In 1912, a Congressional committee met to investigate allegations that the Secretary of Agriculture had suppressed a report by J. O. Wright on drainage in the Florida Everglades. The following seven ...months of committee hearings uncovered a veritable horror-show of corruption, self-dealing, misuse of government personnel and property for private gain, the tarring of reputations in order to protect high-level officials, and outright blackmail within the Department of Agriculture and the state governments of Florida and North Carolina.The "Wright Report Incident" is most commonly understood in its connection to the Everglades, and few histories have included its effects on the North Carolina Pocosin wetland and other coastal plain swamps. This book seeks fills that gap. It details the timeline, intricate politics, and webs of corruption that make up the story of the Wright Incident and, specifically, its connection to land management practices in coastal North Carolina that continue to impact the industries of the state almost 100 years later.
Histopathologic differentiation between deep dermal or subcuticular equine sarcoids (ie, nodular sarcoids) and other spindle cell tumors in the dermis and subcutis such as peripheral nerve sheath ...tumors (PNSTs) can be challenging based on morphologic criteria alone. It has been proposed that polymerase chain reaction (PCR) for bovine papillomavirus (BPV) DNA and S100 immunohistochemistry be used as diagnostic tests to separate equine sarcoids from PNSTs. We reviewed 197 skin-associated spindle cell tumors (ie, soft tissue sarcomas), including PNSTs and sarcoids, received at the University of Florida between 1995 and 2013 and performed BPV PCR and S100 immunohistochemistry on archived paraffin-embedded tissues. We found that BPV DNA was demonstrable in 70% of the sarcoids, 59% of the PNSTs, 37% of the fibrosarcomas, and 22% of other tumors (myxosarcomas, fibromas, and other sarcomas) diagnosed on histomorphologic characteristics. Positive S100 staining was only seen in 12 tumors in the study (5 fibrosarcomas, 3 sarcoids, 2 PNSTs, and 2 other sarcomas). The results demonstrate that BPV is associated with many skin-associated spindle cell soft tissue tumors in horses in addition to sarcoids. S100 was rarely expressed in equine soft tissue sarcomas in the skin but was expressed in many tumor types, including PNSTs and sarcoids. Because 41% of the PNSTs classified by histomorphology in this study were BPV negative and 94% were S100 negative, it is reasonable to classify these as soft tissue sarcomas with nerve sheath tumor histomorphology rather than as either PNSTs or sarcoids.
The negative impacts of biological invasion are economically and ecologically significant and, while incompletely quantified, they are clearly substantial. Ants (family Formicidae) are an important, ...although often overlooked, component of many terrestrial ecosystems. Six species of ants are especially striking in their global ability to invade, and their impacts. This paper focuses on the impacts of the most destructive of those species, the red imported fire ant (Solenopsis invicta), and focuses on impacts on native vertebrates. Red imported fire ants often become the dominant ant species in infested areas outside of their native range due to their aggressive foraging behavior, high reproductive capability and lack of predators and/or other strong competitors. The evidence suggests that mammals, birds and herpetofauna are vulnerable to negative impacts from fire ants, and some species are more likely to experience negative population-level impacts than other species. Assessing the ecological impacts of fire ants on wild animal populations is logistically difficult, and very few studies have combined replicated experimental manipulation with adequate spatial (>10 ha) and temporal (>1 y) scale. Thus, most studies have been observational, opportunistic, small-scale or 'natural' experiments. However, significant research, including an increase in experimental and mechanistic investigations, has occurred during the past decade, and this has led to information that can lead to better management of potentially affected species.
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Dostopno za:
BFBNIB, DOBA, IZUM, KILJ, NMLJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, SIK, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
Bacitracin is a widely used metallopeptide antibiotic produced by Bacillus subtilis and Bacillus licheniformis with a potent bactericidal activity directed primarily against Gram-positive organisms. ...This antibiotic requires a divalent metal ion such as Zn(2+) for its biological activity, and has been reported to bind several other transition metal ions, including Mn(2+), Co(2+), Ni(2+), and Cu(2+). Despite the widespread use of bacitracin since its discovery in the early 1940s, the structure-activity relationship of this drug has not been established and the coordination chemistry of its metal complexes was not fully determined until recently. This antibiotic has been suggested to influence cell functioning through more than one route. Since bacterial resistance against bacitracin is still rare despite several decades of widespread use, this antibiotic can serve as an ideal lead for the design of potent peptidyl antibiotics lacking bacterial resistance. In this review, the results of physical (including NMR, EPR, and EXAFS) and molecular biological studies regarding the synthesis and structure of bacitracin, the coordination chemistry of its metal derivatives, the mechanism of its antibiotic actions, its influence on membrane function, and its structure and function relationship are discussed.
