INSURING AGAINST LOSSES FROM TRANSGENIC CONTAMINATION

Concerns about contamination of the food supply and the financial losses that would result have limited the promise of certain genetically engineered plants. This article addresses the situation by constructing an insurance pricing model to protect against those losses. The model first estimates the physical dispersal of corn pollen subject to a number of parameters. This physical distribution is then used to calculate the premium for fair valued insurance that would be necessary to destroy contaminated fields. The flexible framework can be readily adapted to other crops, management practices, and regions.contemporaneous fertility, insurance, Lagrangian stochastic model, pharmaceutical-corn, pollen dispersal, Crop Production/Industries, Risk and Uncertainty,

Mass ingestion of gastroliths and other foreign bodies in three juvenile hooded seals (Cystophora cristata) stranded in north-western Iberian Peninsula

We present here three clinical cases involving mass ingestion of foreign bodies in Hooded seals (Cystophora cristata) stranded in north-western Iberian Peninsula. Although the presence of gastroliths is considered to be normal in pinnipeds, the cases presented here highlight how an excessive presence of them as well as other foreign bodies could result in rapid onset of a potentially lethal gastrointestinal stasis syndrome, which has to be quickly resolved, medically or surgically. Ultrasound examinations and posterior X-ray confirmation have demonstrated their utility to a rapid detection of gastric bodies, and have to be taken into account in Hooded seal routine clinical protocols. Finally, we conclude that it is particularly important to avoid the use of loose stones or sand over resting areas and to take extreme precautions with small items near the rehabilitation pools when dealing with this seal species.JM Alonso-Farré and M. Llarena-Reino are currently funded by Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia, (Portugal), under post-doctoral fellowship SFRH/BPD/47251/2008, and pre-doctoral grant SFRH/BD/45398/2008, respectively.Peer reviewe

Electronic Fine Structure in the Electron-Hole Plasma in SrB6

Electron-hole mixing-induced fine structure in alkaline earth hexaborides leads to lower energy (temperature) scales, and thus stronger tendency toward an excitonic instability, than in their doped counterparts (viz. Ca(1-x)La(x)B(6), x=0.005), which are high Curie temperature, small moment ferromagnets. Comparison of Fermi surfaces and spectral distributions with de Haas - van Alphen (dHvA), optical, transport, and tunneling data indicates that SrB6 remains a fermionic semimetal down to (at least) 5 K, rather than forming an excitonic condensate. For the doped system the Curie temperature is higher than the degeneracy temperature.Comment: Four two-column pages, three postscript figures. Phys. Rev. Lett. (April 2000, in press

Geographical ecology of dry forest tree communities in the West Indies

© 2018 The Authors. Journal of Biogeography Published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd Aim: Seasonally dry tropical forest (SDTF) of the Caribbean Islands (primarily West Indies) is floristically distinct from Neotropical SDTF in Central and South America. We evaluate whether tree species composition was associated with climatic gradients or geographical distance. Turnover (dissimilarity) in species composition of different islands or among more distant sites would suggest communities structured by speciation and dispersal limitations. A nested pattern would be consistent with a steep resource gradient. Correlation of species composition with climatic variation would suggest communities structured by broad-scale environmental filtering. Location: The West Indies (The Bahamas, Cuba, Hispaniola, Jamaica, Puerto Rico, US Virgin Islands, Guadeloupe, Martinique, St. Lucia), Providencia (Colombia), south Florida (USA) and Florida Keys (USA). Taxon: Seed plants—woody taxa (primarily trees). Methods: We compiled 572 plots from 23 surveys conducted between 1969 and 2016. Hierarchical clustering of species in plots, and indicator species analysis for the resulting groups of sites, identified geographical patterns of turnover in species composition. Nonparametric analysis of variance, applied to principal components of bioclimatic variables, determined the degree of covariation in climate with location. Nestedness versus turnover in species composition was evaluated using beta diversity partitioning. Generalized dissimilarity modelling partitioned the effect of climate versus geographical distance on species composition. Results: Despite a set of commonly occurring species, SDTF tree community composition was distinct among islands and was characterized by spatial turnover on climatic gradients that covaried with geographical gradients. Greater Antillean islands were characterized by endemic indicator species. Northern subtropical areas supported distinct, rather than nested, SDTF communities in spite of low levels of endemism. Main conclusions: The SDTF species composition was correlated with climatic variation. SDTF on large Greater Antillean islands (Hispaniola, Jamaica and Cuba) was characterized by endemic species, consistent with their geological history and the biogeography of plant lineages. These results suggest that both environmental filtering and speciation shape Caribbean SDTF tree communities

Requirements for Xenon International

This document defines the requirements for the new Xenon International radioxenon system. The output of this project will be a Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) developed prototype and a manufacturer-developed production prototype. The two prototypes are intended to be as close to matching as possible; this will be facilitated by overlapping development cycles and open communication between PNNL and the manufacturer