Biological and molecular properties of yellow venom of the Amazonian coral snake Micrurus surinamensis

Introduction: The coral snake Micrurus surinamensis, which is widely distributed throughout Amazonia, has a neurotoxic venom. It is important to characterize the biological and molecular properties of this venom in order to develop effective antitoxins. Methods: Toxins from the venom of M. surinamensis were analyzed by two-dimensional polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis and their neurotoxic effects in vivo were evaluated. Results and Conclusions: Most proteins in the venom had masses < 14kDa, low phospholipase A2 activity, and no proteolytic activity. The toxins inhibited the coagulation cascade. The venom had neurotoxic effects in mice, with a median lethal dose upon intravenous administration of 700 µg/kg. Immunogenic studies revealed abundant cross-reactivity of antielapidic serum with 14kDa toxins and limited cross-reactivity with toxins < 10kDa. These results indicate that antielapidic serum against M. surinamensis venom has weak potency (0.35mg/ml) in mice. © 2017, Sociedade Brasileira de Medicina Tropical. All rights reserved

Identification of an insect-produced olfactory cue that primes plant defenses

Plants are able to prime anti-herbivore defenses in response to olfactory cues of insect pests. Here, Helms et al. identify the insect pheromone E,S-conophthorin produced by the goldenrod gall fly as the specific chemical component that elicits this priming response in goldenrod plants

Design and Poverty : A Review of Contexts, Roles of Poor People, and Methods

Design is essential to fulfil unmet or under-served needs of resource-poor societies, supporting their social and human development. A great deal of design research has been undertaken in such low resource settings, and is discussed under different names, such as ‘community development engineering’, ‘humanitarian engineering’, ‘appropriate technology’, ‘design for development’, ‘design at the Base of the Pyramid’, etc. This has created an important need to know what has been examined and learnt so far and to plan for further investigation. To address this, we review a broad range of literature, with close examination of 30 design studies in this field. This reveals a multifaceted picture, showing a great diversity in investigation and reporting of attributes of context (income, rural and urban, design sectors, countries, and gender), the roles of poor people (consumers, producers, and co-designers), characteristics of research methods employed (e.g. descriptive and prescriptive, data collection methods, qualitative and quantitative aspects, and unit of analysis), and design topics. Based on the review results, we offer recommendations for further research, identifying concerns that researchers ought to have about this field and suggesting ways in which research in this field can be undertaken and reported

The Latent Dimensions of Poor Self-Rated Health: How Chronic Diseases, Functional and Emotional Dimensions Interact Influencing Self-Rated Health in Italian Elderly

Abstract Self-Rated Health (SRH) is becoming one of the most popular indicator of population health. Nevertheless, a limited understanding still remains about the elements to which individuals refer when evaluating their health and how those elements act and interact in the evaluation process. In this study we use a structural equation model with latent variables to identify direct and indirect influences of various health dimensions (chronic morbidity, functional abilities and emotional health) and socio-demographic covariates (age, gender and education) on poor SRH. The sample consists of 25,183 Italian elderly aged 65 years and over, interviewed in the 2005 National Health Interview Survey. The results have pointed out the higher direct effect of psychological and emotional health on SRH, while the higher total effect is caused by chronic morbidity, which influences SRH both directly and altering functional and emotional health. Growing older, being a woman and having a low education negatively impacts on SRH. However, this is almost completely the result of the indirect effect exerted by the covariates, while their direct effect is not significant (gender), negative (age) or very modest (education)