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Thursday, January 30, 2014

Zombie bees

These days our honey bee colonies (and other bees) are subject to numerous pathogens and parasites. The interaction among multiple pathogens and parasites is the proposed cause for the so called Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD), a syndrome characterized by worker bees abandoning their hive.

As if this wasn't enough about a year ago colleagues from San Francisco and Los Angeles provided the first documentation that the phorid fly Apocephalus borealis, previously known to parasitize bumble bees and wasps, also infects and eventually kills honey bees and may pose an emerging threat to North American apiculture.

The way the fly kills the bee isn't pretty. The female Apocephalus pierces the bee's abdomen with a sword-like tube and deposits her eggs. The developing larvae attack the bee's brains, disorienting it into flying at night; hence the name, "zombie bee". Usually the poor victim dies within a few hours of exhibiting the aberrant behavior — fortunate because, about seven days later, up to 13 mature Apocephalus borealis will emerge at where the bee's thorax meets its head, decapitating the bee in the process; hence the name, Apocephalus.

The colleagues used DNA Barcoding to confirm that the phorid flies that emerged from honey bees and bumble bees belong to the same species. Additional microarray analyses of honey bees from infected hives revealed that these animals are often infected with pathogens that are also associated with CCD, implicating the fly as a potential vector or reservoir of these honey bee pathogens. The researchers found that 77 % of the hives they sampled in the San Francisco Bay Area had been infected by the parasite. They also found the parasites in commercial hives in California's Central Valley and South Dakota.

As a consequence the researchers started ZomBee Watch, a citizen science project sponsored by the San Francisco State University Department of Biology, the San Francisco State University Center for Computing for Life Sciences and the Natural History Museum of LA County. ZomBee Watch has three main goals:

- To determine where in North America the Zombie Fly Apocephalus borealis is parasitizing honey bees.
- To determine how often honey bees leave their hives at night, even if they are not parasitized by the Zombie Fly.
- To engage citizen scientists in making a significant contribution to knowledge about honey bees and to become better observers of nature.

ZomBee Watch already lists two confirmed infections outside California, one in South Dakota and another one discovered only recently, in Vermont. It is certainly too early to say if the parasite has established in the East. The discovery was made in October 2013 and authorities and researchers are now waiting to see if it survives the winter which - in this case fortunately - has been harsh so far. I am willing to freeze a little longer if it helps the bees.

Wednesday, January 29, 2014

True cinnamon

The plant genus Cinnamomum consists of about 250 species of that are aromatic and contain flavoring substances. Some of the species supposedly show antiinflammatory, antidiabetic, and antioxidant effects which increased the use of Cinnamon in traditional medicine. Cinnamomum verum, a native of Sri Lanka, is known as the true cinnamon. It is only cultivated in Sri Lanka and India, and the dried bark is used as the famous spice for biscuits, cakes, and other sweets. Most of us know the cinnamon sticks and we can buy them for little money. However, each of those sticks requires quite a bit of work. The outer bark of the plant is scraped by hand and the inner bark is then carefully removed with a knife. The best parts are used to create an outer sheaf and the other parts are placed within. These outer sheaves are joined to each other and overlap slightly to create a standard length stick. The sticks are then rolled daily as they dry and are tied into bundles for trading and transport. Not long ago the BBC aired a 3 part series on spices - The spice trail. It is quite an eye opener as it nicely shows how much work goes into the spices we can buy for cents in our grocery stores.

As with every valuable commodity it didn't take long until authorities and researchers discovered that Cinnamomum verum is often substituted with the hard, thick, and less aromatic bark of Cinnamomum aromaticum (Chinese cinnamon). This alternative however has a more bitter and burning flavor due to a higher amount of coumarin. True cinnamon has very little coumarin. To make matter worse the dried bark of another species, Cinnamomum malabatrum, is also passed off as true cinnamon.

Any attempt to distinguish species based on the morphology of bark is futile and most cinnamon is consumed as powder. Sounds like a case for DNA Barcoding and indeed a group of Indian researchers have now developed a method that promises to help with the problem. The biggest issue for DNA-based identification of cinnamon was the the presence of proteins, polysaccharides, and phenolic compounds of the lignin pathway that act as strong inhibitors of DNA extraction. Polysaccharides and polyphenols are also known to inhibit PCR. The researchers developed a way to extract DNA from the dried bark of Cinnamomum species which reduces the concentration of all those interfering substances and tested the products by Random Amplified Polymorphic DNA (RAPD) runs that produce different banding patterns for different species - here the true cinnamon and both common adulterants. They also successfully amplified rbcL, one of the official DNA Barcode markers for plants.

Looks like there is a good way to ensure that my next cinnamon bun actually contains only true cinnamon!

Tuesday, January 28, 2014

Rainforest diversity regulators

Dictyophora sp. (credit Bob Thomas)
Tropical forests are important reservoirs of biodiversity, but the processes that maintain this diversity remain poorly understood. The Janzen–Connell hypothesis suggests that specialized natural enemies such as insect herbivores and fungal pathogens maintain high diversity by elevating mortality when plant species occur at high density (negative density dependence; NDD). NDD has been detected widely in tropical forests, but the prediction that NDD caused by insects and pathogens has a community-wide role in maintaining tropical plant diversity remains untested.

This is the intro to a new study that showed that fungi, often seen as pests, play a crucial role policing biodiversity in rainforests. Researchers found that fungi regulate diversity in rainforests by making dominant species victims of their own success. Fungi spread quickly between closely-packed plants of the same species, preventing them from dominating and enabling a wider range of species to flourish. Seedlings growing near plants of the same species are more likely to die. It has long been suspected that something in the soil is responsible, and the new study shows that fungi play a crucial role. If lots of plants from one species grow in the same place, fungi quickly cut their population down to size, leveling the playing field to give rarer species a chance.

The researchers sprayed plots in the rainforest of Belize with water, insecticide or fungicide every week for 17 months. They found that fungicides dealt a significant blow to diversity, reducing the effective number of species by 16%. While insecticides did change the composition of surviving species, they did not have an overall impact on diversity. The results suggest that insects disproportionately kill certain plant species, reducing their abundances during the transition from seeds to seedlings. Insects thus strongly influence the structure of plant communities in this forest; however, by doing so relatively independently of plant density, their net effect on plant species diversity is small.

The initial expectation was that the removal of both fungi and insects would have an effect on the tree species present but it was actually only the removal of the fungi that affected diversity. It was also suspected that the fungus-like oomycetes might play a part in policing rainforest diversity, but treatments with substances that kill oomycetes showed no significant effect on the number of surviving species, suggesting that true fungi and not oomycetes are driving rainforest diversity.

Our experiments highlight that both insect herbivores and pathogens help structure tropical plant communities at the early stages of community assembly and provide support for a pivotal role for natural-enemy-mediated NDD in maintaining species diversity in this tropical forest. Although the magnitude of the NDD we observed was relatively small, this study was conducted over a relatively short timescale (17 months) in a tropical forest of relatively low plant species diversity (approximately 320 tree species have been recorded in the reserve). The effects of NDD will probably accumulate over time, and may be stronger in more species-rich forests. Indeed, similar experiments in other forests are now needed to evaluate the generality of the Janzen–Connell hypothesis as an explanation for variation in species diversity among tropical plant communities.

Thursday, January 23, 2014

A new bat species

Myotis annatessae, skull drawings
About 17 years ago my colleague Alex Borisenko was actively collecting bats in Vietnam. A small collection of bats as part of an ecological assessment in the Vu Quang Nature Reserve (Ha Tinh Province) contained several specimens of small mouse eared bats (genus Myotis) and  he provisionally identified those as ‘Myotis siligorensis'.

Years later he and his colleague from the Zoological Museum at the Moscow State University had a chance to do some more in-depth comparisons with a larger series of South-East Asian Myotis and they found clear morphological differences of the Vu Quang specimens from the real Myotis siligorensis and its related forms. This was further confirmed by DNA Barcoding analysis which showed marked genetic divergence between the groups. The logical consequence -  the Vu Quang specimens represent a new bat species and the researchers provide these findings and a full formal description in a recently published paper.

The new species resembles smaller specimens of the widespread South Asian Myotis muricola, though differs from it and from other small mouse-eared bats by a set of cranial and external characters. Genetic analyses confirm that the new species is distinct from the other named forms of Asian Myotis. Comparison of sequence diversity in the DNA barcode region of the COI gene among East Asian members of Myotis, highlighted several taxonomic questions related to Asian ‘whiskered bats’, suggesting that common morphological diagnostic traits may be shared by genetically divergent species.
The young scientist Anna Tess
showing interest in the plant kingdom

When it came to naming the new species, the authors decided to name it Myotis annatessae in honor of Alex's two-year old daughter Anna Tess. I like this idea far more than naming new species after some celebrities. And who knows, maybe this close connection to the scientific name of an animal will instill the future wish to pursue science or simply nurture appreciation for nature and its wonders. Either way, a great choice, and it sounds good, too.

Tuesday, January 21, 2014

How to increase value and reduce waste 3

Post #3 of my little series on the Lancet papers on how reduce waste in research is a take on how bureaucracy is contributing to the problem. I think the best way to summarize this contribution is to cite an example that was given in it. Imagine a group of researchers aiming to pool data from several cohort studies. In biomedical research you generally need approval to use patient relevant information. Such an approval is usually provided by an ethics committee. Sweden has a central research ethics committee for this.

