The northern fur seal (NFS),
Callorhinus ursinus
(Mammalia: Otariidae), is a marine mammal species included into the IUCN Red List as the vulnerable species which population is dramatically ...declining. A significant amount of parasitological data collected previously and our recent data allowed us to clarify the list of NFS metazoan parasites and to perform a comprehensive analysis of the gastrointestinal helminth community. Gastrointestinal tracts from 756 NFSs (3- to 4-year-old males) were collected during the annual Aleut subsistence harvests in July–August of 2011–2014 from five separate rookeries on St. Paul Island, Alaska. Totally, 27,625 specimens of helminths and approximately 1000 nasal mites were collected and identified. Detailed analysis of the previously published and newly obtained data revealed 32 species of metazoan parasites, including trematodes (6 species), cestodes (4), nematodes (9), acanthocephalans (9) and arthropods (4). The gastrointestinal helminth community of newly studied NFSs comprised 19 species including trematodes (4), cestodes (3), nematodes (5) and acanthocephalans (7). Temporal changes in the helminth community structure were small but statistically significant. Gastrointestinal helminth infracommunities comprised from 1 to 10 species (average of 4). Small but significant correlation was found between the abundances of acanthocephalans (
Corynosoma similis
and
C. strumosum
), nematodes (
Contracaecum osculatum
,
Pseudoterranova
spp.) and cestode
Diphyllobothrium tetrapterum
.
Patterns of the rockcod
Notothenia coriiceps
infection with helminths were analysed to understand the dynamics of parasite communities in this Antarctic fish and to test their stability over time. ...The study was performed using helminth samples collected from 183
N. coriiceps
in 2014–2015 and 2020–2021 in the vicinity of the Ukrainian Antarctic station (UAS) “Akademik Vernadsky”, Galindez Island, Argentine Islands, West Antarctica. Overall, 25 helminth taxonomical categories (nine trematodes, four cestodes, five nematodes, and seven acanthocephalans) were subjected to analysis. A direct comparison of the helminth population characteristics showed that nine species significantly changed their infection parameters during the 6 years between the samples. Seven of them (
Pseudoterranova
sp.,
Contracaecum
sp.,
Ascarophis nototheniae
, monolocular metacestodes, bilocular metacestodes,
Metacanthocephalus rennicki
, and
Diphyllobothrium
sp.) were found to have a significant impact on the differences between helminth infracommunities in 2014–2015 and 2020–2021. Most studied patterns of helminth component community appeared to show a stable tendency, and observed fluctuations were close to the steady trend. Slight but significant changes in the infection patterns observed in this study might have been caused by changes in the populations of intermediate, paratenic, and definitive hosts of helminths (marine invertebrates, mammals, and birds), which participate in helminth transmission in Antarctic ecosystems.
The article presents experiment findings to verify the educational activities program in the field of COVID-19 vaccine prevention for students. The study was conducted at the Moscow State University ...of Psychology and Education, the analytical sample size is N = 780. Five aspects (as measuring scales) of attitudes towards vaccination against COVID-19 were identified: the benefits of vaccination against coronavirus for a person and society; denial of the coronavirus danger and hope for natural immunity; fear of the side effects of vaccination against coronavirus and distrust of vaccination safety information; confidence in the serious negative consequences of the coronavirus vaccine; disbelief in the proven effectiveness of Russian vaccines at the international level. A comparative analysis of the effectiveness of 4 strategies for influencing student's attitudes to vaccination against COVID-19 was carried out: lectures only (CG), lectures in combination with seminars / webinars in the traditional format (EG1), with discussions of real life cases related to vaccination and its effects (EG2), with holding student's debates (EG3). There are no gender differences between groups. There are differences in age, but the mean difference does not exceed 2 years. At the ascertaining stage, there are no differences on the scales; at the control stage, differences are revealed. On all 5 scales, positive and negative effects in the whole sample are almost equally likely. It was not possible to single out a fundamentally best strategy for educational influence. In general, the effectiveness of educational activities is somewhat greater when conducting lectures in combination with various kinds of seminars compared to lectures alone, but the effectiveness is low everywhere. Cohen's d standard effect sizes do not exceed 0,44. Slightly higher is efficiency when conducting lectures in combination with traditional seminars / webinars or case studies. The student's debates holding strategy did not meet expectations. A number of significant correlations were found between various aspects of attitudes towards vaccination with natural science literacy, logical thinking, verbal intelligence, the degree of fear of COVID-19, personal and situational anxiety. All correlations are weak, but their direction is as expected.
Micromorphology and ultrastructure of capsule forming around acanthocephalan
Corynosoma strumosum
in uncommon paratenic hosts—lizards
Lacerta agilis
and
Lacerta viridis
—have been studied. ...Experimental infestation of the lizards by acanthocephalans obtained from naturally infested sea fishes showed that only small amount of parasites occurred in the intestine of the host was able to migrate into body cavity and to be encapsulated. Micromorphology of capsules of different ages from different species of lizards and micromorphology and ultrastructure of capsules at the age of 1.5 and 10 days appeared to be similar. In the capsule’s structure cells of inflammatory rank were prevailing: mononuclear and multinuclear macrophages, eosinophils, and basophils. Fibroblasts were not numerous and were located only in the outer part of a capsule; exocellular collagen fibers were absent. Inflammatory character of capsule confirms the idea that lizards are unsuitable paratenic hosts for corynosomes.
Sedimentary charcoal records are widely used to reconstruct regional changes
in fire regimes through time in the geological past. Existing global
compilations are not geographically comprehensive and ...do not provide
consistent metadata for all sites. Furthermore, the age models provided for
these records are not harmonised and many are based on older calibrations of
the radiocarbon ages. These issues limit the use of existing compilations
for research into past fire regimes. Here, we present an expanded database
of charcoal records, accompanied by new age models based on recalibration of
radiocarbon ages using IntCal20 and Bayesian age-modelling software. We
document the structure and contents of the database, the construction of the
age models, and the quality control measures applied. We also record the
expansion of geographical coverage relative to previous charcoal
compilations and the expansion of metadata that can be used to inform
analyses. This first version of the Reading Palaeofire Database contains
1676 records (entities) from 1480 sites worldwide. The database (RPDv1b – Harrison et al., 2021) is available at
https://doi.org/10.17864/1947.000345.
The interest in sexual dysfunction induced by psychotropic drugs has increased considerably in recent years because of the new-generation antidepressants (AD) and antipsychotics (AP) being put into ...medical practice. These drugs are widely used to treat not only depression and schizophrenia, but also anxiety and affective disorders. Other, additional indications for the use of antidepressants are appetite disorders, premenstrual syndrome, chronic pain, etc. Neuroleptics are administered to treat resistant depressions, aggressiveness, impulsivity, and alcoholism. Impaired sexual functioning due to AD and AP lowers quality of life in patients and increases the risk of their refusing treatment, the result of which is a phenomenon associated with the occurrence of recurrent mental illnesses. There are few scientific data on the nature and prevalence of sexual dysfunctions induced by these medications. This topic is universally underestimated as it is rarely touched upon by specialists during their consultations. The aim of the review is to show the side effects of AP and AD on the sexual sphere, to compare different classes of the drugs, and to propose possible management strategies to correct these undesirable effects.
The possibility to use miniature one-stage thermoelectric unit as the source for contrast thermal effect on biologically active points and areas is considered. It is shown that use of thermoelectric ...unit satisfy the requirements of reflexotherapy for penetration depth of heat into BT, as far as the locality is concerned the unit can be used only for treatment of biological areas.
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