Electroacupuncture Facilitates Recovery of Male Sexual Behavior in Morphine Withdrawal Rats

The effect of electroacupuncture (EA) on the sexual behavior of male rats undergoing morphine withdrawal was studied by measuring various parameters of sexual behavior. In addition, the total serum testosterone (TST) concentrations in male rats at different times of morphine administration and abstinence were measured. Acute and chronic administration of morphine severely inhibited the sexual behavior of the rats and lowered their TST concentrations. TST concentrations recovered to normal within 24 h after the last morphine injection, while sexual behavior remained suppressed for at least 7 days. Electroacupuncture (2/100 Hz alternately) administered once daily for 7 days during morphine withdrawal facilitated the recovery of male sexual behavior and increased TST concentrations to above normal. The effect of EA on sexual behavior may involve both neuronal and hormonal pathways.     

Identification of the culturable and nonculturable bacterial population in ground water of a municipal water supply in Germany

AIMS: The identification of the culturable and nonculturable bacterial population in ground water of a municipal water supply in Mainz (Germany) during the year 2002. METHODS AND RESULTS: Total counts varied between 3.5 x 103 and 2.2 x 104 cells ml-1, viable counts were approximately between 8.1 x 102 and 3.3 x 103 cells ml-1. After cultivation on different nutrient media (R2A, DEV, PCA, Endo, Standard) <1% appeared to be culturable on the media used. After denaturating gradient gel electrophoreses, up to 24 different bacterial species were detected in the ground water. With the aid of 16S rDNA isolation, amplification and sequencing, the isolated organisms and clones could be identified. CONCLUSIONS: The isolated and cultured organisms mainly belonged to the Proteobacteria (alpha, beta and gamma), Flavobacteria or Actinobacteria. However, most of the noncultured micro-organisms were beta-Proteobacteria. SIGNIFICANCE AND IMPACT OF THE STUDY: This is the first study in which the identification of all culturable and nonculturable bacteria in a ground water has been attempted.     

Bioremediation of petroleum hydrocarbons through landfarming: Are simplicity and cost-effectiveness the only advantages?

The biological removal of petroleum products using landfarming has been applied commercially in large scale with relative success. The technology has been widely used due to its simplicity and cost-effectiveness. However, together with these advantages, there are physical, chemical and biological aspects of the technology that can hamper the remediation process. The dominant pollutant removal mechanisms involved in landfarming are volatilisation of low molecular weight volatile compounds during the early days of contamination or treatment, biodegradation and adsorption. However, volatilisation, leaching of the petroleum products and the remaining recalcitrant hydrocarbon residues present both health and environmental challenges to the rehabilitation practitioners when designing the landfarming technology. Bioaugmentation and biostimulation are promising bioremediation approaches involving landfarming. However, due to the inherent problems related to bioaugmentation such as poor survival of augmented strains, biostimulation should be preferred in contaminated sites with indigenous pollutant-degrading bacteria. Although simplicity and cost-effectiveness are the major advantages for using landfarming, other factors generally regarded as disadvantageous to implementing the technology can be addressed. These includes requirements for large land area for treatment, availability of the pollutant degrading bacteria, effectiveness of the technology at high constituent concentration (more than 50,000 ppm), improved concentration reductions in cases requiring more than 95% of pollution reduction and the flexibility of the technology in integrating the removal of petroleum hydrocarbons with other contaminants that may occur with the petroleum products.     

Southern Sea Otter as a Sentinel of Marine Ecosystem Health

The southern sea otter (Enhydra lutris nereis) is listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act (ESA) and is a keystone species, strongly influencing the abundance and diversity of the other species within its kelp forest ecosystem. This is accomplished primarily by preying upon urchins that eat the kelp stipe and holdfast, which can reduce a kelp forest to an urchin barren. Sea otters are very susceptible to marine pollutants such as petroleum, which may be directly toxic and/or alter their furs insulating properties. Sea otters are an excellent sentinel species. They eat approximately 25% of their body weight per day in shellfish and other invertebrates, and can concentrate and integrate chemical contaminants. In addition, they appear to be susceptible to a number of diseases and parasites that may have anthropogenic origins, and shellfish may serve as an intermediary for some of these infections. Many of the shellfish the otters eat are also harvested for human food. In their role as sentinels, sea otter health has implications for human health, economic sustainability of shellfisheries, as well as overall marine ecosystem health. The recent southern sea otter decline has been viewed with some alarm by conservationists and, indeed, recovery seems a long way off. High mortality rather than depressed recruitment appears to underlie the decline. A good deal of debate has centered on the role of infectious diseases and parasites, exposure to contaminants, nutrition and prey availability, net and pot fishery interactions, and other sources of mortality. Current research is being done related to major classes of mortality, various types of pollutants and some specific organisms causing southern sea otter mortality, and their implications for marine ecosystem health and sustainability.     