In 2010, a group of researchers in Sweden wanted to pool data from several cohort studies to identify risk factors for subarachnoid haemorrhage (a form of stroke). They identified about 20 studies, and spent about 300 h contacting all investigators and getting signed data-sharing agreements and data security processes agreed. The team recorded the time taken for each step of the approval process. About 200 h of office time was spent on the ethics approval and resubmission process alone. The research ethics committee wanted to see all information that the participants of all cohorts had been given about the purpose of the study. These documents had to be provided as 18 copies and submitted manually. It took the team 6 months to collect all the information sheets from the 20 different cohorts, several of which began recruitment in the 1960s and for which little knowledge about what information was given by whom to whom in the recruitment phase was poor. The research ethics committee eventually had the team advertise in national newspapers about the pooling project, listing all original cohorts so that all individuals who did not want the team to use their data for this project could withdraw their consent for the study. Not one participant withdrew. It took more than 3 years to reach the stage of pooling data from the cohorts, ready for analysis.

Three years before the team could start researching. Frankly, I would probably have suffered a stroke myself if I had to jump through all those hoops. Luckily, in our field of research bureaucracy is usually not that excessive because most of what we do does not involve experiments or empirical studies on humans. Funnily enough, I had to write a few similar applications for our school program although we are not collecting any information of the children but gather data together with them. However, that took only 1-2 h of my time and not years. Overall, the three major categories in bureaucracy I have to deal with are grant proposals, permits for field work/research or university internal approval of research funding. All have their relevance and are required, and you can find both very stringent, clear-cut or cumbersome, time-consuming procedures for them. The last I am going to do here is to complain about specific ones but I can see that an increasing number of regulations can drive colleagues mad. Let's face it - all of us were trained to do research to the best of our abilities and we were -hopefully- given all the tools to do good science but nobody taught us how to write a grant proposal, how to write interim and final reports, how to apply for research permits, or how to apply to be able to apply for grants. Well, we learn that over the years. We even learn to live with the fact that each funding organisation, authority or university admin uses different formats and puts an incomprehensible emphasis on formatting. The only unfortunate thing is that the main teaching and learning tools are rejection and repeated revision.

All recommendations in the paper are addressing the science regulators and policy makers. Here are some that might be - at least in parts - applicable in other domains of science:

  • People regulating research should use their influence to reduce other causes of waste and inefficiency in research
    • Monitoring—people regulating, governing, and managing research should measure the extent to which the research they approve and manage complies with the other recommendations in this Series
  • Regulators and policy makers should work with researchers, patients, and health professionals to streamline and harmonise the laws, regulations, guidelines, and processes that govern whether and how research can be done, and ensure that they are proportionate to the plausible risks associated with the research
    • Monitoring—regulators, individuals who govern and manage research, and researchers should measure and report delays and inconsistencies that result from failures to streamline and harmonise regulations
  • Researchers and research managers should increase the efficiency of recruitment, retention, data monitoring, and data sharing in research through the use of research designs known to reduce inefficiencies, and do additional research to learn how efficiency can be increased
    • Monitoring—researchers and methodologists should do research to identify ways to improve the efficiency of biomedical research

An Arctic Foodweb

Zackenberg, Greenland
Understanding who feeds on whom and how often is the basis for understanding how nature is built and works. A new study now suggests that the methods used to depict food webs may have a strong impact on how we perceive their makeup.

In order to understand how feeding interactions are structured, researchers from Finland and colleagues here at BIO chose to focus on one of the simplest food webs on Earth: the moths and butterflies of Northeast Greenland, as attacked by their specialist enemies, parasitic wasps and flies developing on their host, killing it in the process. This work is the result of a five-year exploration of insect food webs of Zackenberg in the High Arctic. The beauty of this rather simple system is that one has to keep track of perhaps only a handful of species which provides one with a food web structure of manageable complexity. As a result researchers were much more confident to have captured the full system and to have ruled out interactions that were not part of it.

The researchers supplemented the traditional technique of rearing host larvae until the emergence of either the adult or its enemy with DNA Barcoding. More specifically, they targeted COI regions which differ between the predator and the prey, in order to selectively detect both immature predators from within their prey, and the remains of the larval meal from the stomachs of adult predators. By then comparing the sequences obtained to a reference library of DNA Barcodes of all species in the region, they could determine exactly who had attacked whom. One of the reasons to use this approach was the obscure nature of some species involved. As larvae, some of the predators attack their prey when they are hidden in the ground or vegetation, where they are likely going to missed by any collector. By instead looking for prey remains in the guts of the more easily-detectable adult predators, the scientists were able to establish previously unknown links within the food web.

The new approach changed every measure of the food web structure with three times as many interactions between species as known before. On average, most types of predator proved less specialized than assumed, and most types of prey were attacked by many more predators than previously thought. Furthermore, the comparison of the different techniques with each other revealed that food web structure more among the different techniques than among localities. Thus, whatever we think that we know about food web structure across the globe may be dictated as much by how we have searched as by how species really interact.

Fascinating, one of the simplest food webs we could possible find in the world, and yet it is far more complex that previously thought. I cannot say I am surprised as all the years in the trade have taught me that relationships and interactions in nature are more intertwined as humans were able to fathom so far. Maybe we are getting a little closer to a deeper understanding now.

In conclusion, our results show how the information provided by molecular techniques can surpass that recovered by traditional techniques, but also that different types of molecular information are complementary, revealing different features in the emergent architecture of ecological interaction webs. By resolving more interactions than traditional techniques, by revealing interactions of species with a cryptic lifestyle, and by revising our impression of emergent food web structure, such combinations have the potential to revamp our impression of local food web structure, and how biotic interactions are patterned across the globe.

Monday, January 20, 2014

Hope for amphibians?

Amphibians are currently affected by a wave of global extinctions. The main reasons for this decline are anthropogenic habitat alteration and fragmentation but mere conservation of amphibian habitats no longer guarantees survival. As a matter of fact, the introduction of infectious diseases has been shown to drive amphibians to extinction even in seemingly pristine habitats.

The most prominent example is Chytridiomycosis, a fungal disease which is devastating amphibians around the world. It is caused by a skin fungus (Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis) in short called Bd. The fungus infects the skin which for amphibians is a vital part of the respiratory system. If Bd successfully establishes, infections will steadily increase and above a certain threshold, amphibians will start dying. A number of vulnerable species have been lost already, especially in Central America and tropical Australia and the fungus spreads like wildfire. However, prevalence varies significantly at local and regional scales.

Even a single highly susceptible host species, such as the European midwife toad Alytes obstetricans, can exhibit strong variation in the prevalence of infection across small geographic scales. Mortality in this species owing to Chytridiomycosis correlates positively with altitude, which is due at least in part to the effects of environmental temperature. However, this does not explain why sites with equivalent temperature regimes can still exhibit substantial variation in prevalence and mortality associated with infection, or why Bd-positive sites were found to be more similar to each other than would be expected based on chance.

This find intrigued colleagues from Europe enough to start a whole range of experiments, which took over three years to complete, to understand, which differences between different ponds and lakes of the Pyrenees could explain such a pattern. The researchers found several difference between infected lakes and uninfected ones. Their geological characteristics were different and they were surrounded by disparate vegetation. Water samples from the sites showed clear differences in laboratory cultures of the pathogen, as well as in the infection dynamics. A series of additional experiments established that a suite of microscopic aquatic predators, such as protozoans and rotifers, are capable of consuming large quantities of the infectious stage of Bd which in turn reduces the infection pressure for the whole population by reducing the number of infected tadpoles.

I am very careful to not overstate the results of this study but there seems to be a little hope for the amphibians although the main causes for their decline (habitat alteration and destruction) have not changed.

We here show the importance of predation in controlling infections in larvae of two amphibian species and provided direct evidence that zoospore ingestion is the mechanism through which infection is modified. Development of methods that facilitate natural augmentation of predatory microorganisms as a form of Bd biocontrol may hold promise as a field mitigation tool that lacks the downsides associated with introducing nonnative biocontrol agents, such as the use of antifungal chemicals or release of nonnative skin bacteria into the environment, or the reliance of unpredictable environmental temperature to “cure” infections.

Friday, January 17, 2014

The locust genome is not the largest

World's Largest Animal Genome Belongs to Locust: New Insight Explains Swarming, Long-Distance Migratory Behaviors is a headline that goes through the internet as we speak and it is simply wrong! Although this locust has a 6.5 Gb genome that is twice as large as ours it falls way short compared to the actual record holder, the African Lungfish (Protopterus aethiopicus) with 139 Gb. There are also some salamanders and newts that have larger genomes. Don't believe me? Check this database.

Too bad, this is only because somebody did a lousy job writing the original press release. The authors of the associated paper stated something else - Here we present a draft 6.5 Gb genome sequence of Locusta migratoria, which is the largest animal genome sequenced so far. So it is the largest sequenced genome so far and not the largest animal genome. That is a big difference. I wonder if nobody proofread the release before it went out.

Although this looks very much unintentional it reminded me of yesterday's blog post by Larry Moran in which he shows the results of the combination of bad papers and hyperbole press releases. To stand out in the mass of excellent research published every day papers are often accompanied by press releases that exaggerate the findings. A couple of infamous controversies (e.g. ENCODE, Arsenic-associated bacteria) should have waken everybody to the problem at hand but frankly I don't see any real reaction in the community. That is particular concerning if you consider that many press releases are not actually read by a journalist or editor specialized in science. Most of the modern news aggregators are machines and if there is human intervention it has to happen in such a short time that such errors slip through all the time. Our locust genome size mistake has already been picked up by 20 news distributors and some of them (such as Eureka or Science Daily) are actually considered reputable. We can only lean back and see what the writers in the press will make out of it.

