Tired,weak, or in need of rest: fatigue among general practice attenders.

OBJECTIVES--To determine the prevalence and associations of symptoms of fatigue. DESIGN--Questionnaire survey. SETTING--London general practice. PARTICIPANTS--611 General practice attenders. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES--Scores on a fatigue questionnaire and reasons given for fatigue. RESULTS--10.2% Of men (17/167) and 10.6% of women (47/444) had substantial fatigue for one month or more. Age, occupation, and marital status exerted minor effects. Subjects attributed fatigue equally to physical and non-physical causes. Physical ill health, including viral infection, was associated with more severe fatigue. Women rather than men blamed family responsibilities for their fatigue. The profile of persistent fatigue did not differ from that of short duration. Only one person met criteria for the chronic fatigue syndrome. CONCLUSIONS--Fatigue is a common complaint among general practice attenders and can be severe. Patients may attribute this to physical, psychological, and social stress.     

Universal primers for amplification of three non-coding regions of chloroplast DNA

Six primers for the amplification of three non-coding regions of chloroplast DNA via the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) have been designed. In order to find out whether these primers were universal, we used them in an attempt to amplify DNA from various plant species. The primers worked for most species tested including algae, bryophytes, pteridophytes, gymnosperms and angiosperms. The fact that they amplify chloroplast DNA non-coding regions over a wide taxonomic range means that these primers may be used to study the population biology (in supplying markers) and evolution (inter- and probably intraspecific phylogenies) of plants.     

Benign multicystic mesothelial proliferation of the peritoneum: immunohistochemical and electron microscopical study of a case and review of the literature.

We report a case of benign multicystic mesothelial proliferation (the so-called multicystic peritoneal mesothelioma) arising multifocally in the abdomen of a 46-year-old white man. His anamnesis showed an 8-year history of intermittent pain in the right lower abdominal quadrant. Mucin stains, immunohistochemistry, and electron microscopy confirmed the mesothelial origin of the lesion. Review of the available literature allowed us to find another 85 reported cases of benign multicystic mesothelial proliferations of the peritoneum. Out of these cases, eighteen only occurred in men, the majority being reported in middle-aged women mostly with complaints of abdominal pain. Electron microscopy or immunohistochemistry are needed to make a differential diagnosis towards other multicystic lesions, such as peritoneal cystic lymphangioma. Although multicystic mesothelial proliferations of the peritoneum have often been regarded as benign neoplasms, the true nature--neoplastic or hyperplastic--of these lesions still remains greatly elusive. Therefore, we believe that the unbinding term benign multicystic mesothelial proliferation (first used with regard to the unique hitherto reported case arisen in the pleural cavity) should be considered at present more appropriate to indicate even these peritoneal lesions.     

Ecological specialization and niche overlap of subterranean rodents inferred from DNA metabarcoding diet analysis

Knowledge of how animal species use food resources available in the environment can increase our understanding of many ecological processes. However, obtaining this information using traditional methods is difficult for species feeding on a large variety of food items in highly diverse environments. We amplified the DNA of plants for 306 scat and 40 soil samples, and applied an environmental DNA metabarcoding approach to investigate food preferences, degree of diet specialization and diet overlap of seven herbivore rodent species of the genus Ctenomys distributed in southern and midwestern Brazil. The metabarcoding approach revealed that these species consume more than 60% of the plant families recovered in soil samples, indicating generalist feeding habits of ctenomyids. The family Poaceae was the most common food resource retrieved in scats of all species as well in soil samples. Niche overlap analysis indicated high overlap in the plant families and molecular operational taxonomic units consumed, mainly among the southern species. Interspecific differences in diet composition were influenced, among other factors, by the availability of resources in the environment. In addition, our results provide support for the hypothesis that the allopatric distributions of ctenomyids allow them to exploit the same range of resources when available, possibly because of the absence of interspecific competition.