Early postnatal manipulations of oxytocin have long-term behavioral and physiological consequences; the present study examined the hypothesis that oxytocin or its absence influences the subsequent ...expression of either oxytocin or arginine vasopressin in the CNS. On postnatal day 1 female and male prairie voles (
Microtus ochrogaster) received a single i.p. injection of oxytocin (3 μg), oxytocin antagonist (0.3 μg), or 50 μl of isotonic saline or were only handled. On postnatal days 1, 8 and 21, brains were fixed, sectioned and stained for oxytocin or vasopressin immunoreactivity and analyzed as a function of age, treatment and sex. Both oxytocin and vasopressin immunoreactivity were observed on day 1 in the supraoptic and paraventricular nuclei (PVN) of the hypothalamus. Numbers of oxytocin and vasopressin neurons increased with age in both nuclei. Females treated on postnatal day 1 with oxytocin or oxytocin antagonist displayed a significant increase in oxytocin immunoreactivity on day 21 in the PVN. In contrast, males treated with antagonist tended to have decreased vasopressin immunoreactivity in the same region. These results revealed that the effects of neonatal manipulation of oxytocin are age-dependent, site-specific and sexually dimorphic.
The long-lasting effects of neonatal exposure to exogenous oxytocin and oxytocin antagonist indicate a role for oxytocin in the development of the CNS during the neonatal period, affecting the development of the oxytocinergic system in females and the vasopressinergic system in males. The developmental effects observed suggest one possible mechanism by which neonatal exposure to oxytocin or neonatal inhibition of endogenous oxytocin produces long-lasting behavioral and physiological alterations and could play a role in the development of male- and female-typical behavior.
Today, jazz is considered high art, America's national music, and the catalog of its recordings—its discography—is often taken for granted. But behind jazz discography is a fraught and highly ...colorful history of research, fanaticism, and the intense desire to know who played what, where, and when. This history gets its first full-length treatment in Bruce D. Epperson's More Important Than the Music. Following the dedicated few who sought to keep jazz's legacy organized, Epperson tells a fascinating story of archival pursuit in the face of negligence and deception, a tale that saw curses and threats regularly employed, with fisticuffs and lawsuits only slightly rarer. Epperson examines the documentation of recorded jazz from its casual origins as a novelty in the 1920s and '30s, through the overwhelming deluge of 12-inch vinyl records in the middle of the twentieth century, to the use of computers by today's discographers. Though he focuses much of his attention on comprehensive discographies, he also examines the development of a variety of related listings, such as buyer's guides and library catalogs, and he closes with a look toward discography's future. From the little black book to the full- featured online database, More Important Than the Music offers a history not just of jazz discography but of the profoundly human desire to preserve history itself.
Red imported fire ants (Solenopsis invicta) have negative impacts on a broad array of invertebrate species. We investigated the impacts of fire ants on the upland arthropod community on 20∼40 ha ...study sites in southern Mississippi. Study sites were sampled from 1997–2000 before, during, and after fire ant bait treatments to reduce fire ant populations. Fire ant abundance was assessed with bait transects on all sites, and fire ant population indices were estimated on a subset of study sites. Species richness and diversity of other ant species was also assessed from bait transects. Insect biomass and diversity was determined from light trap samples. Following treatments, fire ant abundance and population indices were significantly reduced, and ant species diversity and richness were greater on treated sites. Arthropod biomass, species diversity and species richness estimated from light trap samples were negatively correlated with fire ant abundance, but there were no observable treatment effects. Solenopsis invicta has the potential to negatively impact native arthropod communities resulting in a potential loss of both species and function.