We as researchers have to be more careful with the news we pass on to the press. In the worst case there won't be anybody doing a final fact-check and once misinformation is out there it is hard to get rid of it and it will multiply rapidly. It is a pity in this case because the actual paper on the locust genome is pretty good.

Thursday, January 16, 2014

How to increase value and reduce waste 2

For the second paper in the Lancet series I have to cherry pick a little as large parts of the publication focus on specifics for biomedical research. My intention is to present and talk about the findings that can easily be applied to research in general. Nevertheless it is more than worth to read these publications in their entirety as most of them contain very useful ideas on how to change current drawbacks.

The general topics of this study are shortcomings of research design, conduct and analysis and the authors don't hold off on criticism:

  • absence of detailed written protocols and poor documentation of research is common
  • information obtained might not be useful or important
  • statistical precision or power is often too low or used in a misleading way
  • insufficient consideration might be given to both previous and continuing studies
  • arbitrary choice of analyses and an overemphasis on random extremes might affect the reported findings.

I must admit that none of those points are really news to me which means I've crossed path with each and every one throughout my career, perhaps even myself walking into those traps. Three reasons for this are carved out in this publication.

One major problem is the failure to train the research workforce properly. Statistics is a very good example. For example a study cited in the paper showed that p values did not correspond to the given test statistics in 38% of articles published in Nature and 25% in the British Medical Journal in 2001. Many colleagues bemoan the fact that students have very little knowledge in statistical methods when they start working on their first real project or thesis. I can attest to that but it would be wrong to blame the students for the plight. It rather seems that we seriously should consider the way we teach statistics. While the complexity of statistical analysis grows the time spend to learn the basics was gradually reduced. Let's face it, most of the algorithms used in analytical software for genetic data are often not fully understood although deeper knowledge is crucial to make informed decisions on which method to use and how to interpret the results.

Another issue identified by the authors is the fact that often inadequate emphasis is placed on recording of research decisions and on reproducibility of research. There are a lot of examples in the paper where companies have tried to reproduce biomedical research for the development of treatments and failed. Researchers at Bayer could not replicate 43 of 67 oncological and cardiovascular findings reported in academic publications. Researchers at Amgen could not reproduce 47 of 53 landmark oncological findings for potential drug targets. This could be the result of bad study design or sloppy reporting. I will never forget what I was taught as undergrad - if you write your method section it should read as clear as a good cookbook recipe. Everyone should be able to redo your experiment without further reading or consultation.

Finally, the authors state that our current reward systems incentivise quantity more than quality, and novelty more than reliability. It is very rare that scientists are rewarded for rigorous work and efforts to replicate their own research in order to ensure reproducibility. The hunt for high impact factors and h-indices has flooded the literature with mediocre work. It is not rare that authors split a nice study into several papers each telling the same story but from a slightly different analytical angle. That might be an interesting idea for a fictional story or the next best selling novel(s) but in research it just dilutes the findings and I find it inappropriate. We shouldn't need prestidigitation to receive credit for our work.

It is one thing to lament about the current situation but it is another to propose ways to find out of it:
  • Make publicly available the full protocols, analysis plans or sequence of analytical choices, and raw data for all designed and undertaken biomedical research
    • Monitoring—proportion of reported studies with publicly available (ideally preregistered) protocol and analysis plans, and proportion with raw data and analytical algorithms publicly available within 6 months after publication of a study report
  • Maximise the effect-to-bias ratio in research through defensible design and conduct standards, a well trained methodological research workforce, continuing professional development, and involvement of non-conflicted stakeholders
    • Monitoring—proportion of publications without conflicts of interest, as attested by declaration statements and then checked by reviewers; the proportion of publications with involvement of scientists who are methodologically well qualified is also important, but difficult to document
  • Reward (with funding, and academic or other recognition) reproducibility practices and reproducible research, and enable an efficient culture for replication of research
    • Monitoring—proportion of research studies undergoing rigorous independent replication and reproducibility checks, and proportion replicated and reproduced

The biodiversity of Duckburg

My generation is one of many that grew up with Disney comics. I must confess that I was actually an avid collector of Donald Duck comic books. My collection was quite large but at some point I sold it. I wish I hadn't as my son seems to develop a similar taste these days.

And now I get this email telling me that there exists a biodiversity database of Disney characters and it is not a small one. It contains a detailed list of more than 160,000 Disney comics stories and more than 50,000 publications, but it's not just a simple list―it includes descriptions of the stories, artists, number of pages, appearances and much more. A group of about 30 individuals spread on four continents have committed themselves to index every single Disney comic story and every single Disney comic magazine in the world. They are obviously not done but they have been doing this as a hobby and with no support from the Disney company.

The database has its own relational synonymy structure for character names across countries, with links describing the source publications for those names. That might sound familiar to some of my readers. For example, on the Uncle Scrooge page. In France, you'd call him: "Omer Picsou" or "Oncle Harpagon". In Argentina he's "Tío Rico", and in Germany "Onkel Dagobert".

Moreover, some database entries have been used to produce a genealogical history of Disney's Duck characters and it is quite a big family tree.

h/t Rodger Gwiazdowski

Wednesday, January 15, 2014

How to increase value and reduce waste 1

As promised the day before yesterday I want to have a closer look at the individual publications in the new series in The Lancet on wasteful research and ways to overcome this issue

The first paper was written by an international group of biomedical researchers. The lead author is one of two who, back in 2009 made the perhaps bold statement that the incredible amount of 85% the investment in science is actually wasted because of a flawed system. The new paper discusses how avoidable waste can be considered when research priorities are set. According to the authors a lot of research does not lead to worthwhile achievements. They provide to potential reasons for this. One problem is that some studies are conducted to further understand basic concepts and mechanisms but the findings have no societal benefit. That is one argument I've heard very often. Actually that's the one you might hear not only from potential funding partners but also from family and friends. The problem is that especially groundbreaking basic research starts without any consideration of relevance to society but purely to advance knowledge. Often it is just one individual with a new idea. As a consequence different models have been proposed for decisions about which high-risk basic research to support. These models suggest to fund individual scientists rather than projects to allow maximum freedom of thinking and action. However, nobody is following these ideas. One example in the paper is the U.S. NIH funding in 2011 where only 0.001% of all proposals were in categories that focus on individuals. ...the kind of creative lateral thinking that has led to important advances in understanding has had to survive peer-review systems that tend to be innately conservative, subject to fashion, and often inimical to ideas that do not conform with mainstream thinking. Experimental evidence suggests that a strong bias against novelty does exist in traditional peer-review systems. Moreover, peers tend to support proposals that have similar fingerprints to their own interests, not those that are really novel.

The other issue is that often good research yields unexpected results. Well, that is science, and I agree with the authors that as long as the way in which these ideas are prioritised for research is transparent and warranted, these disappointments should not be deemed wasteful; they are simply an inevitable feature of the way science works.

In their attempt to define what might be a good way to separate the wheat from the chaff they provide a nice figure of research categories. They essentially adapted Pasteur's quadrant, a term that was introduced by Donald Stokes in 1997. The renaming was done to fit the quadrant into the biomedical context. Stokes initially had named the category for basic research Bohr quadrant and the one for pure applied research Edison quadrant. The definitions are essentially the same. Important is the waste quadrant reflecting research that neither advances knowledge nor makes any relevant strides towards immediate application.

Well, translated into our world of biodiversity science, all the taxonomic work (species descriptions, discoveries, revisions) falls in to the Curie quadrant as it advances knowledge without prior consideration of further relevance in other fields. Pure applied research in a DNA Barcoding context (Doll quadrant) could be the development of new technologies that utilize barcoding data, e.g. an eDNA probe to discover invasive or rare species in a given region. The Pasteur quadrant is filled wih all those studies that utilize barcoding to address important issues e.g. in conservation biology, ecology, food safety etc. And yes, we do have examples in the Waste quadrant such as studies that try to introduce yet another primary DNA Barcoding region such as repeated attempts to replace COI in fish with cytb or 16S. This ought not be confused with the search for complementary gene regions because the defined standards have proven insufficient in particular taxonomic groups.
There is a lot more information in the paper and a number of suggestions to improve the system of research funding. I can only recommend to read it (it is open access after you signed up with The Lancet). The authors also state that research funders have the primary responsibility for reductions in waste resulting from decisions about what research to do. Therefore, most of the general recommendations made are actually meant to improve the decision making system on their end including a great deal of transparency for us scientists:
More research on research should be done to identify factors associated with successful replication of basic research and translation to application, and how to achieve the most productive ratio of basic to applied research
Monitoring—periodic surveys of the distribution of funding for research and analyses of yields from basic research
Research funders should make information available about how they decide what research to support, and fund investigations of the effects of initiatives to engage potential users of research in research prioritisation
Monitoring—periodic surveys of information on research funders' websites about their principles and methods used to decide what research to support
Research funders and regulators should demand that proposals for additional primary research are justified by systematic reviews showing what is already known, and increase funding for the required syntheses of existing evidence
Monitoring—audit proposals for and reports of new primary research
Research funders and research regulators should strengthen and develop sources of information about research that is in progress, ensure that they are used by researchers, insist on publication of protocols at study inception, and encourage collaboration to reduce waste
Monitoring—periodic surveys of progress in publishing protocols and analyses to expose redundant research

Tuesday, January 14, 2014

The costs of inappropriate taxonomy

Madracis auretenra
Yesterday's announcement to have a closer look at the new series in the Lancet sparked some interest and one of the emails I found particular intriguing. At least intriguing enough to talk about it first. My colleague Rodger Gwiazdowski forwarded me a paper from 2008 which I was completely unaware of. .

