Mineral composition of cultured Ginseng cells]

The contents of macroelements and microelements in ginseng roots and callus cultures was determined by atom absorption spectroscopy. Ginseng cells and tissues were shown to accumulate considerable amounts of microelements. The content of six of eleven mineral components studied (K, Ca, Na, Mo, Mn, and Cr) in callus cultures was higher than that in roots of agricultural ginseng plants. We revealed good correlations between the contents of microelements (K, Ca, and Mg), as well as between the concentrations of macroelements (Mo, Li, Cu, and Cr) in ginseng cultures. The ability to accumulate elements varied between ginseng species, which was probably related to their genetic features. Our findings indicate that cultured ginseng cells hold much promise as the source of microelements.     

The intestinal microbiome associated with lipid metabolism and obesity in humans and animals

Intestinal microbiota is considered to play an integral role in maintaining health of host by modulating several physiological functions including nutrition, metabolism and immunity. Accumulated data from human and animal studies indicate that intestinal microbes can affect lipid metabolism in host through various direct and indirect biological mechanisms. These mechanisms include the production of various signalling molecules by the intestinal microbiome, which exert a strong effect on lipid metabolism, bile secretion in the liver, reverse transport of cholesterol and energy expenditure and insulin sensitivity in peripheral tissues. This review discusses the findings of recent studies suggesting an emerging role of intestinal microbiota and its metabolites in regulating lipid metabolism and the association of intestinal microbiota with obesity. Additionally, we discuss the controversies and challenges in this research area. However, intestinal micro-organisms are also affected by some external factors, which in turn influence the regulation of microbial lipid metabolism. Therefore, we also discuss the effects of probiotics, prebiotics, diet structure, exercise and other factors on intestinal microbiological changes and lipid metabolism regulation.     

Toxoplasmosis: beyond animals to humans

The parasitic zoonosis toxoplasmosis, which was poorly understood before the advent of the HIV epidemic, has become a major clinical problem worldwide. Humans acquire toxoplasmosis from cats, from consuming raw or undercooked meat and from vertical transmission to the foetus through the placenta during pregnancy. Studies of the unique environmental factors in various communities indicate the important roles that eating habits and culture have on the transmission of this infection. The socioepidemiological aspects of toxoplasmosis are thought to be important contributing factors for the spread of this disease. Preventative measures should consider the cultures and beliefs of people in various communities more than solving poverty and giving orthodox health education.     

Culture in humans and other animals

The study of animal culture is a flourishing field, with culture being recorded in a wide range of taxa, including non-human primates, birds, cetaceans, and rodents. In spite of this research, however, the concept of culture itself remains elusive. There is no universally assented to concept of culture, and there is debate over the connection between culture and related concepts like tradition and social learning. Furthermore, it is not clear whether culture in humans and culture in non-human animals is really the same thing, or merely loose analogues that go by the same name. The purpose of this paper is to explicate core desiderata for a concept of culture and then to construct a concept that meets these desiderata. The paper then applies this concept in both humans and non-human animals.     

Temporal orientation: circadian clocks in animals and humans

By evolutionary adaptation to the regular day-night changes in environmental conditions, most organisms have acquired a temporal programme which matches the 24-h day. It rests on periodic processes which have the characteristics of self-sustaining oscillations, and which, in constant conditions, free-run with periods slightly deviating from 24 h. When entrained to 24 h, these circadian rhythms can be used by the organism as a clock for temporal orientation, e.g. in the occupation of one of the temporal niches provided by the environment or in the coordination of activities among individuals and species. The circadian clock also provides the basis for using the sun as a compass in spatial orientation, and for the recognition of the time of day as exemplified by the time sense in honey bees. Within the human organism, almost every function is modulated in a circadian fashion. Usually, all rhythms keep a distinct phase-relationship t to each other, providing a high degree of temporal order within the organism. When living in an isolation unit without time cues, most subjects develop free-running rhythms with periods close to 25 h in all functions. Sometimes, however, the sleep-wake cycle is lengthened to 30 h and more, or shortened to less than 22 h. In those instances, other rhythms such as that of body temperature become uncoupled from the sleep-wake cycle and continue to free-run with a period of about 25 h. During such states of ‘internal desynchronization’, subjects can be awake continuously for about 32 h, and sleep without interruption for 16 h. Nevertheless, they experience their ‘days’ as equal to 24 h. This is due to a profound change in time estimation: the intervals of 1-h estimates made by the subject are positively correlated with the duration of wakefulness. In contrast, short-time estimates (in the range of seconds) remain unaffected by desynchronization, indicating that short- and long-time estimates are based on different mechanisms.     

