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We describe a primer pair that amplifies a 203 base pair fragment containing 4 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) within the cytochrome b region of the mitochondrial DNA that, when sequenced, conclusively distinguishes Washington state gray wolves from domestic dogs. The method is more efficient and cost-effective than other established methods for genetically distinguishing domestic dogs from gray wolves when using potentially degraded scat samples. Further testing may find that the SNP panel is also applicable to studies in Oregon, Idaho, Montana, and Wyoming, as these wolves belong to the same distinct population segment as Washington state gray wolves.

Nanotubes (NTs) with diameters less than 2 nm have been proposed for next-generation reverse osmosis membranes. At this molecular scale, the NTs are narrow enough to block salt ions and other contaminants, but still wide enough to allow water to flow along the NTs at seemingly unprecedented rates. Simulations for design of NT membranes can be challenging. On the one hand, the standard equations for water flow through pipes are not applicable at sub-2-nm scales due to the dominance of non-continuum phenomena; on the other hand, full molecular simulations are computationally intractable for flows up to laboratory or prototype scales. This article describes recent multiscale approaches to simulating flows through aligned NT membranes of various materials. These multiscale techniques offer a unique and economical solution that can shed light on sometimes conflicting experimental results and point the way to future engineering design of nanostructured membranes.

Cedar Bayou, a natural tidal inlet, was recently dredged to allow for direct water exchange between the Gulf of Mexico and Mesquite Bay, TX, USA. We quantified changes in densities of juvenile nekton (fish, shrimps, and crabs) and community structure in Mesquite Bay after Cedar Bayou was reopened by collecting samples at both control and impact sites using an epibenthic sled 1 year before (October 2013–April 2014) and after (October 2014–April 2015) opening. Significantly higher densities of total nekton were observed at the impact sites after opening using a before-after control-impact design. Red Drum (Sciaenops ocellatus), Atlantic Croaker (Micropogonias undulatus), post-larval penaeid shrimps (Farfantepenaeus aztecus, F. duorarum, and Litopenaeus setiferus), and Blue Crabs (Callinectes sapidus) were significantly more abundant at impact sites after Cedar Bayou was opened. Multivariate analysis showed a significant change in impact site communities after opening and was driven by an increased presence of estuarine-dependent species. Overall, this study demonstrates that opening tidal inlets, such as Cedar Bayou, and reconnecting Mesquite Bay to the Gulf of Mexico increased the presence of numerous estuarine-dependent species, many of which were not present or occurred at very low densities prior to reopening. Thus, reestablishing the historical connectivity between a productive estuary and the open Gulf of Mexico via Cedar Bayou should reinstitute natural nekton recruitment processes important to the Aransas, Mesquite, and San Antonio Bay regions.

The environmental context in which a discrete Pavlovian conditioned stimulus (CS) is experienced can profoundly impact conditioned responding elicited by the CS. We hypothesized that alcohol-seeking behavior elicited by a discrete CS that predicted alcohol would be influenced by context and require glutamate signaling in the basolateral amygdala (BLA). Male, Long-Evans rats were allowed to drink 15% ethanol (v/v) until consumption stabilized. Next, rats received Pavlovian conditioning sessions in which a 10 s CS (15 trials/session) was paired with ethanol (0.2 ml/CS). Entries into a port where ethanol was delivered were measured. Pavlovian conditioning occurred in a specific context (alcohol context) and was alternated with sessions in a different context (non-alcohol context) where neither the CS nor ethanol was presented. At test, the CS was presented without ethanol in the alcohol context or the non-alcohol context, following a bilateral microinfusion (0.3 μl/hemisphere) of saline or the AMPA glutamate receptor antagonist NBQX (2,3-dioxo-6-nitro-1,2,3,4-tetrahydrobenzo[f]quinoxaline-7-sulfonamide disodium salt) in the BLA (0, 0.3, or 1.0 μg/0.3 μl). The effect of NBQX (0, 0.3 μg/0.3 μl) in the caudate putamen (CPu) on CS responding in the non-alcohol context was also tested. The discrete alcohol CS triggered more alcohol-seeking behavior in the alcohol context than the non-alcohol context. NBQX in the BLA reduced CS responding in both contexts but had no effect in the CPu. These data indicate that AMPA glutamate receptors in the BLA are critical for alcohol-seeking elicited by a discrete CS and that behavior triggered by the CS is strongly invigorated by an alcohol context.

The goal of this study was to use an ecosystem-based approach to consider the effect of environmental conditions on the distribution and abundance of juvenile bay whiff and southern flounder within the Aransas Bay Complex, TX, USA. Species habitat models for both species were developed using boosted regression trees. Juvenile bay whiff were associated with low temperatures ( 10, and moderate to high dissolved oxygen (6–9 mg O2/l, 10–14 mg/l). Juvenile southern flounder were associated with low temperatures ( 8 mg O2/l). Our results indicate that conservation measures should focus along the eastern side of Aransas Bay and the north corner of Copano Bay to protect essential fish habitat. These findings provide a valuable new tool for fisheries managers to aid in the sustainable management of bay whiff and southern flounder and provide crucial information needed to prioritize areas for habitat conservation.

