Community-based mental health care in Africa: mental health workers’ views

The World Health Organization (WHO) has for long proposed the development of community-based mental health services worldwide. However, the progress toward community mental health care in most African countries is still hampered by a lack of resources, with specialist psychiatric care essentially based in large, centrally located mental hospitals. It is again time to reconsider the direction of mental health care in Africa. Based on a small inquiry to a number of experienced mental health professionals in sub-Saharan Africa, we discuss what a community concept of mental health care might mean in Africa. There is a general agreement that mental health services should be integrated in primary health care. A critical issue for success of this model is perceived to be provision of appropriate supervision and continuing education for primary care workers. The importance of collaboration between modern medicine and traditional healers is stressed and the paper ends in a plea for WHO to take the initiative and develop mental health services according to the special needs and the socio-cultural conditions prevailing in sub-Saharan Africa.     

Differentiation of HeLa Cells with respect to Blood Group H Antigen

The appearance of blood group O(H) on HeLa cells reflects a sequence of events resulting in the formation of a specific fucosyltransferase enzyme which catalyses the transfer of the immunodeterminant sugar, L-fucose, to a pre-existing cellular macromolecule producing the H antigen. The stability of the H antigen on this continuously cultured cell line¹ suggests its use as a marker to study cellular self-renewal and intermediate metabolism leading to blood group formation. Group H was selected as it is stable on the HeLa cell and the biochemical genetics of soluble group H are reasonably clear². Although group H of HeLa cells is membrane associated and not soluble, it is assumed that cell bound H formation is similar to that of soluble H formation and that a fucose enriched glycolipid molecule on the surface of the HeLa cell adopts the serological behaviour of group H. Also, mixed agglutination of HeLa cells by anti-H ulex extract is inhibited by 10^?3 M L-fucose; other sugars do not possess inhibitory activity.     

Suppression of methanogenesis by dissimilatory Fe(III)-reducing bacteria in tropical rain forest soils: implications for ecosystem methane flux

Tropical forests are an important source of atmospheric methane (CH₄), and recent work suggests that CH₄ fluxes from humid tropical environments are driven by variations in CH₄ production, rather than by bacterial CH₄ oxidation. Competition for acetate between methanogenic archaea and Fe(III)‐reducing bacteria is one of the principal controls on CH₄ flux in many Fe‐rich anoxic environments. Upland humid tropical forests are also abundant in Fe and are characterized by high organic matter inputs, steep soil oxygen (O₂) gradients, and fluctuating redox conditions, yielding concomitant methanogenesis and bacterial Fe(III) reduction. However, whether Fe(III)‐reducing bacteria coexist with methanogens or competitively suppress methanogenic acetate use in wet tropical soils is uncertain. To address this question, we conducted a process‐based laboratory experiment to determine if competition for acetate between methanogens and Fe(III)‐reducing bacteria influenced CH₄ production and C isotope composition in humid tropical forest soils. We collected soils from a poor to moderately drained upland rain forest and incubated them with combinations of ¹³C‐bicarbonate, ¹³C‐methyl labeled acetate (¹³CH₃COO^?), poorly crystalline Fe(III), or fluoroacetate. CH₄ production showed a greater proportional increase than Fe²⁺ production after competition for acetate was alleviated, suggesting that Fe(III)‐reducing bacteria were suppressing methanogenesis. Methanogenesis increased by approximately 67 times while Fe²⁺ production only doubled after the addition of ¹³CH₃COO^?. Large increases in both CH₄ and Fe²⁺ production also indicate that the two process were acetate limited, suggesting that acetate may be a key substrate for anoxic carbon (C) metabolism in humid tropical forest soils. C isotope analysis suggests that competition for acetate was not the only factor driving CH₄ production, as ¹³C partitioning did not vary significantly between ¹³CH₃COO^? and ¹³CH₃COO^?+Fe(III) treatments. This suggests that dissimilatory Fe(III)‐reduction suppressed both hydrogenotrophic and aceticlastic methanogenesis. These findings have implications for understanding the CH₄ biogeochemistry of highly weathered wet tropical soils, where CH₄ efflux is driven largely by CH₄ production.     

Respiratory Function of the Hemocyanins

Recent studies clearly demonstrate the respiratory importanceof the hemocyanins in each of the three animal phyla in whichthey occur. Despite their generally low oxygen affinity, hemocyaninscan be highly oxygenated at the site of gas exchange with themedium as well as deoxygenated at the tissues. The functionalrange of a hemocyanin oxygen transport system is severely limitedhowever by environmental change. These systems function underincipient hypoxia due largely to responses of blood pH whichare not fully understood a normal Bohr shift is accompaniedby a rise in blood pH and a reverse Bohr shift by a decreasein blood pH. In both instances blood oxygen affinity increasesand its oxygenation state at the gill remains high in spiteof its lower Po₂. Dilution of the blood at low salinity generallyalters its oxygenation properties both oxygen affinity and cooperativity.These properties may or may not be restored by concomitant changesin blood pH, which depend on the various mechanisms of osmoticadaptation. Within a homogeneous taxon the oxygenation properties of a hemocyaninappear to be highly conservative showing little interspecificadaptation except to extreme changes in the mode of gas exchange.Unlike that in vertebrates air-breathing in crustaceans is accompaniedby an increase in blood oxygen affinity. Similar oxygen affinitiesin latitudinally separated species result in optimal functioningof the system at the same temperature, corresponding to differentseasons. In eurythermal species a temperature acclimation ofoxygen affinity extends the operating range of the crustaceanhemocyanins but they cannot deoxygenate at very low temperatures. Unsolved problems of hemocyanin function include specific effectsof pH and CO₂ the basis of which is not entirely clear, andthe postulated occurrence in native blood of both dialyzableand non-dialyzable substances that modify oxygen affinity theidentity of which is unknown. With the exception of the crustacean oxygen carrier the hemocyaninsconfer a respiratory advantage over their predecessors. Butthe oxygen carrying capacity of crustacean blood never reachesthe levels found in the annelids and molluscs due to the colloidosmotic pressure of the relatively low molecular weight hemocyaninand to the drop in blood hydrostatic pressure accompanying theloss of a fluid skeleton. The selection of a blood oxygen carrierwith an apparently limiting combination of respiratory and osmoticproperties is obscured by the uncertain phylogenetic positionof the phylum.     

AROMA PROPERTIES AND THRESHOLDS OF SOME BRANCHED-CHAIN AND OTHER MINOR VOLATILE FATTY ACIDS OCCURRING IN MILKFAT AND MEAT LIPIDS1

Aroma properties of twenty-three branched-chain, odd-numbered, or unsaturated fatty acids which had each been dispersed in acidic aqueous media (pH 2.0) were evaluated. Aroma threshold values were determined using approximately 95 judges for assessing the presence of aromas over dilutions of each fatty acid. Qualitative aroma threshold values for individual fatty acids ranged from 0.006 to 82.4 ppm in the acidic solutions, and 4-ethyloctanoic acid exhibited the lowest threshold of the group tested. Qualitative aroma assessments of dilutions of each fatty acid showed a wide range of unique aroma properties. Fatty acids exhibiting branching at the 4-position had goaty/muttony/sheepy aroma notes as did other fatty acids containing 8-carbon chain structures. Cheese-like aromas were associated with the shorter branched-chain fatty acids.