Does the VP1 gene of foot-and-mouth disease virus behave as a molecular clock?

Summary We have carried out a phylogenetic study of the evolution of the VP1 gene sequence from different serological types and subtypes of foot-and-mouth disease virus (FMDV). The maximum-likelihood method developed by Hasegawa and co-workers (Hasegawa et al. 1985) for the estimation of evolutionary parameters and branching dates has been used to decide between alternative models of evolution: constant versus variable rates. The results obtained indicate that a constant rate model, i.e., a molecular clock, seems to be the most plausible one. However, additional information suggests the possibility that the appearance of serotype CS has been accompanied by an episode of rapid evolution (Villaverde et al. 1991). We discuss the possibility that this evolution of RNA viruses was due to episodic positive Darwinian selection, which would have helped the new variant to escape the immunogenic pressure from the hosts. Offprint requests to: A. Moya     

Contingent valuation and biodiversity: measuring the user surplus of Kenyan protected areas

The financial returns to Kenyan tourism demonstrate the importance of the country's tourist potential to its economic development. Protected areas and their inhabitants are the principal focus of the tourist industry, the nations's main foreign exchange earner, and a source of wonder and value for a global population of non-users. It might be expected that such assets would be accorded some degree of security with sufficient funding to safeguard current and potential economic benefits. Yet park use is haphazard, and there is frequently little coincidence between those that benefit and those that pay for the continued existence of such areas. Growing economic and demographic pressures which threaten to swamp protected areas only emphasize the implicit subsidy currently paid by Kenyans to support conservation for the benefit of the world at large. In this climate the case for conservation depends on the measurement and capture of economic benefits. Using a contingent valuation survey of expressed preference this study estimates the consumer surplus attached to current non-consumptive use of protected areas by foreign visitors at some $450 million per annum. This sum alone is more than double the best available estimate of opportunity cost and appears to justify current resource use. The estimate is additional to current financial returns from tourism and makes no allowance for other direct and indirect benefits and potential returns from consumptive uses. Measured consumer surplus contains some margin of willingness to pay that could be captured through the current fee structure. Moreover, park fees represent the most accessible market mechanism to finance revenue sharing and additional park investment before potential recourse to emerging global market institutions.     

Comparison of heart rate monitoring combined with indirect calorimetry and the doubly labelled water (2H218O) method for the measurement of energy expenditure in children

The aim of the present study was to compare data on 24-h energy expenditure (EE24h) in nine boys and ten girls (mean age 9.3 and 8.1 years, respectively) by heart rates (fc) combined with energy expenditure obtained from a 1-day stay in an indirect calorimeter (EEcal) and a 2-week period of normal living using the doubly labelled water method (EEdlw). Individual calibration curves were derived from fc and oxygen uptake measured during sleep (in the calorimeter), standing and walking on a treadmill. An estimation of energy expenditure based on 24-h fc monitoring (EEfc) was made during the stay in the calorimeter and on a normal school-day. Mean results showed an overestimation in EEfc compared to EEcal and EEdlw of 10.4% and 12.3% respectively, varying from 6.3% to 16.2%. These results confirmed earlier observations in adults that for a group the fc method overestimates EE24h by about 10%.     

Application of the most probable number method to estimations of entomopathogenic nematode populations in soil

The calculation of most probable numbers (mpn) was used for the estimation of numbers of infective entomopathogenic nematodes in soil. The mpn concept was first introduced in bacteriology as a means of estimating numbers of organisms in a substrate without a direct count, in cases where direct enumeration could not be applied. In the work reported here, soil samples infested with infective juveniles (IJs) of Heterorhabditis megidis (isolate HF85) were diluted with uninfested soil and the diluted soils were baited with mealworm larvae (Tenebrio molitor). The mpn of infective units of IJs in the undiluted soil was calculated. The mpn calculation was found to be applicable to entomopathogenic nematodes in soil under particular conditions. It could be successfully applied to data for the response of soil units but not to the data based on the response of individual insects, as the latter did not confirm to a Poisson series. The calculated mpn represented between 2.9 and 7.1% of the initial inoculum of IJs. It was suggested that IJs might act as a group in infecting an insect host. Using the data for Tenebrio mortality on parasitisation, the mpn based on quantal response of the mealworms would therefore not give the true density of IJs in the soil sample but the effective density, or the quantity of infective units. Although the biological significance of the infective unit needs further clarification, mpn was found to be a useful parameter for use in comparative experiments.     

The Relativistic Quantum Defect Orbital Method and some of its Applications

Justification of a simple and reliable relativistic procedure for the prediction of a large body of transition probability data is made. The main features of the Relativistic Quantum Defect Orbital (RQDO) formalism are described, and several examples of the data yielded by this method are presented in tabular and graph forms.     

Quantification of Endospore Concentrations of Pasteuria penetrans in Tomato Root Material

Six methods for quantification of the endospore concentrations of Pasteuria penetrans from tomato roots are described. Mortar disruption and machine disruption methods gave the highest estimations (endospores per gram of root material) of 83.7 and 79.0 million, respectively. These methods were significantly superior to incubation bioassay (47.7 million), enzymatic disruption (32.1 million), and enzymatic disruption + flotation (25.8 million) methods. A centrifugation bioassay method gave the lowest estimation of 12.7 million.