and were negatively related to precipitation. Solutes such as silica, total phosphorus, and chlorophyll a, which are influenced by in‐lake processes, were less synchronous and relationships with precipitation tended to be positive or absent. 4. In the groundwater‐dominated Northern Highland lakes of Wisconsin, we observed spatial structure in drought response, with lowland lakes more synchronous than highland lakes. However, there was no evidence for a direct relationship between any solute and precipitation. Instead, increases in the concentration of the conservative ion calcium during drought were not followed by a symmetrical return to pre‐drought conditions when precipitation returned to normal or above‐average values. 5. For calcium, time lags in recovery from drought appeared related to hydrologic features in a complex way. In the highland Crystal Lake, calcium concentrations tracked lake stage inversely, with a return to pre‐drought concentrations and lake stage five years after the drought. This pattern suggests strong evaporative controls. In contrast, after five years of normal precipitation, calcium in the lowland Sparkling Lake had not returned to pre‐drought conditions despite a rebound in lake stage. This result suggests that calcium concentrations in lowland lakes were controlled more by regional groundwater flowpaths, which track climatic signals more slowly. 6. Temporal dynamics driven by climate were most similar among lakes in districts that have a relatively simple hydrology, such as ELA. Where hydrologic setting was more complex, as in the groundwater‐dominated Northern Highland of Wisconsin, the expression of climate signals in lakes showed lags and spatial patterns related to landscape position. In general, we expect that landscape and lake‐specific factors become increasingly important in lake districts with more heterogeneous hydrogeology, topography or land use. These strong chemical responses to climate need to be considered when interpreting the responses of lakes to other regional disturbances.     

Vertebrate paleoecology: A current perspective

Vertebrate paleoecology, a study with a long history, has thrived during the last four decades and has become the focal point of intensive investigation since about 1965. It has followed a somewhat different course from studies of marine invertebrate paleoecology questions about the utility, validity and relationships of paleoecology to ecology continue to be raised and discussed.Paleoecology draws on and contributes to essentially all areas of paleontology. Several subdisciplines in which there has been particularly intensive investigation are singled out for discussion. Taphonomy lies at the base of all paleoecological studies for, along with systematic analysis, it provides the basic data upon which all reconstructions of the living biota are made from the fossil deposits to which they contributed. Very active in development of taphonomy have been the students of Paleoecology of the Hominidae. This area of study has passed from a dominance of speculation in the first decades of this century to objective analysis based upon the application of biological principles, extended and detailed field work, and current evolutionary concepts to the evolution of the family Hominidae.Extinctions have recently received extensive analyses, with emphasis on mass extinctions such as that at the Cretaceous-Tertiary boundary. The analyses have extended the uses of taphonomic research into the difficult areas of time intervals generally not available in the fossil record. Physiological-Ecological and Behavioral studies are casting new light upon the problems of interpretation of extinct animals which lack close living counterparts. Community Structure has been of special interest among terrestrial vertebrates since the early 1950's. It's study has required reinterpretations of samples and sampling procedures and development of models to aid in analysis of the biases in fossil assemblages. Both community types and substantive communities have received careful attention, including pragmatic definitions, studies of the use of analogies and introspection on possible contributions to ecology as whole. Such researches have been elaborated into studies of the relationships communities through time under the general heading of Community Evolution. Problems of evolution in a slowly changing community and in the evolution of new community types have been central themes in this area.     

The relationship between flash evoked potentials and evoked amplitude modulation patterns of an applied UHF electromagnetic field in the rat

Pilot studies demonstrate evidence that the electrophysiological processes associated with flash stimulation of the central nervous system (CNS) of rats, as seen in the recordings of visual-evoked potentials, may also be detectable using an ultrahigh frequency electromagnetic field (UHFEMF). Patterns of amplitude modulation of an applied UHFEMF, when recorded and averaged, show strong correlations with simultaneously recorded evoked potentials. The data support the hypothesis that the UHFEMF amplitude is altered in a dynamic fashion by the tissue's electrophysiological processes that are involved with the generation of CNS electric fields.