The loggerhead turtle (Caretta caretta) is a circumglobal species and is listed as vulnerable globally. The North Pacific population nests in Japan and migrates to the Central North Pacific and Pacific coast of North America to feed. In the Mexican Pacific, records of loggerhead presence are largely restricted to the Gulf of Ulloa along the Baja California Peninsula, where very high fisheries by-catch mortality has been reported. Records of loggerhead turtles within the Sea of Cortez also known as the Gulf of California (GC) exist; however, their ecology in this region is poorly understood. We used satellite tracking and an environmental variable analysis (chlorophyll-a (Chl-a) and sea surface temperature (SST)) to determine movements and habitat use of five juvenile loggerhead turtles ranging in straight carapace length from 62.7–68.3 cm (mean: 66.7 ± 2.3 cm). Satellite tracking durations ranged from 73–293 days (mean: 149 ± 62.5 days), transmissions per turtle from 14–1006 (mean: 462 ± 379.5 transmissions) and total travel distance from 1237–5222 km (mean: 3118 ± 1490.7 km). We used travel rate analyses to identify five foraging areas in the GC, which occurred mainly in waters from 10–80 m deep, with mean Chl-a concentrations ranging from 0.28–13.14 mg m−3 and SST ranging from 27.8–34.4°C. This is the first study to describe loggerhead movements in the Gulf of California and our data suggest that loggerhead foraging movements are performed in areas with eutrophic levels of Chl-a.

Here we provide an update of the 2013 report on the Nigerian Twin and Sibling Registry (NTSR). The major aim of the NTSR is to understand genetic and environmental influences and their interplay in psychological and mental health development in Nigerian children and adolescents. Africans have the highest twin birth rates among all human populations, and Nigeria is the most populous country in Africa. Due to its combination of large population and high twin birth rates, Nigeria has one of the largest twin populations in the world. In this article, we provide current updates on the NTSR samples recruited, recruitment procedures, zygosity assessment and findings emerging from the NTSR.

Neurodevelopment is sensitive to genetic and pre/postnatal environmental influences. These effects are likely mediated by epigenetic factors, yet current knowledge is limited. Longitudinal twin studies can delineate the link between genetic and environmental factors, epigenetic state at birth and neurodevelopment later in childhood. Building upon our study of the Peri/postnatal Epigenetic Twin Study (PETS) from gestation to 6 years of age, here we describe the PETS 11-year follow-up in which we will use neuroimaging and cognitive testing to examine the relationship between early-life environment, epigenetics and neurocognitive outcomes in mid-childhood. Using a within-pair twin model, the primary aims are to (1) identify early-life epigenetic correlates of neurocognitive outcomes; (2) determine the developmental stability of epigenetic effects and (3) identify modifiable environmental risk factors. Secondary aims are to identify factors influencing gut microbiota between 6 and 11 years of age to investigate links between gut microbiota and neurodevelopmental outcomes in mid-childhood. Approximately 210 twin pairs will undergo an assessment at 11 years of age. This includes a direct child cognitive assessment, multimodal magnetic resonance imaging, biological sampling, anthropometric measurements and a range of questionnaires on health and development, behavior, dietary habits and sleeping patterns. Data from complementary data sources, including the National Assessment Program — Literacy and Numeracy and the Australian Early Development Census, will also be sought. Following on from our previous focus on relationships between growth, cardiovascular health and oral health, this next phase of PETS will significantly advance our understanding of the environmental interactions that shape the developing brain.

Twins Research Australia (TRA) is a community of twins and researchers working on health research to benefit everyone, including twins. TRA leads multidisciplinary research through the application of twin and family study designs, with the aim of sustaining long-term twin research that, both now and in the future, gives back to the community. This article summarizes TRA’s recent achievements and future directions, including new methodologies addressing causation, linkage to health, economic and educational administrative datasets and to geospatial data to provide insight into health and disease. We also explain how TRA’s knowledge translation and exchange activities are key to communicating the impact of twin studies to twins and the wider community. Building researcher capability, providing registry resources and partnering with all key stakeholders, particularly the participants, are important for how TRA is advancing twin research to improve health outcomes for society. TRA provides researchers with open access to its vibrant volunteer membership of twins, higher order multiples (multiples) and families who are willing to consider participation in research. Established four decades ago, this resource facilitates and supports research across multiple stages and a breadth of health domains.

