A dioestrous increase in thymocyte proliferation during the oestrous cycle

Summary Coitus, which precedes internal fertilisation, is a unique physiological event which allows motile allogeneic spermatozoa to enter the female host and invade her tissues. The cyclic cellular proliferation observed in the thymus of the female rat may be an important preparation of her immune system for this event.     

Cantharidin production in a blister beetle

Cantharidin, a potent defensive chemical, is present in all ten life stages of the blister beetleEpicauta funebris. The first five larval stages accumulate cantharidin as they feed and grow in size. When disturbed, they exude cantharidin in a milky oral fluid, not in hemolymph which adult beetles reflexively discharge from leg joints. Two subsequent larval stages and the pupa do not feed, grow, regurgitate, or change in their defensive reserves (110 g cantharidin/insect, regardless of sex). Adult beetles kept in isolation for 60–90 d exhibit a pronounced sexual dimorphism in cantharidin production: the male biosynthesizes about 17 mg of the toxin, representing 10% of his live weight, whereas the female actually loses most of her defensive reserves. But in the wild a female beetle repeatedly acquires cantharidin as copulatory gifts from her mates.This study was supported by Grant DK 31186 and by the University of Missouri Institutional Biomedical Research Support Grant RR07053, both from the National Institutes of Health.     

Cycles of juvenile hormone esterase activity during the juvenile hormone-driven cycles of oxygen consumption in pupal diapause of flesh flies

Summary During diapause O₂ consumption in fly pupae is a cyclic event (4-day periodicity at 25°C) driven by cycles of juvenile hormone activity. Levels of juvenile hormone esterase activity change systematically during the cycle, with highest activity observed at the nadir of the O₂ consumption cycle.Supported in part by grant 88-37153-3473 from the USDA Competitive Grants Office and grant 23-088 from the USDA Forest Service. Thanks to Dr Ming Tu Chang for her helpful advice.     

Oviposition behavior in the Australian stick insectExtatosoma tiaratum

Summary The Australian stick insectExtatosoma tiaratum (MacLeay) (Insecta: Phasmida) oviposits by throwing the eggs to a distance of circa 0.80–2.00 m by a strong flick with the abdomen. The initial speed is circa 2.7 m/sec. The rather immobile female just drops her feces, and as these may act as olfactory attractants to predators, the eggs that are flicked away will be safe, lying in a ring around the central deposit of feces.     

Does prolactin control the blood progesterone level on early dioestrus in rats?

Summary Bromocriptine treatment on either prooestrus or oestrus in female rats did not affect luteal function on the day of dioestrus 1.This investigation was partially financed by the C.N.R.S. (E.R.A. No. 566).Acknowledgments. We are thankful to Mrs C. Lazarus for her excellent technical assistance, to Mr R. Dujol for the figures. We wish to express our gratitude to Dr A.F. Parlow for providing reagents for prolactin RIA and to Sandoz Laboratories for bromocriptine. Reprint request should be addressed to Cl.A.     

Sexual behavior mutants revisited: molecular and cellular basis of Drosophila mating

The study of Drosophila melanogaster by a combination of forward genetics with specific mutants, and reverse genetics, in which a given gene is expressed in an appropriate brain area to test its effect on behavior, provides a unique opportunity to explore the causal relationship between a particular gene, its function in the cell and the behavioral outcome at the organismic level. Enhanced male-to-male courtship has been shown to occur as a result of mutations in several different genes. For example, the Voila mutant exhibits intense GAL4 reporter expression in the tarsal gustatory sensilla, suggesting the importance of tapping by a male on the female abdomen with his forelegs. Feminization of parts of the antennal lobe and mushroom body by targeted expression of a female-determining gene transformer ⁺ (tra ⁺) drives the male to court other males. Mutations in the tra target gene fruitless (fru), which is expressed in the antennal lobe as well as the suboesophageal ganglion (the gustatory inputs are processed here), also induce homosexual courtship in males. These results suggest that sensory inputs mediated and/or processed by the tarsal receptors, suboesophageal ganglion, antennal lobe and mushroom body contribute to the regulation of male–female courtship. Mosaic analysis localized the neural center for male courtship behavior to the posterior dorsal brain, in which the sensory information processed by the aforementioned neural structures may be integrated. Another mosaic study mapped the neural center for female sexual behavior, as measured by her receptiveness to copulation, to the anterior dorsal brain. The issue as to how the mutations that reduce female sexual receptiveness, e.g. dissatisfaction (dsf), spinster (spin) and chaste (cht), affect the structure and/or function of this neural center deserves to be addressed urgently. Received 27 April 1999; received after revision 21 June 1999; accepted 8 July 1999     