Modeling Sustainability of Arctic Communities: An Interdisciplinary Collaboration of Researchers and Local Knowledge Holders

How will climate change affect the sustainability of Arctic villages over the next 40 years? This question motivated a collaboration of 23 researchers and four Arctic communities (Old Crow, Yukon Territory, Canada; Aklavik, Northwest Territories, Canada; Fort McPherson, Northwest Territories, Canada; and Arctic Village, Alaska, USA) in or near the range of the Porcupine Caribou Herd. We drew on existing research and local knowledge to examine potential effects of climate change, petroleum development, tourism, and government spending cutbacks on the sustainability of four Arctic villages. We used data across eight disciplines to develop an Arctic Community Synthesis Model and a Web-based, interactive Possible Futures Model. Results suggested that climate warming will increase vegetation biomass within the herd’s summer range. However, despite forage increasing, the herd was projected as likely to decline with a warming climate because of increased insect harassment in the summer and potentially greater winter snow depths. There was a strong negative correlation between hypothetical, development-induced displacement of cows and calves from utilized calving grounds and calf survival during June. The results suggested that climate warming coupled with petroleum development would cause a decline in caribou harvest by local communities. Because the Synthesis Model inherits uncertainties associated with each component model, sensitivity analysis is required. Scientists and stakeholders agreed that (1) although simulation models are incomplete abstractions of the real world, they helped bring scientific and community knowledge together, and (2) relationships established across disciplines and between scientists and communities were a valuable outcome of the study. Additional project materials, including the Web-based Possible Futures Model, are available at http://www.taiga.net/sustain.     

Biochemical and Physiological Aspects of Developmental Cycle of Colchicum autumnale L.

This study was conducted to examine the individual developmental stages of Colchicum autumnale. We identified the sclerenchymatic tissue in the middle part of the protuberance. This tissue supports the function of protuberance as a kind of hollow diverticulum. On the boundary of the new corm and the shoot a meristematic layer was recognized. We assume that this abscission zone-like structure can initiate dying back of the above-ground part regularly at the end of annual life-cycle. The major part of starch is reutilized in the mother corm during the autumnal stage, supporting sprouting which takes place in the soil. Decline of starch content is paralleled by increasing of total amylolytic activity. From amylolytic enzymes -amylase, -amylase and -glucosidase have been identified. The presence of pullulanase and starch phosphorylase was not observed. From free sugars glucose, fructose and sucrose were identified in corms. The level of sucrose increased significantly during winter season.     

Vibrational spectroscopy of an algal Phot-LOV1 domain probes the molecular changes associated with blue-light reception

The LOV1 domain of the blue light Phot1-receptor (phototropin homolog) from Chlamydomonas reinhardtii has been studied by vibrational spectroscopy. The FMN modes of the dark state of LOV1 were identified by preresonance Raman spectroscopy and assigned to molecular vibrations. By comparing the blue-light-induced FTIR difference spectrum with the preresonance Raman spectrum, most of the differences are due to FMN modes. Thus, we exclude large backbone changes of the protein that might occur during the phototransformation of the dark state LOV1-447 into the putative signaling state LOV1-390. Still, the presence of smaller amide difference bands cannot be excluded but may be masked by overlapping FMN modes. The band at 2567 cm(-1) is assigned to the S-H stretching vibration of C57, the residue that forms the transient thio-adduct with the chromophore FMN. The occurrence of this band is evidence that C57 is protonated in the dark state of LOV1. This result challenges conclusions from the homologous LOV2 domain from oat that the thiolate of the corresponding cysteine is the reactive species.     

Initial effects of a petroleum operation on Amazonian birds: terrestrial insectivores retreat

Impacts of petroleum activities on birds in the Amazonian forest of Yasuní National Park and the Huaorani Territory, Ecuador, were evaluated using data from 32 standardized 1-day surveys of twenty one 2-ha sites, spread out over 90 km, located at four different distances (0, 0.5, 1.5, and 4.5 km) into floristically diverse, primary, terra firme forest (240–320 m elev.), except one that was in 6-year-old secondary forest. Width of deforestation for roads was 25 m. The 263 species, identified via sight, sound, and mist-netting (4 nets) between 5:45 and 13:30 on days without heavy or constant rain, were grouped into 14 foraging guilds. Discriminant Function Analysis achieved complete separation of the 10 surveys adjacent to roads from the 22 surveys > 0.3 km into the forest, based on species richness per guild. Terrestrial insectivores contributed by far the most (76%) to this separation, and were the only guild to show a significant difference in the average number of species registered between the 6-edge sites and the 15 interior sites (Mann–Whitney U = 4, P = 0.001). Machinery noise seems to particularly affect this guild.     

Thermodynamic and structural factors in the removal of bulky DNA adducts by the nucleotide excision repair machinery

The function of the human nucleotide excision repair (NER) apparatus is to remove bulky adducts from damaged DNA. In an effort to gain insights into the molecular mechanisms involved in the recognition and excision of bulky lesions, we investigated a series of site specifically modified oligonucleotides containing single, well-defined polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) diol epoxide-adenine adducts. Covalent adducts derived from the bay region PAH, benzo[a]pyrene, are removed by human NER enzymes in vitro. In contrast, the stereochemically analogous N(6)-dA adducts derived from the topologically different fjord region PAH, benzo[c]phenanthrene, are resistant to repair. The evasion of DNA repair may play a role in the observed higher tumorigenicity of the fjord region PAH diol epoxides. We are elucidating the structural and thermodynamic features of these adducts that may underlie their marked distinction in biologic function, employing high-resolution nuclear magnetic resonance studies, measurements of thermal stabilities of the PAH diol epoxide-modified oligonucleotide duplexes, and molecular dynamics simulations with free energy calculations. Our combined findings suggest that differences in the thermodynamic properties and thermal stabilities are associated with differences in distortions to the DNA induced by the lesions. These structural effects correlate with the differential NER susceptibilities and stem from the intrinsically distinct shapes of the fjord and bay region PAH diol epoxide-N(6)-adenine adducts.