Group decisions in humans and animals: a survey

Humans routinely make many decisions collectively, whether they choose a restaurant with friends, elect political leaders or decide actions to tackle international problems, such as climate change, that affect the future of the whole planet. We might be less aware of it, but group decisions are just as important to social animals as they are for us. Animal groups have to collectively decide about communal movements, activities, nesting sites and enterprises, such as cooperative breeding or hunting, that crucially affect their survival and reproduction. While human group decisions have been studied for millennia, the study of animal group decisions is relatively young, but is now expanding rapidly. It emerges that group decisions in animals pose many similar questions to those in humans. The purpose of the present issue is to integrate and combine approaches in the social and natural sciences in an area in which theoretical challenges and research questions are often similar, and to introduce each discipline to the other''s key ideas, findings and successful methods. In order to make such an introduction as effective as possible, here, we briefly review conceptual similarities and differences between the sciences, and provide a guide to the present issue.     

Scabies in animals and humans: history, evolutionary perspectives, and modern clinical management

Scabies, a mite infestation frequently sexually transmitted, dates back to antiquity but remains a challenging parasite for study in clinical practice and community settings. Its history is one of centuries of slow progress to recognize the mite and to finally establish its nexus to the clinical syndrome of pruritis with several protean manifestations and different epidemiological patterns. Contemporary methods of management are briefly reviewed, with the future promise of improved evolutionary knowledge associated with the advent of molecular and genetic technology. Current information indicates that humans and earlier protohumans were most likely the source of animal scabies, first of dogs, and later of other species with subsequent spread to wildlife. Morphologically identical variants of Sarcoptes scabiei are nonetheless host specific, as determined by recent DNA studies, and invite future investigations into the dynamics of this troublesome sexually transmissible agent, with the goal of improved recognition and control.     

Pharyngeal resistance in normal humans: influence of gender, age, and obesity

Investigation into the etiology of obstructive sleep apnea is beginning to focus increasing attention on upper airway anatomy and physiology (patency and resistance). Before conclusions concerning upper airway resistance in these patients can be made, the normal range of supraglottic and, more specifically, pharyngeal resistance needs to be better defined. We measured supraglottic and pharyngeal resistances during nasal breathing in a normal population of 35 men and women. Our technique measured epiglottic pressure with a balloon-tipped catheter, choanal pressure using anterior rhinometry, and flow with a sealed face mask and pneumotachograph. Resistance was measured at a flow rate of 300 ml/s during inspiration. Men had a mean pharyngeal resistance (choanae to epiglottis) of 4.6 +/- 0.8 (SE) cmH2O X l-1 X s, whereas women demonstrated a significantly (P less than 0.01) lower value, 2.3 +/- 0.3 cmH2O X l-1 X s. Supraglottic resistance was also higher in men (P = 0.01). Age (r = 0.73, P less than 0.01) correlated closely with pharyngeal resistance in men, but no such correlations could be found in women. These results may have implications in the epidemiology of obstructive sleep apnea.     

Coronaviruses: emerging and re-emerging pathogens in humans and animals

The severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus (SARS-CoV) and recently emerged Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV) epidemics have proven the ability of coronaviruses to cross species barrier and emerge rapidly in humans. Other coronaviruses such as porcine epidemic diarrhea virus (PEDV) are also known to cause major disease epidemics in animals wiith huge economic loss. This special issue in Virology Journal aims to highlight the advances and key discoveries in the animal origin, viral evolution, epidemiology, diagnostics and pathogenesis of the emerging and re-emerging coronaviruses in both humans and animals.