Moving I`iwi (Vestiaria coccinea) as a Surrogate for Future Translocations of Endangered `Akohekohe (Palmeria dolei)

Translocations often play an important role in the recovery of endangered species. To assess feasibility for translocation of endangered `Akohekohe (Palmeria dolei), we conducted an experimental translocation of I`iwi (Vestiaria coccinea) from east to west Maui. Mist-netting, veterinary screening of candidate birds, and helicopter transport of healthy I`iwi were successful, resulting in no injuries or mortalities. Translocated birds were assigned to two types of release. Hard release birds were radio tagged and released on the day of translocation. In contrast, soft release birds were held in large cages for 7 days and fed artificial nectar. During holding soft release I`iwi feeding rates, fecal production, and mass were monitored. Soft release birds suffered 33% mortality during the holding period. At the end of the holding period, soft release survivors were outfitted with a radio transmitter and released. All translocated I`iwi were followed by radio telemetry for an average of 21 days. Once released, soft release birds showed higher rates of movement, possibly reflecting conflict with established hard released I`iwi. Our results suggest that translocation efforts for wild `Akohekohe will be successful if hard release protocols are followed

Cytolytic toxin production by \u3ci\u3eStaphylococcus aureus\u3c/i\u3e is dependent upon the activity of the protoheme IX farnesyltransferase

Staphylococcus aureus is a medically important pathogen with an abundance of virulence factors that are necessary for survival within a host, including the production of cytolytic toxins. The regulation of toxin production is mediated by the Agr quorum sensing system, and a poorly defined post-exponential growth phase signal independent of Agr. As part of a recent genome wide association study (GWAS) to identify novel loci that alter the expression of cytolytic toxins, a polymorphism in the cyoE gene, which encodes a protoheme IX farnesyltransferase, was identified. This enzyme is essential for processing heme into the electron transport chain for use as an electron acceptor. Interestingly, without this enzyme S. aureus were repressed in their ability to secrete cytolytic toxins, and this appears to be mediated through repression of the Agr quorum sensing system. We hypothesize that the loss of electron transport is inducing feedback inhibition of metabolic capabilities that suppress the TCA cycle, and that this coupled with decreased RNAIII transcription prevents synthesis of cytolytic toxins

Exploiting the variability and heritability of leaf angle in sorghum to design optimal canopies for different target environments

In cereal crops, average leaf angle of the canopy affects the total amount of radiation that is intercepted and how effectively light is distributed through the canopy. Selecting for more erect leaves in maize and rice has allowed higher density plantings and has been associated with significant productivity gains in those crops. The effects of leaf angle on crop productivity depend on how it influences within-canopy light distribution and the plants’ efficiency in using that light to produce biomass. Canopy light distribution is influenced by agronomic interventions such as growing at different locations, sowing on different dates, using different plant densities (leaf area index). For sorghum, which may be grown across a large range of latitudes and plant population densities, the effects of leaf angle manipulations have not previously been studied. We used the APSIM-DCaPST sorghum model to simulate the effects of more erectophile canopies on yield for two locations with different latitudes and planting dates, assuming low-and high- intensity agronomies. The simulations showed that more erect leaves would result in yield benefits in most years at both of those locations. Contrary to the situation in maize, the simulated yield gains were greatest in the low-yielding rather than the high-yielding years. Interestingly also, the simulated productivity gains in erectophile sorghum canopies were not due to enhanced light penetration as suggested in maize, but rather through effects on extent of radiation interception and its implications for early crop growth and crop water balance through the crop life cycle

High Resolution K-band Spectroscopy of MWC 480 and V1331 Cyg

We present high resolution (R=25,000-35,000) K-band spectroscopy of two young stars, MWC 480 and V1331 Cyg. Earlier spectrally dispersed (R=230) interferometric observations of MWC 480 indicated the presence of an excess continuum emission interior to the dust sublimation radius, with a spectral shape that was interpreted as evidence for hot water emission from the inner disk of MWC 480. Our spectrum of V1331 Cyg reveals strong emission from CO and hot water vapor, likely arising in a circumstellar disk. In comparison, our spectrum of MWC 480 appears mostly featureless. We discuss possible ways in which strong water emission from MWC 480 might go undetected in our data. If strong water emission is in fact absent from the inner disk, as our data suggest, the continuum excess interior to the dust sublimation radius that is detected in the interferometric data must have another origin. We discuss possible physical origins for the continuum excess.Comment: 29 pages, 5 figures, to appear in Ap

Global kidney exchange : opportunity or exploitation? An ELPAT/ESOT appraisal

This paper addresses ethical, legal, and psychosocial aspects of Global Kidney Exchange (GKE). Concerns have been raised that GKE violates the nonpayment principle, exploits donors in low‐ and middle‐income countries, and detracts from the aim of self‐sufficiency. We review the arguments for and against GKE. We argue that while some concerns about GKE are justified based on the available evidence, others are speculative and do not apply exclusively to GKE but to living donation more generally. We posit that concerns can be mitigated by implementing safeguards, by developing minimum quality criteria and by establishing an international committee that independently monitors and evaluates GKE’s procedures and outcomes. Several questions remain however that warrant further clarification. What are the experiences and views of recipients and donors participating in GKE? Who manages the escrow funds that have been put in place for donor and recipients? What procedures and safeguards have been put in place to prevent corruption of these funds? What are the inclusion criteria for participating GKE centers? GKE provides opportunity to promote access to donation and transplantation but can only be conducted with the appropriate safeguards. Patients’ and donors’ voices are missing in this debate

