Clinical observations of Babesia canis infection in 63 dogs during a 1-year period are summarised, demonstrating the pathogenicity of the Babesia strain endemic in Hungary. Most patients had ...babesiosis in the spring and autumn, correlating with the seasonal activity of ticks. Male animals appeared in higher numbers, probably due to an overrepresentation of outdoor dogs. Uncomplicated babesiosis was diagnosed in 32 cases. The disease affected dogs of any age in this study. Symptoms were similar to those published from other parts of the world: lethargy, fever, splenomegaly, pallor, icterus, haemoglobinuria and presence of ticks were the most common observations. Thrombocytopenia, lymphopenia and neutropenia were frequent haemogram changes. Imidocarb appeared to be highly effective in eliminating the Babesia infection. Thirty-one animals demonstrated babesiosis with complications. Most Rottweilers (7/9) developed complicated disease. Old age was a risk factor for multiple complications. Multiple organ manifestations had poor prognosis. Hepatopathy (44%), pancreatitis (33%), acute renal failure (ARF; 31%) and disseminated intravascular coagulation (DIC; 24%) were frequent complications, while immune-mediated haemolytic anaemia (IMHA; 10%), acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS; 6%) and cerebral babesiosis (3%) were rarely observed. There was a significant difference between the mean age of dogs having uncomplicated disease, babesiosis with a single complication and babesiosis with multiple complications (3.4, 4.8 and 8.6 years, respectively, p < 0.001). The recovery rate (78, 68 and 25%, respectively, p = 0.005) and mortality rate (3, 21 and 67%, respectively, p < 0.001) also tended to differ significantly in these groups. Systemic inflammatory response syndrome (SIRS) and DIC are two possible pathways leading to multiple organ dysfunction syndrome (MODS) in babesiosis. DIC was found to predict MODS more sensitively in this study than SIRS: there were 6 animals developing MODS out of 11 identified with DIC, while only 5 dogs developed MODS out of 22 having SIRS.
Micromacrocera gen. n. of the subfamily Macrocerinae (Keroplatidae) is described (type species M. stenobasis sp. n.) from South Africa. An analysis of characters in comparison to those of the other ...genera of the subfamily is given. With 15 original figures.
A list of newly collected and identified oribatids from Kenya is presented, two of them represent new genera; Sceletoppia gen. nov. (Oppiidae) and Mahnertozetes gen. nov. (Haplozetidae). Twelve ...species, belonging to the families Steganacaridae, Lohmanniidae, Tetracondylidae, Microzetidae, Zetomotrichidae and Galumnidae are new to science. Taxonomical notes on two other species are given.
Five new species of the genus Chaetopodella Duda, 1920: Ch. keniaca sp. n. (Kenya), Ch. reducta sp. n. (Tanzania), Ch. aethiopica sp. n. (Ethiopia), Ch. demeteri sp. n. (Nigeria) and Ch. nigeriae sp. ...n. (Nigeria) are described. Afrochaetopodella subgen. n. is proposed (type species: Chaetopodella reducta sp. n.). Lectotype of Ch. denigrata (Duda, 1920) is designated. A key is given for the Afrotropical species. With 51 original figures.
OBJECTIVE: Respiratory abnormalities may play a central role in the pathophysiology of panic disorder. The current study was undertaken to examine the respiratory response in the largest series of ...subjects to date during three respiratory challenges that used improved methodology. METHOD: Fifty-nine patients with DSM-III-R panic disorder and 39 normal volunteers were challenged with 5% and 7% CO2 inhalation and room air hyperventilation separated by room air breathing with continuous spirometry. RESULTS: Patients with panic disorder were more sensitive to the anxiogenic effects of CO2 than were normal subjects, and CO2 was a more potent stimulus to panic than hyperventilation. Patients increased their respiratory rate more quickly during CO2 inhalation than did comparison subjects, and this increase preceded the panic attacks. Patients who panicked in response to 5% CO2 demonstrated continued rise in end-tidal CO2, while the end-tidal CO2 of the comparison groups stabilized. Low end-tidal CO2 and high variance in minute ventilation at baseline predicted panic attacks during CO2 inhalation. Following CO2 or hyperventilation challenges, respiratory rate dropped sharply, while tidal volume remained elevated longer in patients than in comparison subjects. CONCLUSIONS: The findings confirm the greater behavioral and physiological sensitivity of patients with panic disorder to CO2 inhalation and identify a series of respiratory abnormalities. Panic attacks in panic disorder may be explained by inefficient compensatory mechanisms, primarily of respiratory rate. (Am J Psychiatry 1997; 154:1557-1565)
Eight new species of Leptomorphus Curtis are described from the Oriental and Australasian regions: L. alienus (Indonesia: Seram), L. ascutellatus (Thailand), L. baramensis sp. n. (Malaysia: Sarawak), ...L. gunungmuluensis sp. n. (Malaysia: Sarawak), L. longipes sp. n. (Brunei), L. matilei sp. n. (Indonesia: Sulawesi), L. papua sp. n. (Papua New Guinea), L utarensis sp. n. (Indonesia: Sulawesi). A key is given for their identification and male terminalia are figured. The egg of L. utarensis sp. n. is also figured. With 57 + 3 (photo) figures.
For most of their existence, stars are fuelled by the fusion of hydrogen into helium. Fusion proceeds via two processes that are well understood theoretically: the proton-proton (pp) chain and the ...carbon-nitrogen-oxygen (CNO) cycle
. Neutrinos that are emitted along such fusion processes in the solar core are the only direct probe of the deep interior of the Sun. A complete spectroscopic study of neutrinos from the pp chain, which produces about 99 per cent of the solar energy, has been performed previously
; however, there has been no reported experimental evidence of the CNO cycle. Here we report the direct observation, with a high statistical significance, of neutrinos produced in the CNO cycle in the Sun. This experimental evidence was obtained using the highly radiopure, large-volume, liquid-scintillator detector of Borexino, an experiment located at the underground Laboratori Nazionali del Gran Sasso in Italy. The main experimental challenge was to identify the excess signal-only a few counts per day above the background per 100 tonnes of target-that is attributed to interactions of the CNO neutrinos. Advances in the thermal stabilization of the detector over the last five years enabled us to develop a method to constrain the rate of bismuth-210 contaminating the scintillator. In the CNO cycle, the fusion of hydrogen is catalysed by carbon, nitrogen and oxygen, and so its rate-as well as the flux of emitted CNO neutrinos-depends directly on the abundance of these elements in the solar core. This result therefore paves the way towards a direct measurement of the solar metallicity using CNO neutrinos. Our findings quantify the relative contribution of CNO fusion in the Sun to be of the order of 1 per cent; however, in massive stars, this is the dominant process of energy production. This work provides experimental evidence of the primary mechanism for the stellar conversion of hydrogen into helium in the Universe.
Studies on oribatid mites collected on several sites in the Carpathian Basin and Balkan Peninsula, from Hungary, Romania and Greece are presented. Altogether 30 species are listed, six of them ...(Phthiracarus duplex sp. n., Lauroppia (Lauroppia) brevisimilis sp. n., Lauroppia (Rhinoppia) undulata sp. n., Oribellopsis grecus sp. n., Oribatella valeriae sp. n. and Zygoribatula longa sp. n.) are new to science. A total of 17 species are recorded from Romania and Greece for the first time. Some taxonomical and zoogeographical notes on rare of little known species are also given. With 39 figures.
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