Perfil hematológico e bioquímico de tamanduás-mirins (Tamandua tetradactyla) criados ex situ no Estado de Santa Catarina Brasil: Hematological and biochemical profiles of lesser anteaters (Tamandua tetradactyla) raised ex-situ in Santa Catarina State Brazil

O objetivo deste relato foi descrever os resultados do perfil hematológico e bioquímico de tamanduás-mirins (Tamandua tetradactyla) criados ex-situ. Foram relatados os resultados de exames de hemograma total e bioquímico sérico de nove tamanduás-mirins considerados sadios, segundo exame clínico, mantidos ex-situ em um zoológico na cidade de Penha-SC. Uma vez induzidos, com cloridrato de cetamina 10% (5mg/kg) e xilazina 10% (1mg/kg) os animais foram mantidos sob anestesia inalatória com isofluorano para realização da avaliação clínica, exames e coleta de sangue. Os animais variavam de jovens a adultos, sendo sete fêmeas e dois machos. Dentre os parâmetros avaliados do hemograma, foram considerados a contagem total de eritrócitos e leucócitos, o hematócrito, a concentração de hemoglobina, o volume corpuscular médio, a hemoglobina corpuscular média, a concentração de hemoglobina corpuscular média e a proteína plasmática total. A presença de hemoparasitos não foi relatada em nenhum dos indivíduos amostrados. Nos exames bioquímicos, foram analisados os parâmetros de enzimas hepáticas e renais. Os resultados obtidos, de hemograma total, leucograma total, função hepática e função renal pouco diferiram daqueles disponíveis na escassa literatura existente. Os intervalos nos parâmetros bioquímicos e hematológicos aqui apresentados não podem ser considerados como padrão para a espécie, a qual tem uma distribuição geográfica muito ampla. No entanto, podem servir como referência para tamanduá-mirim mantidos nas mesmas condições, ou seja, ex-situ e sob cuidados humanos

Power-sharing: Institutions, Behavior, and Peace

This is the author accepted manuscript. The final version is available from Wiley via the DOI in this record.Replication Materials: The data, code, and any additional materials required to replicate all analyses in this article are available on the American Journal of Political Science Dataverse within the Harvard Dataverse Network, at: https://dataverse.harvard.edu/dataset.xhtml?persistentId=doi:10.7910/DVN/3DK6JAGrievances that derive from the unequal treatment of ethnic groups are a key motivation for civil war. Ethnic power-sharing should therefore reduce the risk of internal conflict. Yet conflict researchers disagree on whether formal power-sharing institutions effectively prevent large-scale violence.We can improve our understanding of the effect of power-sharing institutions by analyzing the mechanisms under which they operate. To this effect, we compare the direct effect of formal power-sharing institutions on peace with their indirect effect through power-sharing behavior. Combining data on inclusive and territorially dispersive institutions with information on power-sharing behavior, we empirically assess this relationship on a global scale. Our causal mediation analysis reveals that formal power-sharing institutions affect the probability of ethnic conflict onset mostly through power-sharing behavior that these institutions induce.Funding: Swiss National Science Foundation (Grant No. 105511- 143213; PI: Cederman, Hug, and Wucherpfennig), the National Science Foundation (Grant No. Q2 SES-081950766b; PI: Strøom), and the Norwegian Research Council (196850/F10; PI: Gates)

Genetic Knock-Down of HDAC7 Does Not Ameliorate Disease Pathogenesis in the R6/2 Mouse Model of Huntington's Disease

Huntington's disease (HD) is an inherited, progressive neurological disorder caused by a CAG/polyglutamine repeat expansion, for which there is no effective disease modifying therapy. In recent years, transcriptional dysregulation has emerged as a pathogenic process that appears early in disease progression. Administration of histone deacetylase (HDAC) inhibitors such as suberoylanilide hydroxamic acid (SAHA) have consistently shown therapeutic potential in models of HD, at least partly through increasing the association of acetylated histones with down-regulated genes and by correcting mRNA abnormalities. The HDAC enzyme through which SAHA mediates its beneficial effects in the R6/2 mouse model of HD is not known. Therefore, we have embarked on a series of genetic studies to uncover the HDAC target that is relevant to therapeutic development for HD. HDAC7 is of interest in this context because SAHA has been shown to decrease HDAC7 expression in cell culture systems in addition to inhibiting enzyme activity. After confirming that expression levels of Hdac7 are decreased in the brains of wild type and R6/2 mice after SAHA administration, we performed a genetic cross to determine whether genetic reduction of Hdac7 would alleviate phenotypes in the R6/2 mice. We found no improvement in a number of physiological or behavioral phenotypes. Similarly, the dysregulated expression levels of a number of genes of interest were not improved suggesting that reduction in Hdac7 does not alleviate the R6/2 HD-related transcriptional dysregulation. Therefore, we conclude that the beneficial effects of HDAC inhibitors are not predominantly mediated through the inhibition of HDAC7

