The Altyerre Story—‘Suffering Badly by Translation’

In culture‐contact situations, it is commonplace for words to be borrowed from other unrelated vernaculars, for their pronunciations to be changed, and their meanings modified to fit new contexts. The Arandic word altyerre is a rather extreme example of this, and at the end of the nineteenth century, the ‘translation’ of the related word Alcheringa as ‘dream‐times’ sparked a debate that, in some forms, continues to this day. In this article, I discuss some of the reasons why this particular word struck such a controversial chord. I give an updated semantic perspective on the word altyerre , drawing on evidence from Arandic languages and from other languages in Central Australia. Then I examine some of the consequences of both religious and secular interpretations of altyerre and show how the popularisation of this word and its translations has impacted on its meanings in current usage.     

Synthetic heat at mild temperatures

"Synthetic heat", also known as the heat grill illusion, occurs when contact with spatially adjacent warm and cold stimuli produce a sensation of "heat". This phenomenon has been explained as a painful perception that occurs when warm stimulation inhibits cold-sensitive neurons in the spinothalamic tract (STT), which in turn unmasks activity in the pain pathway caused by stimulation of C-polymodal nociceptors (CPNs). The "unmasking model" was tested in experiment 1 by combining warm (35-40°C) and cool ( &#83 27°C) stimuli that were too mild to stimulate CPNs. After discovering that these temperatures produced nonpainful heat, experiment 2 was designed to determine whether heat could be induced when near-threshold cooling was paired with mild warmth, and whether lowering the base temperature for cooling would increase the noxious (burning, stinging) components of heat for fixed cooling steps of 1-3°C. Cooling by just 1°C from a base temperature of 33°C led to reports of heat on more than 1/3 of trials, and cooling by just 3°C evoked heat on 75% of trials. Lowering the base temperature to 31 or 29°C increased reports of heat and burning but did not produce significant reports of pain. Perception of nonpainful heat at such mild temperatures indicates either that cold-sensitive nociceptors with thresholds very similar to cold fibers innervate hairy skin in humans, or that heat can result from integration of warm fiber and cold fiber activity, perhaps via convergence on nonspecific (e.g., WDR) neurons in the STT.     

Use of tritiated 3-O-methyl-d-glucose for studies of membrane transport caveat

Tritiated 3-O-methyl-d-glucose has many useful attributes as a model substance for studies of the transport of glucose across cell membranes. However, preparations of high specific radioactivity can decompose within a few months, producing radioactive impurities that can cause a several-fold increase in the apparent rate of sugar transport. In our investigation radioactive contaminants entered frog skeletal muscle cells by free diffusion rather than by facilitated transport. Much of the contaminating radioactive material could be removed by evaporating the solvent and redissolving the sugar. Tritiated sugar samples that had a specific activity below 0.1 Ci/mmol remained stable and suitable for transport measurements after several years of storage at -20°C. In order to evaluate the suitability of a given tritiated preparation of sugar for transport measurements, it is recommended that its behavior be compared with that of a stable reference standard of low specific activity.     

Demographic mechanism of a historical bird population collapse reconstructed using museum specimens

Long-term studies of demographic rates provide clues about the external causes of animal population declines, but systematic monitoring is rarely in place until after the decline has occurred. This study evaluates alternative hypotheses about the demographic mechanisms underlying the historical collapse of corncrake (Crexcrex) populations in Britain and Ireland in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries using characteristics of museum specimens. The proportion of adult corncrakes that are 1-year old was estimated from feather characteristics of birds collected before, during and after the population decline and showed a marked transitory reduction during the decline. This pattern would be expected if the decline was caused by a large reduction in the recruitment of young birds to the breeding population and is the opposite of what would be expected if a change in adult survival had caused the decline. These results are consistent with previous suggestions that the corncrake population decline was caused by adverse effects on breeding productivity caused by the mechanization of the harvesting of hay crops.     

Effects of seed ingestion and herbivory by waterfowl on seedling establishment: a field experiment with wigeongrass Ruppia maritima in Doñana,south-west Spain

The ingestion of seeds by vertebrates usually affects the viability and/or germination rate of seeds. Increases in germination rate following passage through the vertebrate gut have often been assumed to be favourable for seedling survival and plant fitness, but this assumption has never been tested experimentally. Given that numbers of herbivorous waterfowl are higher in winter in Mediterranean wetlands, herbivory pressure there will be higher for early growing plants. In a factorial experiment we investigated the effects of seed ingestion by ducks (shoveler, Anas clypeata) on the survival of wigeongrass Ruppia maritima seedlings in the field in Doñana (south-west Spain), under differing exposures to herbivory by waterfowl and fish. We planted ingested and non-ingested seeds in December, using exclosures to protect half of them from herbivores. When they were protected inside exclosures, there was no difference between ingested and non-ingested seeds in the number of plants that survived until June-July. However, fewer plants survived from ingested seeds when exposed to natural levels of herbivory because they were exposed for longer than plants germinating from non-ingested seeds. In conclusion, increases in germination rate after ingestion are not necessarily beneficial for the plant, and the final outcome depends on complex interactions with other factors such as herbivore abundance.     

Retinoic acid receptor signalling directly regulates osteoblast and adipocyte differentiation from mesenchymal progenitor cells

Low and high serum retinol levels are associated with increased fracture risk and poor bone health. We recently showed retinoic acid receptors (RARs) are negative regulators of osteoclastogenesis. Here we show RARs are also negative regulators of osteoblast and adipocyte differentiation. The pan-RAR agonist, all-trans retinoic acid (ATRA), directly inhibited differentiation and mineralisation of early osteoprogenitors and impaired the differentiation of more mature osteoblast populations. In contrast, the pan-RAR antagonist, IRX4310, accelerated differentiation of early osteoprogenitors. These effects predominantly occurred via RARγ and were further enhanced by an RARα agonist or antagonist, respectively. RAR agonists similarly impaired adipogenesis in osteogenic cultures. RAR agonist treatment resulted in significant upregulation of the Wnt antagonist, Sfrp4. This accompanied reduced nuclear and cytosolic β-catenin protein and reduced expression of the Wnt target gene Axin2, suggesting impaired Wnt/β-catenin signalling. To determine the effect of RAR inhibition in post-natal mice, IRX4310 was administered to male mice for 10 days and bones were assessed by µCT. No change to trabecular bone volume was observed, however, radial bone growth was impaired. These studies show RARs directly influence osteoblast and adipocyte formation from mesenchymal cells, and inhibition of RAR signalling in vivo impairs radial bone growth in post-natal mice.