Background: Lead exposure, even at low levels, is associated with adverse health effects in humans. We investigated the determinants of individual lead levels in a general population-based sample of adults from Florence, Italy. Methods: Erythrocyte lead levels were measured (using inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry) in 454 subjects enrolled in the Florence cohort of the European Prospect

Globalization might affect the mix of jobs available in an economy and the rate at which workers gain skills. We develop a model in which firms differ in terms of productivity and skills and use the model to examine how globalization affects the wage distribution and the career path of workers as they move up the jobs ladder. There are two types of skills that determine a worker’s productivity in

The scope of the compendium covers many parts of theemerging circular economy. We choose to place considerablefocus on some of the substances that we extract from theground – in particular raw materials and critical materials.We focus on circularity in these areas, because presentlywe use too much, too fast, and we are not re-using nearlyenough. In turn, this approach demands that we look atthe te

Reproductive parasites such as Wolbachia can spread through uninfected host populations by increasing the relative fitness of the infected maternal lineage. However, empirical estimates of how fast this process occurs are limited. Here we use nucleotide sequences of male‐killing Wolbachia bacteria and co‐inherited mitochondria to address this issue in the island butterfly Hypolimnas bolina. We sho

We investigated inbreeding depression and genetic load in a small (Ne ∼ 100) population of the Glanville fritillary butterfly (Melitaea cinxia), which has been completely isolated on a small island [Pikku Tytärsaari (PT)] in the Baltic Sea for at least 75 y. As a reference, we studied conspecific populations from the well-studied metapopulation in the Åland Islands (ÅL), 400 km away. A large popul

On small isolated islands, natural selection is expected to reduce the dispersal capacity of organisms, as short distances do not require a high rate of dispersal, which might lead to accidental emigration from the population. In addition, individuals foregoing the high cost of maintaining flight capacity may instead allocate resources to other functions. However, in butterflies and many other ins

Dr. Anne‐Marie Hermansson is heartily thanked for her kind interest in this work, and Dr. P. Walstra is thanked for his valuable comments. The authors are also much indebted to Ing. Ernst Braun for valuable advice during the construction of the emulsifying apparatus and for making the construction drawings. The practical construction work of the valve homogenizer and the ultra‐turrax by Jan Walter

Despite the fact that we are witnessing the emergence of a populist Zeitgeist worldwide, we run the danger of developing conceptual and operational definitions of populism that do not meet the theoretical challenges of the phenomenon or the political exigencies of our time. Yet there are sufficient commonalities in what appears to be a cacophonic universe made up by exclusivist movements and parti

A new procedure for the application of the drop volume technique to measurements of the rate of adsorption of proteins at interfaces has been developed. The mode of adsorption of the proteins lysozyme, β-lactoglobulin and bovine serum albumin (BSA) at the air-water interface has been measured with the drop volume method and has been compared to measurements with the Wilhelmy plate technique. Due t

Habitat loss and fragmentation threaten the long-term viability of innumerablespecies of plants and animals. At the same time, habitat fragmentation mayimpose strong natural selection and lead to evolution of life histories with possibleconsequences for demographic dynamics. The Baltic populations of the Glanvillefritillary butterfly (Melitaea cinxia) inhabit regions with highly fragmented habitat

A cDNA clone (Gv1) was isolated from a Medicago truncatula/Glomus versiforme root cDNA library by a differential screening technique. Gv1 represents a full-length G. versiforme mRNA encoding a 99-amino-acid polypeptide. This shares regions of identity with HMP1, a non-histone, cruciform DNA-binding protein from Ustilago maydis. Northern blot analysis indicated that Gv1 transcripts were present in

Mt4 is a cDNA representing a phosphate-starvation-inducible gene from Medicago truncatula that is down-regulated in roots in response to inorganic phosphate (Pi) fertilization and colonization by arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi. Split-root experiments revealed that the expression of the Mt4 gene in M. truncatula roots is down-regulated systemically by both Pi fertilization and colonization by arbuscu