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We know much about pathogen evolution and the emergence of new disease strains, but less about host resistance and how it is signaled to other individuals and subsequently maintained. The cline in frequency of black-coated wolves ( Canis lupus ) across North America is hypothesized to result from a relationship with canine distemper virus (CDV) outbreaks. We tested this hypothesis using cross-sectional data from wolf populations across North America that vary in the prevalence of CDV and the allele that makes coats black, longitudinal data from Yellowstone National Park, and modeling. We found that the frequency of CDV outbreaks generates fluctuating selection that results in heterozygote advantage that in turn affects the frequency of the black allele, optimal mating behavior, and black wolf cline across the continent.

This volume involves both disciplinary and historical issues, and aims to integrate results and methods of the two disciplines in the interest of philosophy as a whole. There has been a long-standing assumption that - for historical, methodological, or doctrinal reasons - analytic philosophy of mind has little in common with the tradition of phenomenology that began with Brentano, and which was developed by Husserl and continued through such figures as Heidegger, Sartre, and Merleau-Ponty. This volume overturns that assumption by demonstrating how work in phenomenology may lead to progress on problems central to both classical phenomenology and contemporary philosophy of mind. Specifically, the essays gathered here (all written for the volume) bring ideas from classical phenomenology into the recent debates in philosophy of mind, and vice versa, in discussions of consciousness, intentionality, perception, action, selfknowledge, temporal awareness, holism about mental state contents, and the prospects for 'explaining' consciousness.

A petroleum refinery secondary effluent was treated using two freezing techniques--spray freezing and unidirectional downward freezing (UDF). The freezing processes were effective to remove toxicity and total organic carbon (TOC)- and chemical oxygen demand (COD)-causing materials in the effluent. Agitation of the liquid during UDF significantly improved the impurity separation efficiency; 85 to 96% removal of TOC and COD was achieved without any pretreatment and freezing only 70% of the feed water. The treatment efficiency of the spray freezing was at the same level as that of UDF without mixing. The spray ice with longer storage time released more contaminants with early meltwater. The initial contaminant concentration of the feed water and the freezing temperatures (-10 degrees C and -25 degrees C) had no significant influence on the treatment efficiency. A small fluctuation in effluent TOC concentration caused a dramatic change in effluent toxicity (Microtox). The effective concentration (EC20) (Microtox) was effective in detecting effluent toxicity.

IntroductionNeutrophil extracellular traps (NETs) have not been demonstrated after trauma and subsequent surgery. Neutrophil extracellular traps are formed from pure mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) under certain conditions, which is potently proinflammatory. We hypothesized that injury and orthopedic trauma surgery would induce NET production with mtDNA as a structural component.MethodsNeutrophils were isolated 8 trauma patients requiring orthopedic surgery postinjury and up to 5 days postoperatively. Four healthy volunteers provided positive and negative controls. Total hip replacement patients acted as an uninjured surgical control group. Neutrophil extracellular traps were visualized with DNA (Hoechst 33342TM/Sytox Green/MitoSox/MitoTracker) stains using live cell fluorescence microscopy with downstream quantitative polymerase chain reaction analysis of DNA composition.ResultsNeutrophil extracellular traps were present after injury in all 8 trauma patients. They persisted for 5 days postoperatively. Delayed surgery resulted in NET resolution, but they reformed postoperatively. Total hip replacement patients developed NETs postoperatively, which resolved by day 5. Quantitative polymerase chain reaction analysis of NET-DNA composition revealed that NETs formed after injury and surgery were made of mtDNA with no detectable nuclear DNA component.ConclusionsNeutrophil extracellular traps formed after major trauma and subsequent surgery contain mtDNA and represent a novel marker of heightened innate immune activation. They could be considered when timing surgery after trauma to prevent systemic NET-induced inflammatory complications.

Background: The largest terrestrial species in the order Carnivora are wide-ranging and rare because of their positions at the top of food webs. They are some of the world's most admired mammals and, ironically, some of the most imperiled. Most have experienced substantial population declines and range contractions throughout the world during the past two centuries. Because of the high metabolic demands that come with endothermy and large body size, these carnivores often require large prey and expansive habitats. These food requirements and wide-ranging behavior often bring them into confl ict with humans and livestock. This, in addition to human intolerance, renders them vulnerable to extinction. Large carnivores face enormous threats that have caused massive declines in their populations and geographic ranges, including habitat loss and degradation, persecution, utilization, and depletion of prey. We highlight how these threats can affect the conservation status and ecological roles of this planet's 31 largest carnivores. Advances: Based on empirical studies, trophic cascades have been documented for 7 of the 31 largest mammalian carnivores (not including pinnipeds). For each of these species (see fi gure), human actions have both caused declines and contributed to recovery, providing "natural experiments" for quantifying their effects on food-web and community structure. Large carnivores deliver economic and ecosystem services via direct and indirect pathways that help maintain mammal, avian, invertebrate, and herpetofauna abundance or richness. Further, they affect other ecosystem processes and conditions, such as scavenger subsidies, disease dynamics, carbon storage, stream morphology, and crop production. The maintenance or recovery of ecologically effective densities of large carnivores is an important tool for maintaining the structure and function of diverse ecosystems. Outlook: Current ecological knowledge indicates that large carnivores are necessary for the maintenance of biodiversity and ecosystem function. Human actions cannot fully replace the role of large carnivores. Additionally, the future of increasing human resource demands and changing climate will affect biodiversity and ecosystem resiliency. These facts, combined with the importance of resilient ecosystems, indicate that large carnivores and their habitats should be maintained and restored wherever possible. Preventing the extinction of these species and the loss of their irreplaceable ecological function and importance will require novel, bold, and deliberate actions. We propose a Global Large Carnivore Initiative to coordinate local, national, and international research, conservation, and policy.

Murray Valley encephalitis virus (MVEV) is a medically important mosquito-borne flavivirus found in Australia and Papua New Guinea (PNG). Partial envelope gene nucleotide sequences of 28 isolates of MVEV from Western Australia (WA) between 1972 and 2003 were aligned and compared phylogenetically with the prototype MVE-1-51 from Victoria in 1951 and isolates from northern Queensland and PNG. Monoclonal antibody-binding patterns were also investigated. Results showed that the majority of isolates of MVEV from widely disparate locations in WA were genetically and phenotypically homogeneous. Furthermore, isolates of MVEV from WA and northern Queensland were almost identical, confirming results from earlier studies. Recent isolates of MVEV from Western Province in PNG were more similar to Australian isolates of MVEV than to isolates from PNG in 1956 and 1966, providing further evidence for the movement of flaviviruses between PNG and Australia. Additional representatives of a unique variant of MVEV (OR156) from Kununurra in the northeast Kimberley region of WA were also detected. This suggests that the OR156 lineage is still intermittently active but may be restricted to a small geographic area in northern WA, possibly due to altered biological characteristics. © 2007 Springer Science+Business Media, LLC.