THE ONLY GOOD SNAKE IS A DEAD SNAKE: SECONDARY SCHOOL STUDENTS' ATTITUDES TOWARD SNAKES

This cross-age study investigates the secondary school students' attitudes toward snake. Responses were elicited from a convenience sample of students (9th, 10th, 11th, and 12th grade, n = 188). A Likert-type "Shark Attitude Inventory" developed by Thompson and Mintzes (2002), adapted for snakes and with name of "Snake Attitude Scale" (SS) was used for data collection. The attitude scale, on the basis of "nine attitudinal typologies toward wildlife" defined by Stephen R. Kellert, generated subscale scores on three dimensions: negativistic, scientistic/naturalistic, utilitarian/negative. Significant differences were not found among educational level on all attitudinal dimensions. Gender differences were documented on two of three attitude subscales. The pattern of findings suggests that males excelled in negativistic and scientistic/ naturalistic attitudes scores. The results did not yield a statistically significant difference between males and females in terms of utilitarian/negative attitude

Poisonous plants distributed naturally in Turkey

From the flora point of view, Turkey is the richest country in Europe and the Middle East, with more than 10 000 vascular plant taxa, and more than 3000 of which are endemics. Therefore, poisonous plant taxa distributing in Turkey is expected to be higher. In this study, the poisonous natural plant taxa distributed in Turkey are identified and given in the table. Results of this study show that 2359 plant species belonging to 97 families are identified as poisonous in Turkey. The families with the highest number of poisonous plant species are identified as Fabaceae (571), Liliaceae (243), Ranunculaceae (140) and Asteraceae (126). Families with the highest number of poisonous genera are Fabaceae (15), Asteraceae (14), Liliaceae (14) and Ranunculaceae (11). Among the determined genera, all the members of 90 genera are poisonous. Among these genera, the top three numbers of poisonous species are Astragalus (347), Verbascum (220) and Allium (141)

PARP inhibition alleviates experimental diabetic sensory neuropathy

Poly(ADP-ribose) polymerase (PARP) activation is emerging as a fundamental mechanism in the pathogenesis of diabetes complications including diabetic neuropathy. This study evaluated the role of PARP in diabetic sensory neuropathy. The experiments were performed in control and streptozotocin-induced diabetic rats treated with or without the PARP inhibitor 1,5-isoquinolinediol (ISO; 3 mg · kg(−1) · day(−1) i.p.) for 2 weeks after 2 weeks without treatment. Diabetic rats developed thermal hyperalgesia (assessed by paw-withdrawal and tail-flick tests), mechanical hyperalgesia (von Frey anesthesiometer/rigid filaments and Randall-Sellito tests), tactile allodynia (flexible von Frey filaments), and increased flinching behavior in phases 1 and 2 of the 2% formalin pain test. They also had clearly manifest increase in nitrotyrosine and poly(ADP-ribose) immunoreactivities in the sciatic nerve and increased superoxide formation (hydroxyethidine method) and nitrotyrosine immunoreactivity in vasa nervorum. ISO treatment alleviated abnormal sensory responses, including thermal and mechanical hyperalgesia and tactile allodynia as well as exaggerated formalin flinching behavior in diabetic rats, without affecting the aforementioned variables in the control group. Poly(ADP-ribose) and, to a lesser extent, nitrotyrosine abundance in sciatic nerve, as well as superoxide and nitrotyrosine formation in vasa nervorum, were markedly reduced by ISO therapy. Apoptosis in dorsal root ganglion neurons (transferase-mediated dUTP nick-end labeling assay) was not detected in any of the groups. In conclusion, PARP activation contributes to early diabetic sensory neuropathy by mechanisms that may include oxidative stress but not neuronal apoptosis