Vitamin A deficiency in the captive African lion cub, Panthera leo (Linnaeus, 1758)

Dietary, breeding and clinical histories and pathological findings are presented from 2 confirmed and 5 presumed cases of vitamin A deficiency in immature African lions. Five of the 7 animals were born in the wild while 2 were born in captivity. All animals were fed lean red meat sprinkled with a vitamin/mineral supplement. Salient clinical signs were incoordination, "star gazing", blindness and intermittent convulsions. Pathological lesions seen in 4 animals included severe thickening of the cranial bones, with consequent marked compression of the brain and partial herniation of the cerebellum. Vascular damage in the cerebellum and ensuing haemorrhages, resulting in acute increases of an already high intracranial pressure, were thought to be the cause of some of the clinical signs, particularly convulsions rather than direct pressure-necrosis and atrophy of nervous tissueThe articles have been scanned in colour with a HP Scanjet 5590; 300dpi. Adobe Acroabt XI was used to OCR the text and also for the merging and conversion to the final presentation PDF-format

Helminths recovered from the bontbok, Damaliscus dorcas dorcas (Pallas, 1766)

A report is given on the helminths collected from 4 bontbok, Damaliscus dorcas dorcas, which died following capture at the Bontebok National Park, Swellendam, and transfer to the National Zoological Gardens, Pretoria. Seven of these helminths are new host records. Lungworms submitted to the institute for identification over the last 2 years are also reported; these were all Dictyocaulus magna. The various scientific and common names that have been applied to the bontbok in the past are reviewed.The articles have been scanned in colour with a HP Scanjet 5590; 300dpi. Adobe Acroabt XI was used to OCR the text and also for the merging and conversion to the final presentation PDF-format

Susceptibility to chronic mucus hypersecretion, a genome wide association study

Background: Chronic mucus hypersecretion (CMH) is associated with an increased frequency of respiratory infections, excess lung function decline, and increased hospitalisation and mortality rates in the general population. It is associated with smoking, but it is unknown why only a minority of smokers develops CMH. A plausible explanation for this phenomenon is a predisposing genetic constitution. Therefore, we performed a genome wide association (GWA) study of CMH in Caucasian populations. Methods: GWA analysis was performed in the NELSON-study using the Illumina 610 array, followed by replication and meta-analysis in 11 additional cohorts. In total 2,704 subjects with, and 7,624 subjects without CMH were included, all current or former heavy smokers (≥20 pack-years). Additional studies were performed to test the functional relevance of the most significant single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP). Results: A strong association with CMH, consistent across all cohorts, was observed with rs6577641 (p = 4.25x10-6, OR = 1.17), located in intron 9 of the special AT-rich sequence-binding protein 1 locus (SATB1) on chromosome 3. The risk allele (G) was associated with higher mRNA expression of SATB1 (4.3x10 -9) in lung tissue. Presence of CMH was associated with increased SATB1 mRNA expression in bronchial biopsies from COPD patients. SATB1 expression was induced during differentiation of primary human bronchial epithelial cells in culture. Conclusions: Our findings, that SNP rs6577641 is associated with CMH in multiple cohorts and is a cis-eQTL for SATB1, together with our additional observation that SATB1 expression increases during epithelial differentiation provide suggestive evidence that SATB1 is a gene that affects CMH

Calculation of the vibrational linewidth and line shape of Raman spectra using the relaxation function. I Method and application to nitrogen

The spectral line shape of the fundamental vibration of nitrogen is calculated from molecular dynamics simulations by determining the Fourier transform of the relaxation function. It has been applied to the fluid phase at various pressures and temperatures, and to solid d-N2. The validity of the assumption that the spectrum at relatively high temperatures and pressures can be calculated by assuming that these systems are in the fast modulation regime (¿tc«1), has been verified. A deviation of the vibrational line shape from the motional narrowing limit has been found for fluid nitrogen at low pressure, with a Kubo parameter, ¿tc, equal to 0.23, and for the vibrational line of the molecules on the a sites in d-N2, with ¿tc equal to 0.075. It is concluded that the value of the Kubo parameter is not an unambiguous criterion for the fast modulation regime. Moreover, a detailed comparison reveals a difference in the dynamical behavior of the molecules on the a and c sites. It is shown that this procedure can also be used if one does not know whether or not closely spaced lines are to be expected. The present procedure is suited to calculate line shapes in the intermediate Kubo regime, e.g., in concentrated mixtures, where no simple relations are available. Finally it is shown that in nitrogen at low density and 126 K the ratio of the correlation time of the frequency autocorrelation function and the dephasing time is smaller than in CH3I, where the n dependence of the vibrational overtone is subquadratic. © 2000 American Institute of Physics