Book Reviews

Reviews of the following books: Changes in the Land: Indians, Colonists, and the Ecology of New Englandby William Cronon; The Transformation of Political Culture: Massachusetts Parties, 1790s-1840s by Ronald P. Formisan

Etiologic role of lactic dehydrogenase virus infection in an age-dependent neuroparalytic disease in C58 mice

Lactic dehydrogenase virus (LDV) associated with transplantable line Ib lymphocytic leukemia in C58/Wm mice, K36 lymphocytic leukemia in AKR/J mice, and the Gardner lymphosarcoma in C3H/HeJ mice elicited a fatal neuroparalytic disease when injected ip into 7- to 9-month-old X-irradiated indicator C58 mice. LDV associated with the WEHI-3B line of transplantable myelomonocytic leukemia or the Harding-Passey transplantable myeloma in BALB/c mice failed to elicit the disease. Recipients of such tumor extracts were immune to rechallenge by line Ib-associated LDV. Tumor lines free of LDV failed to elicit the disease or immunize recipient mice to line Ib LDV challenge. The Plagemann (P-LDV), Riley (R-LDV), and Notkins (N-LDV) strains of LDV were less neuropathogenic than the line Ib-derived strain (Ib-LDV). Indicator C58 mice that survived infection by the P-LDV, R-LDV, and N-LDV strains were immune to rechallenge by Ib-LDV. Antiserum prepared in young C58 mice to Ib-LDV or R-LDV protected indicator C58 mice from Ib-LDV challenge. These results show that a common viral contaminant of transplantable tumors and virus stocks that ordinarily is not pathogenic elicits a fatal neurologic disease in genetically susceptible, immunosuppressed, C58 mice.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/23254/1/0000187.pd

FV-1 restriction of age-dependent paralytic lactic dehydrogenase virus infection

A genetic analysis was made of the susceptibility of inbred mice to a paralytic disease elicited by the ip injection of a neuroparalytic strain of lactic dehydrogenase virus. The frequency of disease in susceptible inbred mice was X-ray dose and age dependent. Analysis of the susceptibility of appropriate F1 hybrids and their backcross progeny showed that susceptibility was not linked to the major histocompatibility complex but segregated with the Fv-1 linkage group. Linkage group analysis showed that resistance to paralytic infection was linked to a single gene outside the major histocompatibility complex. By determining the segregation of Gpd-1 isozyme variants among backcross progeny it was shown that inheritance of the Fv-1b allele resulted in virtually absolute restriction of susceptibility. Genetic evidence was obtained indicating that mice that mice that had multiple copies of N-tropic C-type retroviruses in their genomes, and that were permissive for retrovirus expression (Fv-1n/n), were susceptible to paralytic LDV infection. Strains that carried few copies of N-tropic C-type retroviruses in their genomes, or that inherited the Fv-1b allele, were resistant. A significant maternal resistance effect was demonstrable in some backcross generations that appeared to be mediated by H-2b in the major histocompatibility complex.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/24060/1/0000312.pd

Identification of CCR8: A Human Monocyte and Thymus Receptor for the CC Chemokine I-309

The human CC chemokine I-309 is a potent monocyte chemoattractant and inhibits apoptosis in thymic cell lines. Here, we identify a specific human I-309 receptor, and name it CCR8 according to an accepted nomenclature system. The receptor has seven predicted transmembrane domains, is expressed constitutively in monocytes and thymus, and is encoded by a previously reported gene of previously unknown function named, alternatively, CY6, TER1, and CKR-L1. After transfection with the CY6 open reading frame, a mouse pre–B cell line exhibited calcium flux and chemotaxis in response to I-309 (EC50 = 2 nM for each), whereas 20 other chemokines were inactive. Signaling was sensitive to pertussis toxin, suggesting coupling to a Gi-type G protein. These properties parallel those of endogenous I-309 receptors expressed in an HL-60 clone 15 cell line model. The apparent monogamous relationship between I-309 and CCR8 is unusual among known CC chemokines and known CC chemokine receptors. CCR8 may regulate monocyte chemotaxis and thymic cell line apoptosis

