STATUS OF STARLICIDE

Starlicide is described as a slow-acting avicide for the control of starlings and blackbirds around livestock and poultry operations. The active ingredient is 3 -chloro-p-toluidine hydrochloride which has been identified by the Denver Re-search Center of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service as DRC-1339. A casual review of information about this bird control material suggests the following paradoxes: The use of the chemical in bird control appears to be covered by a patent, but the licensor wishes to remain anonymous. The licensee, which produces and sells the commercial material, seems unwilling to discuss the product. Let me hasten to point out that these apparent incongruities can be attri-buted to numerous factors which range from the emotional response of some segments of the public, to the cold-blooded review of budgets and profit and loss statements by businessmen in our free enterprise system

STATUS OF STARLICIDE

Starlicide is described as a slow-acting avicide for the control of starlings and blackbirds around livestock and poultry operations. The active ingredient is 3 -chloro-p-toluidine hydrochloride which has been identified by the Denver Re-search Center of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service as DRC-1339. A casual review of information about this bird control material suggests the following paradoxes: The use of the chemical in bird control appears to be covered by a patent, but the licensor wishes to remain anonymous. The licensee, which produces and sells the commercial material, seems unwilling to discuss the product. Let me hasten to point out that these apparent incongruities can be attri-buted to numerous factors which range from the emotional response of some segments of the public, to the cold-blooded review of budgets and profit and loss statements by businessmen in our free enterprise system

Hosing of a long relativistic particle bunch in plasma

Experimental results show that hosing of a long particle bunch in plasma can be induced by wakefields driven by a short, misaligned preceding bunch. Hosing develops in the plane of misalignment, self-modulation in the perpendicular plane, at frequencies close to the plasma electron frequency, and are reproducible. Development of hosing depends on misalignment direction, its growth on misalignment extent and on proton bunch charge. Results have the main characteristics of a theoretical model, are relevant to other plasma-based accelerators and represent the first characterization of hosing

Ccdc11 is a novel centriolar satellite protein essential for ciliogenesis and establishment of left-right asymmetry

The establishment of left–right (L-R) asymmetry in vertebrates is dependent on the sensory and motile functions of cilia during embryogenesis. Mutations in CCDC11 disrupt L-R asymmetry and cause congenital heart disease in humans, yet the molecular and cellular functions of the protein remain unknown. Here we demonstrate that Ccdc11 is a novel component of centriolar satellites—cytoplasmic granules that serve as recruitment sites for proteins destined for the centrosome and cilium. Ccdc11 interacts with core components of satellites, and its loss disrupts the subcellular organization of satellite proteins and perturbs primary cilium assembly. Ccdc11 colocalizes with satellite proteins in human multiciliated tracheal epithelia, and its loss inhibits motile ciliogenesis. Similarly, depletion of CCDC11 in Xenopus embryos causes defective assembly and motility of cilia in multiciliated epidermal cells. To determine the role of CCDC11 during vertebrate development, we generated mutant alleles in zebrafish. Loss of CCDC11 leads to defective ciliogenesis in the pronephros and within the Kupffer’s vesicle and results in aberrant L-R axis determination. Our results highlight a critical role for Ccdc11 in the assembly and function of motile cilia and implicate centriolar satellite–associated proteins as a new class of proteins in the pathology of L-R patterning and congenital heart disease

The Influence of Chronotype and Grit on Lifestyle and Physical Activity

Background:  The chronotype of a person refers to an individual's natural sleep-wake cycle and whether that individual prefers morning or evening activities, and grit is an individual's perseverance and passion for long-term goals.Aim: The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between grit, chronotype, physical activity, and leading a healthy lifestyle in college-age students.Methods:  Health and fitness data (i.e., chronotype, grit, lifestyle assessment score, and daily steps) from 431 first-semester university students at a private college were collected and analyzed. Results: This study found that grit and chronotype both have significant correlations with living a healthy lifestyle and with physical activity. Grit more accurately predicts a person's lifestyle (β = -13.712, r = 0.39, p < 0.0001) while chronotype more accurately predicts the physical activity, or steps, of a person (β = 66.48, r = .19, p = .0001). Chronotype can also accurately predict the grit of a person (r = .25, p < .0001), and it was found that morning people tend to have more grit.Conclusions:  This study concluded that grit, chronotype, steps, and a healthy lifestyle are all significantly correlated with each other. Knowing the relationship between endogenous chronotype, grit, and living a physically active and healthy lifestyle can help inform policy decisions related to the goal of strengthening an institution's inclusive and healthy academic community

Millimeter-scale genetic gradients and community-level molecular convergence in a hypersaline microbial mat

To investigate the extent of genetic stratification in structured microbial communities, we compared the metagenomes of 10 successive layers of a phylogenetically complex hypersaline mat from Guerrero Negro, Mexico. We found pronounced millimeter-scale genetic gradients that were consistent with the physicochemical profile of the mat. Despite these gradients, all layers displayed near-identical and acid-shifted isoelectric point profiles due to a molecular convergence of amino-acid usage, indicating that hypersalinity enforces an overriding selective pressure on the mat community

Glycoprotein B switches conformation during murid herpesvirus 4 entry

Herpesviruses are ancient pathogens that infect all vertebrates. The most conserved component of their entry machinery is glycoprotein B (gB), yet how gB functions is unclear. A striking feature of the murid herpesvirus 4 (MuHV-4) gB is its resistance to neutralization. Here, we show by direct visualization of infected cells that the MuHV-4 gB changes its conformation between extracellular virions and those in late endosomes, where capsids are released. Specifically, epitopes on its N-terminal cell-binding domain become inaccessible, whilst non-N-terminal epitopes are revealed, consistent with structural changes reported for the vesicular stomatitis virus glycoprotein G. Inhibitors of endosomal acidification blocked the gB conformation switch. They also blocked capsid release and the establishment of infection, implying that the gB switch is a key step in entry. Neutralizing antibodies could only partially inhibit the switch. Their need to engage a less vulnerable, upstream form of gB, because its fusion form is revealed only in endosomes, helps to explain why gB-directed MuHV-4 neutralization is so difficult