Oyster reefs are important components of marine ecosystems and function as essential habitat for estuarine species; however, few studies have simultaneously compared natural intertidal reefs to more well-studied seagrass meadows and marsh habitats. We investigated habitat use within an estuarine mosaic consisting of intertidal oyster reef (Crassostrea virginica), seagrass (Halodule wrightii), and marsh edge (Spartina alterniflora) habitats in Corpus Christi Bay, Texas. Oyster sampling units (OSUs) were deployed within intertidal oyster reef, and modified throw traps were used to collect macrofauna inhabiting the OSU and other adjacent vegetated habitats. Habitat arrangement and proximity as it relates to macrofaunal density, species richness, and community composition were also evaluated by comparing communities in oyster reef within the oyster reef complex, oyster reef adjacent to a seagrass complex, and oyster reef adjacent to marsh edge. Higher macrofaunal densities and species richness were observed within oyster reefs compared to seagrass and marsh edge. Oyster reef also supported a distinct community, while seagrass and marsh shared similar species composition and richness. The highest densities of macrofauna were collected on oyster reefs near seagrass and oyster reef located within the oyster reef complex. These results indicate the importance of intertidal oyster reefs to macrofauna and that reef location within the estuarine mosaic influences density and community assemblages. These findings are important because in many areas there are large efforts to restore oyster reef in estuarine systems, and for these programs to be successful, it is necessary to understand the functional roles and linkages among habitats.

The US Army Corps of Engineers recently dredged and permanently reopened Packery Channel, historically a natural tidal inlet, to allow water exchange between the Gulf of Mexico and the Laguna Madre, TX, USA. The main objective of this study was to characterize estuarine-dependent recruitment and community structure in seagrass habitats adjacent to Packery Channel pre- and post-channel opening. We sampled fish and crustacean abundance using an epibenthic sled in Halodule wrightii seagrass meadows in both control and impact locations over 2 years, 1 year before the opening of Packery Channel (October 2004–May 2005) and 1 year after (July 2005–April 2006). Using the before–after control–impact design, we found significantly fewer nekton post-channel opening. However, we found significantly higher mean densities of newly settled estuarine-dependent species (Sciaenops ocellatus, Micropogonias undulatus, Lagodon rhomboides, Callinectes sapidus, and penaeid shrimp) post-opening. Multivariate analyses showed significant community assemblage changes post-opening with increased contribution of estuarine-dependent species post-opening. Our results show that estuarine-dependent nekton are using Packery Channel as a means of ingress into areas of the upper Laguna Madre’s seagrass meadows that were previously inaccessible, which may lead to higher fisheries productivity for some of these economically and ecologically important fishery species.

This paper presents a new technique that combines Grad’s 13-moment equations (G13) with a phenomenological approach to rarefied gas flows. This combination and the proposed solution technique capture some important non-equilibrium phenomena that appear in the early continuum-transition flow regime. In contrast to the fully coupled 13-moment equation set, a significant advantage of the present solution technique is that it does not require extra boundary conditions explicitly; Grad’s equations for viscous stress and heat flux are used as constitutive relations for the conservation equations instead of being solved as equations of transport. The relative computational cost of this novel technique is low in comparison to other methods, such as fully coupled solutions involving many moments or discrete methods. In this study, the proposed numerical procedure is tested on a planar Couette flow case, and the results are compared to predictions obtained from the direct simulation Monte Carlo method. This test case highlights the presence of normal viscous stresses and tangential heat fluxes that arise from non-equilibrium phenomena, which cannot be captured by the Navier–Stokes–Fourier constitutive equations or phenomenological modifications.

Prescribed fire and low thinning were applied to dry forests dominated by ponderosa pine (Pinus ponderosa) and Douglas-fir (Pseudotsuga menziesii) in the eastern Washington Cascades. Experimental design was an unbalanced analysis of variance with 4 control units, 4 thin units, 2 burn units and 2 thin/burn units. Thinning was designed to reduce basal area to 10–14 m2 ha−1 in a non-uniform pattern and burning was a low intensity spring burn. Burn coverage was spotty, ranging from 23–51%, and considered ineffective in reducing fuels at the time of application by management and research personnel. Both thinning and burning had effects on vegetation and fuels variables. Thinning reduced canopy closure, canopy bulk density, and basal area, and increased canopy base height. Burning had no influence on these canopy variables. Thinning increased 10-hr timelag (0.62–2.54 cm) fuels. Burning decreased 1-hr (0–0.62 cm) and 10-hr timelag fuels, forest floor depth and mass, and increased fuelbed depth. There were interactions between thinning and burning for 1-hr and 10-hr timelag fuels, and fuelbed depth. These differences in fuel properties did not translate into differences in simulated wildfire behavior and tree mortality. Thinning did increase potential surface fire flame length under 97 percentile weather, and active crown fire potential decreased on thinned units, but basal area survival did not significantly differ between treatments under 80 and 97 percentile weather. The scale at which data are presented has a large influence on interpretation of results. For example, torching fire behavior, expressed as an average at the unit level, was low, but 17% of the individual plots (about 30 plots total per unit) across all treatments did exhibit potential torching behavior.