The aim of the Avera Twin Register (ATR) is to establish a prospective longitudinal repository of twins, multiples, siblings and family members’ biological samples to study environmental and genetic influences on health and disease. Also, it is our intention to contribute to international genome-wide association study (GWAS) twin consortia when appropriate sample size is achieved within the ATR. The ATR is young compared with existing registers and continues to collect a longitudinal repository of biological specimens, survey data and health information. Data and biological specimens were originally collected via face-to-face appointments or the postal department and consisted of paper-informed consents and questionnaires. Enrollment of the ATR began on May 18, 2016 and is located in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, a rural and frontier area in the Central United States with a regional population of approximately 880,000. The original target area for the ATR was South Dakota and the four surrounding states: Minnesota, Iowa, North Dakota and Nebraska. The ATR has found a need to expand that area based on twin and multiple siblings who live in various areas surrounding these states. A description of the state of the ATR today and its transition to online data collection and informed consent will be presented. The ATR collects longitudinal data on lifestyle, including diet and activity levels, aging, plus complex traits and diseases. All twins and multiples participating in the ATR are genotyped on the Illumina Global Screening Array and receive zygosity results.

Oesophageal perforation is a rarely reported complication of transoesophageal echocardiography in infants. This case involves a 3.1-kg neonate with Trisomy 21, atrioventricular septal defect, and hypoplastic aortic arch undergoing aortic arch advancement and pulmonary artery banding. A paediatric transoesophageal echocardiography probe was placed intraoperatively causing a contained false passage from the oesophagus below the cricopharyngeus muscle with extension into the left posterior mediastinum. The perforation healed within 2 weeks without permanent sequelae after conservative medical management.

Digital Formations: IT and New Architectures in the Global Realm. Edited by Robert Latham and Saskia Sassen. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2005. 367p. $65.00 cloth, $27.95 paper.

This is an interesting collection of essays about what the editors call “digital formations.” A social formation is something in society that is emerging without a single founding event, in its early stages of development, and tending toward a variable structure and nature (p. 9). Despite this, “you should be able to identify a coherent configuration of organization, space, and interaction” (p. 10). Several of the social formations studied by the authors in this volume are only partly digital: that is, they combine digital and nondigital elements. They are all, however, subject to “digitization,” which involves the “rendering of facets of social and political life in a digital form” (p. 16). One important reason for studying digital formations is that some are potentially “destabilizing of existing hierarchies of scale and nested hierarchies” (p. 19), while others reinforce them. An example of the former is the open-source software movement (as chronicled here by Steve Weber); an example of the latter is what Dieter Ernst in his chapter calls the “global flagship networks” created by large multinational corporations.

Information Please: Culture and Politics in the Age of Digital Machines. By Mark Poster. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2006. 393p. $79.95 Cloth, $22.95 paper.

In this book, Mark Poster attempts to provide a philosophical framework for understanding the significance of the rise of computers, the Internet, and the other digital technologies. His argument is that the diffusion of these new technologies results in “complex couplings of humans and machines” (p. 9) that call into question some of the central ideas of our time. The discussion starts with postcolonial theory and then moves on to recent theories of empire, citizenship, identity, ethics, psychoanalysis, intellectual property rights, everyday life, and consumer culture. It is an ambitious work and difficult to read in passages, but the effort is worth it.

Studies were conducted in New Jersey and Virginia to evaluate the response of ‘Aurora Gold’ hard fescue, which had undergone five cycles of phenotypic recurrent selection for increased glyphosate tolerance, to direct applications of glyphosate. ‘Discovery’ hard fescue, which had not undergone recurrent selection, was also included in the study. Glyphosate treatments were initiated in early/mid-May and applied once, twice, or three times at 4- to 5-wk intervals at rates ranging from 0.1 to 1.6 kg ae/ha. Aurora Gold was more tolerant to glyphosate than Discovery in all experiments, indicating that recurrent selection was successful in increasing glyphosate tolerance in hard fescue. Single applications of glyphosate at rates ranging from 0.6 to 0.8 kg/ha could be applied to Aurora Gold with minimal injury or stand thinning (<20%), whereas multiple applications of glyphosate could be applied at rates ranging from 0.4 to 0.6 kg/ha. The use of Aurora Gold in areas planted to hard fescue, such as golf course roughs, vineyards, orchards, and landscapes, would allow the integration of direct glyphosate applications into an overall weed management program providing potential economic and environmental benefits.