Approximately 70% of women with epilepsy experience additional challenges in seizure exacerbation due to hormonal changes, particularly during fluctuations of estrogen–progesterone levels in the ...menstrual cycle, which is known as catamenial epilepsy. In animal models of epilepsy, a sustained increase in seizure frequency has been observed in female rats during the proestrus–estrus transition when estrogen levels are high and progesterone levels are low resembling catamenial epilepsy. Cannabidiol (CBD) has been proposed to have anticonvulsant and anti-inflammatory effects, able to decrease seizure duration and increase seizure threshold in rats with epilepsy. However, most studies have used males to investigate the pharmacological effects of CBD on seizures, and the neuroprotective effects of CBD against seizures exacerbated by hormonal fluctuations in females are still little explored. Given this scenario, the aim of the present study was to investigate whether CBD would protect against acute seizures induced by pentylenetetrazole (PTZ) in female rats during a pro-convulsant hormonal phase. Therefore, CBD (50 mg/kg) or saline was administered during the proestrus–estrus transition phase, 1 h prior to induction of seizures with PTZ (60 mg/kg), and the following parameters were recorded: duration, latency to first seizure, as well as percentage of convulsing animals (incidence), mortality, and severity of seizures. Brains were processed for immunohistochemistry for microglial cells (Iba-1), and blood was collected for the analysis of cytokines (IL-1β, IL-6, IL-10, and TNF-α). Cannabidiol pre-treated rats showed a significant reduction in duration and severity of seizures, and IL-1β levels, although the latency, incidence of seizures, and mortality rate remained unchanged as well the quantification of microglia in the selected areas. Therefore, acute administration of CBD in a single dose prior to seizure induction showed a partial neuroprotective effect against seizure severity and inflammation, suggesting that female rats in the proconvulsant phase of proestrus–estrus have a low seizure threshold and are more resistant to the anticonvulsant effects of CBD. It appears that other doses or administration windows of CBD may be required to achieve a full protective effect against seizures, suggesting that CBD could be used as an adjunctive therapy during fluctuations of estrogen–progesterone levels. In this sense, considering the hormonal fluctuation as a seizure-potentiating factor, our study contributes to understand the anticonvulsant activity of CBD in females in a pro-convulsant hormonal phase, similar to catamenial seizures in humans.
We studied the nature of information that frugivorous foragers take into account to increase their chances of discovering bountiful fruit crops. We recorded the foraging behaviour of five adult ...female chimpanzees, Pan troglodytes verus, for continuous periods of 4–8 weeks, totalling 275 full days, throughout multiple fruiting seasons in the Taï National Park, Côte d'Ivoire. We found that chimpanzees fed on individual trees that were significantly larger than other available and reproductively mature trees of the same species, especially if their fruit emitted an obvious smell. Trees that were merely checked for edible fruit, but where monitoring could not have been triggered by olfactory or auditory cues because the tree did not carry fruit, were also significantly larger. Most trees were monitored along the way during travel, but 13% were approached in a goal-directed manner (assessed using a ‘change point test’). These approaches were unlikely to have been initiated by visual cues and occurred more often when females foraged solitarily and when trees were large as opposed to small. Our results suggest that goal-directed monitoring is guided by a long-term ‘what–where’ memory of the location of large potential food sources. These findings were confirmed in a quasiexperiment that tested which of 15 876 potential food trees with different crown sizes were approached in a goal-directed manner. Observations on one female who was followed intensively over 3 consecutive years indicated that monitoring probability was highest for trees with which she had become more familiar through frequent previous visits and that had carried more fruit, suggesting that she was able to remember this information across fruiting seasons. Long-term phenological data on individual trees indicated that the interval between successive fruiting seasons, and hence the ‘memory window’ of chimpanzees required for effective monitoring activities, could be up to 3 years.
•We studied monitoring behaviour of fruit trees by chimpanzees in rainforest habitat.•Chimpanzees fed on and monitored significantly larger trees than other forest trees.•Most trees were monitored en route, but 13% were approached in a goal-directed way.•Such goal-directed monitoring was guided by a long-term spatial memory of tree size.•Information from previous feeding experiences was remembered across seasons.
