How Do I Get There From Here? Attitudes Toward Different Modes of Transportation

The acceptance of multiple-occupant modes of transportation such as buses and carpools is an important factor in energy conservation. Two experiments are reported which show how attitudes toward different modes of transportation are influenced by interpersonal factors. Experiment 1 showed that individuals perceive differences in the characteristics of people who use different modes and that these differences are related to their own transportation preferences. Experiment 2 showed that the sex of each potential rider and whether or not each rider is an acquaintance of the respondent are important factors in carpooling. The implications of such results to policy makers are discussed

Impacts of Parasites in Early Life: Contrasting Effects on Juvenile Growth for Different Family Members

Parasitism experienced early in ontogeny can have a major impact on host growth, development and future fitness, but whether siblings are affected equally by parasitism is poorly understood. In birds, hatching asynchrony induced by hormonal or behavioural mechanisms largely under parental control might predispose young to respond to infection in different ways. Here we show that parasites can have different consequences for offspring depending on their position in the family hierarchy. We experimentally treated European Shag (Phalacrocorax aristoteli) nestlings with the broad-spectrum anti-parasite drug ivermectin and compared their growth rates with nestlings from control broods. Average growth rates measured over the period of linear growth (10 days to 30 days of age) and survival did not differ for nestlings from treated and control broods. However, when considering individuals within broods, parasite treatment reversed the patterns of growth for individual family members: last-hatched nestlings grew significantly slower than their siblings in control nests but grew faster in treated nests. This was at the expense of their earlier-hatched brood-mates, who showed an overall growth rate reduction relative to last-hatched nestlings in treated nests. These results highlight the importance of exploring individual variation in the costs of infection and suggest that parasites could be a key factor modulating within-family dynamics, sibling competition and developmental trajectories from an early age

2003: Dicrocoeliosis - the Present State of Knowledge with Respect to Wildlife Species. Acta Vet. Brno 72: 613-626 DUCOMMUN D, PFISTER K 1991: Prevalence and distribution of Dicrocoelium dendriticum and Fasciola hepatica infections in cattle

Abstrac

Distribution of catalase, ribonuclease and superoxide dismutase modified by monomethoxy (polyethylene glycol) into rat central lymph and lymphatic nodes

The plasma-lymphatic distribution of ribonuclease (RNase), superoxide dismutase (SODase), and catalase (CTase) modified by monomethoxy (polyethylene glycol) (mPEG) was studied in rats. The lymphatic bioavailability (FL) of individual enzymes administered intravenously was determined on the basis of plasmatic and lymphatic concentration curves. It was concluded that FL values depend on enzyme-adduct molecular weight (m.w.). The highest FL value was found in mPEG-RNase (the lowest m.w.), medium value in mPEG-SODase (intermediate m.w.), and the lowest one in mPEG-CTase (the highest m.w.). The binding of these enzymes in the lymphatic tissue of iliac, intestinal, brachial and neck nodes was also proportional to their molecular weight. The lymphatic binding was dependent on the node localization, higher concentrations being found in the iliac and neck nodes in contrast to the other nodes (intestinal, brachial)

Sensitive chiral high-performance liquid chromatographic determination of anthelmintic flubendazole and its phase I metabolites in blood plasma using UV photodiode-array and fluorescence detection Application to pharmacokinetic studies in sheep

Although benzimidazole anthelmintic flubendazole, methyl ester of [5-(4-fluorobenzoyl)-1H-benzimidazol-2-yl]carbamic acid, is extensively used in veterinary and human medicine for the treatment of gastrointestinal parasitic helminth infections, reliable data about its pharmacokinetics in various species have not been reported. Our previous work [M. Nobilis, Th. Jira, M. Lísa, M. Holcapek, B. Szotáková, J. Lamka, L.Skálová, J. Chromatogr. A 1149 (2007) 112-120] had described the stereospecificity of carbonyl reduction during phase I metabolic experiments in vitro. For in vivo pharmacokinetic studies, further improvement and optimization of bioanalytical HPLC method in terms of sensitivity and selectivity was necessary. Hence, a modified chiral bioanalytical HPLC method involving both UV photodiode-array and fluorescence detection for the determination of flubendazole, both enantiomers of reduced flubendazole and hydrolyzed flubendazole in the extracts from plasma samples was tested and validated. Albendazole was used as an internal standard. Sample preparation process involved a pH-dependent extraction of the analytes from the blood plasma into tert-butylmethyl ether. Chromatographic separations were performed on a Chiralcel OD-R 250 mm x 4.6mm column with mobile phase methanol-1M NaClO(4) (75:25, v/v) at the flow rate 0.5 ml min(-1). In quantitation, selective UV absorption maxima of 290 nm (for reduced flubendazole), 295 nm (for albendazole), 310 nm (for flubendazole) and 330 nm (for hydrolyzed flubendazole) were used in the UV photodiode-array detection, and lambda(exc.)/lambda(emis.)=228 nm/310 nm (for reduced flubendazole) and lambda(exc.)/lambda(emis.)=236 nm/346 nm (for albendazole) were set on the fluorescence detector. The fluorescence detection was approximately 10-times more sensitive than the UV detection. Each HPLC run lasted 27 min. The validated chiral HPLC-PDA-FL method was employed in the pharmacokinetic studies of flubendazole in sheep. The stereospecificity of the enzymatic carbonyl reduction of flubendazole was also observed in vivo. (+)-Reduced flubendazole was found to be the principal metabolite in ovine blood plasma and only low concentrations of hydrolyzed flubendazole, the parent flubendazole and (-)-reduced flubendazole were detected in this biomatrix