What About a World Currency? Proposal for a Common Currency among Rich Democracies. One World Money, Then and Now

Regional and International Currency Arrangements

Host and symbiont genetic contributions to fitness in a Trichogramma-Wolbachia symbiosis.

The fitness effects associated with Wolbachia infection have wide-ranging ecological and evolutionary consequences for host species. How these effects are modulated by the relative influence of host and Wolbachia genomes has been described as a balancing act of genomic cooperation and conflict. For vertically transmitted symbionts, like cytoplasmic Wolbachia, concordant host-symbiont fitness interests would seem to select for genomic cooperation. However, Wolbachia's ability to manipulate host reproductive systems and distort offspring sex ratios presents an evolutionary conflict of interest with infected hosts. In the parthenogenesis-inducing (PI) form of Wolbachia found in many haplodiploid insects, Wolbachia fitness is realized through females and is enhanced by their feminization of male embryos and subsequent parthenogenetic reproduction. In contrast, as long as Wolbachia is not fixed in a population and sexual reproduction persists, fitness for the host species is realized through both male and female offspring production. How these cooperating and competing interests interact and the relative influence of host and Wolbachia genomes were investigated in the egg parasitoid Trichogramma kaykai, where Wolbachia infection has remained at a low frequency in the field. A factorial design in which laboratory cultures of Wolbachia-infected T. kaykai were cured and re-infected with alternative Wolbachia strains was used to determine the relative influence of host and Wolbachia genomes on host fitness values. Our results suggest fitness variation is largely a function of host genetic background, except in the case of offspring sex ratio where a significant interaction between host and Wolbachia genomes was found. We also find a significant effect associated with the horizontal transfer of Wolbachia strains, which we discuss in terms of the potential for coadaptation in PI-Wolbachia symbioses

A note on the use of FTA™ technology for storage of blood samples for DNA analysis and removal of PCR inhibitors

peer-reviewedFTA™ technology is widely used across many molecular disciplines for sample capture, storage and analysis. The use of this technology for the long-term storage of blood samples for DNA analysis was examined as well as its potential to remove inhibitors from DNA samples previously extracted from blood with PCR inhibitors remaining. It was found that blood spots stored on FTA™ cards for 8 years at room temperature gave successful PCR products and that FTA™ cards are a useful tool for removing substances in samples which interfere with or inhibit, the PCR reaction

Investigation of Prolific Sheep from UK and Ireland for Evidence on Origin of the Mutations in BMP15 (FecXG, FecXB) and GDF9 (FecGH) in Belclare and Cambridge Sheep

peer-reviewedThis paper concerns the likely origin of three mutations with large effects on ovulation rate identified in the Belclare and Cambridge sheep breeds; two in the BMP15 gene (FecXG and FecXB) and the third (FecGH) in GDF9. All three mutations segregate in Belclare sheep while one, FecXB, has not been found in the Cambridge. Both Belclare and Cambridge breeds are relatively recently developed composites that have common ancestry through the use of genetic material from the Finnish Landrace and Lleyn breeds. The development of both composites also involved major contributions from exceptionally prolific ewes screened from flocks in Ireland (Belclare) and Britain (Cambridge) during the 1960s. The objective of the current study was to establish the likely origin of the mutations (FecXG, FecXB and FecGH) through analysis of DNA from Finnish Landrace and Lleyn sheep, and Galway and Texel breeds which contributed to the development of the Belclare breed. Ewes with exceptionally high prolificacy (hyper-prolific ewes) in current flocks on Irish farms were identified to simulate the screening of ewes from Irish flocks in the 1960s. DNA was obtained from: prolific ewes in extant flocks of Lleyn sheep (n = 44) on the Lleyn peninsula in Wales; hyper-prolific ewes (n = 41); prolific Galway (n = 41) ewes; Finnish Landrace (n = 124) and Texel (n = 19) ewes. The FecXG mutation was identified in Lleyn but not in Finnish Landrace, Galway or Texel sheep; FecXB was only found among the hyper-prolific ewes. The FecGH mutation was identified in the sample of Lleyn sheep. It was concluded from these findings that the Lleyn breed was the most likely source of the FecXG and FecGH mutations in Belclare and Cambridge sheep and that the FecXB mutation came from the High Fertility line that was developed using prolific ewes selected from commercial flocks in Ireland in the 1960′s and subsequently used in the genesis of the Belclare.Financial support through the Teagasc Walsh Fellowship Scheme, Genesis Faraday SPARK award (Lleyn survey) and Science Foundation Ireland (07/SRC/B1156) is gratefully acknowledged

Analysis of the elastic-stressed state of nanocrystals borders within the framework of the disclination approach

The results of a theoretical analysis of the elastic-stressed state and the distribution of elastic energy in nanostructured metallic materials in the vicinity of nanograin boundaries with a high density of partial disclinations are presented. The features of the distribution of the stress fields of disclinational grain-boundary configurations as a function of the size of nanograins are determined taking into account the superposition of these stresses during the screening of disclination pile-ups. It's found that the maximum values of the main components of the stress tensor are achieved only in the disclination planes 25, and the gradients of these stresses are characterized by the maximum values at the nodal points. It's shown that the local energy maxima are a characteristic feature of the distribution of the specific elastic energy of these configurations, which can be the cause of the physical broadening of the nanograin boundaries