September – 2011 – BrainiYak

Monthly Archives: September 2011

Weed control on farms may significantly reduce food availability for diverse species 0

Looking at weed management’s indirect effects on more than just bird species A study in the United Kingdom examined “weeds” located on farmland to see what effect weed control has on animal food-webs: We examined the distribution of berries and soil-surface seeds in the managed and unmanaged habitats of a 125 ha organic farm. We [...]

Categories: Environment

Tagged: animal, berries, birds, crops, Darren M. Evans, diversity, farm management, farmland, food web, Jane Memmott, Joanna Brooks, Matthew Ho, Michael J.O. Pocock, parasitoids, seeds, starvation, weed-control, weeds, winter

Published:: 29 September 2011 – 11:33
Author:: By BrainiYak

Vanished wolves may have indirectly caused reduced Canadian lynx populations in the United States — two related hypotheses 0

Ecological dominoes? A team of wildlife researchers would like to test two hypotheses regarding the cause of reduced American populations of Canadian lynx by reintroducing gray wolves (Canis lupus) to affected landscapes. In their view, it is mechanistically plausible that the extermination of wolves in the United States allowed coyotes to compete successfully for Lynx [...]

Categories: Environment

Tagged: Aaron J. Wirsing, canadensis, Canadian, Canis, cascade, concealment, dominoes, ecology, herbivore, herbivory, lupus, lynx, populations, restore, Robert L. Beschta, Steven W. Buskirk, William J. Ripple, wolves

Published:: 28 September 2011 – 12:01
Author:: By BrainiYak

Canadian national park study pins down the light amount of human trail use that scares wolves and elk away 0

The elk preference is interesting The abstract reported that: Our research investigated the relationship between wolf and elk distribution and human activity using fine-scale Global Positioning System (GPS) wildlife telemetry locations and hourly human activity measures on trails and roads in Banff, Kootenay, and Yoho National Parks, Canada. In areas < 50 m from trails [...]

Categories: Environment

Tagged: Canadian Rockies, Cliff A. White, elk, hike, hikers, Human activity, James Kimo Rogala, Jenny Coleshill, Jesse Whittington, large mammals, Marco Musiani, Mark Hebblewhite, national parks, predation, refuge, resources management, trails, wolves

Published:: 23 September 2011 – 14:34
Author:: By BrainiYak

Substitution of NH for O in Vancomycin’s complementary site reinstates its antimicrobial action in drug-resistant bacteria 0

Demonstrating molecular biology’s specificity and usefulness From the abstract: [A] complementary single atom exchange in the vancomycin core structure (O → NH) to counter the single atom exchange in the cell wall precursors of resistant bacteria (NH → O) reinstates potent antimicrobial activity and charts a rational path forward for the development of antibiotics for [...]

Categories: Medicine,Science

Tagged: Akinori Okano, anti-microbial, antibiotic, binding, biochemist, cell wall, complementary, d-Ala, d-Lac, Dale L. Boger, disease, drug, drug resistance, Jian Xie, Joshua G. Pierce, last resort, lock and key, NH, O, pharmaceutical, proton, resistance, Robert C. James, site, substitution, Vancomycin

Published:: 21 September 2011 – 14:43
Author:: By BrainiYak

Archaic bird diversity may have survived up until the Cretaceous-Paleogene (K-Pg, formerly K-T/Cretaceous-Tertiary) boundary extinction — and an example of the need to be cautious in translating science for non-scientists 0

The BBC appears to have ignored the 300,000 year caveat that the study’s abstract included BBC writer Leila Battison too casually trumpeted certainty, where certainty is debatable, by synopsizing the research team’s finding into: Many early bird species suffered from the same catastrophic extinction as the dinosaurs, new research has shown. The meteorite impact that [...]

Categories: Science

Tagged: Apsaravis, archaic, asteroid, Chicxulub, Cretaceous-Tertiary, Daniel J. Field, Enantiornithes, Hesperornithes, Ichthyornithes, K-T, Leila Battison, Maastrichtian, Mass extinction of birds at the Cretaceous–Paleogene (K–Pg) boundary, Nicholas R. Longrich, paleontogist, paleontology, Tim Tokaryk

Published:: 20 September 2011 – 14:03
Author:: By BrainiYak

Evolution of the wooly rhino apparently preceded the Pleistocene 0

Tibet may have originated other Ice Age megafauna, as well From the abstract: Ice Age megafauna have long been known to be associated with global cooling during the Pleistocene, and their adaptations to cold environments, such as large body size, long hair, and snow-sweeping structures, are best exemplified by the woolly mammoths and woolly rhinos. [...]

