Leaving a will is the best way to ensure that heirs or descendants may inherit from your estate. Issues of property distribution may arise when a birth parent or adoptive parent dies without making a valid will or without naming an heir to a particular property (referred to as intestacy). In these cases, State law determines who may inherit from whom. Laws in all 50 States, the District of Colu...

The deadly neurotoxin tetrodotoxin (TTX) is found in a variety of animal phyla and, because of its toxicity, is most often assumed to deter predation. On the tropical Pacific island of Guam, we found an undescribed flatworm (planocerid sp. 1) that contains high levels of TTX and its analogs. Through ecological experiments, we show that TTXs do not protect these flatworms from some predators but...

OBJECTIVES This report provides State-specific birth rates for teenagers for 1991 and 2000, and the percent change between the time periods. METHODS Tabular and graphical description of trends in teenage birth rates by age group for each State and territory. RESULTS Birth rates for teenagers 15-19 years declined significantly in all States, the Virgin Islands and Guam, between 1991 and 2000...

An operational control program for brown tree snakes (Boiga irregulans) on Guam began in April 1993. The program focused on minimizing the dispersal of brown tree snakes to other Pacific islands and the U.S. mainland. During the first year of operation, more than 3,000 snakes were caught within a kilometer of high risk port facilities using traps, detector dogs, and spotlighting. Additionally, ...

Mutations in copper/zinc superoxide dismutase (SOD1) are causative for dominantly inherited amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). Despite high variability in biochemical properties among the disease-causing mutants, a proportion of both dismutase-active and -inactive mutants are stably bound to spinal cord mitochondria. This mitochondrial proportion floats with mitochondria rather than sedimenti...