The Neotoma Paleoecology Database is a community-curated data resource that supports interdisciplinary global change research by enabling broad-scale studies of taxon and community diversity, distributions, and dynamics during the large environmental changes of the past. By consolidating many kinds of data into a common repository, Neotoma lowers costs of paleodata management, makes paleoecological data openly available, and offers a high-quality, curated resource. Neotoma’s distributed scientific governance model is flexible and scalable, with many open pathways for participation by new members, data contributors, stewards, and research communities. The Neotoma data model supports, or can be extended to support, any kind of paleoecological or paleoenvironmental data from sedimentary archives. Data additions to Neotoma are growing and now include >3.8 million observations, >17,000 datasets, and >9200 sites. Dataset types currently include fossil pollen, vertebrates, diatoms, ostracodes, macroinvertebrates, plant macrofossils, insects, testate amoebae, geochronological data, and the recently added organic biomarkers, stable isotopes, and specimen-level data. Multiple avenues exist to obtain Neotoma data, including the Explorer map-based interface, an application programming interface, the neotoma R package, and digital object identifiers. As the volume and variety of scientific data grow, community-curated data resources such as Neotoma have become foundational infrastructure for big data science.

We performed genome-wide chemical mutagenesis of C57BL/6J mice using N-ethyl-N-nitrosourea (ENU). Electroretinographic screening of the third generation offspring revealed two G3 individuals from one G1 family with a normal a-wave but lacking the b-wave that we named nob4. The mutation was transmitted with a recessive mode of inheritance and mapped to chromosome 11 in a region containing the Grm6 gene, which encodes a metabotropic glutamate receptor protein, mGluR6. Sequencing confirmed a single nucleotide substitution from T to C in the Grm6 gene. The mutation is predicted to result in substitution of Pro for Ser at position 185 within the extracellular, ligand-binding domain and oocytes expressing the homologous mutation in mGluR6 did not display robust glutamate-induced currents. Retinal mRNA levels for Grm6 were not significantly reduced, but no immunoreactivity for mGluR6 protein was found. Histological and fundus evaluations of nob4 showed normal retinal morphology. In contrast, the mutation has severe consequences for visual function. In nob4 mice, fewer retinal ganglion cells (RGCs) responded to the onset (ON) of a bright full field stimulus. When ON responses could be evoked, their onset was significantly delayed. Visual acuity and contrast sensitivity, measured with optomotor responses, were reduced under both photopic and scotopic conditions. This mutant will be useful because its phenotype is similar to that of human patients with congenital stationary night blindness and will provide a tool for understanding retinal circuitry and the role of ganglion cell encoding of visual information.

Although the majority of publications on extant nonmarine ostracode species in North America are concerned with lacustrine settings, many species that are potentially valuable as indicators of water quality changes live in non-lacustrine settings. Ostracode distributions in 157 springs, wetlands and streams in the United States are examined here in order to assess 1) species richness, 2) association with physical and chemical parameters of their habitats and 3) the presence of potentially useful biomonitors and environmental sentinels. The 157 non-lacustrine sites are a subset of a large database (North American Non-marine Ostracode Database: NANODe version 1) consisting of 611 mostly lacustrine sites with ostracode species, presence-absence data, hydrochemistry and climate data (Forester et al., in review). Of the 89 species represented in NANODe version 1, 51 species are found in springs, 59 species are found in wetlands and only 15 species are found in streams. Many species are found in at least two of these habitats and some in all three. Principal Components Analysis of these 157 sites indicates that 71% of the variance is explained by salinity (total ionic concentration), alkalinity and temperature, a result consistent with previously published analyses of natural water. Cluster analysis shows that spring species are most strongly tied to temperature, whereas wetlands and streams are most strongly tied to ionic composition. Three species are found to be potentially valuable biomonitors: Cavernocypris wardi in springs, Fabaeformiscandona rawsoni in wetlands and Physocypria globula in streams.

The principal occupation of the Nixon Administration was an attempt to build what it called a “structure of peace.” President Ford has made it perfectly clear that he agrees with the basic thrust of his predecessor's foreign policy. Public opinion polls show that a majority of the American ipeople share Ford's assessment of the Nixon Administration's alleged achievements in world affairs. I propose to challenge the basis on which they intend to build that structure and to pose an alternative basis. Before positing that alternative I will compare the Nixon-Kissinger grand design with other policies that compete for our allegiance today.