The correspondence between Sophie Germain and Carl Friedrich Gauss

This paper publishes the correspondence between S. Germain and C.F. Gauss. The mathematical notes enclosed in her letters are published for the first time. These notes, in which she submitted some of her results, proofs and conjectures to Gauss for his evaluation, were inspired by her study of the Disquisitiones Arithmeticae. The interpretation of these mathematical notes not only shows how deeply she went into Gauss’s treatise and mastered it long before any other mathematician, but also, more importantly, shows that she obtained interesting results in the theory of power residues that have never previously been attributed to her.     

基于FTA和模糊集理论的设备可靠性研究

应用模糊故障树（模糊集合论和故障树相结合）分析的方法研究了CXT设备Handler模块的可靠性。以Handler失效为顶事件,建立此模块的系统故障树,并采用上行法定性分析找出该故障树的最小割集。传统故障树定量分析时需要得到各底事件的概率精确值,而实践中,由于底事件的发生概率具有随机性和模糊性,难以获得精确的概率值,为克服传统故障树这一不足,引入模糊数（通常采用对称三角模糊数）来表示底事件的发生概率,并且按照模糊逻辑门的运算法则定量计算,从而得到故障树顶事件及各中间事件的发生概率（亦为区间数）,最终找出了Handler的薄弱环节并计算出Handler的系统不可靠度。     

Fricker on testimonial justification

Elizabeth Fricker has recently proposed a principle aimed at stating the necessary and sufficient conditions for testimonial justification. Her proposal entails that a hearer is justified in believing a speaker’s testimony only if she recognizes the speaker to be trustworthy, which, given Fricker’s internalist commitments, requires the hearer to have within her epistemic purview grounds which justify belief in the speaker’s trustworthiness. We argue that, as it stands, Fricker’s principle is too demanding, and we propose some amendments to it. We further discuss the viability of her internalist approach to testimony.     

Emmy Noether’s first great mathematics and the culmination of first-phase logicism,formalism, and intuitionism

Emmy Noether’s many articles around the time that Felix Klein and David Hilbert were arranging her invitation to Göttingen include a short but brilliant note on invariants of finite groups highlighting her creativity and perspicacity in algebra. Contrary to the idea that Noether abandoned Paul Gordan’s style of mathematics for Hilbert’s, this note shows her combining them in a way she continued throughout her mature abstract algebra.     

On Cartwright's models for EPR

We assess Cartwright's models for probabilistic causality and, in particular, her models for EPR-like experiments of quantum mechanics. Our first objection is that, contrary to econometric linear models, her quasi-linear models do not allow for the unique estimation of parameters. We next argue that although, as Cartwright proves, Reichenbach's screening-off condition has only limited validity, her generalized condition is not empirically applicable. Finally, we show that her models for the EPR are mathematically incorrect and physically implausible.     

Changes in DNA and RNA during embryonic development of the merogonic combinationTriton palmatus (♀) ×Triton cristatus (♂)

Zusammenfassung Der Gehalt an RNS und DNS früher Entwicklungsstadien des BastardmerogonsTriton palmatus ()×Triton cristatus wurde gemessen. Es zeigt sich, dass trotz der Kern-Plasmadisharmonie diese letale Kombination in der Lage ist, beide Nukleinsäuren zu synthetisieren.

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The present study was supported by a grant from theKarl-Hescheler-Stiftung.     

Evidence tha a ‘critical period’ is involved in early estrogen-induced LH- and FSH-release during the estrous cycle in the rat

Summary LH- and FSH-release, which occurred in the afternoon of diestrus 1 following estradiol benzoate administration in the morning of estrus, was completely prevented by pentobarbital, when injected on diestrus 1 at 13.30 h.This investigation was partially financed by the CNRS (ERA 566).Acknowledgments. We are grateful to Dr S. Plas-Roser for her expert assistance and advice on radioimmunoassays. We are indebted to Mrs Ch. Lazarus for her technical assistance. We wish to express our gratitude to Dr B. Kerdelhue and Dr A. F. Parlow for providing iodinated hormones and reagents for the determination of LH and FSH.     

