The use of zootherapeutics in folk veterinary medicine in the district of Cubati, Paraíba State, Brazil

Background

Viewed through the micro focus of an interpretive lens, medical anthropology remains mystified because interpretivist explanations seriously downplay the given context in which individual health seeking-behaviours occur. This paper draws upon both the interpretivist and political economy perspectives to reflect on the ethno medical practices within the Korean-Australian community in Sydney.

Methods

We draw on research data collected between 1995 and 1997 for an earlier study of the use of biomedical and traditional medicine by Korean-Australians in Sydney. A total of 120 interviews were conducted with a range of participants, including biomedical doctors, traditional health professionals, Korean community leaders and Korean migrants representing a range of socio-economic backgrounds and migration patterns.

Results and Discussion

First, the paper highlights the extent to which the social location of migrants in a host society alters or restructures their initial cultural practices they bring with them. Second, taking hanbang medicine in the Korean-Australian community as an illustrative case, the paper explores the transformation of the dominant biomedicine in Australia as a result of the influx of ethnomedicine in the era of global capitalism and global movement.

Conclusion

In seeking to explain the popularity and supply of alternative health care, it is important to go beyond the culture of each kind of health care itself and to take into consideration the changes occurring at societal, national and global levels as well as consequential individual response to the changes. New social conditions influence the choice of health care methods, including herbal/alternative medicine, health foods and what are often called New Age therapies.     

Evaluation of the prevalence and economic burden of adverse drug reactions presenting to the medical emergency department of a tertiary referral centre: a prospective study

Background  

Adverse drug reactions (ADRs) are now recognized as an important cause of hospital admissions, with a proportion ranging from 0.9–7.9%. They also constitute a significant economic burden. We thus aimed at determining the prevalence and the economic burden of ADRs presenting to Medical Emergency Department (ED) of a tertiary referral center in India     

Electron Cryotomography of Bacterial Cells

While much is already known about the basic metabolism of bacterial cells, many fundamental questions are still surprisingly unanswered, including for instance how they generate and maintain specific cell shapes, establish polarity, segregate their genomes, and divide. In order to understand these phenomena, imaging technologies are needed that bridge the resolution gap between fluorescence light microscopy and higher-resolution methods such as X-ray crystallography and NMR spectroscopy.Electron cryotomography (ECT) is an emerging technology that does just this, allowing the ultrastructure of cells to be visualized in a near-native state, in three dimensions (3D), with "macromolecular" resolution (~4nm).^{1, 2} In ECT, cells are imaged in a vitreous, "frozen-hydrated" state in a cryo transmission electron microscope (cryoTEM) at low temperature (< -180°C). For slender cells (up to ~500 nm in thickness³), intact cells are plunge-frozen within media across EM grids in cryogens such as ethane or ethane/propane mixtures. Thicker cells and biofilms can also be imaged in a vitreous state by first "high-pressure freezing" and then, "cryo-sectioning" them. A series of two-dimensional projection images are then collected through the sample as it is incrementally tilted along one or two axes. A three-dimensional reconstruction, or "tomogram" can then be calculated from the images. While ECT requires expensive instrumentation, in recent years, it has been used in a few labs to reveal the structures of various external appendages, the structures of different cell envelopes, the positions and structures of cytoskeletal filaments, and the locations and architectures of large macromolecular assemblies such as flagellar motors, internal compartments and chemoreceptor arrays.^{1, 2}In this video article we illustrate how to image cells with ECT, including the processes of sample preparation, data collection, tomogram reconstruction, and interpretation of the results through segmentation and in some cases correlation with light microscopy.     

Hypothalamic response to leptin changes during a hormonally induced estrous cycle in rats

The leptin system regulates body fat mass through a feedback loop between adipose tissue and the hypothalamus. To test if leptin responsiveness may be regulated we assayed hypothalamic response to leptin during the estrous cycle; when changes in food intake are known to occur. Immature rats were treated with pregnant mare’s serum gonadotropin (PMSG) to induce synchronized follicular development, ovulation and corpus luteum formation. Leptin response was estimated by measuring the in vitro induction of tis11, a primary response gene activated by STAT3-dependent cytokines in hypothalamic explants after leptin stimulation. In addition, mRNA levels of the suppressor cytokine signaling-3 (SOCS-3), a possible mediator of leptin resistance, were analyzed. Serum leptin levels did not change between days 2 and day 3 (corresponding to proestrus and estrus, respectively) but the response to leptin was higher on day 2 than on day 3 (p=0.05). Food intake displayed a tendency towards downregulation between day 1 and day 2 (p=0.057), and a tendency towards upregulation between day 2 and day 3 (p=0.072), although the body weight increased on day of the study (p<0.0001). There was no significant difference in hypothalamic expression of SOCS-3 between day 2 and day 3. In conclusion, we have shown that leptin responsiveness changes during a hormonally induced estrous cycle in rats. Our data suggest that a change in the hypothalamic response to leptin may cause the cyclic feeding behavior seen in rats.     

