The challenges of abundance: epithelial junctions and small GTPase signalling

Small GTPases of the Ras superfamily play critical roles in epithelial biogenesis. Many key morphogenetic functions occur when small GTPases act at epithelial junctions, where they mediate an increasingly complex interplay between cell-cell adhesion molecules and fundamental cellular processes, such as cytoskeletal activity, polarity and trafficking. Important recent advances in this field include the role of additional members of the Ras superfamily in cell-cell contact stability and the capacity for polarity determinants to regulate small GTPase signalling. Interestingly, small GTPases may participate in the cross-talk between different adhesive receptors: in tissues classical cadherins can selectively regulate other junctions through cell signalling rather than through a global influence on cell-cell cohesion.

Making it work: Identifying the challenges of collaborative international research

In this article, we explore the challenges - and benefits - of conducting collaborative research on an international scale. The authors - from Australia, Canada, and New Zealand - draw upon their experiences in designing and conducting a three-country study. The growing pressures on scholars to work in collaborative research teams are described, and key findings and reflections are presented. It is claimed that such work is a highly complex and demanding extension to the academic's role. The authors conclude that, despite the somewhat negative sense that this reflection may convey, the synergies gained and the valuable comparative learning that took place make overcoming these challenges a worthwhile process. The experiences as outlined in this paper suggest that developing understandings of the challenges inherent in undertaking international collaborative research might well be a required component of the professional development opportunities afforded to new scholars.

My system of career influences: Responding to challenges facing career education

The present article explores major challenges facing career psychology, specifically within the field of career education. Several issues are identified including the need for more effective links between theory and practice, the movement towards constructivist theories and the related challenges of applying such theories. These issues are explored within the context of the reformulation of career education and through the lens of the constructivist Systems Theory Framework of career development and its applied activity, the My Systems of Career Influences.

Evaluating trends in abundance of immature green turtles, Chelonia mydas, in the Greater Caribbean

Many long-lived marine species exhibit life history traits. that make them more vulnerable to overexploitation. Accurate population trend analysis is essential for development and assessment of management plans for these species. However, because many of these species disperse over large geographic areas, have life stages inaccessible to human surveyors, and/or undergo complex developmental migrations, data on trends in abundance are often available for only one stage of the population, usually breeding adults. The green turtle (Chelonia mydas) is one of these long-lived species for which population trends are based almost exclusively on either numbers of females that emerge to nest or numbers of nests deposited each year on geographically restricted beaches. In this study, we generated estimates of annual abundance for juvenile green turtles at two foraging grounds in the Bahamas based on long-term capture-mark-recapture (CMR) studies at Union Creek (24 years) and Conception Creek (13 years), using a two-stage approach. First, we estimated recapture probabilities from CMR data using the Cormack-Jolly-Seber models in the software program MARK; second, we estimated annual abundance of green turtles. at both study sites using the recapture probabilities in a Horvitz-Thompson type estimation procedure. Green turtle abundance did not change significantly in Conception Creek, but, in Union Creek, green turtle abundance had successive phases of significant increase, significant decrease, and stability. These changes in abundance resulted from changes in immigration, not survival or emigration. The trends in abundance on the foraging grounds did not conform to the significantly increasing trend for the major nesting population at Tortuguero, Costa Rica. This disparity highlights the challenges of assessing population-wide trends of green turtles and other long-lived species. The best approach for monitoring population trends may be a combination of (1) extensive surveys to provide data for large-scale trends in relative population abundance, and (2) intensive surveys, using CMR techniques, to estimate absolute abundance and evaluate the demographic processes' driving the trends.

Short- and long-term consequences of thermal variation in the larval environment of anurans

To survive adverse or unpredictable conditions in the ontogenetic environment, many organisms retain a level of phenotypic plasticity that allows them to meet the challenges of rapidly changing conditions. Larval anurans are widely known for their ability to modify behaviour, morphology and physiological processes during development, making them an ideal model system for studies of environmental effects on phenotypic traits. Although temperature is one of the most important factors influencing the growth, development and metamorphic condition of larval anurans, many studies have failed to include ecologically relevant thermal fluctuations among their treatments. We compared the growth and age at metamorphosis of striped marsh frogs Limnodynastes peronii raised in a diurnally fluctuating thermal regime and a stable regime of the same mean temperature. We then assessed the long-term effects of the larval environment on the morphology and performance of post-metamorphic frogs. Larval L. peronii from the fluctuating treatment were significantly longer throughout development and metamorphosed about 5 days earlier. Frogs from the fluctuating group metamorphosed at a smaller mass and in poorer condition compared with the stable group, and had proportionally shorter legs. Frogs from the fluctuating group showed greater jumping performance at metamorphosis and less degradation in performance during a 10-week dormancy. Treatment differences in performance could not be explained by whole-animal morphological variation, suggesting improved contractile properties of the muscles in the fluctuating group.

Comparison of two-dimensional speckle and tissue velocity based strain and validation with harmonic phase magnetic resonance imaging

Two-dimensional (2-D) strain (epsilon(2-D)) on the basis of speckle tracking is a new technique for strain measurement. This study sought to validate epsilon(2-D) and tissue velocity imaging (TVI)based strain (epsilon(TVI)) with tagged harmonic-phase (HARP) magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). Thirty patients (mean age. 62 +/- 11 years) with known or suspected ischemic heart disease were evaluated. Wall motion (wall motion score index 1.55 +/- 0.46) was assessed by an expert observer. Three apical images were obtained for longitudinal strain (16 segments) and 3 short-axis images for radial and circumferential strain (18 segments). Radial epsilon(TVI) was obtained in the posterior wall. HARP MRI was used to measure principal strain, expressed as maximal length change in each direction. Values for epsilon(2-D), epsilon(TVI), and HARP MRI were comparable for all 3 strain directions and were reduced in dysfunctional segments. The mean difference and correlation between longitudinal epsilon(2-D) and HARP MRI (2.1 +/- 5.5%, r = 0.51, p < 0.001) were similar to those between longitudinal epsilon(TVI), and HARP MRI (1.1 +/- 6.7%, r = 0.40, p < 0.001). The mean difference and correlation were more favorable between radial epsilon(2-D) and HARP MRI (0.4 +/- 10.2%, r = 0.60, p < 0.001) than between radial epsilon(TVI), and HARP MRI (3.4 +/- 10.5%, r = 0.47, p < 0.001). For circumferential strain, the mean difference and correlation between epsilon(2-D) and HARP MRI were 0.7 +/- 5.4% and r = 0.51 (p < 0.001), respectively. In conclusion, the modest correlations of echocardiographic and HARP MRI strain reflect the technical challenges of the 2 techniques. Nonetheless, epsilon(2-D) provides a reliable tool to quantify regional function, with radial measurements being more accurate and feasible than with TVI. Unlike epsilon(TVI), epsilon(2-D) provides circumferential measurements. (c) 2006 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.