Loggerhead turtles (Caretta caretta) foraging at Drini Bay in Northern Albania: Genetic characterisation reveals new haplotypes

Loggerhead turtles (Caretta caretta) was studied over 3 summers in a nearshore habitat, the Patoku area in the southern part of Driniki Bay, Albania. Tissue samples were collected from 40 loggerhead turtles incidentally captured in stavnike fish-traps (a type of pond-net). A fragment of 859 base-pair mt-DNA d-loop region was amplified from these turtles and compared with previously described haplotypes. Haplotype CC-A2.1 (93%) was the dominant haplotype in the region. Two previously unknown haplotypes, CC-A6.1 and CC-A10.4, were decribed with this study. Furthermore, haplotype CC-A.2.8 was also observed which was previously recorded from Italy. Haplotype and nucleotide diversity were 0.14615 and 0.00017, respectively

“The Lolelaplap (Marshall Islands) in Us: Sailing West to East (Ralik→Ratak) to These Our Atolls (Aelon Kein Ad) Ad Jolet Jen Anij (Our Blessed Inheritance from God)”

This paper discusses the expansion of Oceania through a Marshallese indigenous lens as a focal point. It explains that decolonizing methodologies allows reclaiming of space for mental liberation and reassurement of constitutional rights. It highlights similar occurrences of decolonization practices meeting resistance in the 21st century all while strengthening the human right argument that no human deserves any less than their fellow human brothers and sisters. It argues that an indigenous imagery can only be viewed through an indigenous lens where the researches’ level of purity is retained and unfiltered. It nevertheless argues that Marshallese ethnolinguistics reveal the same cultural practices in America, Judeo-Christianity, and Oceania thus dictating the reality that “we are the same not withstanding one stays here and one there (Bedbedjin Bedbedjen, Bedbedjinma wot Kwe)”. It further explains the importance in these similarities and how Marshallese spirituality predates introduced American Judeo-Christianity despite the latter attempting to marginalize the former. It concludes by stating that Marshallese contributions on the global stage are rooted in that culture of love (IaKwe) which is echoed by the custom(s) revealing the significance of Marshallese validation academically, spiritually, economically, & socially to prevent institutionalized discrimination. This paper ends stating that the agency to know one’s self and how one should fit in the world, is a human right in itself and Marshallese are entitled to this sense of self worth through knowing thy self by thy self where real thinking takes place in one’s own mind as we all live our own lives

Sex difference and intra-operative tidal volume: Insights from the LAS VEGAS study

BACKGROUND: One key element of lung-protective ventilation is the use of a low tidal volume (VT). A sex difference in use of low tidal volume ventilation (LTVV) has been described in critically ill ICU patients.OBJECTIVES: The aim of this study was to determine whether a sex difference in use of LTVV also exists in operating room patients, and if present what factors drive this difference.DESIGN, PATIENTS AND SETTING: This is a posthoc analysis of LAS VEGAS, a 1-week worldwide observational study in adults requiring intra-operative ventilation during general anaesthesia for surgery in 146 hospitals in 29 countries.MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Women and men were compared with respect to use of LTVV, defined as VT of 8 ml kg-1 or less predicted bodyweight (PBW). A VT was deemed 'default' if the set VT was a round number. A mediation analysis assessed which factors may explain the sex difference in use of LTVV during intra-operative ventilation.RESULTS: This analysis includes 9864 patients, of whom 5425 (55%) were women. A default VT was often set, both in women and men; mode VT was 500 ml. Median [IQR] VT was higher in women than in men (8.6 [7.7 to 9.6] vs. 7.6 [6.8 to 8.4] ml kg-1 PBW, P < 0.001). Compared with men, women were twice as likely not to receive LTVV [68.8 vs. 36.0%; relative risk ratio 2.1 (95% CI 1.9 to 2.1), P < 0.001]. In the mediation analysis, patients' height and actual body weight (ABW) explained 81 and 18% of the sex difference in use of LTVV, respectively; it was not explained by the use of a default VT.CONCLUSION: In this worldwide cohort of patients receiving intra-operative ventilation during general anaesthesia for surgery, women received a higher VT than men during intra-operative ventilation. The risk for a female not to receive LTVV during surgery was double that of males. Height and ABW were the two mediators of the sex difference in use of LTVV.TRIAL REGISTRATION: The study was registered at Clinicaltrials.gov, NCT01601223

Determination of the food dye carmine in milk and candy products by differential pulse polarography

As a basis for the development of a sensitive analytical method for the determination of carmine food dye, a study of the differential pulse polarographic reduction of carminic acid (CA) on a dropping mercury electrode was performed. For the analytical differential pulse polarographic method running at pH 2.0 Britton–Robinson (B–R) buffer solution (peak at −489 mV), the relationship between the peak current and CA concentration was linear in the range of 1 μM to 90 μM with a detection limit of 0.16 μM. The proposed electrochemical procedure was successfully applied to the determination of carmine food dye in spiked commercially available strawberry flavored milk. The method was extended to the determination of CA in candy and results were in agreement with that obtained by a spectrophotometric comparison method. A cyclic voltammogram of CA in 2.0 B–R buffer electrolyte was obtained on the dropping mercury electrode at pH 2.0 during potential scans from 0.00 mV to 1000 mV versus Ag/AgCl. From repetitive cyclic voltammograms, one cathodic peak at −500 mV and three anodic peaks on the reverse scan between approximately −340 mV and −460 mV were recorded. The influences of some other commonly found inorganic and organic salts on the determination of CA were also examined. The sufficiently good recoveries and low standard deviations for the data reflect the high accuracy and precision of the proposed differential pulse polarographic method

Effects of Seminal Plasma Properties on Percentage and Duration of Shabut (Barbus grypus Heckel,1843) Sperm Motility

The aim of this study was to demonstrate the effects of seminal plasma properties (Ca2+, Na+, K+ and Mg2+, glucose, urea, triglyceride, total protein concentrations, pH and osmolality) on progressive sperm motility percentage and duration in Barbus grypus. Osmolality (mOsmol/kg) ranged from 81-263, while ionic contents (mM) varied between 20-79 Na+, 1.2-58.4 K+, 0.50-1.05 Ca2+, and 0.51-1.44 Mg2+ respectively. Spermatozoa density was 15.12±1.11 x109/mL, semen volume 3.87±0.41 mL while total protein, urea triglyceride and glucose were 0.60±0.17 mg/mL, 4.08± 0.08 mg/dL, 8.42±0.62 mg/dL, 5.17±0.11 mg/dL respectively. The data obtained allows comparison of variations in semen parameters and enables us to determine how these parameters relate to motility characteristics. The groups formed by hierarchical cluster analysis (CA) based on the semen properties corresponded to sperm motility characteristics. According to principal component analysis (PCA) results, osmolality, protein concentration, Na+ and K+ were strongly correlated with motility characteristics and were responsible for total variation in data compared to other parameters. Multivariate statistical methods as well as ionic ratios were used to analyze the data