LSST: from Science Drivers to Reference Design and Anticipated Data Products

(Abridged) We describe here the most ambitious survey currently planned in the optical, the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope (LSST). A vast array of science will be enabled by a single wide-deep-fast sky survey, and LSST will have unique survey capability in the faint time domain. The LSST design is driven by four main science themes: probing dark energy and dark matter, taking an inventory of the Solar System, exploring the transient optical sky, and mapping the Milky Way. LSST will be a wide-field ground-based system sited at Cerro Pach\'{o}n in northern Chile. The telescope will have an 8.4 m (6.5 m effective) primary mirror, a 9.6 deg$^2$ field of view, and a 3.2 Gigapixel camera. The standard observing sequence will consist of pairs of 15-second exposures in a given field, with two such visits in each pointing in a given night. With these repeats, the LSST system is capable of imaging about 10,000 square degrees of sky in a single filter in three nights. The typical 5$\sigma$ point-source depth in a single visit in $r$ will be $\sim 24.5$ (AB). The project is in the construction phase and will begin regular survey operations by 2022. The survey area will be contained within 30,000 deg$^2$ with $\delta<+34.5^\circ$, and will be imaged multiple times in six bands, $ugrizy$, covering the wavelength range 320--1050 nm. About 90\% of the observing time will be devoted to a deep-wide-fast survey mode which will uniformly observe a 18,000 deg$^2$ region about 800 times (summed over all six bands) during the anticipated 10 years of operations, and yield a coadded map to $r\sim27.5$. The remaining 10\% of the observing time will be allocated to projects such as a Very Deep and Fast time domain survey. The goal is to make LSST data products, including a relational database of about 32 trillion observations of 40 billion objects, available to the public and scientists around the world.Comment: 57 pages, 32 color figures, version with high-resolution figures available from https://www.lsst.org/overvie

The selection landscape and genetic legacy of ancient Eurasians

The Holocene (beginning around 12,000 years ago) encompassed some of the most significant changes in human evolution, with far-reaching consequences for the dietary, physical and mental health of present-day populations. Using a dataset of more than 1,600 imputed ancient genomes, we modelled the selection landscape during the transition from hunting and gathering, to farming and pastoralism across West Eurasia. We identify key selection signals related to metabolism, including that selection at the FADS cluster began earlier than previously reported and that selection near the LCT locus predates the emergence of the lactase persistence allele by thousands of years. We also find strong selection in the HLA region, possibly due to increased exposure to pathogens during the Bronze Age. Using ancient individuals to infer local ancestry tracts in over 400,000 samples from the UK Biobank, we identify widespread differences in the distribution of Mesolithic, Neolithic and Bronze Age ancestries across Eurasia. By calculating ancestry-specific polygenic risk scores, we show that height differences between Northern and Southern Europe are associated with differential Steppe ancestry, rather than selection, and that risk alleles for mood-related phenotypes are enriched for Neolithic farmer ancestry, whereas risk alleles for diabetes and Alzheimer’s disease are enriched for Western hunter-gatherer ancestry. Our results indicate that ancient selection and migration were large contributors to the distribution of phenotypic diversity in present-day Europeans

Neptune to the Common-wealth of England (1652): the republican Britannia and the continuity of interests

In the seventeenth century, John Kerrigan reminds us, “models of empire did not always turn on monarchy”. In this essay, I trace a vision of “Neptune’s empire” shared by royalists and republicans, binding English national interest to British overseas expansion. I take as my text a poem entitled “Neptune to the Common-wealth of England”, prefixed to Marchamont Nedham’s 1652 English translation of Mare Clausum (1635), John Selden’s response to Mare Liberum (1609) by Hugo Grotius. This minor work is read alongside some equally obscure and more familiar texts in order to point up the ways in which it speaks to persistent cultural and political interests. I trace the afterlife of this verse, its critical reception and its unique status as a fragment that exemplifies the crossover between colonial republic and imperial monarchy at a crucial moment in British history, a moment that, with Brexit, remains resonant