Current estimates of global biodiversity are diffi cult to obtain (Wilson 2003a), but range between 3 and 100 million species (May 2010). Wilson (2003b) places this number closer to ten million, with fewer than 20% of these, considered by some a generous estimate (Mora et al. 2011), having been described. Yet, we are currently faced with a biodiversity crisis stemming from anthropogenic sources...

In a recent Letter to the Editor it was suggested that desmoplakin (DP) regulates desmosome hyper-adhesion (Hobbs and Green, 2011). The term hyper-adhesion refers to the strong, calcium-independent adhesive state adopted by desmosomes in tissues, including the epidermis (Garrod et al., 2005; Wallis et al., 2000). This contrasts with a weaker adhesive state adopted by desmosomes on initial forma...

The management of occult cervical lymph node metastasis in well-differentiated thyroid cancer (WDTC) is controversial. Given the risks of hypocalcemia, recurrent laryngeal nerve injury, and increased operative time with a central compartment neck dissection (CCND), a routine adoption of prophylactic lymph node dissection has not been accepted by many as a standard management for occult metastas...

Most animals undergo gastrulation to establish germ layers and embryonic axes. The dynamic morphogenetic cell movements that take place during gastrulation are highly coordinated. In Xenopus embryos, these cell movements, which include involution and convergent extension, are driven predominantly by mesodermal cells (Keller, 1991; Keller et al., 1992). This is particularly obvious during conver...

Adrian Stoica, “Toward Evolvable Hardware Chips: Experiments with a Programmable Transistor Array,” IEEE, Apr. 1999, pp. 1-7.* Zebulum et al, “Eiolvable Hardware: on the Automatic Synthesis of Analog Control Systems,” IEEE, Mar. 2000, pp. 451-463.* August0 et al, “Analog Fault Diagnostic in Nonlinear DC Circuits with an Evolutionaly Algorithm,” IEEE, Jul. 2000, pp. 609-616.* Stoica et al, “Evol...

Legislation that mandate people to wear bicycle safety helmets while using a bicycle has been used as a method of head injury prevention by a number of jurisdictions i n Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and the United States for over a decade. Many helmet laws have been evaluated and most of these studies used helmet-wearing rates among bicyclists as a measure of the legislative effects. Few stu...

The uses and practice of traditional Chinese medicines (TCM) date back centuries and are steeped in customs that encompass ancestral beliefs (concerning health), drug lore and “an understanding of natural laws” (Hesketh & Zhu, 1997; Unschuld, 1999). Today TCM (on its own or in conjunction with conventional medicine) is an integral component of healthcare systems in the Far East and is used to t...

The uses and practice of traditional Chinese medicines (TCM) date back centuries and are steeped in customs that encompass ancestral beliefs (concerning health), drug lore and “an understanding of natural laws” (Hesketh & Zhu, 1997; Unschuld, 1999). Today TCM (on its own or in conjunction with conventional medicine) is an integral component of healthcare systems in the Far East and is used to t...

Venipuncture, the most frequently performed invasive medical procedure (Horowitz, 1994), is usually benign, producing only transitory mild discomfort. However, several case series (Berry and Wallis, 1977; Newman and Waxman, 1996; Horowitz, 1994, 2000; Newman, 2001) and individual patient reports (see Horowitz, 1994) document nerve injuries consequent to the procedure. While such injuries are re...