Identification of common genetic risk variants for autism spectrum disorder

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a highly heritable and heterogeneous group of neurodevelopmental phenotypes diagnosed in more than 1% of children. Common genetic variants contribute substantially to ASD susceptibility, but to date no individual variants have been robustly associated with ASD. With a marked sample-size increase from a unique Danish population resource, we report a genome-wide association meta-analysis of 18,381 individuals with ASD and 27,969 controls that identified five genome-wide-significant loci. Leveraging GWAS results from three phenotypes with significantly overlapping genetic architectures (schizophrenia, major depression, and educational attainment), we identified seven additional loci shared with other traits at equally strict significance levels. Dissecting the polygenic architecture, we found both quantitative and qualitative polygenic heterogeneity across ASD subtypes. These results highlight biological insights, particularly relating to neuronal function and corticogenesis, and establish that GWAS performed at scale will be much more productive in the near term in ASD

Genomic Relationships, Novel Loci, and Pleiotropic Mechanisms across Eight Psychiatric Disorders

Genetic influences on psychiatric disorders transcend diagnostic boundaries, suggesting substantial pleiotropy of contributing loci. However, the nature and mechanisms of these pleiotropic effects remain unclear. We performed analyses of 232,964 cases and 494,162 controls from genome-wide studies of anorexia nervosa, attention-deficit/hyper-activity disorder, autism spectrum disorder, bipolar disorder, major depression, obsessive-compulsive disorder, schizophrenia, and Tourette syndrome. Genetic correlation analyses revealed a meaningful structure within the eight disorders, identifying three groups of inter-related disorders. Meta-analysis across these eight disorders detected 109 loci associated with at least two psychiatric disorders, including 23 loci with pleiotropic effects on four or more disorders and 11 loci with antagonistic effects on multiple disorders. The pleiotropic loci are located within genes that show heightened expression in the brain throughout the lifespan, beginning prenatally in the second trimester, and play prominent roles in neurodevelopmental processes. These findings have important implications for psychiatric nosology, drug development, and risk prediction.Peer reviewe

Von Gästen und davon, Gast zu sein

Josting P, Roeder C. Von Gästen und davon, Gast zu sein. In: Josting P, Roeder C, eds. "Das ist bestimmt was Kulturelles": Eigenes und Fremdes am Beispiel von Kinder- und Jugendmedien. kjl & m. Extra. Vol 13. München: kopaed; 2013: 9-16

Kinder an die Macht? Literarische Kinderrepubliken als pädagogische Versuchsanordnung

