Development of eye colors in Drosophila: some properties of the hormones concerned

The substance inducing the production of pigment in the eyes of vermilion brown mutants of Drosophila melanogaster has been shown to be a relatively stable chemical entity possessing true hormone-like activity. A simple method for obtaining hormone solutions has been developed involving extraction of dried wild type Drosophila pupae with ethyl alcohol and water. A logarithmic proportionality has been found to exist between the amount of hormone and the induced eye color. This relationship provides a simple method for the quantitative determination of hormone concentration in given extracts. Larvae and pupae of D. melanogaster contain an intracellular enzyme which inactivates the hormone in the presence of molecular oxygen. The hormone is not oxidized under ordinary conditions with either molecular oxygen or hydrogen peroxide. The hormone has been found to be an amphoteric compound with both acidic and basic groups and with a molecular weight between 400 and 600. The solubility and precipitation reactions of the hormone suggest its amino acid-like nature. However, the instability to heat, acid, and alkali, and its rather restricted occurrence indicate a rather complex specific structure

The Identification of the More Important Prairie Hay Grasses of Nebraska by Their Vegetative Characters

It is convenient and sometimes necessary to identify the grasses in their vegetative stage of growth. This is especially desirable in a study of the vegetation of native hay meadows and permanent pastures. This key is prepared as a guide in the identification of the more important prairie hay grasses of Nebraska. The meadows are often harvested before the floral parts of many of the grasses appear. If it is desired, therefore, to study the botanical composition of the native meadows, it becomes necessary to rely on identification of many of the grasses by means of vegetative characters

Outcomes and costs of skilled support for people with severe or profound intellectual disability and complex needs

Background With increasing reductions in funding for social care across many countries, the need to ensure that resources are used to best effect is becoming increasingly important, in particular for those with severe and complex needs. Methods In order to explore the outcomes and costs of skilled support for this group of people, quality of life was assessed for 110 people in 35 services in England. Information on costs was also collected. Results People who received consistently good active support experienced better outcomes in terms of several quality of life domains. Good support did not require significantly more staff time, and there was no evidence of higher total costs for those receiving good support. Conclusions The inclusion of active support in government guidance and local commissioning practices related to people with severe intellectual disabilities is likely to improve user outcomes. Observation should be an important element in measuring service quality

Inhibition of adenovirus serotype 14 infection by octadecyloxyethyl esters of (S)-[(3-hydroxy-2-phosphonomethoxy)propyl]- nucleosides in vitro.

On September 22, 2008, a physician on Prince of Wales Island, Alaska, notified the Alaska Department of Health and Social Services (ADHSS) of an unusually high number of adult patients with recently diagnosed pneumonia (n = 10), including three persons who required hospitalization and one who died. ADHSS and CDC conducted an investigation to determine the cause and distribution of the outbreak, identify risk factors for hospitalization, and implement control measures. This report summarizes the results of that investigation, which found that the outbreak was caused by adenovirus 14 (Ad14), an emerging adenovirus serotype in the United States that is associated with a higher rate of severe illness compared with other adenoviruses. Among the 46 cases identified in the outbreak from September 1 through October 27, 2008, the most frequently observed characteristics included the following: male (70%), Alaska Native (61%), underlying pulmonary disease (44%), aged > or = 65 years (26%), and current smoker (48%). Patients aged > or = 65 years had a fivefold increased risk for hospitalization. The most commonly reported symptoms were cough (100%), shortness of breath (87%), and fever (74%). Of the 11 hospitalized patients, three required intensive care, and one required mechanical ventilation. One death was reported. Ad14 isolates obtained during the outbreak were identical genetically to those in recent community-acquired outbreaks in the United States which suggests the emergence of a new, and possibly more virulent Ad14 variant. Clinicians should consider Ad14 infection in the differential diagnosis for patients with community-acquired pneumonia, particularly when unexplained clusters of severe respiratory infections are detected

Pre-stressed plates as a mechanism to provide additional under belly blast protection

The use of curved pre-stressed plates is investigated as this provides a possible additional mechanism to resist both initial folding and later structural collapse. Numerical modelling in Autodyn (R) and empirical calculations based on the Westine model were used to determine starting conditions for the explosive trials. Trials were conducted in which plates were pre-stressed by the imposition of a large bending moment from two parallel sides resulting in a tensile stress on the outer surface facing the blast. Tests were conducted at approximately one third linear scale using target plates of 500mm x 500mm and a charge of between 100g and 250g buried in dried sand was used to load them. Unstressed but curved plates were tested and then compared to similar shaped curved plates with an imposed bending stress equal to the yield stress or ultimate tensile stress of the plate material

Insulin-like signalling influences the coordination of larval hemocyte number with body size in Drosophila melanogaster

Blood cells, known as hemocytes in invertebrates, play important and conserved roles in immunity, wound healing and tissue remodelling. The control of hemocyte number is therefore critical to ensure these functions are not compromised, and studies using Drosophila melanogaster are proving useful for understanding how this occurs. Recently, the embryonic patterning gene, torso-like (tsl), was identified as being required both for normal hemocyte development and for providing immunity against certain pathogens. Here, we report that Tsl is required specifically during the larval phase of hematopoiesis, and that tsl mutant larvae likely have reduced hemocyte numbers due to a reduced larval growth rate and compromised insulin signaling. Consistent with this, we find that impairing insulin-mediated growth, either by nutrient deprivation or genetically, results in fewer hemocytes. This is likely the result of impaired insulin-like signaling in the hemocytes themselves, since modulation of Insulin-like Receptor (InR) activity specifically in hemocytes causes concomitant changes to their population size in developing larvae. Taken together, our work reveals the strong relationship that exists between body size and hemocyte number, and suggests that insulin-like signaling contributes to, but is not solely responsible for, keeping these tightly aligned during larval development

Geometric Semantic Grammatical Evolution

This is the author accepted manuscript. The final version is available from Springer via the DOI in this record.Geometric Semantic Genetic Programming (GSGP) is a novel form of Genetic Programming (GP), based on a geometric theory of evolutionary algorithms, which directly searches the semantic space of programs. In this chapter, we extend this framework to Grammatical Evolution (GE) and refer to the new method as Geometric Semantic Grammatical Evolution (GSGE). We formally derive new mutation and crossover operators for GE which are guaranteed to see a simple unimodal fitness landscape. This surprising result shows that the GE genotypephenotype mapping does not necessarily imply low genotype-fitness locality. To complement the theory, we present extensive experimental results on three standard domains (Boolean, Arithmetic and Classifier)