Bioethics of public commenting: Manipulation,data risk,and public participation in E-Rulemaking

Little scholarly attention has been given to the ethics of public commenting as part of the online federal rule-making process. This essay argues the process of public commenting on federal regulations in the digital era threatens both the integrity of those regulations and the integrity of the individuals they are meant to protect. The ongoing risk is anonymous public commenting is open to manipulation. This risk is particularly salient for eRulemaking with implications for human subjects as was shown in the completed revision process to the Common Rule. Guarding against physical and informational harms requires at least some verification of the identities of public commenters. The burdens of verification access are outweighed by the benefits to authentic participation in e-Rulemaking.     

Common carp in the Upper Mississippi River

Since its escapement into the Upper Mississippi River (UMR) and rapid expansion in the late 1900's, the common carp, Cyprinus carpio, has become a major component of the river fishery. Mean annual harvest value for this species was $270000 between 1953 and 1977. Recent evidence suggests that common carp may not be as abundant in the river as they have been in the past. We summarized historical commerical information on common carp in the UMR to put its current harvest levels in perspective. A major factor responsible for recent low annual harvests has been PCB contamination of the river in the Lake Pepin area. Market and biological factors probably have also contributed to declining harvests. To help explain why common carp populations in the UMR may be declining, we reviewed literature pertaining to the ecology of the species, particularly that from the river, its tributaries, or midwestern lakes. We included information on how common carp are controlled by environmental factors, and how they interact with other biota. Most aspects of carp ecology in the UMR and other areas are similar. Exceptions relate primarily to their response to annual water level regimes of the river. We postulate that population declines and absent year classes in the UMR may be related to poor recruitment during high- or variable-water years.     

Modelling Annual Numbers of Bird Territories on Farmland Plots

The Common Birds Census of the British Trust for Ornithology provides extensive data from which it is possible to attempt to explain some aspects of the population dynamics of common bird species. Such data are examined here. A consistent, striking feature of the data is noted when a second order model is fitted to estimated numbers of territory-holding birds in successive years. Alternative approaches to explaining the observed nature of the data are presented, including the development of simple birth-death-maturation (-immigration) models.     

Dédoublement revisited: towards a renewed interpretation of the androecium of the Magnoliophytina

RONSE DECRAENE, L. P. & SMETS, E F., 1993. Dedoublement revisited: towards a renewed interpretation of the androecium of the Magnoliophytina. There has been much controversy about dedoublement in the past. Dedoublement was originally described as a process of doubling of a (stamen) primordium up to two equivalent primordia. Later, it was extended to explain occurrences of higher stamen numbers, even without evidence of a division. Different interpretations from both opponents and protagonists of dedoublement are critically examined and concepts such as negative, positive, serial, lateral and congenital dedoublement are discussed. Some case studies are presented to evaluate the concept of dedoublement. Paired stamens are not necessarily the result of splitting; they can also arise by a spatial shift, connected with the cyclization of a spiral flower. Two smaller stamen primordia replacing a stamen without visible splitting and a primordium dividing ontogenetically into a stamen pair are essentially similar. The morphological difference between both configurations can be explained by the principle of variable proportions. Radial dedoublement and stamen-petal complexes are examples of meristem fusion (absorption) and may be defined by the term 'negative dedoublement' in the sense of Celakovsky (1894). A distinction between 'dedoublement' sensu stricto and 'polygenesis' is proposed.     

Longin and GAF Domains: Structural Evolution and Adaptation to the Subcellular Trafficking Machinery

Endomembrane trafficking is one of the most prominent cytological features of eukaryotes. Given their widespread distribution and specialization, coiled‐coil domains, coatomer domains, small GTPases and Longin domains are considered primordial ‘building blocks’ of the membrane trafficking machineries. Longin domains are conserved across eukaryotes and were likely to be present in the Last Eukaryotic Common Ancestor. The Longin fold is based on the α‐β‐α sandwich architecture and a unique topology, possibly accounting for the special adaptation to the eukaryotic trafficking machinery. The ancient P er A RNT S im (PAS) and cG MP‐specific phosphodiesterases, A denylyl cyclases and F hlA (GAF) family domains show a similar architecture, and the identification of prokaryotic counterparts of GAF domains involved in trafficking provides an additional connection for the endomembrane system back into the pre‐eukaryotic world. Proteome‐wide, comparative bioinformatic analyses of the domains reveal three binding regions (A, B and C) mediating either specific or conserved protein–protein interactions. While the A region mediates intra‐ and inter‐molecular interactions, the B region is involved in binding small GTPases, thus providing an evolutionary connection among major building blocks in the endomembrane system. Finally, we propose that the peculiar interaction surface of the C region of the Longin domain allowed it to extensively integrate into the endomembrane trafficking machinery in the earliest stages of building the eukaryotic cell.     

