In a series of lectures delivered in 1874, Charcot described a new syndrome which he termed amyo-trophlc lateral sclerosis (ALS). At that time he presented the essential pathological and classical characteristics of the disease which, although later modified and refined by himself and subsequent workers, have remained remarkedly classical for ALS during the almost 100 years since they were publ...

BACKGROUND Mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) hypervariable region (HVR) sequences of prehistoric Polynesian chicken samples reflect dispersal of two haplogroups--D and E--by the settlers of the Pacific. The distribution of these chicken haplogroups has been used as an indicator of human movement. Recent analyses suggested similarities between prehistoric Pacific and South American chicken samples, perh...

Montustraea annulnris, M. ~filvenlutu, and M . ,fiunk.si are three recently separated species that together dominate reefs of the tropical western Atlantic. Despite morphological, life-history, ecological and genetic differences. the legitimacy of their status as separate species has been questioned. This controversy stems from both the scarcity of unambiguous, diagnostic differences among them...

Occurrence If you have asthma, you're not alone . . . Asthma is the sixth most common chronic condition in our nation, affecting between 12 and 17 million people. In children, asthma usually occurs by age 5 (several studies show that 50 to 80% of children with asthma develop symptoms before their 5 birthday). Adults usually develop asthma in their 30s, but even older adults can contract the dis...

A variant of one form of red cell carbonic anhydrase was discovered in "Chamorro" inhabitants from the islands of Guam and Saipan. Segregation of this trait in four pedigrees indicates that it is under the control of a single autosomal gene.

Two new sulfate monoesters of hemibastadins-1 and -2 were isolated from the marine sponge Ianthella basta (Pallas) from Guam. A third new compound was tentatively assigned the structure 34-O-sulfatobastadin-9. The 1-O-sulfatohemibastadins-1 and –2 were antagonists of the RyR1-FKBP12 Ca channel under conditions where the known compound bastadin-5 exhibits potent agonism (EC50 2 μM).

The literature covering the biology, ecology, horticulture, and conservation of critically endangered tree Serianthes nelsonii Merr. was reviewed. roots, stems, leaves this charismatic legume revealed highly plastic traits responded positively to horticultural manipulations improve quality container-grown transplants. Pre-sowing seed treatments coat scarification 1 h imbibition generated 85% 90...

In our recent papers we applied fractal methods to extract the earthquake precursory signatures from scaling characteristics of the ULF geomagnetic data, obtained in a seismic active region of Guam Island during the large earthquake of 8 August 1993. We found specific dynamics of their fractal characteristics (spectral exponents and fractal dimensions) before the earthquake: appearance of the f...

Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis/parkinsonism-dementia complex (ALS/PDC) is a fatal neurodegenerative disease found in the Chamorro people of Guam and other Pacific Island populations. The etiology is unknown, although both genetic and environmental factors appear important. To identify loci for ALS/PDC, we conducted both genome-wide linkage and association analyses, using approximately 400 micros...