Lemurs, the diverse, endemic primates of Madagascar, are thought to represent a classic example of adaptive radiation. Based on the most complete phylogeny of living and extinct lemurs yet assembled, I tested predictions of adaptive radiation theory by estimating rates of speciation, extinction and adaptive phenotypic evolution. As predicted, lemur speciation rate exceeded that of their sister ...

Food demand influences agricultural production. Modern agricultural practices have resulted in polluted soil, air, and water; eroded soil; dependence on imported oil; and loss of biodiversity. The goal of this research was to compare the environmental effect of a vegetarian and nonvegetarian diet in California in terms of agricultural production inputs, including pesticides and fertilizers, wat...

This article examines whether the small number of Social Security beneficiaries living abroad enjoy a higher standard of living than they would with the same benefits if they lived in the United States. The article addresses this question using two methods. First, absolute comparisons of U.S. dollar purchasing power abroad are made using "purchasing power parities," a method recently developed ...

BACKGROUND: In 2002 the Australian National Competitive Grants System was opened to the Institute of Advanced Studies at the Australian National University as part of a commitment to transparency, competitiveness, and collaboration in national research funding. RESULTS: The block grant to the John Curtin School of Medical Research had progressively eroded over many years. Access to the National...

Landscape evolution theory suggests that climate sets the scale of landscape dissection by modulating the competition between diffusive processes that sculpt convex hillslopes and advective processes that carve concave valleys. However, the link between the relative dominance of hillslope and valley transport processes and landscape scale is difficult to demonstrate in natural landscapes due to...

The multinationalization of corporate investment in recent years has given rise to a number of international tax avoidance schemes that may be eroding tax revenues in industrialized countries, but which may also reduce tax burdens on mobile capital and so facilitate investment. Both the welfare effects of and the optimal response to international tax planning are therefore ambiguous. Evaluating...

Chemistry of detrital garnets, chrome spinels and tourmalines of 30 selected samples in combination with the general heavy mineral distribution from 523 sandstone samples of the Upper Cretaceous to Eocene Gosau Group of the eastern part of the Eastern Alps and the western West Carpathians result in an advanced picture of sedimentary provenance and palaeogeographic evolution of that area. Garnet...

Cytochrome P-450 catalysing the 14ademethylation of sterol is inhibited in fungi by azole antifungal compounds resulting in a fungistatic or a fungicidal effect [ 11. The azoles themselves represent a useful tool for investigating P-450 structure through the differential affinities with different P450 forms. [Z]. Of practical importance is the identification of the molecular features which resu...

We have isolated cDNA clones of the mRNA for cytochrome P-450(SCC), which catalyzes the side-chain cleavage reaction of cholesterol in bovine adrenal cortex mitochondria, by using synthetic oligonucleotides as probes. Sequence analysis of the cloned cDNAs enabled us to deduce the primary structure of the precursor form of P-450(SCC), which consisted of 520 amino acids and contained an extrapept...

This study aimed at evaluating the effect of acetylsalicylic acid (ASA) (150 and 300 mg/kg b.w.) on urinary trichloroethanol and trichloroacetic acid excretion and the liver cytochrome P-450-dependent monooxygenase system (MFO) in rats treated with trichloroethylene (TRI) alone or with xylene (XYL) at a concentration of 4.5 mmol/m air. The study has shown that xylene equally decreased trichloro...