Measurements of OH, HO2, complex RO2 (alkene- and aromatic-related RO2) and total RO2 radicals taken during the integrated Study of AIR Pollution PROcesses in Beijing (AIRPRO) campaign in central ...Beijing in the summer of 2017, alongside observations of OH reactivity, are presented. The concentrations of radicals were elevated, with OH reaching up to 2.8×107moleculecm-3, HO2 peaking at 1×109moleculecm-3 and the total RO2 concentration reaching 5.5×109moleculecm-3. OH reactivity (k(OH)) peaked at 89 s-1 during the night, with a minimum during the afternoon of ≈22s-1 on average. An experimental budget analysis, in which the rates of production and destruction of the radicals are compared, highlighted that although the sources and sinks of OH were balanced under high NO concentrations, the OH sinks exceeded the known sources (by 15 ppbvh-1) under the very low NO conditions (<0.5ppbv) experienced in the afternoons, demonstrating a missing OH source consistent with previous studies under high volatile organic compound (VOC) emissions and low NO loadings. Under the highest NO mixing ratios (104 ppbv), the HO2 production rate exceeded the rate of destruction by ≈50ppbvh-1, whilst the rate of destruction of total RO2 exceeded the production by the same rate, indicating that the net propagation rate of RO2 to HO2 may be substantially slower than assumed. If just 10 % of the RO2 radicals propagate to HO2 upon reaction with NO, the HO2 and RO2 budgets could be closed at high NO, but at low NO this lower RO2 to HO2 propagation rate revealed a missing RO2 sink that was similar in magnitude to the missing OH source. A detailed box model that incorporated the latest Master Chemical Mechanism (MCM3.3.1) reproduced the observed OH concentrations well but over-predicted the observed HO2 under low concentrations of NO (<1ppbv) and under-predicted RO2 (both the complex RO2 fraction and other RO2 types which we classify as simple RO2) most significantly at the highest NO concentrations. The model also under-predicted the observed k(OH) consistently by ≈10s-1 across all NOx levels, highlighting that the good agreement for OH was fortuitous due to a cancellation of missing OH source and sink terms in its budget. Including heterogeneous loss of HO2 to aerosol surfaces did reduce the modelled HO2 concentrations in line with the observations but only at NO mixing ratios <0.3ppbv. The inclusion of Cl atoms, formed from the photolysis of nitryl chloride, enhanced the modelled RO2 concentration on several mornings when the Cl atom concentration was calculated to exceed 1×104atomscm-3 and could reconcile the modelled and measured RO2 concentrations at these times. However, on other mornings, when the Cl atom concentration was lower, large under-predictions in total RO2 remained. Furthermore, the inclusion of Cl atom chemistry did not enhance the modelled RO2 beyond the first few hours after sunrise and so was unable to resolve the modelled under-prediction in RO2 observed at other times of the day. Model scenarios, in which missing VOC reactivity was included as an additional reaction that converted OH to RO2, highlighted that the modelled OH, HO2 and RO2 concentrations were sensitive to the choice of RO2 product. The level of modelled to measured agreement for HO2 and RO2 (both complex and simple) could be improved if the missing OH reactivity formed a larger RO2 species that was able to undergo reaction with NO, followed by isomerisation reactions reforming other RO2 species, before eventually generating HO2. In this work an α-pinene-derived RO2 species was used as an example. In this simulation, consistent with the experimental budget analysis, the model underestimated the observed OH, indicating a missing OH source. The model uncertainty, with regards to the types of RO2 species present and the radicals they form upon reaction with NO (HO2 directly or another RO2 species), leads to over an order of magnitude less O3 production calculated from the predicted peroxy radicals than calculated from the observed peroxy radicals at the highest NO concentrations. This demonstrates the rate at which the larger RO2 species propagate to HO2, to another RO2 or indeed to OH needs to be understood to accurately simulate the rate of ozone production in environments such as Beijing, where large multifunctional VOCs are likely present.
Display omitted
•A clade containing Dolicholatirus and Teralatirus is monophyletic.•The remaining fasciolariids are monophyletic.•Fusininae now comprises Fusinus, Pseudolatirus, and related species ...to these genera.•Peristerniinae now comprises Peristernia and Fusolatirus; neither is monophyletic.•Fasciolariinae now comprises the majority of peristerniines and fasciolariines.
The neogastropod family Fasciolariidae Gray, 1853 – tulips, horse-conchs, spindles, etc., comprises important representatives of tropical and subtropical molluscan assemblages, with over 500 species in the subfamilies Fasciolariinae Gray, 1853, Fusininae Wrigley, 1927 and Peristerniinae Tryon, 1880. Fasciolariids have had a rather complicated taxonomical history, with several genus names for a long time used as waste baskets to group many unrelated species; based on shell characters, recent taxonomic revisions have, however, began to set some order in its taxonomy. The present work is the first molecular approach to the phylogeny of Fasciolariidae based on a multigene dataset, which provides support for fasciolariids, an old group with a fossil record dating back to the Cretaceous. Molecular markers used were the mitochondrial genes 16S rRNA and cytochrome c oxidase subunit I, and the nuclear genes 18S rRNA, 28S rRNA and histone H3, sequenced for up to 116 ingroup taxa and 17 outgroups. Phylogenetic analyses revealed monophyly of Dolicholatirus Bellardi, 1884 and Teralatirus Coomans, 1965, however it was not possible to discern if the group is the sister clade to the remaining fasciolariids; the latter, on the other hand, proved monophyletic and contained highly supported groups. A first split grouped fusinines and Pseudolatirus Bellardi, 1884; a second split grouped the peristerniine genera Peristernia Mörch, 1852 and Fusolatirus Kuroda and Habe, 1971, while the last group comprised fasciolariines and the remaining peristerniines. None of these clades correspond to the present-day accepted circumscription of the three recognized subfamilies.
