Coccidiosis of Goats in Florida, USA

ABSTRACT Fecal samples from 277 goats on eleven farms in Florida were examined to determine the prevalence and intensity of the multiple species of Eimeria that infect goats in this region. The number of oocysts per gram of feces (OPG) was determined by the modified McMaster technique. Species identification was done following sporulation. Eimeria oocysts were found in 97% of the fecal samples. Goats less than one year of age shed significantly more oocysts than goats greater than one year of age (P < 0.01). Goats of the Nubian breed had the highest OPG counts when compared to Boer, Boer-Spanish crosses, and Saanen breeds. Nine Eimeria spp. were identified. Eimeria arloingi (91%), E. ninakohlyakimovae (82%) and E. alijevi (79%) were the most prevalent species. Other species present were E. caprina (60%), E. christenseni (60%), E. hirci (46%), E. caprovina (29%), E. aspheronica (15%), and E. jolchijevi (9%)

Illusory perceptions of space and time preserve cross-saccadic perceptual continuity

When voluntary saccadic eye movements are made to a silently ticking clock, observers sometimes think that the second hand takes longer than normal to move to its next position. For a short period, the clock appears to have stopped (chronostasis). Here we show that the illusion occurs because the brain extends the percept of the saccadic target backwards in time to just before the onset of the saccade. This occurs every time we move the eyes but it is only perceived when an external time reference alerts us to the phenomenon. The illusion does not seem to depend on the shift of spatial attention that accompanies the saccade. However, if the target is moved unpredictably during the saccade, breaking perception of the target's spatial continuity, then the illusion disappears. We suggest that temporal extension of the target's percept is one of the mechanisms that 'fill in' the perceptual 'gap' during saccadic suppression. The effect is critically linked to perceptual mechanisms that identify a target's spatial stability

Elevated phospholipid hydroperoxide glutathione peroxidase (GPX4) expression modulates oxylipin formation and inhibits age-related skeletal muscle atrophy and weakness

Our previous studies support a key role for mitochondrial lipid hydroperoxides as important contributors to denervation-related muscle atrophy, including muscle atrophy associated with aging. Phospholipid hydroperoxide glutathione peroxidase 4 (GPX4) is an essential antioxidant enzyme that directly reduces phospholipid hydroperoxides and we previously reported that denervation-induced muscle atrophy is blunted in a mouse model of GPX4 overexpression. Therefore, the goal of the present study was to determine whether GPX4 overexpression can reduce the age-related increase in mitochondrial hydroperoxides in skeletal muscle and ameliorate age-related muscle atrophy and weakness (sarcopenia). Male C57Bl6 WT and GPX4 transgenic (GPX4Tg) mice were studied at 3 to 5 and 23–29 months of age. Basal mitochondrial peroxide generation was reduced by 34% in muscle fibers from aged GPX4Tg compared to old WT mice. GPX4 overexpression also reduced levels of lipid peroxidation products: 4-HNE, MDA, and LOOHs by 38%, 32%, and 84% respectively in aged GPX4Tg mice compared to aged WT mice. Muscle mass was preserved in old GPX4 Tg mice by 11% and specific force generation was 21% higher in old GPX4Tg versus age matched male WT mice. Oxylipins from lipoxygenases (LOX) and cyclooxygenase (COX), as well as less abundant non-enzymatically generated isomers, were significantly reduced by GPX4 overexpression. The expression of cPLA2, 12/15-LOX and COX-2 were 1.9-, 10.5- and 3.4-fold greater in old versus young WT muscle respectively, and 12/15-LOX and COX-2 levels were reduced by 37% and 35%, respectively in muscle from old GPX4Tg mice. Our study suggests that lipid peroxidation products may play an important role in the development of sarcopenia, and their detoxification might be an effective intervention in preventing muscle atrophy

Groups, organizations, families and movements: The sociology of social systems between interaction and society

Kühl S. Groups, organizations, families and movements: The sociology of social systems between interaction and society. Systems Research and Behavioral Science. 2020;37(3):496-515.In enhancing a proposal by Luhmann, this contribution shows that it is possible to locate different types of systems between ‘face‐to‐face‐interaction’ and ‘society’: groups, organizations, families and protest movements. The common ground of these is that they use membership to attribute persons to the system or not. However, they differ fundamentally in regard to how they understand membership. In contrast to Luhmann's differentiation between interaction, organization and society, it is not only possible to imagine different types of interlocking systems but also coequal combinations of and transitions between the different types of social systems