According to Rodger the publication is the best example I know of that estimates a dollar value loss from application of inappropriate taxonomy. And indeed I couldn't find any other papers that explicitly deal with the monetary consequences of mis-identifications. Before I go more into detail I would like to stress that this example particularly goes after what the authors call bad taxonomic practices. I am looking at this issue from a more general vantage point especially when it comes to species that are extremely difficult to identify using traditional morphology-based methods. Therefore, I'd like to define what I consider good taxonomic practice - the use of all necessary and available methods to properly identify an unknown specimen. This explicitly includes DNA-based methods. Many people call this integrative taxonomy in an attempt to bring the morphological and molecular world together. Even today in a world where DNA work has become really cheap there is still a large number of researchers claiming that it is too expensive to be done on a regular basis especially in taxonomy where financial resources are decreasing. This might also be particular true for researchers in developing nations that lack area-wide infrastructure to do molecular work. However, for the rest of us it might be worth to look at the publication by Locke and Coates which puts things in perspective.

In this paper we present the results of our attempts to discover the identity of specimens that have been named as Madracis mirabilis or as “Madracis mirabilis sensu Wells” in papers published since 1967. In particular we wanted to know whether these specimens were or were not Madracis auretenra. We also made a rough estimate of a dollar value for the research effort that might be considered wasted, if no species identity can be resolved.

The authors essentially claim that data derived from false species identification cannot be applied in any analyses that have species-level implications and that spans all across the biological disciplines. In this study it is estimated that inappropriate taxonomy concerning the scleractinian coral species Madracis auretenra costed about $4 million dollars. That seems to be an extraordinary amount but to me their approach is reasonable and based on realistic estimates:

We know that data from 86 studies, which might be relevant to Madracis auretenra, cannot be included in a review of the biology of that well-studied,  widespread, and common species; in fact, at this point those data could not be included in such a study of any coral species. However, the same data may be applicable to very general questions about coral reef ecology and biology. Thus, conservatively, we suggest that only a third of the data produced in those studies has extremely limited value. If we consider that the cost of our studies [$140,000] is in a similar range to the studies we cited and apply a current cost to research over the whole period of the publications we consider, then we would be looking at a total expenditure of about $3,970,620 for data with limited to no value.

The authors go on and provide a list of taxonomic practices (morphology-based) that should be followed all of which I would consider common sense among colleagues. I would suggest to add DNA Barcoding to any such list. Why? Well, it costed the authors $140,000 to describe one species (Madracis auretenra) and to disseminate the information about ongoing mis-identifications. Even that seems too high to me. I am convinced if every newly described type specimen would be barcoded (even several specimens are not going to cost more than a few hundred Dollars) we could safe a lot of money in subsequent studies and even if we perform similar attempts to clean up a taxonomic mess such as the one involving Madracis auretenra.

Monday, January 13, 2014

Research: increasing value, reducing waste

"The Lancet" started the new year with a unique special that looks at the recurring criticism that a lot of the current research is simply irrelevant and wasteful. Under the title "Increasing Value, Reducing Waste" The Lancet published a Series of five papers about research. In the first report Iain Chalmers et al. discuss how decisions about which research to fund should be based on issues relevant to users of research. Next, John Ioannidis et al consider improvements in the appropriateness of research design, methods, and analysis. Rustam Al-Shahi Salman et al. then turn to issues of efficient research regulation and management. Next, An-Wen Chan et al. examine the role of fully accessible research information. Finally, Paul Glasziou et al. discuss the importance of unbiased and usable research reports. These papers set out some of the most pressing issues, recommend how to increase value and reduce waste in biomedical research, and propose metrics for stakeholders to monitor the implementation of these recommendations.

Admittedly this is all written from the perspective of biomedical research but a lot of the issues described can be found in all scientific disciplines and unfortunately represent a more general trend. What makes this rather special is the fact that all studies don't stop at stating the facts and telling us inconvenient truths but make suggestions how the sciences can improve. All contributions consequently focus on the system and do not look at external factors. Although my initial reaction was skeptical as there are certainly examples how misdirection through external factors can create irrelevant research and hamper important scientific work. Canadians can tell you a thing or two about that. But instead of simply complaining the approach is rather "Here is what we think is wrong and here is what we think we can do to make it better".

Nevertheless the criticism is harsh: institutional incentive systems are counterproductive, money is wasted, patients put at risk, and the entire system skewed. In the editorial commentary Sabine Kleinert and Richard Horton state There is clearly a strong feeling among many scientists ... that something has gone wrong with our system for assessing the quality of scientific research.

And they go on citing two Nobel prize laureates, Randy Schekman, and Peter Higgs, both giving interviews in The Guardian. Schekman used the attention he received as Nobel laureate in 2013 and started a ferocious attack against the lead journals: These luxury journals [Nature, Science, and Cell] are supposed to be the epitome of quality, publishing only the best research. Because funding and appointment panels often use place of publication as a proxy for quality of science, appearing in these titles often leads to grants and professorships. But the big journals' reputations are only partly warranted. While they publish many outstanding papers, they do not publish only outstanding papers. Neither are they the only publishers of outstanding research.

Peter Higgs (yes, that's the guy who predicted the Higgs Boson) actually described himself as an embarrassment to his University department because he published so little: Today I wouldn't get an academic job. It's as simple as that. I don't think I would be regarded as productive enough.

Back in 2009 two of the senior authors of publications in this new series published a paper titled Avoidable waste in the production and reporting of research evidence.  They made the extraordinary claim that as much as 85% of research investment was wastefully spend. An incredible figure. According to the authors researchers often start with wrong objectives, work with insufficient study designs, and - a cardinal sin - they ignore similar research that has already been done. The study also states clearly that this is not necessary the result of sloppy or bad research but rather a problem of the system, e.g. all too often results are not accessible to everyone.

I think it is worth to look closer at all of the five papers and in the next posts I will take a stab at transferring their messages to research in general and to biodiversity science in particular.

Friday, January 10, 2014

War elephants

The Battle of Raphia
After Alexander the Great's premature death, his vast kingdom was divided among his generals. Being generals, they spent the next three centuries fighting over the land. One historically well known battle, the Battle of Raphia, took place in 217 B.C. between Ptolemy IV, the King of Egypt, and Antiochus III the Great, the King of the Seleucid kingdom that reached from modern-day Turkey to Pakistan.

According to historical records, Antiochus's ancestor traded vast areas of land for 500 Asian elephants whereas Ptolemy established trading posts for war elephants in what is now Eritrea, a country with the northern-most population of elephants in East Africa. In the Battle of Raphia, Ptolemy had 73 African war elephants and Antiochus had 102 Asian war elephants, according to Polybius, a Greek historian who described the battle 70 years later:
A few of Ptolemy's elephants ventured too close with those of the enemy, and now the men in the towers on the back of these beasts made a gallant fight of it, striking with their pikes at close quarters and wounding each other, while the elephants themselves fought still better, putting forth their whole strength and meeting forehead to forehead.
Ptolemy's elephants, however, declined the combat, as is the habit of African elephants; for unable to stand the smell and the trumpeting of the [Asian] elephants, and terrified, I suppose, also by their great size and strength, they at once turn tail and take to flight before they get near them.

Over the years, there has been a lot of speculation about Polybius's account.
Until well into the 19th century the ancient accounts were taken as fact by all modern natural historians and scientists and that is why Asian elephants were given the name Elephas maximus although it later became clear that African elephants are mostly larger than Asian elephants. Speculations about the reason for this discrepancy went as far as suggestions that there might even have been an extinct smaller subspecies.In 1948, Sir William Gowers reasoned that Ptolemy must have fought with forest elephants that fled from larger Asian elephants, as Polybius described. Until now, the main question remained: Did Ptolemy employ African savanna elephants (Loxodonta africana) or African forest elephants (Loxodonta cyclotis) in the Battle of Raphia?

Today Eritrea has one of the northernmost populations of African elephants with only about 100 individuals. They have become completely isolated, with no gene flow from other elephant populations. Their conservation is very important Eritrean authorities and such efforts would benefit from an understanding of their genetic affinities to elephants elsewhere on the continent and the degree to which genetic variation persists in the population. Using dung samples from Eritrean elephants researchers from Eritrea and the U.S. have looked at microsatellite data as well as nuclear and mitochondrial markers. Their results:
The sampled Eritrean elephants carried nuclear and mitochondrial DNA markers establishing them as savanna elephants, with closer genetic affinity to Eastern than to North Central savanna elephant populations, and contrary to speculation by some scholars that forest elephants were found in Eritrea. Mitochondrial DNA diversity was relatively low, with 2 haplotypes unique to Eritrea predominating. Microsatellite genotypes could only be determined for a small number of elephants but suggested that the population suffers from low genetic diversity. Conservation efforts should aim to protect Eritrean elephants and their habitat in the short run, with restoration of habitat connectivity and genetic diversity as long-term goals.

This study disproved years of rumors and hearsay surrounding the ancient Battle of Raphia. It seems more likely that Polybius's sources have been largely exaggerating.