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Dostopno za:
BFBNIB, DOBA, IZUM, KILJ, NMLJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, SIK, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
Cobalt(II) has been utilized as an external paramagnetic 1H NMR probe for the study of the structure of dendrimers that possess specifically located metal recognition sites. The hyperfine-shifted 1H ...NMR signals of the Co(II) complexes of several 2,6-diamidopyridine-containing dendrimers have been fully assigned by means of 1D and 2D NMR techniques, including NOE difference, EXSY, COSY, and TOCSY. Temperature-dependent T 1 values of the hyperfine-shifted signals were used to conclude that the Co(II)−dendrimer complexes are in the “liquidlike” regime, indicative of a shell-like structure instead of a “dense-core” structure. The presence of sizable cavities within the dendrimers was observed including a loosely packed conformation for the 2,6-diamidopyridino moiety to bind to potential guest molecules. Cooperativity among the dendritic arms in metal binding is also observed, whereby two dendritic arms bind to the metal center at the same time. In the case of dendrimers with the metal binding site located near the surface of the molecule, such binding cooperativity is still observed despite the large degree of freedom of the metal-binding moiety. Cooperativity among the dendritic arms can thus be considered an intrinsic property, which has to be taken into consideration in future design of functional dendrimers for the purpose of specific recognition and catalysis. The hydrodynamic radii of these dendrimers have been determined by means of nuclear Overhouser effect at low temperature. The study offers a method for the study of the dynamics of dendrimers in solution under different conditions and upon ligand binding and recognition. The study also provides a tool for monitoring systematic variation of the metal binding site in different dendrimer frameworks for specific applications, such as catalysis and molecular recognition.
The Perdido Key beach mouse (Peromyscus polionotus trissyllepsis) is a critically endangered subspecies of the oldfield mouse. The captive population, currently maintained by 3 Florida zoos, is ...entirely derived from just 3 wild-caught ancestor mice. Necropsy and histopathology revealed chordoma of the vertebral column in 38 of 88 (43%) mice. The tumors were locally expansile and invasive masses of large physaliferous (vacuolated) cells with small, round, hyperchromatic nuclei, similar to the “classic” form of chordomas described in humans. Primary tumors rarely contained small amounts of bone and cartilaginous matrix, characteristic of the “chondroid” form. Neoplastic cells contained abundant granules positive by the periodic acid–Schiff reaction. Brachyury and cytokeratin AE1/AE3 were detected in neoplastic cells by immunohistochemistry, but uncoupling protein 1 was not identified. Primary tumors occurred along the entire vertebral column—cervical, 5 of 38 (13%); thoracic, 16 (42%); lumbar, 13 (34%); and sacral, 10 (26%)—and 10 (26%) mice had multiple primary masses. Metastases to the lungs were noted in 13 of the 38 (34%) mice. Mice diagnosed with chordomas postmortem ranged from 424 to 2170 days old, with a mean of 1399 days. The prevalence of chordoma was not significantly different between males (n = 23 of 50; 46%) and females (n = 15 of 38; 39%).
Background
Recent evidence demonstrates that manually triggered vagus nerve stimulation (VNS) combined with rehabilitation leads to increased recovery of upper limb motor function after stroke. This ...approach is premised on studies demonstrating that the timing of stimulation relative to movements is a key determinant in the effectiveness of this approach.
Objective
The overall goal of the study was to identify an algorithm that could be used to automatically trigger VNS on the best movements during rehabilitative exercises while maintaining a desired interval between stimulations to reduce the burden of manual stimulation triggering.
Methods
To develop the algorithm, we analyzed movement data collected from patients with a history of neurological injury. We applied 3 different algorithms to the signal, analyzed their triggering choices, and then validated the best algorithm by comparing triggering choices to those selected by a therapist delivering VNS therapy.
Results
The dynamic algorithm triggered above the 95th percentile of maximum movement at a rate of 5.09 (interquartile range IQR = 0.74) triggers per minute. The periodic algorithm produces stimulation at set intervals but low movement selectivity (34.05%, IQR = 7.47), while the static threshold algorithm produces long interstimulus intervals (27.16 ± 2.01 seconds) with selectivity of 64.49% (IQR = 25.38). On average, the dynamic algorithm selects movements that are 54 ± 3% larger than therapist-selected movements.
Conclusions
This study shows that a dynamic algorithm is an effective strategy to trigger VNS during the best movements at a reliable triggering rate.
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