Several distinct historical phases mark the evolution of chemotherapy for breast cancer, including the introduction of single agents in the 1960s, the development of cyclophosphamide, methotrexate, and 5-fluorouracil (CMF)-based regimens in the 1970s, the evaluation of the anthracyclines in the 1980s, and the incorporation of the taxanes in the 1990s. The greatest benefit from the use of standard combination chemotherapy occurs in the adjuvant setting, where absolute improvements in overall survival on the order of 10% have been achieved. In contrast, advances have been more modest in the treatment of metastatic disease, and novel agents and regimens are required for further progress. Of the new cytotoxic drugs introduced in the past decade, the taxanes and capecitabine appear to be the most promising, and have demonstrated activity alone and in combination for the treatment of metastatic disease. The introduction of trastuzumab, an antibody directed against the HER2 receptor protein, heralded the birth of targeted molecular therapy against breast cancer. It is clear that in the near future the further evaluation of trastuzumab combinations and the development of additional molecular agents will propel clinical breast cancer research. One of the main challenges of the new era will be identifying and validating predictive factors so that therapy may be individualized based on tumor biology, rather than empirically selected.

Background The role and clinical value of ERβ1 expression is controversial and recent data demonstrates that many ERβ antibodies are insensitive and/or non-specific. Therefore, we sought to comprehensively characterize ERβ1 expression across all sub-types of breast cancer using a validated antibody and determine the roles of this receptor in mediating response to multiple forms of endocrine therapy both in the presence and absence of ERα expression. Methods Nuclear and cytoplasmic expression patterns of ERβ1 were analyzed in three patient cohorts, including a retrospective analysis of a prospective adjuvant tamoxifen study and a triple negative breast cancer cohort. To investigate the utility of therapeutically targeting ERβ1, we generated multiple ERβ1 expressing cell model systems and determined their proliferative responses following anti-estrogenic or ERβ-specific agonist exposure. Results Nuclear ERβ1 was shown to be expressed across all major sub-types of breast cancer, including 25% of triple negative breast cancers and 33% of ER-positive tumors, and was associated with significantly improved outcomes in ERα-positive tamoxifen-treated patients. In agreement with these observations, ERβ1 expression sensitized ERα-positive breast cancer cells to the anti-cancer effects of selective estrogen receptor modulators (SERMs). However, in the absence of ERα expression, ERβ-specific agonists potently inhibited cell proliferation rates while anti-estrogenic therapies were ineffective. Conclusions Using a validated antibody, we have confirmed that nuclear ERβ1 expression is commonly present in breast cancer and is prognostic in tamoxifen-treated patients. Using multiple breast cancer cell lines, ERβ appears to be a novel therapeutic target. However, the efficacy of SERMs and ERβ-specific agonists differ as a function of ERα expression. Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (doi:10.1186/1471-2407-14-749) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

We examine practical memory concerns in a sample of community-dwelling older adults. Participants responded to open-ended questions that were designed to solicit information regarding memory self-efficacy, memory management, memory remediation, and fears about memory aging in adulthood. Results indicated that (a) important dates, such as birthdays and anniversaries, were easily remembered, but names were not; (b) external memory aids were used most frequently; (c) a desire to improve memory for names and certain types of verbal information was expressed; and (d) loss of independence emerged as a fear associated with memory aging. Implications of these findings for the design of strategies to improve everyday memory performance and clinical memory management in older adults are discussed.

A licensure assessment's purpose is to measure the relevant knowledge and skills required for safe and effective professional practice. Given the important role of licensure assessments, great care must be paid to the issue of validity: Is the assessment measuring what it claims to measure? In particular, evidence of a licensure assessment's content-related validity must be collected and evaluated prior to incorporating the assessment into a licensure process. The School Leaders Licensure Assessment was developed to be part of state licensure processes for entry-level school principals. To evaluate the use of the assessment for this purpose, a multistate panel of professionals examined the assessment and rendered judgments concerning its appropriateness. The results of this content-related validity study support the use of the School Leaders Licensure Assessment by affirming the relevance and importance of the content being assessed.