Blackﬂies comprise 26 genera and some 2200 species, and they are a nuisance. Similarly to the mosquitoes the female requires a bloodmeal for egg maturation but their strategy for getting this from us mammals is a bit more violent. Admittedly, the bites are shallow but they are accomplished by first stretching the skin using teeth on the labrum and then abrading it with the maxillae and mandibles, cutting the skin and rupturing its fine capillaries. Feeding is facilitated by a powerful anticoagulant in the flies' saliva. As the flies are rather tiny one does not feel the process of damaging the skin. The first indication that one was bitten is usually the tickling sensation of blood that flows down the skin. This can be followed by itching and localized swelling. Swelling can be quite pronounced depending on the species and the victim's immune response. The black fly's swarming behavior can make matters worse and any outdoor activities unpleasant or intolerable even if one encounters species that do not require blood meals. Here in Canada black flies built quite a reputation as nicely demonstrated in this song:

Unfortunately the story has a far more serious background as some black fly species serve as vectors for parasites:
The most important human parasites transmitted by blackflies are the nematodes Onchocerca volvulus, the causative agent of river blindness and Mansonella ozzardii, which causes Mansonelliasis or ‘serous cavity filariasis’. In Latin America, blackflies are thought to be responsible for outbreaks of endemic pemphigus foliaceus and to be the aetiological agent of the Altamira haemorrhagic syndrome. Blackflies also transmit pathogens to domestic livestock, resulting in increased mortality, reduced weight, decreased milk production and malnutrition.

A new study not only adds new barcodes for a number of blackfly species to BOLD but perhaps more importantly the authors evaluated the efficacy of various primers for the purpose of DNA barcoding old, pinned museum specimens of blackflies. Of course it is perhaps more desirable to have freshly collected specimens simply because one can easily obtain a full-length barcode fragment from it. However, sometimes museum specimens represent the only available samples for rare or otherwise difficult to acquire species. In addition a barcode from a type specimen could resolve taxonomic uncertainty when putative new species are found.

Unfortunately, the use of museum specimens to generate DNA Barcodes can be challenging due to factors such as DNA degradation, contamination and uncertainty regarding details of specimen collection and preservation.

The colleagues have utilized primer sets that amplify small overlapping fragments, which can be combined during post hoc analysis to form a full-length or near full-length DNA Barcode. Here are their results copied from the abstract of the study:

We analysed 271 pinned specimens representing two genera and at least 36 species. Due to the age of our material, we targeted overlapping DNA fragments ranging in size from 94 to 407 bp. We were able to recover valid sequences from 215 specimens, of which 18% had 500- to 658-bp barcodes, 36% had 201- to 499-bp barcodes and 46% had 65- to 200-bp barcodes. Our study demonstrates the importance of choosing suitable primers when dealing with older specimens and shows that even very short sequences can be diagnostically informative provided that an appropriate gene region is used.

Sounds a little bit like the good old shotgun sequencing with subsequent contig assembly. Just on a much smaller scale and much more targeted. Sounds like a way to go after all those DNA bearing type specimens in the museums, laborious but perhaps the only way to get a barcode for some species.

Thursday, January 9, 2014

The Polar vortex and a fundamentalist

Usually I don't engage in discussions that involve creationism or climate change denial. Both world views are unscientific, unworldly, and closed-minded. The problem is that most supporters are so stubborn and unwilling to accept facts and scientific evidence that any attempt to convince them otherwise seems futile. The only remaining option is to publicly ridicule them and show the world how farcical most of their claims are. Some of my more senior colleagues (e.g. Jerry Coyne, Larry Moran, P.Z. Myers) have developed exquisite mastery in the art of fighting the impairment of science by plain stupidity. Up to this point their efforts were sufficient to keep me quiet and focused on the main purpose of this blog, reporting about advancements in biodiversity science.

Unfortunately, there is a certain level of ignorance paired with a political agenda that drives me up the wall. So it happened yesterday when I went though the news of the last few days. I could hardly believe what came out the mouth of the infamous Rush Limbaugh:
"Right on schedule, the media have to come up with a way to make it [the cold snap] sound like it's completely unprecedented, because they've got to find a way to attach this to the global warming agenda."

"They're [liberals] perpetrating a hoax." "They are relying on their total dominance of the media to lie to you each and every day about climate change and global warming."

Limbaugh noted that media outlets have created a "polar vortex" to exaggerate the harsh weather conditions by publishing "fraudulent pictures," including photographs of the North Pole "melting" in order to convince people that "we're responsible -- we're causing it."

"Any weather extreme now is said to be man-made and therefore it fulfills the leftist agenda," he added. "Obviously there is no melting of ice going on at the North Pole."

It is bad enough to live in a country that has a conservative government that formally abandoned Canada's commitments under the old Kyoto Protocol. Furthermore, Environment Canada confirmed not long ago that Canada is not even close to being on track to meet its 2020 emissions target under the subsequent Copenhagen Accord.

But now this rabble-rouser from Missouri claims that the meteorological term "polar vortex" is an invention of (left-wing) media in order to relate our current weather to global warming. Even worse, the US government had to release an official statement to counter Limbaugh's horseplay. That actually is scary as it demonstrates how much power ignorance has in the United States. Where else in the world would a government see the need to comment on such ridiculous statements? It was bound to happen -  extreme cold spells, like the one that we were having here in Canada and the United States during the last couple of days are used in an attempt to disprove global warming. Well, as a matter of fact no single weather episode can either prove or disprove global climate change. Actually there is evidence that suggests that this kind of extreme cold is indeed a pattern we can expect to see with increasing frequency, as global warming continues.

So let's get the facts straight:
The polar vortex is by no means something new or something rare. It is a permanent atmospheric feature all year round existing at the North and South Poles. They are a circulation (on a planetary scale, not a mesoscale like a tornado, so it’s big) and are located from the middle troposphere to the stratosphere so it is an upper level phenomenon. The polar vortices are strongly reliant on large scale temperature gradients so in the winter, they are at their strongest due to the temperature gradient between the equatorial regions and the poles. The term “polar vortex” has been used in scientific papers since the 1940’s.
Dayna Vettese, Meteorologist

Limbaugh has repeatedly used the term "environmentalist wacko" when referring to environmental advocates, mainstream climate scientists and other environmental scientists. Here in Canada I often heard the term "tree hugger" used in a similar context. I am still pondering on how I like to be called. Maybe "environmental tree-hugging wacko with a PhD".

Anyway, for me there are only two main reasons for climate change denial: ignorance or greed. Pick one, Mr. Limbaugh.

Wednesday, January 8, 2014

Many roads lead to Barcode libraries

Gnaphosa parvula from Churchill, Manitoba
Coincidentally two papers on spider DNA Barcoding have been published around December. they describe two ways to build a reference library for DNA Barcodes which I find very interesting especially as it documents how complementary different approaches can be. A colleague of mine (Rodger Gwiazdowski) is even more fascinated by this as he is particularly interested in the nuts and bolts of library building and we already had a few discussions about the topic. Those were usually fueled by blog posts (either mine or others on new papers). So I guess there will be another one after this contribution. Looking forward to it.

The first study I wanted to introduce is from the colleagues here at BIO:
Arctic ecosystems, especially those near transition zones, are expected to be strongly impacted by climate change. Because it is positioned on the ecotone between tundra and boreal forest, the Churchill area is a strategic locality for the analysis of shifts in faunal composition. This fact has motivated the effort to develop a comprehensive biodiversity inventory for the Churchill region by coupling DNA barcoding with morphological studies. The present study represents one element of this effort; it focuses on analysis of the spider fauna at Churchill.

The Spiders were collected during the few snow-free months in summer over six years. The collections cover a wide range of habitats near Churchill and different methods were used (e.g. hand collecting, pitfall traps, sweep nets). Most specimens were obtained through general collecting efforts by field course students. I actually remember supervising students on two of those trips. More targeted sampling was done by the senior author of the paper (our resident spider man Gerry Blagoev).

The result of those efforts is the first comprehensive DNA Barcode reference library for the spider fauna of any region. The researchers found 198 species among 2704 specimens that were barcoded, tripling the species count for the Churchill region. Diversity estimates suggest that there might be another 10-20 species awaiting discovery. They failed to detect 22 species reported in earlier work in the region which means that the total Churchill fauna may include nearly 250 species. As collections were made exclusively during the snow-free summer, e.g. vernal species associated with snow edges were unlikely to be sampled. Knowing this will help to focus future efforts to complete this unique library.

When building such a reference library, specimens must either be freshly collected or taken from an existing collection. The latter might not be feasible to fill the gaps in the Churchill library simply because past efforts have been very limited. There is simply not much material available. But what if this is different and species were frequently collected over several decades and deposited in a museum collection such as the Naturalis Biodiversity Center in Leiden?

The second study on my list addressed the question if it we can predict which specimens in a museum collection are likely to yield a successful DNA Barcode sequence. If so, can one optimize resources, wisely select museum specimens to sequence, and plan fresh collections to supplement? The study focused on Dutch spiders.

31 target species were selected. For each of these, a series of increasingly older specimens was selected and sequenced. This was supplemented with freshly collected material representing nearly 150 Dutch spider species. The scientists recorded which specimens successfully produced DNA Barcode sequences and which failed. They also experimented with DNA extraction techniques.

For freshly collected specimens overall, body size is not correlated with sequencing success or failure. But larger species seem to have a longer DNA Barcoding shelf life than smaller species. When using common destructive extraction methods, small spiders yield useful amounts of DNA for only a few years while those with a body length >3 mm can yield a barcode sequence for about 20 years after collection.

Nondestructive extraction techniques can significantly increase the chances of obtaining a barcode sequence. Even small spiders with a body length of 4 mm or less yield DNA Barcode sequences up to an age of about 15 years while larger spiders can yield barcode sequences for a considerably longer time.

Now that is good use for all skeptical curators out there. The success of nondestructive extraction demonstrated here coupled with the need to preserve museum specimens for a variety of research purposes bodes well for museum collections as source material for DNA Barcode libraries.