Warm H2O and OH disk emission in V1331 Cyg

We present high resolution (R=24,000) L-band spectra of the young intermediate mass star V1331 Cyg obtained with NIRSPEC on the Keck II telescope. The spectra show strong, rich emission from water and OH that likely arises from the warm surface region of the circumstellar disk. We explore the use of the new BT2 (Barber et al. 2006) water line list in fitting the spectra, and we find that it does a much better job than the well-known HITRAN (Rothman et al. 1998) water line list in the observed wavelength range and for the warm temperatures probed by our data. By comparing the observed spectra with synthetic disk emission models, we find that the water and OH emission lines have similar widths (FWHM ~ 18 km s-1). If the line widths are set by disk rotation, the OH and water emission lines probe a similar range of disk radii in this source. The water and OH emission are consistent with thermal emission for both components at a temperature ~ 1500 K. The column densities of the emitting water and OH are large, ~ 10^{21} cm-2 and ~ 10^{20} cm-2, respectively. Such a high column density of water is more than adequate to shield the disk midplane from external UV irradiation in the event of complete dust settling out of the disk atmosphere, enabling chemical synthesis to continue in the midplane despite a harsh external UV environment. The large OH-to-water ratio is similar to expectations for UV irradiated disks (e.g., Bethell and Bergin 2009), although the large OH column density is less easily accounted for.Comment: 17 pages, 7 figures, 2 table

Environmentalism, performance and applications: uncertainties and emancipations

This introductory article for a themed edition on environmentalism provides a particular context for those articles that follow, each of which engages with different aspects of environmentalism and performance in community-related settings. Responding to the proposition that there is a lacuna in the field of applied drama and environmentalism (Bottoms, 2010), we suggest that the more significant lack is that of ecocriticism. As the articles in this journal testify, there are many examples of applied theatre practice; what is required is sustained and rigorous critical engagement. It is to the gap of ecocriticism that we address this issue, signalling what we hope is the emergence of a critical field. One response to the multiple challenges of climate change is to more transparently locate the human animal within the environment, as one agent amongst many. Here, we seek to transparently locate the critic, intertwining the personal – ourselves, human actants – with global environmental concerns. This tactic mirrors much contemporary writing on climate change and its education, privileging personal engagement – a shift we interrogate as much as we perform. The key trope we anchor is that of uncertainty: the uncertainties that accompany stepping into a new research environment; the uncertainties arising from multiple relations (human and non-human); the uncertainties of scientific fact; the uncertainties of forecasting the future; and the uncertainties of outcomes – including those of performance practices. Having analysed a particular turn in environmental education (towards social learning) and the failure to successfully combine ‘art and reality’ in recent UK mainstream theatre events, such uncertainties lead to our suggestion for an ‘emancipated’ environmentalism. In support of this proposal, we offer up a reflection on a key weekend of performance practice that brought us to attend to the small – but not insignificant – and to consider first hand the complex relationships between environmental ‘grand narratives’ and personal experiential encounters. Locating ourselves within the field and mapping out some of the many conceptual challenges attached to it serves to introduce the territories which the following journal articles expand upon

Cytolytic toxin production by Staphylococcus aureus is dependent upon the activity of the protoheme IX farnesyltransferase

Staphylococcus aureus is a medically important pathogen with an abundance of virulence factors that are necessary for survival within a host, including the production of cytolytic toxins. The regulation of toxin production is mediated by the Agr quorum sensing system, and a poorly defined post-exponential growth phase signal independent of Agr. As part of a recent genome wide association study (GWAS) to identify novel loci that alter the expression of cytolytic toxins, a polymorphism in the cyoE gene, which encodes a protoheme IX farnesyltransferase, was identified. This enzyme is essential for processing heme into the electron transport chain for use as an electron acceptor. Interestingly, without this enzyme S. aureus were repressed in their ability to secrete cytolytic toxins, and this appears to be mediated through repression of the Agr quorum sensing system. We hypothesize that the loss of electron transport is inducing feedback inhibition of metabolic capabilities that suppress the TCA cycle, and that this coupled with decreased RNAIII transcription prevents synthesis of cytolytic toxin

Curriculum Making as the Enactment of Dwelling in Places

This article uses an account of dwelling to interrogate the concept of curriculum making. Tim Ingold's use of dwelling to understand culture is productive here because of his implicit and explicit interest in intergenerational learning. His account of dwelling rests on a foundational ontological claim-that mental construction and representation are not the basis upon which we live in the world-which is very challenging for the kinds of curriculum making with which many educators are now familiar. It undermines assumptions of propositional knowledge and of the use of mental schemas to communicate and share. At the level of critique, then, dwelling destabilizes contemporary ideas of curriculum as textual, pre-specified content for transmission or pre-defined objectives or standardized activity. The positive claims of dwelling are equally challenging, for these are that the world is a domain of relational entanglement in which an organism can be no more than a point of growth for an emergent ‘environment', and meaning only inheres in these relations. The paper articulates how differentiation (of learner, salient meanings, knowledge, skill and place) are possible in such an ontology, and how curriculum making can be understood from this perspective as being the remaking of relationships between these

Intergenerational Education: The significance of 'reciprocity' and 'place'

In this article, the case is made for greater clarity in the definition of intergenerational practice and intergenerational education. Theoretically, the effects of all-age reciprocity and the significance of attending to 'place' are explored. Taken together, they help point to what is distinctive about the scope and purpose of intergenerational education. The author argues that any intergenerational practice must always involve an educative element that is focused, at least in part, on the on-going reciprocal production of new relations between generations through the way challenges are purposefully responded to in some specific place