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Biomedical subjects

N Pierce

Publications and source records attributed to N Pierce.

4 recordsLinked to original sources

The lepidopteran mitochondrial control region: structure and evolution.

For several species of lepidoptera, most of the approximately 350-bp mitochondrial control-region sequences were determined. Six of these species are in one genus, Jalmenus; are closely related; and are believed to have undergone recent rapid speciation. Recent speciation was supported by the observation of low interspecific sequence divergence. Thus, no useful phylogeny could be constructed for the genus. Despite a surprising conservation of control-region length, there was little conservation of primary sequences either among the three lepidopteran genera or between lepidoptera and Drosophila. Analysis of secondary structure indicated only one possible feature in common--inferred stem loops with higher-than-random folding energies--although the positions of the structures in different species were unrelated to regions of primary sequence similarity. We suggest that the conserved, short length of control regions is related to the observed lack of heteroplasmy in lepidopteran mitochondrial genomes. In addition, determination of flanking sequences for one Jalmenus species indicated (i) only weak support for the available model of insect 12S rRNA structure and (ii) that tRNA translocation is a frequent event in the evolution of insect mitochondrial genomes.

Animals

Law enforcement and crisis intervention services: a critical relationship.

Law-enforcement officers tend to look at traditional mental health services as being of little help to them in dealing with persons they encounter experiencing emotional emergencies. They are frequently skeptical that emergency mental health programs offer more than they deliver. Because of their traditional base as the primary, and frequently only, available emergency "field" service in a community, a mental health emergency program must have a cooperative working relationship with law enforcement to serve a community successfully. This paper describes the development and maintenance of such a relationship, designed to increase the police case-finding potential.

Attitude of Health Personnel