Nest-site selection by Common Black-Hawks in southwestern New Mexico

ABSTRACT.   Despite the interest of resource managers and conservationists in the status of Common Black-Hawk ( Buteogallus anthracinus ) populations in the southwestern United States, little is known about their nesting success and habitat requirements. Because such information is essential for effective population and habitat management, I examined the nesting success and nest-site selection of Common Black-Hawks in southwestern New Mexico during 2000 and 2001. Of the 37 nesting attempts in 21 territories, ≥1 young fledged from 25 nests (68%). Comparison of nest-sites and nonused sites suggested that breeding Common Black-Hawks selected nest-sites in areas with a sparser and shorter subcanopy tree layer and in trees with a smaller trunk diameter and a greater minimum crown diameter. These differences appear to be related to variation in forest ages within territories, with nonused sites having fewer, but older, canopy trees than nest-sites. Sites with younger, smaller subcanopy trees may provide forest structure for more effective foraging, whereas the characteristics of younger nest tree canopies may reduce the risk of nest predation or offer more protection from inclement weather. Due to the limited range of this species in the southwestern United States, efforts to encourage the establishment and maturation of riparian forests in Common Black-Hawk breeding areas could be important in sustaining available nesting habitat and, in turn, maintaining or expanding current population levels.     

Cloning and expression of carp acetylcholinesterase gene in Pichia pastoris and characterization of the recombinant enzyme

The gene encoding acetylcholinesterase (AChE) was cloned from common carp muscle tissue. The full-length cDNA was 2368 bp that contains a coding region of 1902 bp, corresponding to a protein of 634 amino acids. The deduced amino acid sequence showed a significant homology with those of ichthyic AChEs and several common features among them, including T peptide encoded by exon T in the C-terminus. Three yeast expression vectors were constructed and introduced into the yeast Pichia pastoris. The transformant harboring carp AChE gene lacking exon T most effectively produced AChE activity extracellularly. The replacement of the native signal sequence with the yeast α-factor prepro signal sequence rather decreased the production. A decrease in cultivation temperature from 30 to 15 °C increased the activity production 32.8-fold. The purified recombinant AChE lacking T peptide, eluted as a single peak with a molecular mass of about 230 kDa on the gel filtration chromatography, exhibited the specific activity of 4970 U/mg. On the SDS–PAGE, three proteins with molecular masses of 73, 54, and 22 kDa were observed. These proteins were N-glycosylated, and their N-terminal sequence showed that the latter two were produced from the former probably by proteolytic cleavage at the C-terminal region. Thus, the recombinant AChE is homotrimer of three identical subunits with 73 kDa. The optimal temperature and pH of the recombinant were comparable to those of the native enzyme purified previously, but the values of kinetic parameters and the sensitivities to substrate inhibition and inhibitors were considerably different between them.     

Incorporating habitat use in models of fauna fatalities on roads

Aim  To highlight the benefit of using habitat use to improve the accuracy of predictive road fatality models.
Location  The Snowy Mountains Highway in southern New South Wales, Australia.
Methods  A binary logistic regression model was constructed using wombat fatality presences and randomly generated absences. Species-specific habitat variables were included as predictors in the model selection process as well as two spatially explicit measures of wombat habitat use. Generalized additive models (GAMs) were constructed for each possible combination of predictors in R. The final model was selected by comparing all models subsets for the eight predictors and employing the one standard error rule to select the best model set.
Results  The final predictive model had high discriminatory power and incorporated both measures of species habitat use, greatly exceeding the variation explained by a previously published model for the same species and road.
Main Conclusions  Our findings highlight the importance of incorporating variables that describe habitat use by fauna for predictive modelling of animal-vehicle crashes. Reliance upon models that ignore landscape patterns are limited in their capacity to identify hotspots and inform managers of locations to engage in mitigation.     

Iron bioavailability of common beans (Phaseolus vulgaris L.) intrinsically labeled with 59Fe

A radiobioassay was performed in rats with or without iron depletion to evaluate the iron bioavailability of diets enriched with common beans and with “multimixture”, a nutritional supplement based on parts of foods that are not usually eaten. The full-body ⁵⁹Fe level was determined after 5 h, the absorbed ⁵⁹Fe level was determined after 48 h, and the amount of ⁵⁹Fe retained was determined after 7 days. Iron bioavailability was assessed by the full-body radioactivity of the animals, determined using a solid scintillation detector. The iron bioavailability of common beans was higher in the iron-depleted animals (55.7%) than in the non-depleted animals (25.12%) because of the higher absorption rate in the iron-depleted animals. The multimixture did not influence dietary iron bioavailability. In addition, the iron bioavailability of common beans was similar to that observed in the standard source of iron for Wistar rats. Hence, common beans may be considered an adequate dietary iron source because of its high bioavailability.