The Legal Regulation of Floats and Gliders—In Quest of a New Regime?

This article analyzes the legal status of unmanned instruments (particularly, floats and gliders) for observation purposes in the ocean environment. These new kinds of instruments are being deployed by the thousands into the oceans, not the least as part of the Argo Project of the International Oceanographic Commission. Their uncontrolled drifting has raised legal questions, especially when such instruments enter waters subject to the jurisdiction of foreign states. The authors argue that the current international legal framework is insufficient to address the pertinent issues, and that a new legal regime is needed.     

Isolation of microsatellite loci in the Capricorn silvereye,Zosterops lateralis chlorocephalus (Aves: Zosteropidae)

The Capricorn silvereye (Zosterops lateralis chlorocephalus) is ideally suited to investigating the genetic basis of body size evolution. We have isolated and characterized a set of microsatellite markers for this species. Seven out of 11 loci were polymorphic. The number of alleles detected ranged from two to five and observed heterozygosities between 0.12 and 0.67. One locus, ZL49, was found to be sex‐linked. This moderate level of diversity is consistent with that expected in an isolated, island population.     

Losing the last feather: feather loss as an antipredator adaptation in birds

Birds often lose feathers during predation attempts, and thisability has evolved as a means of escape. Because predatorsare more likely to grab feathers on the rump and the back thanon the ventral side of an escaping bird, we predicted that theformer feathers would have evolved to be relatively looselyattached as an antipredator strategy in species that frequentlydie from predation. We estimated the force required to removefeathers from the rump, back, and breast by pulling featherswith a spring balance from a range of European bird speciesin an attempt to investigate ecological factors associated withease of feather loss during predation attempts. The force requiredto loosen a feather from the rump was less than that requiredto loosen a feather from back, which in turn was less than thatrequired to loosen a feather from the breast. The relative forceneeded to loosen rump feathers compared with feathers from theback and the breast was smaller for prey species preferred bythe most common predator of small passerine birds, the sparrowhawkAccipiter nisus. Likewise, the relative force was also smallerin species with a high frequency of complete tail loss amongfree-living birds, which we used as an index of the frequencyof failed predation attempts. The relative force required toremove feathers from the rump was smaller in species with ahigh frequency of fear screams, another measure of the relativeimportance of predation as a cause of death. Feather loss requiredparticularly little force among solitarily breeding bird speciesthat suffer the highest degree of predation. Antipredator defensein terms of force required to remove feathers from the rumpwas larger in species with a strong antiparasite defense interms of T-cell–mediated immune response. These findingsare consistent with the hypothesis that different defenses areantagonistic and that they are traded off against each other.     

Trace elements in rock salt and their bioavailability estimated from solubility in acid

In this study, 18 partly commercially available samples of rock salt from Austria, Germany, Pakistan, Poland, Switzerland, and Ukraine were investigated with respect to their content of trace elements using instrumental neutron activation analysis. Elements detected were Al, Ba, Br, Ca, Ce, Cl, Co, Cr, Cs, Eu, Fe, Hf, La, Mn, Na, Rb, Sb, Sc, Sm, Sr, Ta, Tb, Th, and Zn, some of them only in individual cases. An estimation of the bioavailability of these trace elements was performed by dissolving an equivalent of the sodium chloride samples in diluted hydrochloric acid (simulating stomach acid), filtering off the insoluble components, and analyzing the evaporated filtrate. It could be shown that in most cases bioactive trace elements like Fe can be found in rock salt in the form of almost insoluble compounds and are therefore not significantly bioavailable, whereas thorium, for example, was partly bioavailable in two cases. A significant contribution to the recommended daily intake of metal trace elements by using rock salt for nutrition can be excluded.     

Effect of change in particle number on pulmonary clearance of aerosolized 99mTc-DTPA

Pulmonary clearance (PCl) of inhaled aerosolized 99mTc-diethylenetriamine pentaacetic acid (DTPA) across the alveolocapillary membrane is diffusion limited. Therefore, if the mixing of the 99mTc-DTPA in the aqueous hypophase underlying surfactant is slow or incomplete or if there were no hypophase, an increase in the alveolar surface area occupied by 99mTc-DTPA particles would increase the absorption rate. The aim of this study was to examine whether there is an effect on PCl of changing the number of inhaled particles. The change in particle number was accomplished by a setup of four parallel jet nebulizers feeding a central delivery chamber of 400 cm3. We performed two kinds of experiments in eight healthy nonsmokers between 28 and 52 yr of age. In the first experiment, 99mTc-DTPA in saline was nebulized in one nebulizer, while saline was nebulized in the other three. In the second experiment the number of inhaled particles containing 99mTc-DTPA was increased by a factor of four by nebulizing 99mTc-DTPA in saline in all four nebulizers simultaneously. Increasing the number of inhaled 99mTc-DTPA particles caused an increase in PCl of 24.2% (P less than 0.01). We conclude that there is a slight but significant effect of changing the number of DTPA particles on PCl and that this is probably due to an uneven mixing of the 99mTc-DTPA in the aqueous hypophase underlying the surfactant lining and the alveoli.     

Termination of pregnancy in cases of fetal death in utero by intravenous prostaglandin F2alpha.

Delivery was induced by an intravenous infusion of prostaglandin F2alpha (PGF2alpha) in gradually increasing doses in 30 consecutive cases of fetal death in utero after the 28th week of gestation. Twenty patients delivered during the first day of prostaglandin administration, 9 on the second day, and 1 patient not until the third day of infusion. It is concluded, that intravenous PGF2alpha appears to be superior to oxytocin in termination of pregnancy under these conditions.     

Generation of Mouse Small Intestinal Epithelial Cell Lines That Allow the Analysis of Specific Innate Immune Functions

Cell lines derived from the small intestine that reflect authentic properties of the originating intestinal epithelium are of high value for studies on mucosal immunology and host microbial homeostasis. A novel immortalization procedure was applied to generate continuously proliferating cell lines from murine E19 embryonic small intestinal tissue. The obtained cell lines form a tight and polarized epithelial cell layer, display characteristic tight junction, microvilli and surface protein expression and generate increasing transepithelial electrical resistance during in vitro culture. Significant up-regulation of Cxcl2 and Cxcl5 chemokine expression upon exposure to defined microbial innate immune stimuli and endogenous cytokines is observed. Cell lines were also generated from a transgenic interferon reporter (Mx2-Luciferase) mouse, allowing reporter technology-based quantification of the cellular response to type I and III interferon. Thus, the newly created cell lines mimic properties of the natural epithelium and can be used for diverse studies including testing of the absorption of drug candidates. The reproducibility of the method to create such cell lines from wild type and transgenic mice provides a new tool to study molecular and cellular processes of the epithelial barrier.