The Cutting Balloon--a new technology?

The Cutting Balloon consists of a standard balloon dilatation catheter with four microtome-sharp blades that incise the plaque and minimize arterial wall trauma. It was used in 31 patients; nine had calcified arteries, ten had non-compliant lesions, three had in-stent restenosis and nine had aorto-ostial lesions. Seventeen lesions were predilated, 28 were post-dilated and 18 required stent implantation. The procedure was very effective in aorto-ostial lesions, non-compliant lesions that were not responsive to high-pressure balloon dilatation, and was partially successful in calcified arteries. It has a very specific niche in selected lesions.     

Golgi structure in three dimensions: functional insights from the normal rat kidney cell

Three-dimensional reconstructions of portions of the Golgi complex from cryofixed, freeze-substituted normal rat kidney cells have been made by dual-axis, high-voltage EM tomography at approximately 7-nm resolution. The reconstruction shown here ( approximately 1 x 1 x 4 microm3) contains two stacks of seven cisternae separated by a noncompact region across which bridges connect some cisternae at equivalent levels, but none at nonequivalent levels. The rest of the noncompact region is filled with both vesicles and polymorphic membranous elements. All cisternae are fenestrated and display coated buds. They all have about the same surface area, but they differ in volume by as much as 50%. The trans-most cisterna produces exclusively clathrin-coated buds, whereas the others display only nonclathrin coated buds. This finding challenges traditional views of where sorting occurs within the Golgi complex. Tubules with budding profiles extend from the margins of both cis and trans cisternae. They pass beyond neighboring cisternae, suggesting that these tubules contribute to traffic to and/or from the Golgi. Vesicle-filled "wells" open to both the cis and lateral sides of the stacks. The stacks of cisternae are positioned between two types of ER, cis and trans. The cis ER lies adjacent to the ER-Golgi intermediate compartment, which consists of discrete polymorphic membranous elements layered in front of the cis-most Golgi cisterna. The extensive trans ER forms close contacts with the two trans-most cisternae; this apposition may permit direct transfer of lipids between ER and Golgi membranes. Within 0.2 microm of the cisternae studied, there are 394 vesicles (8 clathrin coated, 190 nonclathrin coated, and 196 noncoated), indicating considerable vesicular traffic in this Golgi region. Our data place structural constraints on models of trafficking to, through, and from the Golgi complex.     

Confirmation of a gene for multiple sclerosis (MS) to chromosome region 19q13.3

To identify the chromosomal localizations of the multiple sclerosis (MS) genes, we conducted a genomewide linkage analysis using eighteen affected families. A MS gene is linked to markers located in the 19q13.3 region (multipoint lod-score = 2.1). Apolipoprotein E (ApoE) gene, located in this region, is an excellent candidate gene for MS because the ApoEe4 allele is acting as a severity allele in the disease.     

Substitution bias, rapid saturation, and the use of mtDNA for nematode systematics

Only relatively recently have researchers turned to molecular methods for nematode phylogeny reconstruction. Thus, we lack the extensive literature on evolutionary patterns and phylogenetic usefulness of different DNA regions for nematodes that exists for other taxa. Here, we examine the usefulness of mtDNA for nematode phylogeny reconstruction and provide data that can be used for a priori character weighting or for parameter specification in models of sequence evolution. We estimated the substitution pattern for the mitochondrial ND4 gene from intraspecific comparisons in four species of parasitic nematodes from the family Trichostrongylidae (38-50 sequences per species). The resulting pattern suggests a strong mutational bias toward A and T, and a lower transition/transversion ratio than is typically observed in other taxa. We also present information on the relative rates of substitution at first, second, and third codon positions and on relative rates of saturation of different types of substitutions in comparisons ranging from intraspecific to interordinal. Silent sites saturate extremely quickly, presumably owing to the substitution bias and, perhaps, to an accelerated mutation rate. Results emphasize the importance of using only the most closely related sequences in order to infer patterns of substitution accurately for nematodes or for other taxa having strongly composition-biased DNA. ND4 also shows high amino acid polymorphism at both the intra- and interspecific levels, and in higher level comparisons, there is evidence of saturation at variable amino acid sites. In general, we recommend using mtDNA coding genes only for phylogenetics of relatively closely related nematode species and, even then, using only nonsynonymous substitutions and the more conserved mitochondrial genes (e.g., cytochrome oxidases). On the other hand, the high substitution rate in genes such as ND4 should make them excellent for population genetics studies, identifying cryptic species, and resolving relationships among closely related congeners when other markers show insufficient variation.