Fruit foragers are known to use spatial memory to relocate fruit, yet it is unclear how they manage to find fruit in the first place. In this study, we investigated whether chimpanzees (
Pan ...troglodytes verus
) in the Taï National Park make use of fruiting synchrony, the simultaneous emergence of fruit in trees of the same species, which can be used together with sensory cues, such as sight and smell, to discover fruit. We conducted observations of inspections, the visual checking of fruit availability in trees, and focused our analyses on inspections of empty trees, so to say “mistakes”. Learning from their “mistakes”, we found that chimpanzees had expectations of finding fruit days before feeding on it and significantly increased inspection activity after tasting the first fruit. Neither the duration of feeding nor density of fruit-bearing trees in the territory could account for the variation in inspection activity, which suggests chimpanzees did not simply develop a taste for specific fruit on which they had fed frequently. Instead, inspection activity was predicted by a botanical feature—the level of synchrony in fruit production of encountered trees. We conclude that chimpanzees make use of the synchronous emergence of rainforest fruits during daily foraging and base their expectations of finding fruit on a combination of botanical knowledge founded on the success rates of fruit discovery, and a categorization of fruit species. Our results provide new insights into the variety of food-finding strategies employed by primates and the adaptive value of categorization capacities.
In the present study, Calliostoma melliferum sp. nov. is described from Canopus Bank, a seamount located ~190 km off Fortaleza, Ceará, northeastern Brazil, at depths of 60-260 m. Shell morphology and ...anatomy of the soft parts are analyzed in detail with the aid of SEM and micro-computed tomography (CT-Scan) techniques. We take the opportunity to provide thorough conchological and anatomical comparisons with similar species from the Southwestern Atlantic.
Gladiators in Suits Simone Adams, Kimberly R. Moffitt, Ronald L. Jackson / Simone Adams, Kimberly R. Moffitt, Ronald L. Jackson
2019, 2019-08-21
eBook
One of the most popular shows to come out of Shondaland, Shonda Rhimes's production company, is ABC's political drama Scandal (2012–18)—a series whose tremendous success and marketing savvy led LA ...Times critic Mary McNamara to hail it as "the show that Twitter built" and Time magazine to name its protagonist as one of the most influential fictional characters of 2013. The series portrays a fictional Washington, DC, and features a diverse group of characters, racially and otherwise, who gather around the show's antiheroine, Olivia Pope, a powerful crisis manager who happens to have an extramarital affair with the president of the United States. For seven seasons, audiences learned a great deal about Olivia and those interwoven in her complex world of politics and drama, including her team of "gladiators in suits, " with whom she manages the crises of Washington's political elite. This volume, named for both Olivia's team and the show's fans, analyzes the communication, politics, stereotypes, and genre techniques featured in the television series while raising key questions about the intersections of race, gender, sexuality, and viewing audiences. The essays range from critical looks at various members of Scandal's ensemble, to in-depth analyses of the show's central themes, to audience reception studies via interviews and social media analysis. Additionally, the volume contributes to research on femininity, masculinity, and representations of black womanhood on television. Ultimately, this collection offers original and timely perspectives on what was one of America's most "scandalous" prime-time network television series.
The present study aimed to evaluate the effects of recycling ash from Amazonian biomass on the fertility of a dystrophic Yellow Latosol. For this purpose, a laboratory incubation experiment was ...performed with Yellow Latosol using four increasing doses of ash (8.75, 17.5, 35, and 70 Mg ha−1), three incubation times (20, 40, and 60 days), two positive treatments (13 Mg ha−1 lime and 2 Mg ha−1 phosphate fertilizer), and one control soil. The chemical analyses of the soil revealed that the application of increasing doses of ash positively affected the pH values and significantly increased the availability of the nutrients P, K, Ca, and Mg, the levels of which were adequate for the soils and main crops of the state of Pará, Brazil. The input of these nutrients and the moderate increase in pH contributed to the increase in base saturation and thus reduced the potential acidity of the soil and neutralized Al3+. Therefore, recycling ash from Amazonian biomasses in agricultural or forest soils may represent a sustainable and integrative alternative that balances the management of industrial waste and the fertility of acidic and nutrient-deficient soils in the state of Pará.
PDF
