פרסומים

A specimen of Cichla kelberi Kullander and Ferreira, 2006 was captured for the first time from Lake Kinneret (Sea of Galilee or Lake Tiberias), Israel. Its identification was made by morphological and molecular means. Although importation of this species to Israel is prohibited, commercial importers have smuggled juveniles as aquarium fish. The introduction vector of the specimen in Lake Kinneret is probably due to release or escape from the aquariums of hobbyists. © Golani et al.

Rationale: Oleoyl glycine (OlGly), a recently discovered fatty acid amide that is structurally similar to N- acylethanolamines, which include the endocannabinoid, anandamide (AEA), as well as endogenous peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor alpha (PPARα) agonists oleoylethanolamide (OEA) and palmitoylethanolamide (PEA), has been shown to interfere with nicotine reward and dependence in mice. Objectives and methods: Behavioral and molecular techniques were used to investigate the ability of OlGly to interfere with the affective properties of morphine and morphine withdrawal (MWD) in male Sprague–Dawley rats. Results: Synthetic OlGly (1–30 mg/kg, intraperitoneal [ip]) produced neither a place preference nor aversion on its own; however, at doses of 1 and 5 mg/kg, ip, it blocked the aversive effects of MWD in a place aversion paradigm. This effect was reversed by the cannabinoid 1 (CB1) receptor antagonist, AM251 (1 mg/kg, ip), but not the PPARα antagonist, MK886 (1 mg/kg, ip). OlGly (5 or 30 mg/kg, ip) did not interfere with a morphine-induced place preference or reinstatement of a previously extinguished morphine-induced place preference. Ex vivo analysis of tissue (nucleus accumbens, amygdala, prefrontal cortex, and interoceptive insular cortex) collected from rats experiencing naloxone-precipitated MWD revealed that OlGly was selectively elevated in the nucleus accumbens. MWD did not modify levels of the endocannabinoids 2-AG and AEA, nor those of the PPARα ligands, OEA and PEA, in any region evaluated. Conclusion: Here, we show that OlGly interferes with the aversive properties of acute naloxone-precipitated morphine withdrawal in rats. These results suggest that OlGly may reduce the impact of MWD and may possess efficacy in treating opiate withdrawal. © 2019, Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.

Twenty-three olive trees were found to grow in traditional orchard sites in the Negev Highlands desert, southern Israel. Their location was marked on maps, and their growth, morphology, biology, preservation and survival was monitored. Some of them are presently maintained by the Bedouin population of the Negev, whereas others seemed to have survived from earlier periods. The average annual rainfall in this region is 90-130 mm. Most of the orchards were deliberately planted in preexisting agricultural plots, built during the Byzantine and Early Muslim era (3rd-8th centuries CE). They were irrigated by harvesting runoff water. The Byzantine era was the most populated period in the Negev Highlands, when wine and olive oil were the main horticultural products. A variety of domesticated fruit trees are found in the present abandoned orchards: olive, fig, grapevine, pomegranate, almond, date palm, carob, pistachio and bitter orange. The trees have not been artificially irrigated for at least seven decades. Nevertheless, most of them continue to flourish and bear fruit. We focused on understanding the abandoned olive trees' survival and adaptation mechanisms. Olive trees growing was a favorite crop to Byzantine farmers due to the significant economic value of olive oil and good adaptation to the environmental conditions in the Negev Highlands. © Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, 2018.

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 More than 3000 international investment agreements (IIAs) provide foreign investors with substantive protections in host states and access to binding investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS). In recent years, states increasingly have sought to change their treaty commitments through the practices of renegotiation and termination, so far affecting about 300 IIAs. The received wisdom is that this development reflects a “backlash” against the regime and an attempt by governments to reclaim sovereignty, consistent with broader anti-globalization trends. Using new data on the degree to which state regulatory space (SRS) is restricted by IIA provisions, this article provides the first systematic investigation into the effect of ISDS experiences on state decisions to adjust their treaties. The empirical analysis indicates that, indeed, exposure to investment claims leads either to the renegotiation of IIAs in the direction of greater SRS or to their termination. This effect varies, however, with the nature of involvement in ISDS and with respect to different treaty provisions. 

