Linkage of early-onset familial breast cancer to chromosome 17q21

Human breast cancer is usually caused by genetic alterations of somatic cells of the breast, but occasionally, susceptibility to the disease is inherited. Mapping the genes responsible for inherited breast cancer may also allow the identification of early lesions that are critical for the development of breast cancer in the general population. Chromosome 17q21 appears to be the locale of a gene for inherited susceptibility to breast cancer in families with early-onset disease. Genetic analysis yields a lod score (logarithm of the likelihood ratio for linkage) of 5.98 for linkage of breast cancer susceptibility to D17S74 in early-onset families and negative lod scores in families with late-onset disease. Likelihood ratios in favor of linkage heterogeneity among families ranged between 2000:1 and greater than 10(6):1 on the basis of multipoint analysis of four loci in the region.     

New routes to early memories

Stimulation of one side of the olfactory system during training with odor-milk pairings in neonatal rats results in their ability to recall an odor memory by using the trained but not the untrained side of the brain. In 12-day-old rats, olfactory learning can be recalled by stimulation of either the trained or untrained side. The development of bilateral recall reflects the maturation of olfactory commissural pathways that provide access to the olfactory memory stored on the contralateral side. Furthermore, the commissural pathways need not be present at the time of memory formation but can establish new and specific access to already existing olfactory memories.     

Cytokinins in the soluble RNA of plant tissues

The cytokinin, N(6)-(Delta(2)-isopentenyl) adenosine occurs in the soluble RNA of yeast and mammalian tissue and has now been detected in plant soluble RNA. A hydroxylated derivative of this cytokinin 6-(cis-4-hydroxy-3-methylbut-2-enylamino)-9-,beta-D-ribofuranosylpurine has also been identified as a constituent of plant soluble RNA.     

Association between potassium concentration and serological type of sheep red blood cells

When red blood cells from 115 sheep were classified for the presence or absence of antigenic factor M and for high (as opposed to low) potassium concentration levels, the cells of the 22 M-negative sheep were low in potassium.     

The illusion of control: industrialized agriculture,nature, and food safety

I explore the role of nature in the agrifood system and how attempts to fit food production into a large-scale manufacturing model has lead to widespread outbreaks of food borne illness. I illustrate how industrial processing of leafy greens is related to the outbreak of E. coli 0157:H7 associated with spinach in the fall of 2006. I also use this example to show how industry attempts to create the illusion of control while failing to address weaknesses in current processing systems. The leafy greens industry has focused efforts on sterilizing the growing environment and adopting new technologies, while neglecting to change the concentrated structure of processing systems. Repeated breakdowns in these systems illustrate a widening fault line between attempted and failed control of nature in industrial food production.

Improved remote sensing detection of wheat powdery mildew using dual-green vegetation indices

In this study, we investigated the possibility of using ground-based remote sensing technology to estimate powdery mildew disease severity in winter wheat. Using artificially inoculated fields, potted plants, and disease nursery tests, we measured the powdery mildew canopy spectra of varieties of wheat at different levels of incidence and growth stages to investigate the disease severity. The results showed that the powdery mildew sensitive bands were between 580 and 710 nm. The best two-band vegetation index that correlated with wheat powdery mildew between 400 and 1000 nm wavelength were the normalized spectrum 570–590 and 536–566 nm bands for the ratio index, and 568–592 and 528–570 nm for the normalized difference index. The coefficients of determination (R ²) for both were almost the same. The optimum dual-green vegetation index was constructed based on a calculation of the ratio and normalized difference between the normalized spectrum within the two green bands. The coefficients of determination (R ²) of DGSR (584, 550) (dual-green simple ratio) and DGND (584, 550) (dual-green normalized difference) were both 0.845. The inverse models of disease severity performed well in the test process at the canopy scale, and indicated that, compared with the traditional vegetation indices of Lwidth, mND705, ND (SDr, SDb), SIPI, and GNDVI, the novel dual-green indices greatly improved the remote sensing detection of wheat powdery mildew disease. Following these results, combined disease severity and canopy spectra were shown to be of enormous value when applied to the accurate monitoring, prevention, and control of crop diseases.     