A recent analytical model for the liquid aluminum flow in a direct chill (DC) casting sump has been investigated and the scaling coefficients evaluated. The magnitudes of flow-field features, such as the depth of the temperature stratification in the sump and the velocity of the metal in the thermal boundary layer close to the solidification front, have been calculated. The results broadly agree with recent full numerical calculations of the flow in the sump. The variation of these essential flow features has been investigated across a range of typical ingot sizes, casting speeds, and superheats, and critical macro-casting-parameter combinations have been identified. The limitations of the model are discussed and the possible effects the identified structure has on macrosegregation are briefly explored. Finally, the influence on the flow field of the method of feeding the ingot is investigated, and it is concluded that the model and these results are not invalidated if the feeding is nonuniform over the top surface of the sump.

In a recent article, Zhang et al.1 observed the direct propulsion of a bulk graphene sponge when exposed to laser light. They attributed this to the momentum of the light-induced ejected electrons. However, the force provided by the ejected electrons is about 2.7 × 10−11 N (supposing that the average current and the kinetic energy of the ejected electrons are 9 × 10−7 A and 70 eV, respectively), which is far smaller than the gravitational force of a 0.86 mg graphene sponge. From our knowledge of rarefied gas dynamics, the horizontal, vertical and rotational motion of the laser-illuminated graphene sponge could be due to the radiometric force.

Erratum to the paper: The effect of Knudsen layers on rarefied cylindrical Couette gas flowsNishanth Dongari, Robert W. Barber, David R. Emerson, Stefan K. Stefanov, Yonghao Zhang, Jason M. ReeseMicrofluid Nanofluid (2013) 14:31–43

Die aktivierungsanalytische Bestimmung von Spuren Kupfer und Gold in Oberflachenschichten von Siliciumkristallen wird beschrieben. Das Silicium wird gemeinsam mit Gold- und Kupferstandardproben aktiviert und nach 15 Stunden Abkuhlung mit Salpetersaure und Flussaure abgeraucht. Aus dem Ruckstand wird das Gold mit Diisopropylather aus 3-n Bromwasserstoffsaure unter oxydierenden Bedingungen extrahiert. In der wasrigen Phase wird Kupfer als Sulfid gefallt. Die Aktivitat des eingeengten Goldextraktes wird im Scintillationszahler, die des Kupfersulfidniederschlages im Methandurchfluszahler gemessen. 2 ng Kupfer und 3 ng Gold sind noch mit Varianzen unter 15% bestimmbar.

Es wird uber eine neue, einfache Bestimmung des Gesamt- und eiweisgebundenen Jods in 0,5 ml Blutserum berichtet. Nach Schwefelsaure-Chromsaure-Aufschlus, vereinfacht in einem Gang ohne Cer(IV)-sulfat als Katalysator, wird die Jodsaure mit phosphoriger Saure reduziert. Alle Operationen werden mit einer kleinen, leicht zu handhabenden Apparatur durchgefuhrt. Die Isolierung des Jods aus der Veraschungslosung erfolgt mittels Isothermdiffusion in Natronlauge. Untersuchungsergebnisse uber die Beeinflussung der Jodausbeuten durch Variation der Schichtdicke der Veraschungslosung, des Druckes, der Temperatur, der Diffusionsdauer und der Alkalivorlage werden mitgeteilt. Bei gleichbleibenden Bedingungen der Isothermdiffusion zeigt sich, das die relativen Jodausbeuten bei Vorgaben von Nanogrammmengen im Vergleich zu Mikrogrammengen zuruckbleiben. Dennoch gelingt es nach einer fur Reihenuntersuchungen geeigneten Arbeitsvorschrift im Gegensatz zu den bisherigen Destillationsverfahren, nach verlustfreier und totaler Veraschung des Serums Jodausbeuten von praktisch 100 zu erzielen. Das in Alkali gebundene Jod wird in kleinem Volumen zur Ganze und storungsfrei seiner Bestimmung durch Katalysereaktion [Cer(IV)-sulfat—arsenige Saure] zugefuhrt. Die Methode wurde in ihren Arbeitsgangen eingehend mit131Jod, auch biologisch in Serumeiweis eingebaut, gepruft und ihre Standardabweichung mit ± 0,002 μg ermittelt.

MILLER1 has reported a lack of development of lymphoid tissue in mice after neonatal thymectomy. These mice had a low lymphocyte count in the peripheral blood, and both spleen and lymph nodes failed to develop germinal centres and only a few plasma cells were found in them. In addition, he found that allogeneic skin which was rejected in 10 or 12 days by normal mice grafted when 5 days old survived and nourished for more than 2 months in animals thymectomized at birth. On the other hand, animals thymectomized at birth which received a syngeneic homograft of thymus at the age of 3 weeks were able to reject allogeneic skin homografts like normal intact animals.