©2018 Elsevier Ltd The role of demography is often suggested to be a key factor in both biological and cultural evolution. Recent research has shown that the linkage between population size and cultural evolution is not straightforward and emerges from the interplay of many demographic, economic, social and ecological variables. Formal modelling has yielded interesting insights into the complex relationship between population structure, intergroup connectedness, and magnitude and extent of population extinctions. Such studies have highlighted the importance of effective (as opposed to census) population size in transmission processes. At the same time, it remained unclear how such insights can be applied to material culture phenomena in the prehistoric record, especially for deeper prehistory. In this paper we approach the issue of population sizes during the time of the Lower to Middle Paleolithic transition through the proxy of regional trajectories of lithic technological change, identified in the archaeological records from Africa, the Levant, Southwestern and Northwestern Europe. Our discussion of the results takes into consideration the constraints inherent to the archaeological record of deep time – e.g., preservation bias, time-averaging and the incomplete nature of the archaeological record – and of extrapolation from discrete archaeological case studies to an evolutionary time scale. We suggest that technological trajectories of change over this transitional period reflect the robustness of transmission networks. Our results show differences in the pattern and rate of cultural transmission in these regions, from which we infer that information networks, and their underlying effective population sizes, also differed.

The pituitary gonadotropins, luteinizing hormone (LH) and follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH), are the principle endocrine drivers of reproductive processes in the gonads of jawed vertebrates. Canonically, FSH recruits and maintains selected ovarian follicles for maturation and LH induces the stages of germinal vesicle breakdown and ovulation. In mammals, LH and FSH specifically activate cognate G-protein-coupled receptors that affect the proteins involved in steroidogenesis, protein hormone synthesis, and gametogenesis. This dual-gonadotropin model also exists in some fish species, but not in all. In fact, due to their diverse number of species, extended number of ecological niches, and remarkably flexible reproductive strategies, fish are appropriate as models to understand the co-evolution of gonadotropins and their receptors. In this study, we cloned and characterized the expression profile over the final stages of ovarian maturation of carp (Cyprinus carpio) LHCGR and FSHR. Expression of both gonadotropin receptors increased in the later stage of early vitellogenesis, suggesting that both LH and FSH play a role in the development of mature follicles. We additionally tested the activation of cLHCGR and cFSHR using homologous and heterologous recombinant gonadotropins in order to gain insight into an evolutionary model of permissive gonadotropin receptor function. These data suggest that carp (Cyprinus carpio) gonad development and maturation depends on a specific gonadotropin profile that does not reflect the temporally distinct dual-gonadotropin model observed in salmonids or mammals, and that permissive gonadotropin receptor activation is a specific feature of Ostariophysi, not all teleosts.

The pituitary gonadotropins, luteinizing hormone (LH) and follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH), are the principle endocrine drivers of reproductive processes in the gonads of jawed vertebrates. Canonically, FSH recruits and maintains selected ovarian follicles for maturation and LH induces the stages of germinal vesicle breakdown and ovulation. In mammals, LH and FSH specifically activate cognate G-protein-coupled receptors that affect the proteins involved in steroidogenesis, protein hormone synthesis, and gametogenesis. This dual-gonadotropin model also exists in some fish species, but not in all. In fact, due to their diverse number of species, extended number of ecological niches, and remarkably flexible reproductive strategies, fish are appropriate as models to understand the co-evolution of gonadotropins and their receptors. In this study, we cloned and characterized the expression profile over the final stages of ovarian maturation of carp (Cyprinus carpio) LHCGR and FSHR. Expression of both gonadotropin receptors increased in the later stage of early vitellogenesis, suggesting that both LH and FSH play a role in the development of mature follicles. We additionally tested the activation of cLHCGR and cFSHR using homologous and heterologous recombinant gonadotropins in order to gain insight into an evolutionary model of permissive gonadotropin receptor function. These data suggest that carp (Cyprinus carpio) gonad development and maturation depends on a specific gonadotropin profile that does not reflect the temporally distinct dual-gonadotropin model observed in salmonids or mammals, and that permissive gonadotropin receptor activation is a specific feature of Ostariophysi, not all teleosts. © 2019 The authors.

Pluripotent embryonic stem cells are considered to have open and accessible chromatin relative to differentiated cells. Schlesinger and Meshorer review chromatin and epigenetic features in 2i- versus serum-grown conditions to come to a clearer picture of the genuine characteristics of pluripotency as opposed to artifacts of culture condition. © 2019 Elsevier Inc. Pluripotent embryonic stem cells (ESCs) are considered to have open and accessible chromatin relative to differentiated cells. However, as many studies supporting these conclusions relied on ESCs grown in serum, it has been suggested that some of these features are the result of culture conditions, particularly as more recent work using GSK3/MEK inhibitors (“2i”) to mimic “ground-state” conditions of the pre-implantation blastocyst observed some altered epigenetic features. Here, we systematically review chromatin and epigenetic features in 2i- and serum-grown conditions to come to a clearer picture of what are genuine characteristics of pluripotency and what open chromatin features predict pluripotency. © 2019 Elsevier Inc.