Conserving copalillo: The creation of sustainable Oaxacan wood carvings

Most accounts of the effect of the global marketplace on deforestation in Africa, Asia, and Latin America emphasize the demand for timber used in industrial processes and the conversion of tropical forests to pastures for beef cattle. In recent years, numerous scholars and policymakers have suggested that developing a market for non-timber forest products (NTFPs) might slow the pace of habitat destruction. Although increased demand for NTFPs rarely results in massive deforestation, the depletion of the raw materials needed to make particular products is common. Many rural households in the Mexican state of Oaxaca have prospered over the past three decades through the sale of brightly-painted, whimsical wood carvings (alebrijes) to international tourists and the owners of ethnic arts shops in the United States, Canada, and Europe. This paper examines a promising project aimed at providing Oaxacan alebrije-makers with a reliable, legal, and sustainable supply of wood. The ecologists, artisans, merchants, and forest owners involved in the project face formidable obstacles. Gaining permission to harvest wood from land belonging to Oaxacan communities requires the negotiation of a complex social, legal, economic, and political landscape. Artisans’ decisions about where to obtain wood rest largely on price, quality, and reliability of the supplier; they are willing to pay a premium for ecologically sustainable wood only if the additional cost can be passed on to consumers. Nonetheless, a group of carvers has begun to buy sustainably harvested wood. This arrangement has economic advantages for both the alebrije-makers and the owners of the forests where the wood is produced. Michael Chibnik is Professor of Anthropology at the University of Iowa. He has conducted fieldwork in Belize, Peru, Mexico, and in various parts of the United States. His research interests include economic anthropology, artisans, work organization, agricultural decision-making, and political ecology. He is the author of Crafting Tradition: The Making and Marketing of Oaxacan Wood Carvings (University of Texas Press, 2003) and Risky Rivers: The Economics and Politics of Floodplain Farming in Amazonia (University of Arizona Press, 1994), and editor of Farm Work and Fieldwork: American Agriculture in Anthropological Perspective (Cornell University Press, 1987). Dr. Silvia E. Purata is a Mexican ethnoecologist based in Xalapa, Veracruz. She is a member of People and Plants International, an organization that works to integrate conservation and the use of natural resources. Purata has conducted research on the methods indigenous peoples use to extract non-timber forest products (NTFPs) in tropical forests and the fate of such systems in varying socioeconomic circumstances. She has also been working on the promotion of forest certification in the Selva Maya.     

Bans,tests, and alchemy: Food safety regulation and the Uganda fish export industry

Contemporary regulation of food safety incorporates principles of quality management and systemic performance objectives that used to characterize private standards. Conversely, private standards are covering ground that used to be the realm of regulation. The nature of the two is becoming increasingly indistinguishable. The case study of the Ugandan fish export industry highlights how management methods borrowed from private standards can be applied to public regulation to achieve seemingly conflicting objectives. In the late 1990s, the EU imposed repeated bans on fish imported from Uganda on the basis of food safety concerns. However, the EU did not provide scientific proof that the fish were actually “unsafe.” Rather, the poor performance of Uganda’s regulatory and monitoring system was used as justification. Only by fixing “the system” (of regulations and inspections) and performing the ritual of laboratory testing for all consignments for export to the EU did the Ugandan industry regain its status as a “safe” source of fish. Yet, gaps and inconsistencies abound in the current Ugandan fish safety management system. Some operations are by necessity carried out as “rituals of verification.” Given the importance of microbiological tests and laboratories in the compliance system, “alchemic rituals” provide an appropriate metaphor. These rituals are part and parcel of a model that reassures the EU fish-eating public that all is under control in Uganda from boat to point of export. As a consequence, actual non-compliance from boat to landing site allows the fishery to survive as an artisanal operation. Stefano Ponte is Senior Researcher at the Danish Institute for International Studies, Copenhagen. His research focuses on the role of standards, regulation and quality conventions in the governance of agro-food value chains, with particular focus on Africa. He is co-author of Trading Down: Africa, Value Chains and the Global Economy and The Coffee Paradox: Global Markets, Commodity Trade and the Elusive Promise of Development.     

Energy and the u.s. Economy: a biophysical perspective

A series of hypotheses is presented about the relation of national energy use to national economic activity (both time series and cross-sectional) which offer a different perspective from standard economics for the assessment of historical and current economic events. The analysis incorporates nearly 100 years of time series data and 3 years of cross-sectional data on 87 sectors of the United States economy. Gross national product, labor productivity, and price levels are all correlated closely with various aspects of energy use, and these correlations are improved when corrections are made for energy quality. A large portion of the apparent increase in U.S. energy efficiency has been due to our ability to expand the relative use of high-quality fuels such as petroleum and electricity, and also to relative shifts in fuel use between sectors of the economy. The concept of energy return on investment is introduced as a major driving force in our economy, and data are provided which show a marked decline in energy return on investment for all our principal fuels in recent decades. Future economic growth will depend largely on the net energy yield of alternative fuel sources, and some standard economic models may need to be modified to account for the biophysical constraints on human economic activity.