New Insight into the Antifibrotic Effects of Praziquantel on Mice in Infection with Schistosoma japonicum

Schistosomiasis is a parasitic disease infecting more than 200 million people in the world. Although chemotherapy targeting on killing schistosomes is one of the main strategies in the disease control, there are few effective ways of dealing with liver fibrosis caused by the parasite infection in the chronic and advanced stages of schistosomiasis. For this reason, new strategies and prospective drugs, which exert antifibrotic effects, are urgently required.-induced liver fibrosis was inhibited by PZQ treatment for 30 days. Furthermore, we analyzed the effects of praziquantel on mouse primary hepatic stellate cells (HSCs). It is indicated that mRNA expressions of Col1α1, Col3α1, α-SMA, TGF-β, MMP9 and TIMP1 of HSCs were all inhibited after praziquantel anti-parasite treatments.The significant amelioration of hepatic fibrosis by praziquantel treatment validates it as a promising drug of anti-fibrosis and offers potential of a new chemotherapy for hepatic fibrosis resulting from schistosomiasis

Conservation of pollinators in traditional agricultural landscapes – New challenges in Transylvania (Romania) posed by EU accession and recommendations for future research

Farmland biodiversity is strongly declining in most of Western Europe, but still survives in traditional low intensity agricultural landscapes in Central and Eastern Europe. Accession to the EU however intensifies agriculture, which leads to the vanishing of traditional farming. Our aim was to describe the pollinator assemblages of the last remnants of these landscapes, thus set the baseline of sustainable farming for pollination, and to highlight potential measures of conservation. In these traditional farmlands in the Transylvanian Basin, Romania (EU accession in 2007), we studied the major pollinator groups-wild bees, hoverflies and butterflies. Landscape scale effects of semi-natural habitats, land cover diversity, the effects of heterogeneity and woody vegetation cover and on-site flower resources were tested on pollinator communities in traditionally managed arable fields and grasslands. Our results showed: (i) semi-natural habitats at the landscape scale have a positive effect on most pollinators, especially in the case of low heterogeneity of the direct vicinity of the studied sites; (ii) both arable fields and grasslands hold abundant flower resources, thus both land use types are important in sustaining pollinator communities; (iii) thus, pollinator conservation can rely even on arable fields under traditional management regime. This has an indirect message that the tiny flower margins around large intensive fields in west Europe can be insufficient conservation measures to restore pollinator communities at the landscape scale, as this is still far the baseline of necessary flower resources. This hypothesis needs further study, which includes more traditional landscapes providing baseline, and exploration of other factors behind the lower than baseline level biodiversity values of fields under agri-environmental schemes (AES)

The framing of social class distinctions through family food and eating practices

The definitive version can be found at: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/ Copyright 2011 The Authors, the Sociological Review 2011 and The Editorial Board of The Sociological ReviewDrawing on two qualitative studies which looked at diet, weight and health from a social class perspective, we use Bourdieu's theory of habitus to help explain the different food and eating practices undertaken by families with young teenagers. Whilst the families displayed considerable reflexivity when making decisions about what to eat on a daily basis, the analysis highlighted that everyday behaviours are still bounded by distinctions of taste, according to social position. The paper includes an examination of the relationships between different forms of capital and whether form or functionality is prioritised within families. We show the importance of temporal frameworks when interpreting classed food and eating practicesPeer reviewe

Population Dynamics Features of Willow-feeding Aphids

Willow-feeding aphid colonies were sampled on scattered trees (Salix alba) from April until November, in 1999. The collected individuals belonged to 9 aphid species of 3 families (Lachnidae, Chaitophoridae, Aphididae). The aphid populations showed two peaks in May and in October. The indirect negative effect of the rainfall seems to be responsible for this temporal pattern. The Shannon diversity also exhibited spring and autumn peaks during the year. The willow-feeding aphid guild seasonally rearranged, different species were dominant in each period. Four types of population dynamics of the 9 species were established based on the abundance changes. The time of appearance of different morphs in two dominant species was compared, they belonged to Pterocomma genus. In spring, there were uncoordinated schedule in the development of populations of P. pilosum konoi and P. rufipes, the different morphs of P. pilosum konoi increased earlier. In autumn both species reached their peaks simultaneously, but there were fewer individuals of P. pilosum konoi for a longer time. This species was more vulnerable to aphid parasitoids in each season