New window on Proterozoic life

This article briefly discusses the the new fossil assemblage found in the 600-650-million-year-old shales of the Pertatataka formation in central Australia. It includes about two dozen taxa of spinose, process-bearing or otherwise ornamented acritarchs, many of them extremely large relative to comparably ornamented fossils in younger rocks. These acritarchs reveal a glimpse of early evolution and Proterozoic life.     

The pineal and melatonin: Regulators of circadian function in lower vertebrates

Summary The pineal has been identified as a major circadian pacemaker within the circadian system of a number of lower vertebrates although other pacemaking sites have been implicated as well. The rhythmic synthesis and secretion of the pineal hormone, melatonin, is suggested as the mechanism by which the pineal controls circadian oscillators located elsewhere. Both light and temperature cycles can entrain the pineal melatonin rhythm. The pineal, therefore, acts as a photo and thermoendocrine transducer which functions to synchronize internal cycle with cycles in the environment. A model is presented which portrays the pineal as a major component of a multioscillator circadian system and which suggests how these multiple circadian clocks are coupled to each other and to cycles of light and temperature in the external world.     

The role of repair in radiobiology

Summary Apart from cancer and mutation induction, radiobiological effects on mammals are mostly attributable to cell death, defined as loss of proliferative capacity. Survival curves relate retention of that capacity to radiation dose, and often manifest a quasi-threshold (shoulder). The shoulder is attributable to an initial mechanism of repair (Q-repair) which is gradually depleted as dose increases. Another form of repair, which is not depleted (P-repair), increases the dose required to deliver an average of one lethal event per cell (dose D₀). Neither form of repair can unambiguously be linked with repair of defects in isolated DNA. An important initial lesion may well be disruption of the complex structural relationship between the DNA, nuclear membrane and associated proteins. One form of P-repair may be restoration of that structural relationship.     

Comments on “aggregation of equivalence relations” by P. C. Fishburn and A. Rubinstein

The theorem of the paper Aggregation of Equivalence Relations, by Fishburn and Rubinstein, states a result already known. This theorem improves a result from Mirkin (1975) and appears as a corollary occurring in Leclerc (1984).

---

Resume L'unique théorème de l'article Aggregation of Equivalence Relations de Fishburn et Rubinstein est déja connu. Il améliore, en fait, un résultat de Mirkin (1975) et apparait en tant que corollaire dans Leclerc (1984).

     

Clustering the rows and columns of a contingency table

A number of ways of investigating heterogeneity in a two-way contingency table are reviewed. In particular, we consider chi-square decompositions of the Pearson chi-square statistic with respect to the nodes of a hierarchical clustering of the rows and/or the columns of the table. A cut-off point which indicates significant clustering may be defined on the binary trees associated with the respective row and column cluster analyses. This approach provides a simple graphical procedure which is useful in interpreting a significant chi-square statistic of a contingency table.The author gratefully acknowledges the constructive comments of the referees and the editor.     

Methodological foundations of systems methodologies

In social systems science generally, and in management science particularly, recent developments in the variety of types of specific problem-solving methodologies (under the rubric of hard and soft systems approaches) have given an impetus to a line of inquiry, as well as debate on the nature of those methodologies. On the one hand, there has been the view that what we are witnessing is a form of Kuhnian crisis. On the other hand, a complementarist view of developments has been argued and a contingency approach proposed. But one thing has been common among the competing views: a belief that the prospects for further advances in the design and application of those methodologies, and in resolving the current controversies, lie in serious attempts to reconsider and clarify the underlying metatheoretical assumptions and concerns. This paper is an attempt to contribute to such an endeavor. A brief exposition of three methodological foundations (namely, empiricism, hermeneutics, and critique) is made, not only with the purpose of highlighting the nature as well as the limits of their epistemological and ethical claims, but also as a basis for illuminating both the nature of contemporary work on systems inquiry, design, and problem solving and the ongoing debate on what constitutes appropriate criteria for choice of specific methodologies.     

The contents of the pygidial gland of the primitive antNothomyrmecia macrops (Hymenoptera:Formicidae)

Summary The principal constituent of the pygidial gland ofNothomyrmecia macrops is 3,7-dimethyloct-6-en-2-one, a substance not previously identified in insects. Also identified were 2,6-dimethylhept-5-enal, 2-nonanone, indole, -dodecalactone, and the hydrocarbons pentadecane, heptadecane, heptadecene and heptadecadiene, all in low nanogram quantities.     

Misuses of biology in the context of the paranormal

Summary Public suspicion of science stems from science's challenging of perceptions and myths about reality, and a public fear of new technology. The result is a susceptibility to pseudoscience. In claiming that creation science is as valid as evolution the creationists misquote scientists and seek to spread their own scientific myths concerning a young age for the earth, an act of creation based on a particular literalist interpretation of the Christian Bible and a single worldwide flood. They use methods of debate and politics, rather than scientific research. A selection of their arguments is examined and the nature of the evidence for evolution is discussed. Problems with the creation science model are noted. In the myth of the hundredth monkey phenomenon, original research is misquoted to denigrate scientific research and support sentimental ideas of paranormal events. The misuse of science is seen as damaging to society because it reduces the effective gathering and application of scientific information. However, pseudoscience provides a valuable guide to gaps in public scientific education.     

Paranormal health claims

Summary Faith in paranormal cures has always been the last hope of many sufferers from chronic or incurable diseases. Magico-religious rituals of healing are still around, but some have been replaced by pseudo-scientific systems, thinly disguising old superstitions in new obscurantism, more appealing to the half-educated. in medical quackery, inventiveness seems to be limitless, and only the main paranormal healing systems can be reviewed here. The increasing popularity of alternative healing indicates the extent of dissatisfaction with dehumanising aspects of modern, technological medicine and its preoccupation with curing the curable at the expense of caring for the incurable. This leaves the sufferers, and also healthy people labelled with non-existent diseases, bleeding prey for the sharks roving the seas of medical ignorance. Medicine came into the world with a twin brother called Charlatanism — Lavoisier     

Lack of effect of dihydroergotamine on endothelial and smooth muscle cell proliferation and endothelial cell prostanoid production

Summary The most important effect of dihydroergotamine is venoconstriction, but certain metabolic effects and changes in vessel prostanoid activity have also been suggested. In this study endothelial cell production of 6-keto PGF₁ and TxB₂ was quantitated in vitro. No evidence of altered prostanoid production was noted after incubation with dihydroergotamine (exposure ranging from 5×10^–3 to 5×10^–7 g/l). Similarly, no effect of dihydroergotamine on the growth rates of endothelial cells or smooth muscle cells in vitro was documented.