A súlyviselés és a poszturális kontroll alakulása sacroiliacalis (SI) izületi fájdalom esetén

Objective: The objective of this work was to determine if weight-bearing and postural control were associated with pelvis asymmetry and pain caused by sacroiliac joint (SIJ) dysfunction. Methods: 32 students volunteered to participate in this study (mean age: 21 years). After standardized physical examination we measured the weight-bearing with Neurocom Basic Balance Master with the knee in 0°, 30°, 60° and 90° of flexion and the sway parameters (displacement of centre of mass) in medio-lateral (ML) and antero-posterior (AP) directions during one-leg standing with eyes open and closed. All of the data were subjected to analysis of variance. Results: Six individuals had reported severe SIJ pain (SIJ-pain group), 4 of the remaining 26 students had symmetric pelvis (control group) and 21 students had pelvis asymmetry without SIJ pain (SIJ-pain-free group). There were no significant differences in weight-bearing at total knee extension between in three groups. The weight-bearing was significantly higher on the contralateral leg to the side of SIJ-dysfunction in group SIJ-pain with knee in 30° and 60° of flexion. The weight-bearing became nearly equal on either side with the increasing of knee flexion (90°) in all groups. The body sway was significantly higher in direction AP than ML in control group and SIJ-pain-free group but in SIJ the body sway became significantly higher in direction ML compared with AP with eyes closed on ipsilateral side. Discussion: We concluded that the SIJ-pain significantly influences the weight-bearing in special degrees of flexion (30° and 60°) wich is an important degree of flexion in knee joint during its funtion (walk). The displacement of centre of body mass is significantly higher in direction AP than ML with both opened and closed eyes but this finding became reverse in group SIJ with eyes closed on ipsilateral side signifying the significant destruction of the control of hip joint

How Habitat Change and Rainfall Affect Dung Beetle Diversity in Caatinga, a Brazilian Semi-Arid Ecosystem

The aim of the present study was to evaluate how dung beetle communities respond to both environment and rainfall in the Caatinga, a semi-arid ecosystem in northeastern Brazil. The communities were sampled monthly from May 2006 to April 2007 using pitfall traps baited with human feces in two environments denominated “land use area” and “undisturbed area.” Abundance and species richness were compared between the two environments and two seasons (dry and wet season) using a generalized linear model with a Poisson error distribution. Diversity was compared between the two environments (land use area and undisturbed area) and seasons (dry and wet) using the Two-Way ANOVA test. Non-metric multidimensional scaling was performed on the resemblance matrix of Bray-Curtis distances (with 1000 random restarts) to determine whether disturbance affected the abundance and species composition of the dung beetle communities. Spearman's correlation coefficient was used to determine whether rainfall was correlated with abundance and species richness. A total of 1097 specimens belonging to 13 species were collected. The most abundant and frequent species was Dichotomius geminatus Arrow (Coleoptera: Scarabaeidae). The environment exerted an influence over abundance. Abundance and diversity were affected by season, with an increase in abundance at the beginning of the wet season. The correlation coefficient values were high and significant for abundance and species richness, which were both correlated to rainfall. In conclusion, the restriction of species to some environments demonstrates the need to preserve these areas in order to avoid possible local extinction. Therefore, in extremely seasonable environments, such as the Caatinga, seasonal variation strongly affects dung beetle communities

Bait preferences of Australian dung beetles (Coleoptera: Scarabaeidae) in tropical and subtropical Queensland forests

Dung beetles (Scarabaeinae) are mainly coprophagous. Globally, many species co-exist with large mammalian fauna in grasslands and savannahs. However, tropical and subtropical rainforests, where large herbivorous mammals are scarce, support numerous dung beetle species. Many rainforest dung beetles have been shown to be generalist saprophages or specialists on non-dung food resources. In Australian rainforests, observations of native dung beetles have indicated that some species are attracted to other resources such as fruit or fungi, although the extent to which this occurs is not known. To learn more about the diet breadth of Australian native rainforest dung beetles, we assessed their attraction to a range of baits, including two types of dung, four types of carrion from both vertebrates and invertebrates, three types of rotting fruit and rotting mushrooms. We primarily surveyed rainforest sites but included two dry open-forest sites for comparisons. Of the two groups of Australian native dung beetles (Onthophagini and Australian endemic genera), the latter dominated the rainforest dung beetle fauna and were attracted to a greater variety of baits compared with Onthophagini. The Onthophagini were dominant in open forest and were more likely to be attracted to a particular bait type, primarily dung. Our findings suggest that many of the species belonging to the ‘Australian endemic genera’ are generalist feeders and their ability to utilise a range of food resources contributes to their abundance and diversity in Australian rainforests

Enhanced Characterization of the Smell of Death by Comprehensive Two-Dimensional Gas Chromatography-Time-of-Flight Mass Spectrometry (GCxGC-TOFMS)

Soon after death, the decay process of mammalian soft tissues begins and leads to the release of cadaveric volatile compounds in the surrounding environment. The study of postmortem decomposition products is an emerging field of study in forensic science. However, a better knowledge of the smell of death and its volatile constituents may have many applications in forensic sciences. Domestic pigs are the most widely used human body analogues in forensic experiments, mainly due to ethical restrictions. Indeed, decomposition trials on human corpses are restricted in many countries worldwide. This article reports on the use of comprehensive two-dimensional gas chromatography coupled with time-of-flight mass spectrometry (GCxGC-TOFMS) for thanatochemistry applications. A total of 832 VOCs released by a decaying pig carcass in terrestrial ecosystem, i.e. a forest biotope, were identified by GCxGC-TOFMS. These postmortem compounds belong to many kinds of chemical class, mainly oxygen compounds (alcohols, acids, ketones, aldehydes, esters), sulfur and nitrogen compounds, aromatic compounds such as phenolic molecules and hydrocarbons. The use of GCxGC-TOFMS in study of postmortem volatile compounds instead of conventional GC-MS was successful