William Goldings Lord of the Flies (1954) ist eine düstere Vision vom menschlichen Miteinander. Der Klassiker bedient sich des populären literarischen Insel-Motivs und gestaltet die Robinsonade mit einer auf sich gestellten Kindergruppe aus. Weniger bekannt ist, dass im Textkorpus der Kinder- und Jugendliteratur einige Werke aus den 1930er und 1940er Jahren bereits ein vergleichbares Modell inszenieren. Auch hier stehen Kindergruppen und deren selbst bestimmtes Zusammenleben im Mittelpunkt. In einem vergleichbar kurzen zeitlichen Abstand von nur gut zehn Jahren erschienen Henry Winterfelds Timpetill. Die Stadt ohne Eltern (1937), A.S. Neills Die grüne Wolke. Den Kindern von Summerhill erzählt (1938), Lisa Tetzners Die Kinder auf der Insel (1944) und Mira Lobes Insu-Pu. Die Insel der verlorenen Kinder (1948, dt. 1951). Die Frage stellt sich, warum dieses Modell der Kindergruppe, die selbstständig agiert, so attraktiv für die KinderliteratInnen dieser Jahre war? Zu den genannten Titeln liegen seitens der einschlägigen Forschung schon profunde Untersuchungen vor. Dabei wurden Fragen zur Kinderbande ebenso wie zur Gattungszugehörigkeit – und hier insbesondere zur Robinsonade und Dystopie – in Augenschein genommen. Ebenso wäre der Komplex der Exilliteratur zu nennen, dem die Werke von Winterfeld, Tetzner und Lobe zuzurechnen sind.Dagegen wird hier eine bisher weniger beachtete Perspektive eingenommen. Die genannten kinderliterarischen Texte werden in Bezug zu (reform-)pädagogischen Erziehungskonzepten gesetzt, die im Rahmen vor allem der Heimerziehung in diesem Zeitabschnitt diskutiert wurde. Ausgehend von diesen erzieherischen Diskursen, die in die Praxis der so genannten Kinderrepubliken umgesetzt wurden, stellt sich die Frage, inwieweit entsprechende Bezugnahmen bei den literarischen Werken vorliegen. Zu diesem neuen und komplexen Forschungsfeld, das als literarisches Erzählmodell Kinderrepublik tituliert wird, werden erste Überlegungen angestellt. Weiterführend werden auch die jüngeren Fortschreibungen ins Auge gefasst. So greift beispielsweise Andreas Schlüter mit Level 4. Die Stadt der Kinder (1994) das Thema wieder auf und wendet die zeitgeschichtlichen Bezüge, welche die Romane der 1930er Jahre aufwiesen, ins Medienkritische. Diese mediale Ausgestaltung des Motivs scheint auch für die Autorinnen und Autoren des beginnenden 21. Jahrhunderts attraktiv zu sein und kann – in einem Ausblick – bis in das Reich von Suzanne Collins' Panem verfolgt werden

"Dreams undoubtedly belong to reality" : dream narratives about childhood and for children

Theodor Storms Kindermärchen Der kleine Häwelmann, von dem Autor 1849 für seinen Sohn Hans verfasst und 1850 veröffentlicht, ist in seiner moralisch-komischen Form ein exemplarisches Exponat der Kinderliteratur des 19. Jahrhunderts. Gemäß der biedermeierlich gestimmten, belehrenden Funktion des Textes steht kindliche Allmachtsfantasie im Mittelpunkt des Geschehens. Die Haltung des ›Mehr-mehr‹ überschreitet indes die Grenzen der Moralerzählung. Entgegen der abschreckenden Funktion scheint vielmehr der kleine Häwelmann in der Verschränkung von Norm-Übertritt und Eskapismus ein ›modernes‹ Kind seiner Entstehungszeit zu sein und durchaus mit den Figuren des Struwwelpeters vergleichbar, die der Arzt und Kinderpsychiater Heinrich Hoffmann 1845 entworfen hat...The call for ›more!‹ is the force driving the protagonist of Theodor Storm’s literary fairy tale Der kleine Häwelmann (1850) on his imaginary journey through the night. This dream narrative is a combination of an exciting exploration of transcending borders with a hint of the moral tale, and can be seen as a model for the configuration of the dream motif in children’s and young adult literature. Although the dream narrative has a prominent place there, its investigation has hitherto almost exclusively taken place within the con­text of fantasy; the didactic functions of the dream, however, and the motif of the dream journey have largely been neglected. This article looks at how post­1945 children’s dream narratives explores representations of childhood. Benno Pludra’s Lütt Matten und die weiße Muschel (1963), a children’s story from the German Democratic Republic (GDR), is analysed and situated within the context of its literary system. Maurice Sendak’s Where the Wild Things Are (1963) is next considered in relation to Pludra’s text in order to pro­vide a contrastive view to a key text from the Western literary system. Both texts were hugely innovative for their time and respective systems, both use Storm’s Häwelmann as an intertextual anchor, and both, as this analysis shows, reveal recognisable societal discourses about childhood and cultural policies for children

"Das ist bestimmt was Kulturelles". Eigenes und Fremdes am Beispiel von Kinder- und Jugendmedien

Josting P, Roeder C, eds. "Das ist bestimmt was Kulturelles". Eigenes und Fremdes am Beispiel von Kinder- und Jugendmedien. kjl & m. Extra. Vol 13. München: kopaed; 2013