Strategies for the molecular genetic manipulation and visualization of the human fungal pathogen Penicillium marneffei

P. marneffei has been established as an experimentally amenable system to study morphogenesis and pathogenicity. This paper describes the development of a number of tools, including numerous selectable markers, to expand the ease with which it can be genetically manipulated. Combined with strains engineered for homologous recombination of exogenous DNA, these tools facilitate efficient molecular genetic studies

Ampelisca lusitanica (Crustacea: Amphipoda): new species for the Atlantic coast of Morocco

Background This study reports for the first time the presence of the Lusitanian ampeliscid amphipod Ampelisca lusitanica Bellan-Santini & Marques, 1986 in the northwestern Atlantic coast of Morocco. Methods Specimens were collected in January 2015 from intertidal rock pools along the El Jadida shoreline associated with the brown algae Bifurcaria bifurcata and Sargassum muticum. Results Systematic description of the species is presented, as well as a discussion of its ecological and geographical distribution. Conclusion This new finding extends the geographical distribution from the Lusitanian (Europe) to the Mauritanian (Africa) region and increases knowledge of the ecology and the global distribution of A. lusitanica found, previously, only on Portuguese and Spanish coasts.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Whole Brain Size and General Mental Ability: A Review

We review the literature on the relation between whole brain size and general mental ability (GMA) both within and between species. Among humans, in 28 samples using brain imaging techniques, the mean brain size/GMA correlation is 0.40 (N = 1,389; p < 10−10); in 59 samples using external head size measures it is 0.20 (N = 63,405; p < 10−10). In 6 samples using the method of correlated vectors to distill g, the general factor of mental ability, the mean r is 0.63. We also describe the brain size/GMA correlations with age, socioeconomic position, sex, and ancestral population groups, which also provide information about brain–behavior relationships. Finally, we examine brain size and mental ability from an evolutionary and behavior genetic perspective

Global Increase in Climate-Related Disasters

Intense climate-related disasters - floods, storms, droughts, and heat waves - have been on the rise worldwide. At the same time and coupled with an increasing concentration of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, temperatures, on average, have been rising, and are becoming more variable and more extreme. Rainfall has also been more variable and more extreme. Is there an ominous link between the global increase of these hydrometeorological and climatological events on the one side and anthropogenic climate change on the other? This paper considers three main disaster risk factors - rising population exposure, greater population vulnerability, and increasing climate-related hazards - behind the increased frequency of intense climate-related natural disasters. In a regression analysis within a model of disaster risk determination for 1971-2013, population exposure measured by population density and people's vulnerability measured by socioeconomic variables are positively linked to the frequency of these intense disasters. Importantly, the results show that precipitation deviations are positively related to hydrometeorological events, while temperature and precipitation deviations have a negative association with climatological events. Moreover, global climate change indicators show positive and highly significant effects. Along with the scientific association between greenhouse gases and the changes in the climate, the findings in this paper suggest a connection between the increasing number of natural disasters and man-made emissions of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. The implication is that climate mitigation and climate adaptation should form part of actions for disaster risk reduction

X. - Diurnal variation in oculomotor performance

Summary 1. In 18 subjects kept awake for more than 24 hours, on one or more occasions, there was a diurnal variation in oculomotor performance, as judged by the blinking rate, binocular fixation, and lateral oscillations of the eyes. 2. Poorest performance occurred in the early hours of the morning, coinciding with the development of drowsiness. 3. Without intervening sleep, there was a spontaneous recovery of oculomotor performance, along with an increase in alertness, later in the morning or afternoon. 4. An intermediate degree of oculomotor impairment manifested itself in poorer oscillations in post-fixation, as compared to pre-fixation, trials, and in the appearance of diplopia toward the end of the five-minute fixation period. 5. In the execution of lateral sweeps, the templeward moving eye completed its excursion faster than did the nasalward moving eye. This disparity also held in drowsiness, when the sweep was slowed in both eyes. 6. Amphetamine had no effect on oculomotor performance of subjects when the subjects were wide-awake,but ledto improvement of impaired performance observed during drowsiness. 7. Small amounts of alcohol often imitated the impairment of oculomotor performance that occurred in drowsiness.Kleitman Nathaniel, Schreider Jonas E. X. - Diurnal variation in oculomotor performance. In: L'année psychologique. 1949 vol. 50. pp. 201-215