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On the track of tiny larvae, a new model elucidates connections in marine ecology
August 22, 2006A computer model newly developed by researchers combines ocean current simulations and genetic forecasting to help scientists predict animal dispersion patterns and details of the ecology of coral reefs across the Caribbean Sea. The work is reported by Heather M. Galindo and Stephen R. Palumbi of Stanford University, and Donald B. Olson of the University of Miami, and appears in the August 22nd issue of Current Biology, published by Cell Press.
Effective marine management and conservation planning require a better understanding of the movement of young marine animals, including small larvae, in part because such movements facilitate normal biological connections among geographically separate populations. Although tiny larvae are impossible to follow directly, advances in modeling ocean currents have made it possible to predict larval movements. However, until now it has remained difficult to test these movement predictions in the field by comparing the model to data from population genetic studies.
The new work enables scientists to field-test such predictions and thereby hone our understanding of how marine larvae disperse in the environment and influence the structure of adult populations. In their study, the researchers coupled two types of models: One model predicts the movements of "virtual" coral larvae in the Caribbean Sea based on ocean currents, while the second model gives the virtual larvae a genetic tag. The researchers then tested this new approach by comparing the new model's predictions to empirical genetic data for threatened staghorn corals. This test showed that combining the oceanographic and genetic models allowed the researchers to successfully predict genetic patterns on a regional scale. This breakthrough approach to integrating genetic and oceanographic models helps predict genetic links among several locations and is an important new tool for the management and ecological study of marine protected areas.
Cell Press
Cell Press
Elucidates News and Current Elucidates Events RSSType 1 diabetes triggered by 'lazy' regulatory T-cells: McGill researchers
A research team led by Dr. Ciriaco A. Piccirillo of McGill University's Department of Microbiology and Immunology has discovered that in some individuals, the specialized immunoregulatory T-cells that regulate the body's autoimmune reactions may lose their effectiveness and become "lazy" over time, leading to the onset of type 1 diabetes.
New studies on cancer and schizophrenia, depression and heart disease, trauma and autism
The 2007 American College of Neuropsychopharmacology Annual Meeting will feature hundreds of new studies on brain and behavior from the world's leading scientists. Presentations include innovative research on potential new treatments for depression, post-traumatic stress disorder, autism and addiction.
Studies elucidate genetic links between cancer and schizophrenia
A series of studies presented today at the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology (ACNP) annual meeting elucidates evidence that there is a genetic link between schizophrenia and cancer, providing a surprising possible scientific explanation for lower rates of cancer among patients with schizophrenia - despite having poor diets and high rates of smoking - and their parents.
Scripps research scientists discover chemical triggers for aggression in mice
The work, reported in an advance, online issue of the journal Nature on December 6, 2007, furthers the broad and important goal of elucidating how the neurological system can detect and respond to specific cues in of a sea of potential triggers.
Accord on international waterways not followed
The use of international watercourses, that is, rivers and lakes shared by two or more states, has long been the object of numerous international agreements. States enter agreements with each other regarding the distribution of the water itself as a resource, maritime use of the waterway, or the extraction of water resources (fish stocks, minerals, energy, etc.). International watercourses have also been used as dumps for household and industrial waste. Specific stipulations prohibiting pollution have therefore been included in the relevant inter-state accords. In a new dissertation at the Department of Law, Stockholm University in Sweden, Katak Malla reviews the development of regulatio
A brave new "old world" of RNA
A new function for RNA, which further elucidates how genes are expressed and regulated, is described on the 25th of November issue of the journal Nature.
Gesture-controlled Communication with Computers
The handling of the new computer system of Fraunhofer Institute for Integrated Circuits IIS is contactless and based on gestures and hand commands. This user-friendly man-machine communication can be used for toys and games, for presentation technology and to control autonomous robots. A computer puzzle that can be played contactless and without any voice or keyboard entries is exhibited at the CeBIT 2004 fair . The visitors are invited to test the gesture control of the computer game by navigating the puzzle pieces via hand signals over a large screen. The system recognizes via camera image the person and the person's hand and face and acts according to the hand gestures. The system masters
Fat and smart - the perfect combination?
The reason why human babies are so plump is related to the energetic needs of our uniquely enlarged brain claim a team of scientists in the latest edition of the American Journal of Human Biology. Humans are the species with the fattest newborns. Proportionately, our babies are as fat as animals living in the artic and fatter than aquatic animals, which need extra adipose (fat) tissue as insulation for a life in the water. In fact, a human newborn has four times more fat than would be predicted for its size, a fact that always puzzled scientists. But in evolution things do not happen by chance and so the question is: what were the evolutionary gains that we had, in return for spending extra
"Shock therapy" entails real societal shock
The far-reaching social transformation from socialistic planned economy to capitalistic market economy with the help of "shock therapy" in Poland 1989 constituted a shock for the entire society, including state, regional, and local authorities, and many institutions, such as employment exchanges. This is shown in a new dissertation from Göteborg University in Sweden. In her study Employment service in transition: Adaptation of a socialist employment agency to a market economy. A Case study of Lodz, Pland, 1989-1998, the researcher Iwona Sobis analyzes one of these institutions, the employment agency in Lodz and how its personnel perceived and coped with growing unemployment in the
Disastrous fire left indelible mark on police in Göteborg
It has now been four years since a disastrous fire shocked the city of Göteborg and Sweden. How did the police cope with the extreme stress and the workload in connection with the fire? A recently published research report from Karlstad University elucidates this and also levels criticism against the way the media covered the role of the police. The 1998 disco fire in Hisingen in Göteborg was the worst fire in Sweden in modern times. Fully 63 young people died and more than 200 were injured. Barbro Renck, assistant professor of public health at Karlstad University, has studied the perceptions and experience of stress and mental duress among police officers involved a year and a half after
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