Tuesday, January 7, 2014

BeBoL special issue

The Belgian Network for DNA Barcoding (BeBoL) was established in 2011 and includes 21 partners from Belgian universities and research institutions. The network aims to facilitate, centralize, and coordinate DNA Barcoding activities in Belgium. BeBoL assists in exchanging experience and providing training opportunities.

An early achievement of BeBoL was the organization of the Third European Conference for the Barcode of Life, 2012 in Brussels (ECBOL3), themed “Barcoding of organisms of policy concern”. Although it was originally not planned to publish congress proceedings of ECBOL3, many participants felt that it would be a great opportunity to produce a collection of DNA Barcoding publications presented either on the congress or contributed by BeBoL partners. The result is a special ZooKeys issue on DNA Barcoding dealing with a wide array of animal and plant taxa, and aims at demonstrating various aspects of DNA Barcoding, including fundamental biodiversity research, applications, methodological issues, software, and limitations.

Have a look - it's Open Access:

Table of Contents

Zoltan T NagyThierry BackeljauMarc de Meyer,Kurt Jordaens

Pages: 1-3
Published: 30.12.2013 | Viewed by: 361Abstract | HTML | XML | PDF

Eric AlfonsiEleonore MéheustSandra Fuchs,François-Gilles CarpentierYann QuillivicAmélia ViricelSami HassaniJean-Luc Jung

The use of DNA barcoding to monitor the marine mammal biodiversity along the French Atlantic coast
Pages: 5-24
Published: 30.12.2013 | Viewed by: 521Abstract | HTML | XML | PDF

Mansour AliabadianKevin BeentjesKees (C.S.) RoselaarHans van BrandwijkVincent Nijman,Ronald Vonk

DNA barcoding of Dutch birds
Pages: 25-48
Published: 30.12.2013 | Viewed by: 847Abstract | HTML | XML | PDF

Alba ArduraSerge PlanesEva Garcia-Vazquez

Applications of DNA barcoding to fish landings: authentication and diversity assessmente
Pages: 49-65
Published: 30.12.2013 | Viewed by: 195Abstract | HTML | XML | PDF

Jonas AstrinXin ZhouBernhard Misof

The importance of biobanking in molecular taxonomy, with proposed definitions for vouchers in a molecular context
Pages: 67-70
Published: 30.12.2013 | Viewed by: 408Abstract | HTML | XML | PDF

Marco BallardiniAntonio MercuriClaudio Littardi,Summar AbbasMarie CoudercBertha LudeñaJean-Christophe Pintaud

The chloroplast DNA locus psbZ-trnfM as a potential barcode marker in Phoenix L. (Arecaceae)
Pages: 71-82
Published: 30.12.2013 | Viewed by: 300Abstract | HTML | XML | PDF

Karin BreugelmansKurt JordaensEls AdriaensJean Paul RemonJosep Quintana CardonaThierry Backeljau

DNA barcodes and phylogenetic affinities of the terrestrial slugsArion gilvus and A. ponsi(Gastropoda, Pulmonata, Arionidae)
Pages: 83-104
Published: 30.12.2013 | Viewed by: 238Abstract | HTML | XML | PDF

Karen CoxArno ThomaesGloria AntoniniMichele ZilioliKoen De GelasDeborah HarveyEmanuela SolanoPaolo AudisioNiall McKeownPaul Shaw,Robert MinettiLuca BartolozziJoachim Mergeay

Testing the performance of a fragment of the COI gene to identify western Palaearctic stag beetle species (Coleoptera, Lucanidae)
Pages: 105-126
Published: 30.12.2013 | Viewed by: 436Abstract | HTML | XML | PDF

Jephris GereYessoufou KowiyouBarnabas Daru,Ledile MankgaOlivier MaurinMichelle van der Bank

Incorporating trnH-psbA to the core DNA barcodes improves significantly species discrimination within southern African Combretaceae
Pages: 129-147
Published: 30.12.2013 | Viewed by: 276Abstract | HTML | XML | PDF

Kurt JordaensGontran SonetYves BraetMarc de MeyerThierry BackeljauFrankie GoovaertsLuc BourguignonStijn Desmyter

DNA barcoding and the differentiation between North American and West EuropeanPhormia regina (Diptera, Calliphoridae, Chrysomyinae)
Pages: 149-174
Published: 30.12.2013 | Viewed by: 235Abstract | HTML | XML | PDF

Juha LaihoGunilla Stahls

DNA barcodes identify Central-Asian Colias butterflies (Lepidoptera, Pieridae)
Pages: 175-196
Published: 30.12.2013 | Viewed by: 276Abstract | HTML | XML | PDF

Angeliki LaiouLuca Aconiti MandoliniRoberta PireddaRosanna BellarosaMarco Cosimo Simeone

DNA barcoding as a complementary tool for conservation and valorisation of forest resources
Pages: 197-213
Published: 30.12.2013 | Viewed by: 277Abstract | HTML | XML | PDF

Ledile MankgaYessoufou KowiyouAnnah Moteetee,Barnabas DaruMichelle van der Bank

Efficacy of the core DNA barcodes in identifying processed and poorly conserved plant materials commonly used in South African traditional medicine
Pages: 215-233
Published: 30.12.2013 | Viewed by: 236Abstract | HTML | XML | PDF

Jonathan MarescauxKarine Van Doninck

Using DNA barcoding to differentiate invasive Dreissena species (Mollusca, Bivalvia)
Pages: 235-244
Published: 30.12.2013 | Viewed by: 224Abstract | HTML | XML | PDF

Jeremy MillerKevin BeentjesPeter van Helsdingen,Steven IJland

Which specimens from a museum collection will yield DNA barcodes? A time series study of spiders in alcohol
Pages: 245-261
Published: 30.12.2013 | Viewed by: 491Abstract | HTML | XML | PDF

Zoltan T NagyGontran SonetJonas Mortelmans,Camille VandewynkelPatrick Grootaert

Using DNA barcodes for assessing diversity in the family Hybotidae (Diptera, Empidoidea)
Pages: 263-278
Published: 30.12.2013 | Viewed by: 342Abstract | HTML | XML | PDF

John SmitBastian ReijnenFrank Stokvis

Half of the European fruit fly species barcoded (Diptera, Tephritidae); a feasibility test for molecular identification
Pages: 279-305
Published: 30.12.2013 | Viewed by: 243Abstract | HTML | XML | PDF

Gontran SonetKurt JordaensYves BraetLuc BourguignonErena DupontThierry BackeljauMarc de MeyerStijn Desmyter

Utility of GenBank and the Barcode of Life Data Systems (BOLD) for the identification of forensically important Diptera from Belgium and France
Pages: 307-328
Published: 30.12.2013 | Viewed by: 222Abstract | HTML | XML | PDF

Gontran SonetKurt JordaensZoltan T NagyFloris BremanMarc de MeyerThierry Backeljau,Massimiliano Virgilio

Adhoc: an R package to calculatead hoc distance thresholds for DNA barcoding identification
Pages: 329-336
Published: 30.12.2013 | Viewed by: 214Abstract | HTML | XML | PDF

Herman Van Der BankDai HerbertRichard GreenfieldKowiyou Yessoufou

Revisiting species delimitation within the genus Oxystele using DNA barcoding approach
Pages: 337-354
Published: 30.12.2013 | Viewed by: 245Abstract | HTML | XML | PDF

Maarten VanhoveBart TessensCharlotte SchoelinckUlf JondeliusTim LittlewoodTom Artois,Tine Huyse

Problematic barcoding in flatworms: A case-study on monogeneans and rhabdocoels (Platyhelminthes)
Pages: 355-379
Published: 30.12.2013 | Viewed by: 254Abstract | HTML | XML | PDF

Sophie VerscheureThierry BackeljauStijn Desmyter

Reviewing population studies for forensic purposes: Dog mitochondrial DNA
Pages: 381-411
Published: 30.12.2013 | Viewed by: 222Abstract | HTML | XML | PDF


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Patient-Doctor Relationship

A good patient-doctor relationship is key to receiving high-quality professional healthcare services.

Dr. Michael Klaper speaks with 40 years of experience as a medical doctor to explain what your relationship should be with your family physician and health care organization as you take responsibility for your health and well being.

This interview with Dr. Michael Klaper was recorded in February 2012 at the Dr. John and Mary McDougall Advanced Study Weekend in Santa Rosa, California (USA). Duration: 5 minutes 48 seconds.
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Greta howls her way into your heart, today's Muttville moment
Discover why senior dogs rule when you fall in love with Angelica!

Ahh, imagine the shared joy of discovery when you adopt a dog

When I met Sarge, all I saw was a big handsome dog who had the sweetest manners. His sugar face spoke of a gentleness and thoughtful personality. I never would have guessed that this dog had been thin, filthy and unloved.

image from

It's moments like these that get my imagination going. I think about the thousands of available adoptable dogs, each with their own unique stories. Each dog offers a new family the chance to learn something powerful about themselves. My own adopted dog positively influenced our lives from the day she arrived.

Choosing to adopt an older dog can bring you greater awareness about your own weaknesses, and strengths.

When I adopted my big old dog, she began as a reserved lady. Similar to Sarge, she was under-weight from stress but somehow maintained unbelievable table manners. I wouldn't have blamed her for gobbling food or trying take anything that might give her some comfort.

My empathy for her emotional health allowed me to approach our new life together in ways that kept us on a path of wonderful discoveries. She, like Sarge, blossomed under the steady warmth and love being offered every minute of every hour. I didn't know if she'd ever fully look to me as trusted family, but she did, and that is a feeling I will always cherish.