Cerebellar decussation of fibres from the nucleus reticularis tegmenti pontis in the brain of the albino rat

Summary The existence of a cerebellar decussation of fibres from the medial portion of each nucleus reticularis tegmenti pontis (Rtp) of the albino rat is indicated. Definite cell loss in the medial aspect, of the most rostral third of Rtp is detectable after cerebellar hemisection involving parts or the entire depth of sublobule VIb. Cell loss in the medial aspect of the caudal half of Rtp is evident as a consequence of experimental lesions which damage both sublobules IIb and III.This work was supported by the Medical Research Council of New Zealand.Acknowledgments. A. special acknowledgment to. Mrs Heather Reid for her excellent preparation of the histological specimens. Grateful thanks to Mrs Maureen Owen for her careful typing assistance.     

Douglas on values: From indirect roles to multiple goals

In recent papers and a book, Heather Douglas has expanded on the well-known argument from inductive risk, thereby launching an influential contemporary critique of the value-free ideal for science. This paper distills Douglas’s critique into four major claims. The first three claims provide a significant challenge to the value-free ideal for science. However, the fourth claim, which delineates her positive proposal to regulate values in science by distinguishing direct and indirect roles for values, is ambiguous between two interpretations, and both have weaknesses. Fortunately, two elements of Douglas’s work that have previously received much less emphasis (namely, her comments about the goals of scientific activity and the ethics of communicating about values) provide resources for developing a more promising approach for regulating values in science.     

The early history of ship magnetism: The Airy-Scoresby controversy

With the advent of iron-built ships in the early nineteenth century the problem of managing a magnetic compass on board presented considerable difficulty. Prominent among the early scientists who tackled the problem were George Biddell Airy and William Scoresby. Airy had provided a mechanical system, employing correctors in the form of steel magnets and wrought iron masses, by which the ship's magnetic field at the compass position is neutralized. He based his system on the concept that the magnetism acquired by an iron ship during her construction remained with the ship throughout her life. Scoresby, on the other hand, thought differently. After having conducted a thorough and systematic series of experiments on iron plates and bars, he concluded that the magnetic character of an iron ship is liable to sudden and unexpected change. Scoresby argued, therefore, that Airy's system was defective and, indeed, dangerous. The aim of this paper is to discuss the two views which brought Airy and Scoresby into a conflict which is documented in a series of letters to the editor of The Athenaeum.     

A bibliographical study of the introduction of Lavoisier's Traité élémentaire de chimie into Great Britain and America

As the most famous woman scientist of the twentieth century, there has been no shortage of books and articles on the life and career of Marie Curie (1867–1934). Her role as a director of a laboratory-based research school in the new scientific field of radioactivity, a field which embraced both chemistry and physics, however, has never been examined. In recent years, there has been a growing interest in the question of research schools, and Morrell, Ravetz, Geison, and Klosterman, amongst others, have written on this subject. Using, in part, the methodology of Morrell, this paper investigates the role of Marie Curie as a school director in the Paris Faculty in the years 1907–14, examining the work and characteristics of her school and assessing her effectiveness as a director.     

Émilie Du Châtelet's interpretation of the laws of motion in the light of 18th century mechanics

Émilie Du Châtelet is well known for her French translation of Newton's Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica. It is the first and only French translation of Newton's magnum opus. The complete work appeared in 1759 under the title Principes mathématiques de la philosophie naturelle, par feue Madame la Marquise Du Chastellet. Before translating Newton's Principia, Du Châtelet worked on her Institutions de physique. In this book she defended the Leibnizian concept of living forces – vis viva. This paper argues that both of these works were part of a critical transformation and consolidation of post-Newtonian mechanics in the early 18th century, beyond Newton and Leibniz. This will be shown by comparing Du Châtelet's translation of Newton's axioms with her own formulations of the laws of motion in light of Thomas Le Seur's and François Jacquier's Geneva edition which holds a special place among the several editions of the Principia that appeared in the early 18th century.     

Formation of glomerulus-like structures by the olfactory nerve neonatal bulbectomy.

Evidence presented here suggests that glomerulus formation within the olfactory bulb of the rat, which is mostly a postnatal event, is directed by the olfactory nerve rather than by the influences of mitral and tufted cells.