Categories: Climate,Climate change,Environment,Science

Tagged: cold-adaptation, cold-adapted, evolution, Gary T. Takeuchi, genes, genetic, Guangpu Xie, Joel E. Saylor, Laura K. Säilä, megafauna, Mikael Fortelius, mutation, Out of Tibet: Pliocene Woolly Rhino Suggests High-Plateau Origin of Ice Age Megaherbivores, Pleistocene, Qiang Li, Tao Deng, Xiaoming Wang, Yang Wang, Zhijie J. Tseng

Published:: 16 September 2011 – 15:41
Author:: By BrainiYak

1918 pandemic flu virus may not have been as transmissible as previously thought — meaning that, researchers conclude, it could be controlled today — but I have a significant caveat 0

Epidemiologists modeled transmission rates by using previously unpublished records The American Journal of Epidemiology abstract reported: Here, the authors analyzed previously unpublished documents from a large household survey of the “Spanish” H1N1 influenza pandemic, conducted in 1918, for the first time quantifying influenza transmissibility at the person-to-person level during that most lethal of pandemics. The [...]

Categories: Medicine,Science

Tagged: 1918, Christophe Fraser, control, Derek A. T. Cummings, Don Klinkenberg, Donald S. Burke, epidemiology, flu, H1N1, health care system, household, influenza, Neil M. Ferguson, pandemic, transmissibility, virulence

Published:: 15 September 2011 – 09:12
Author:: By BrainiYak

Wooly mammoth hemoglobin may have mutated just enough (compared to Asian elephants and humans) to improve oxygen delivery to cold tissues in far north Pleistocene (ice age) regions 0

Wooly mammoth hemoglobin wasn’t like yours and mine After producing wooly mammoth hemoglobin from fragmented samples of their DNA, Chien Ho and colleagues wrote: This study is aimed at investigating the molecular basis of environmental adaptation of woolly mammoth hemoglobin (Hb) to the harsh thermal conditions of the Pleistocene ice ages. To this end, we [...]

Categories: Science

Tagged: Alan Cooper, Asian elephant, biochemical, biochemistry, biophysical, blood, Chien Ho, conformation, DNA, fragmented, frostbite, hemoglobin, hypothermia, Ice Age, Kevin L. Campbell, mammoth, Michael Hofreiter, Nancy T. Ho, O2, oxygen, Pleistocene, Priyamvada Gupta, recombinant, temperature-dependent, Tong-Jian Shen, Tsuey Chyi S. Tam, Virgil Simplaceanu, wooly, Yue Yuan

Published:: 14 September 2011 – 13:49
Author:: By BrainiYak

Dating silk by calculating the proportion of D to L-amino acids — fun with enantiomers 0

This technique takes advantage of the natural change of L-amino acids into D-amino acids after the material leaves the silk worm Analytical Chemistry reported that: A new capillary electrophoresis mass spectrometry (CE-MS) technique is introduced for age estimation of silk textiles based on amino acid racemization rates. With an L to D conversion half-life of [...]

Categories: Science

Tagged: Analytical Chemistry, chirality, D, Dating Silk By Capillary Electrophoresis Mass Spectrometry, enantiomer, Kathryn Klauenberg, L, left, Mary Ballard, Mehdi Moini, polarization, racemization, right, silk worm, Smithsonian Institution

Published:: 13 September 2011 – 11:09
Author:: By BrainiYak

Reduced polar ice may lead to wider oscillations in sea level — says Woods Hole study 0

Interesting, but probably not especially useful or accurate Woods Hole reported that: New evidence of sea-level oscillations during a warm period that started about 125,000 years ago raises the possibility of a similar scenario if the planet continues its more recent warming trend, says a research team led by the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI). [...]

Categories: Climate change,Environment,Science

Tagged: Brian White, H. Allen Curran, Holocene, Mark A. Wilson, New Coral Dating Method Hints at Possible Future Sea-Level Changes, Sea-level oscillations during the last interglacial highstand recorded by Bahamas corals, William G. Thompson

Published:: 11 September 2011 – 14:10
Author:: By BrainiYak

BrainiYak

Monthly Archives: September 2011

Weed control on farms may significantly reduce food availability for diverse species 0

Vanished wolves may have indirectly caused reduced Canadian lynx populations in the United States — two related hypotheses 0

Canadian national park study pins down the light amount of human trail use that scares wolves and elk away 0

Substitution of NH for O in Vancomycin’s complementary site reinstates its antimicrobial action in drug-resistant bacteria 0

Archaic bird diversity may have survived up until the Cretaceous-Paleogene (K-Pg, formerly K-T/Cretaceous-Tertiary) boundary extinction — and an example of the need to be cautious in translating science for non-scientists 0

Evolution of the wooly rhino apparently preceded the Pleistocene 0

1918 pandemic flu virus may not have been as transmissible as previously thought — meaning that, researchers conclude, it could be controlled today — but I have a significant caveat 0

Wooly mammoth hemoglobin may have mutated just enough (compared to Asian elephants and humans) to improve oxygen delivery to cold tissues in far north Pleistocene (ice age) regions 0

Dating silk by calculating the proportion of D to L-amino acids — fun with enantiomers 0

Reduced polar ice may lead to wider oscillations in sea level — says Woods Hole study 0

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