We shared a mutual joy discovering how to communicate with each other. When I'd introduce a word or phrase for something, maybe a food she'd never had before, both our eyes lit up when she learned. The satisfaction you get when you set a dog up for success in their new life with you, in a new forever home, is immeasurable.

Imagine the shared joy of discovery

When I look back on adopting our dog, it makes so much sense now. We discovered how much we loved giving a dog the chance of a happy final chapter in their life. We had moments of mutual joy that is special between humans and dogs. Just getting to know each other brought us both to laughter. Yes, dogs laugh!

If you're a curious person, love dogs, and enjoy discovery then consider adoption. Head to your local shelter, humane society or breed specific rescue, or find them on social media tonight!

Subscribe to the blog here and never miss a post!


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Friday, March 23, 2012

Dog Awareness Signs - Get Yours Today!

The Liam J Perk Foundation has created a terrific sign that is very reasonably priced for parks and playgrounds to remind kids to be safe around dogs. If your community group is looking or a fund raising project, this would be a terrific project that will benefit the community for years to come. With Dog Bite Prevention Week coming up in the 3rd week of May, this is a perfect time to get started raising funds to get one of these signs.

Click here for more information about the sign and for an explanation of what all the symbols mean.

The sign will have a QR code so that people with smart phones can scan it and go directly to the Liam J Perk Website for additional information. Doggone Safe supports the Liam J Perk Foundation and is pleased to partner with them to help spread our messages about safety around dogs and educate about dog body language.

The sign comes in two versions. One is complete with a stand that you can mount in concrete and the other in an insert that you can attach to your own existing stand or to a fence or building.

You can customize the sign with the following information:
  • Park/location name w/logo
  • Donated by/event name or what ever you like to put in this area
  • Frame Color  - you can choose the frame color from a variety of choices
The cost of the sign with arch frame is $500 (price subject to change)

The cost of the insert is $375 (price subject to change)

Shipping cost is extra and will be quoted to you when you inquire about ordering a sign.

There is also a mini versions available in poster size for dog trainers, shelters, vet offices, pet stores, and groomers.
To order a sign, please contact Carrie Perk:

1 comment:

  1. I can't read the sign, it doesn't blow up big enough.


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New Zealand Dog News

Reviewing the dog news in New Zealand with editors comments. Someone needs to keep reviewing how our dogs are doing in society.

October 31, 2005

Sound start for learner hearing dog teams

New Zealand's first home for hearing dogs and their hearing-impaired owners has opened.

The house on Hydro Rd, just south of New Plymouth, will be used to house a dog and owner after the dog has been trained, but before they return to the outside world as a team.
This bonding time was important, said Marilyn Johnston, of the New Zealand Hearing Dogs Association.

"We used to house them in there," she said, indicating the office. "Then we put them in the training house, but that was too disruptive for the training." (click on title for full article)

October 29, 2005

Kiwi death highlights risk from dogs

It was a sight that would make conservationists weep.
An adult kiwi, savaged by a farm dog, lying lifeless next to a perfect egg.

The dog's owner removed the eggs from the male kiwi's nest and alerted the Department on Conservation of the bird's death.

One of the eggs was infertile but the other was rushed to the Rainbow Springs Kiwi Encounter in Rotorua in the hope it will hatch successfully and be released into the wild. read more

SC dogs tops for obedience

Timaru is officially home to some of New Zealand's most obedient dogs.

They proved that last weekend at the New Zealand Kennel Club ProPlan National Dog Training Assembly in Taupo where an estimated 650 dogs and their owners were put through their paces in a series of agility, obedience and working trial contests.

October 28, 2005

Kiwi killed by dog but egg saved

Kiwi eggs orphaned after a Waverley dog attacked and killed an adult bird have been rescued by Department of Conservation (DOC) staff.

The dog's owners rang DOC to say his dog had killed a kiwi and he had removed two eggs from the nest.

DOC said one of the eggs was found to be infertile and the other was rushed to the Kiwi Encounter at Rainbow Springs in Rotorua in the hope it would hatch successfully and be released into the wild.

Owners urged to microchip their dogs to beat thieves

Waikato dog owners are being encouraged to have their pets microchipped to foil thieves stealing dogs for fighting.

On Saturday, the Times reported that thieves masquerading as council dog control officers have been stealing large dogs for fighting and small ones for bait.

October 26, 2005

Taupo impresses kennel club

Every dog has its day and for many it was at the New Zealand Kennel Club national dog training assembly in Taupo at the weekend.

More than 1000 dogs and 650 of their humans took part in the event. The animals competed in agility, obedience and working trials categories. Their owners were some of New Zealand's top canine taskmasters, who provide dog training classes for the public at the kennel club's 50 dog training clubs throughout the country.

Summer dog rules now in force

Press Release: Rodney District Council Summer dog rules now in force

Rodney District Council is reminding dog owners that summer rules for exercising dogs on a number of Rodney beaches are now in force.

Until March 19, when daylight savings finishes, dogs are not allowed on designated beaches from 9.00am to 7.00pm.

Dogs can be exercised on beaches before or after these times, but must be under control and any faeces removed.

In other areas including regional parks, public campgrounds, designated picnic areas, habitat sites and within 10 metres of playgrounds, dogs are prohibited at all times of year.
Rodney District Council’s Animal Control and bylaws manager Wayne Knightbridge encourages pet owners to find out more about the dog rules in Rodney and exactly which beaches the daylight savings rule applies to.

“Dog owners must be responsible for their dogs so that way we can all enjoy safe and clean beaches over summer,” says Mr Knightbridge.

For more information about Rodney District’s dog exercise rules, please visit or call 0800 426 5169 and request a brochure.

October 25, 2005

Peg Loague speech: National Dog Training Assembly

Speech: NZ Kennel Club Speech notes 21 October 2005

SPCA and NZ Kennel Club’s dog training clubs are singing out of the same hymn book

I’m honoured to be asked to open your National Dog Training Assembly in Taupo this weekend. This is the biggest event of the year in the NZ Kennel Club’s dog sports calendar, and the biggest NDTA in over 15 years.

While I no longer represent SPCA in any way (although I am the Administrator for the Turangi branch) I come to you tonight as an individual who’s been around critters for a long time. An upbringing revolving around animal welfare and thirty six years of SPCA field experience does not get forgotten overnight. When I was part of the inaugural committee of Taupo SPCA in 1969, we used to divide each months deficit between us so the absolute minimum requirements were met and the bills paid. I’m pleased to say that it was a very different situation I retired from earlier this year, although animal welfare seems to require ever increasing funding and attention. (click on title for more)

October 24, 2005

South Island top at dog's day out

South Island gun dogs pointed, fetched and retrieved their way to victory over their North Island counterparts in the New Zealand gun dog championships in Alexandra yesterday.

Dogs from all over the country took part in exercises designed to test obedience and skill. Anything they retrieved they had to bring back right to their owner's hand or they faced instant disqualification.

No Waikato interest for hearing dog

The search continues for a deaf person in the Waikato in need of a hearing dog.
In July, the Waikato Times reported that a grant of $12,500 had been gifted to the Hearing Dogs for Deaf People New Zealand to train a dog for someone in the Waikato.

October 22, 2005

Sausage dog gives birth to 11 wieners

19 October 2005
Wendy Macpherson can't step outside these days without being hounded - dachshunded, that is.

Everyone has a role to play in tackling unwanted animals

"Yesterday's neuter-a-thon at the Pakuranga Vet Clinic is an excellent
beginning. Now everyone involved with dogs and cats must realise we all
have a part to play to tackle the problem of too many unwanted animals.

Dog-nappers on prowl

22 October 2005
A cunning gang of thieves wanting dogs for fighting are posing as council officers, complete with a white van.

Dogs have had their day

Dogs have had their day
Newstalk ZB
From Labour Weekend until Easter dogs are not allowed on the city's beaches from nine in the morning till seven at night.

October 21, 2005

SPCA , Kennel Club dog training clubs on same page

Press Release: NZ Kennel Club Media Release 21 October 2005

SPCA and NZ Kennel Club’s dog training clubs are singing out of the same hymn book
Peg Loague tonight opened the NZ Kennel Club’s 2005 National Dog Training Assembly in Taupo. It is the biggest dog sports event in the country, and the biggest NDTA in over fifteen years.

Mrs Loague has been “around critters for a long time” in her words. A founder of the Taupo SPCA 36 years ago in 1969, she has had continuous field experience since then, and she has served as National President of the RSPCA until 2000. Peg is a lay appointee on the Veterinary Council of New Zealand and works as an independent animal welfare adviser.

She told competitors tonight that “There is a world wide overpopulation of companion animals.
“One of the things the breeders among you can do to guard against this is ensure that the animals you sell are either to be used for responsible and very discriminate breeding, or leave you as desexed pets,” she said.

“Over the years it was rewarding when really happy families brought their loved canines back to the SPCA to visit and I could see how good the match was.
“Invariably I recommended puppies and young dogs be taken to dog obedience, explaining that, done properly, this helped the owner understand how best to get a cooperative, well behaved and happy dog..

“The people here tonight are important in providing that training. The NZ Kennel Club includes about 50 dog training clubs from Whangarei to Invercargill. You train for competition obedience and agility, and that is why you’re here this weekend. But you also offer domestic training classes where the public can enroll and learn how to train their dog. That is a valuable public good offered by NZ Kennel Club members. “I admire you all for the relationship you have with your dogs,” said Peg Loague

October 20, 2005

Everyone has a role to play in tackling unwanted animals

"Yesterday's neuter-a-thon at the Pakuranga Vet Clinic is an excellent
beginning. Now everyone involved with dogs and cats must realise we all
have a part to play to tackle the problem of too many unwanted animals.