After almost a generation of cold war and bipolarity the international situation is said to have been transformed. We have entered the postwar era at last, an age characterized by multipolarity and the sober pursuit of national interests. America, Russia and China are assumed to have at last abandoned their crusading approach to world affairs. In the Moscow, Shanghai and San Clemente communiqués issued after Summit conferences in 1972 and 1973 these great nations “took the pledge” to exercise restraint, moderation and similar virtues. A war- and world-weary United States eagerly embraces a lower profile abroad, gratefully bidding goodbye to thirty years of globalism.

For a generation now, America has played a significant role in world affairs. Until Pearl Harbor a reluctant belligerent in World War II, this country was also slow to respond to the challenge of the Soviet Union in the immediate aftermath of that gigantic conflict. But for almost twenty-five years American Presidents have been more or less guided by the policy of “containment.” Eisenhower, Kennedy, and Johnson all introduced variations on the multiple themes of the policy adopted by Harry Truman. Yet each concluded that the world situation allowed no reasonable alternative to an activist American foreign policy in most areas of the globe.

The military utility of the limited Cambodian campaign should be clear to those capable of assessing the facts. It will help protect the withdrawal of American troops, and reduce the Communist capability to launch attacks in the southern half of South Vietnam. It will, in short, help the process of Vietnamization. On the other hand, the fate of the I.on Nol regime in Pnompenh remains in doubt. Should South Vietnam, and perhaps other countries in Southeast Asia, help the new Cambodian government after American withdrawal, it could withstand the efforts of Sihanouk. Hanoi et. al. The venture gained time at least to shore up the Lon Nol regime, while not assuring its survival. Nixon's expressed hope that the venture might prod Hanoi into serious negotiations can be dismissed in the light of North Vietnamese patience and determination.

Five years ago West German Chancellor Ludwig Erhard and Foreign Minister Gerhard Schroeder launched a tentative “Opening to the East” which marked a break with Konrad Adenauer's relatively rigid approach to, the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe. The “Grand Conbtion” of the Christian Democrats and Social Democrats continued the experiment from 1966-1969. The Hallstein Doctrine—no diplomatic relations with any country which had such relations with East Germany (the Soviet Union being the sole exception)—was abandoned. West Germany established diplomatic relations with the maverick Rumanian regime, and re-established relations with Tito's Yugoslavia. Several trade and cultural exchange agreements were entered into with East European Communist nations.

Dean Acheson, President Truman's Secretary of State from 1949-1953, is generally considered to have been one of the ablest men to have held that position in the twentieth century. His memoirs recall the qualities of mind and the at times testy temperament which, together with the role he played in great events, made him also a very controversial Secretary. He did not suffer fools gladly, and was at times impatient and tactless with lesser mortals who failed to grasp what he considered to be elementary truths of world affairs. Although he has mellowed somewhat, he still believes that he was correct on all the great decisions in which he had his way, and the memoirs do not include a single significant case in which he acknowledges having been wrong.

In his classic Democracy in America, Alexis de Tocqueville expressed doubt that this country would be able to conduct a wise foreign policy. He argued that democracies lack the qualities necessary for such a stance in world affairs. In his words, “… a democracy can only with great difficulty regulate the details of an important undertaking, persevere in a fixed design, and work out its execution in spite of serious obstacles.” Through the second world war, many students of American foreign policy felt that de Tocqueville's pessimistic expectations had been proven valid. Since 1898, this nation seemed to oscillate between extremes of adventurous activism and sullen isolationism.

Since the second world war, tension has existed in this country between two schools of “internationalists.” One camp has concentrated on the necessity of building and maintaining “positions of strength” in order to deter and tu negotiate with the Soviet Union and Communist China. The second school has stressed the need for “constructive” policies such as foreign aid and liberalized trade in order to foster economic and social progress in the industrialized nations and to promote development in the Third World. Generally speaking, presidents from Truman through Nixon have combined the two approaches, although at various times more attention has been given to one or the other. Most students of American foreign policy would probably agree that power generally has been given priority over development politics since the Korean War.