Syrian hamster female protein: analysis of female protein primary structure and gene expression

The concentration in plasma of the female protein (FP) of the golden Syrian hamster is regulated by sex steroids and by mediators of the acute-phase response to tissue injury or inflammation. A complementary DNA (cDNA) clone corresponding to FP was isolated from a hamster liver cDNA library and used to determine the nucleotide sequence and derived amino acid sequence of native FP. The primary sequence of FP is 69 percent identical to human serum amyloid P component and 50 percent identical to human C-reactive protein. Evidence showed that sex-limited and acute-phase control of the FP gene is pretranslational. The FP protein is thus a useful model for investigating dual regulation of expression of a single gene.     

Particle Track, X-ray, Thermal, and Mass Spectrometric Studies of Lunar Material

Particle tracks in Apollo 11 samples are dominantly of cosmic ray and solar origin: primary galactic and solar flare particles, likely spallation recoil tracks, and possible solar-wind heavy particles. The energy spectrum of irongroup nuclei is inferred from track density gradients in surface layers, and a limit of < 10(-7) centimeter per year is deduced for the surface erosion rate. From cosmic ray tracks in rock and core samples it is clear that the lunar soil is stirred often during each few million years. X-rays reveal augite, anorthite, olivine, ilmenite, troilite, nonmeteoritic iron, and assorted glasses, but no major structural damage. Hydrogen, helium, and other gases in the fines are compatible with expected solar wind ratios.     

Polyteny: A Source of Cryptic Speciation among Copepods

A large form of the copepod Pseudocalanus is found in two warm, semi-landlocked fiords in arctic Canada, together with a similar but smaller form attributable to the widespread P. minutus. The large form has the same chromosomne number as P. minutus, but has larger chromosomes and a higher nuclear DNA content. There are suggestions in the literature that other similar polytenic and cryptic species occur among copepods.     

Population nucleation, intensive agriculture, and environmental degradation: The Cahokia example

Cahokia, the largest pre-European settlement in North America, was situated on the Middle Mississippi River floodplain and flourished for approximately three hundred years from the 10th century AD onward. The site was favorably located from an environmental standpoint, being proximal to a diversity of microhabitats including expanses of open water and marshes from which the essential, renewable fish protein could be procured. More importantly, the largest local zone of soils characterized as optimal for prehistoric hoe cultivation lay immediately to the east. Here, on the floodplain and along its bordering alluvial fans, the large maize outfields were situated, while the multi-crop house gardens were placed within the habitation zone on soils that had often been culturally enriched by prior occupation. As successful as this strategy might have been for small, dispersed populations in such a plentiful environment, nucleation of large numbers of people at Cahokia provided a different adaptive context that ultimately led to ruinous consequences. The seeds for the city's destruction centered anthropogenically produced environmental degradation. Demands on wood resources for fuel and construction were enormous and agricultural field clearance was in forested rather than prairie settings. The resultant watershed deforestation produced greatly increased rates of erosion, runoff, and unseasonable downstream flooding during the summer growing season. The economic and social consequences of declining production and localized crop failures proved disastrous for this city of farmers.     

Magnetar-like emission from the young pulsar in Kes 75

We report the detection of magnetar-like x-ray bursts from the young pulsar PSR J1846-0258, at the center of the supernova remnant Kes 75. This pulsar, long thought to be exclusively rotation-powered, has an inferred surface dipolar magnetic field of 4.9 x 10(13) gauss, which is higher than those of the vast majority of rotation-powered pulsars, but lower than those of the approximately 12 previously identified magnetars. The bursts were accompanied by a sudden flux increase and an unprecedented change in timing behavior. These phenomena lower the magnetic and rotational thresholds associated with magnetar-like behavior and suggest that in neutron stars there exists a continuum of magnetic activity that increases with inferred magnetic field strength.