Mastiffs come out to play

Mastiff dog breeds have existed for at least 5000 years, but it has only been in the past 200 years they have been bred for "looks and beauty" rather than as an aid to man.

Summer dog rules keep beaches safe and cleanThursday

20 October 2005, 10:57 am
Press Release: Auckland City Council MEDIA RELEASE

20 October 2005
Summer dog rules keep beaches safe and clean for summer

Summer rules for exercising your dog on Auckland city's beaches are now in force.

The rules, with a couple of exceptions, are that from Labour Weekend until Easter 2006, dogs are not allowed on city beaches between 9am and 7pm.

When exercising your dog on the beach outside these hours, you must make sure that your dog is on a leash at all times and remove any faeces.

Some areas are prohibited to dogs at all times of year, including:
- the swimming area in front of the bathing sheds on St Heliers Beach
- safe swimming areas or lanes marked out or identified by Auckland City (including the marked "safe swimming lane" on Kohimarama beach)
- any area developed or marked out as a sports field (except for the spectator area) or skateboard park or within 10 metres of a playground.

"By following these rules, dog owners are taking responsibility for their pets and helping to make our beaches safe and clean," says Warren Adler, Auckland City's service requests manager.

"I would advise dog owners to find out more about dog exercise rules for Auckland city so that pets and their owners can enjoy the city's beaches and parks in a responsible way this summer," he says.

For more information on Auckland City's dog exercise areas, please visit or call Auckland City on (09) 379 2020.

October 18, 2005

UK tail docking law pleases NZ Kennel Club

Mrs Chalmers said New Zealand would do well to follow Britain's lead, by toughening up penalties for animal abusers and by recognising that docking puppies' tails was a legitimate choice for breeders.

October 17, 2005

Dog drives into trouble in Otago

Man's best friend, or typical woman driver? Bob Donaldson's faith in canines was put to the test on Saturday morning, when his shar pei bitch Gem took an unscheduled driving lesson.

Stolen dog back home after two years

A good memory, dedicated searching and plain good luck by the Auckland SPCA led to a missing dog of two years being reunited with his delighted owner at the weekend.

October 16, 2005

Christchurch dog attacks down

The number of dog attacks in Christchurch has dropped dramatically since new licensing laws were introduced in 2003.

October 15, 2005

Dog poo lands owner in court

It seems you shouldn't ignore it - particularly if a dog control officer collects it for you and delivers it to your doorstep.

October 13, 2005

New enforcement system results for dog control

Press Release: Auckland City Council MEDIA RELEASE

New enforcement system leads to positive results for dog control

A new enforcement system for animal control introduced by Auckland City after the attack on Carolina Anderson in 2003 has led to significant improvements in dog control.

The system, in effect since 1 September 2004, has led to a decrease in aggression incidents, greater numbers of dog owners registering their dogs and increased levels of responsible dog ownership and regulation compliance.

In the year from 1 July 2004 to 30 June 2005, dog aggression-related incidents in the city have decreased by 10 per cent. There were 62 fewer incidents than the previous year and 465 less than in the 2002 to 2003 year.

Councillor Glenda Fryer, chairperson of the Planning and Regulatory Committee, says the results are a pleasing reflection of the council's efforts to encourage responsibility amongst dog owners.

"Over the past year Auckland City has worked proactively in the area of dog control, with significant efforts made in the areas of education and enforcement of regulations," says Ms. Fryer. "We're really pleased with this result and hope to see a further reduction in aggression incidents as education of dog owners and the general public continues."

Auckland City's Planning and Regulatory Committee recommended at their meeting today that council officers investigate options, such as the use of handheld units, to enable dog control officers to work more efficiently and build on the improvements already made.

Measures introduced under the new enforcement system include:
- targeting problem dogs and owners to lower the probability of the dogs threatening public safety
- an increase in animal control services to provide 24-hour, seven-day a week coverage on the isthmus (previously the services were five days a week)
- a new warning system, giving animal control officers the power to warn rather than infringe first time offenders of less serious offences such as failure to remove dog faeces or failure to advise change of address
- more responsible dog owner licensing classes. Sixty-eight classes were held and 577 licenses issued in the year to 30 June 2005, compared with 11 classes and 97 licenses in the previous year. Dog owners who participate in these courses and gain a dog owner license pay reduced registration fees.
- an increased focus on education. In 2004 to 2005, animal control officers visited 143 schools and spoke to 3575 pupils about taking care around dogs. This figure combined with the number of people who have been through displays on dog safety in shopping malls and at shows means Auckland City has reached more than 22,000 people.

Auckland City has also focused on reducing the number of unregistered dogs in the city over the past year, having identified a possible link between unregistered dogs and offences.
Animal control officers carried out 2338 registration checks over the past year and issued 1203 infringements for non-registration.

"Dog owners must recognise that if they do not take care to keep their dogs under control at all times and follow the regulations, there will be consequences," Ms Fryer said.

The number of dogs registered on time has also increased, with 96 per cent of all known dogs registered by 30 June 2005. By 30 August 2004, only 82 per cent of all known dogs were registered.

For more information on responsible dog ownership, visit or call Auckland City on (09) 379 2020.

October 12, 2005

Death of 'Hairy McClarey' devastates family

The death of one of New Zealand's working truffle sniffer dogs while chained outside his home has left a Gisborne family devastated.

October 10, 2005

Leader of the pack

Pembroke corgi Taylor, accompanied by owner Michael Romanos yesterday, was dwarfed by a 49-kilogram Burmese mountain dog. Cats and a pet chicken added to the diverse congregation.

Region's elite gun dogs face off at champs

The region's best gun dogs competed on the land and in the water at Tangimoana at the weekend as part of the Horowhenua Gundog Club championships.

October 08, 2005

Owners pay oodles for a spoodle

Labradoodles, spoodles, schnoodles and retradoodles. They sound like something out of Dr Seuss, but these are the hot new breeds to watch in the dog world.

October 05, 2005

Thieves target pet lovers

05 October 2005
Thieves are stealing dogs then claiming cash rewards offered by distraught animal lovers desperate for the safe return of their pets.

October 04, 2005

Your dog could be shot: attacks trigger warning

More than 40 ewes and lambs were mauled by dogs in three separate incidents throughout Southland last week, prompting a warning to dog owners to be more responsible.

October 03, 2005

What's fluffy and has six legs?

Fluffball Millie the shih tzu is dwarfed by owner Antoinette Vine, in equally fluffy Ugg boots, at More FM's Dog's Day Out event at Hikoikoi Reserve in Petone yesterday.

Pews full of furry friends for blessing

Nelson's Christ Church Cathedral went to the dogs during its Blessing of the Animals service on Sunday.

Dogs learn kiwi lesson – the hard way

They say you can't teach old dogs new tricks, but about 30 Taranaki canines have been quick to learn not to include kiwi in their diet. The electric shock treatment! Bring your dog down...

October 01, 2005

Police investigate enrolled dog

The fate of a Wanaka man who enrolled his dog to vote has been placed in the hands of the Queenstown police.
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Thursday, April 2, 2009

Easy Weekday Meal 1: Spinach and Ricotta Pasta

This is one of my favourite speedy meals for when I want something tasty but don't feel like spending ages in the kitchen. It's so easy and really yummy! And, best of all, you'll have dinner on the table in under 10 minutes...

What you need
- A small to medium tub of fresh ricotta from your local deli
- Fresh Lasagne Sheets cut into wide strips (or fresh pappardelle if you can get it)
- A couple of big handfuls of baby spinach
- Pine nuts
- Butter
- A pinch of nutmeg
- Sea Salt and freshly ground black pepper

What to do with it all
Bring a large saucepan full of water to the boil. Once it's reached a rolling boil then get a good knob of butter melting away in a small frying pan on another burner.

Once your butter is starting to get nice and frothy, pop a handful of pine nuts in and stir fairly frequently so that they get a bit of colour but don't burn. At the same time, throw your pasta into the large saucepan.

While your pasta cooks (it will only take a couple of minutes) add your baby spinach to the butter and pine nuts and cook until it wilts. Add a pinch of nutmeg, stir through, then take it off the heat.

Drain your pasta and return it immediately to the large saucepan. Tip the contents of the frypan in with the pasta and give a good stir with some tongs.

Crumble your ricotta into the saucepan and mix through, so that it's well distributed and there are no huge chunks of cheese. Season with sea salt and pepper to taste.

Dinner is served...bellisimo!

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Sounds great, will try it thanks.


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gTLD Boredom

Sorry for yawning in your face but gTLD must stand for got To Lay Down and sleep from boredom. I was not interested in owning any of these “New G’s” but I thought the game was going to be exciting to watch. No way. I can understand the technical problems. My interest in even watching is gone. It’s no fun to follow who gets the left overs with all the good stuff held back for a variety of reasons. I guess I was hoping for the fun we had during the time when you could catch drops from your keyboard at home. There’s none of that. I’m tired of the ridiculous sounding sales pitches. I’m tired of the highly emotional venting of the non believers. I have a vague memory of .guru being released. I remember the jackals circling after .sexy and .tattoo were released. After that, I tuned out. I feel like I was expecting a Led Zepplin concert and Patsy Cline showed up.

However! As I watch the list of favorite gTLDs  (just a fun poll, not an award) on the Domainer’s Choice Awards it’s appearing that the game may get heated up later..I’m hoping! Nominations end soon so get over there and make your choices!

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