Historical Documents of the Irish Avant-Garde

The contributors who wrote the texts and scores are: John Berndt, Felicity Ford, Panos Ghikas, Paul Gilgunn, Stephen Graham, Majella Munro, Simon O’Connor, Rían O’Rahallaigh, Nick Roth, Benedict Schlepper-Connolly, Jennifer Walshe. Thanks very much to Richard Devine for his recordings which brought Zaftig to life and Jack McMahon for his performance as Ultan O’Farrell, and to Malcolm Tyrrell for his dream of an episode of Hands focussing on Irish performance art.Before you begin reading the articles in this book and listening to the recordings on the Aisteach Foundation’s website, I have a confession to make – all of the composers and artists are fictional. The Aisteach Foundation and the Historical Documents of the Irish Avant-Garde are a communal thought experiment, a revisionist exercise in “what if?”, a huge effort by many people to create an alternative history of avant-garde music in Ireland, to write our ancestors into being and shape their stories with care. We played fast and loose with history and the truth and we like to think Flann O’Brien would have approved. I am extremely grateful to the Arts Council of Ireland for funding this project and allowing me to collaborate with the contributors listed below. If you feel there’s something we missed, something you want to have happened and would like to bring into being, please let us know. This project is dedicated with love to Bob Gilmore. Dr. Jennifer Walshe, President, Aisteach FoundationArts Council of Irelandhttp://www.lulu.com/shop/http://www.lulu.com/shop/jennifer-walshe/historical-documents-of-the-irish-avant-garde/paperback/product-22906851.html#productDetail

Sport, War and Democracy in Classical Athens

This article concerns the paradox of athletics in classical Athens. Democracy may have opened up politics to every class of Athenian but it had little impact on sporting participation. The city’s athletes continued to drawn predominantly from the upper class. It comes as a surprise then that lower-class Athenians actually esteemed athletes above every other group in the public eye, honoured them very generously when they won, and directed a great deal of public and private money to sporting competitions and facilities. In addition athletics escaped the otherwise persistent criticism of upper-class activities in the popular culture of the democracy. The research of social scientists on sport and aggression suggests this paradox may have been due to the cultural overlap between athletics and war under the Athenian democracy. The article concludes that the practical and ideological democratization of war by classical Athens legitimized and supported upper-class sport

Effects of magnolol on UVB-induced skin cancer development in mice and its possible mechanism of action

Background Magnolol, a plant lignan isolated from the bark and seed cones of Magnolia officinalis, has been shown to have chemopreventive effects on chemically-induced skin cancer development. The objectives of this investigation are to study the anticarcinogenic effects of magnolol on UVB-induced skin tumor development in SKH-1 mice, a model relevant to humans, and determine the possible role of apoptosis and cell cycle arrest involved in the skin tumor development. Methods UVB-induced skin carcinogenesis model in SKH-1 mice was used for determining the preventive effects of magnolol on skin cancer development. Western blottings and flow cytometric analysis were used to study the effects of magnolol on apoptosis and cell cycle. Results Magnolol pretreated groups (30, 60 μ g) before UVB treatments (30 mJ/cm2, 5 days/week) resulted in 27-55% reduction in tumor multiplicity as compared to control group in SKH-1 mice. Magnolol pretreatment increased the cleavage of caspase-8 and poly-(-ADP-ribose) polymerase (PARP), increased the expression of p21, a cell cycle inhibitor, and decreased the expression of proteins involved in the G2/M phase of cell cycle in skin samples from SKH-1 mice. Treatment of A431 cells with magnolol decreased cell viability and cell proliferation in a concentration dependent manner. Magnolol induced G2/M phase cell cycle arrest in A431 cells at 12 h with a decreased expression of cell cycle proteins such as cyclin B1, cyclin A, CDK4, Cdc2 and simultaneous increase in the expression of Cip/p21, a cyclin-dependent kinase inhibitor. Magnolol induced apoptosis in vivo and in vitro with an increased cleavage of caspase-8 and PARP. Phospho-signal transducers and activators of transcription 3 (Tyr705), B-Raf, p-MEK, and p-AKT were down-regulated, whereas phosphorylation of ERK was induced by magnolol in A431 cells. Conclusions Magnolol pretreatments prevent UVB-induced skin cancer development by enhancing apoptosis, causing cell cycle arrest at G2/M phase, and affecting various signaling pathways. Magnolol could be a potentially safe and potent anticarcinogenic agent against skin cancer

The isimodeni style: traditional beadwork, Zulu trinket or, South African sartorial tradition on Durban’s Golden Mile?

Beadwork is a well-documented aspect of the socio-political culture of isiZulu-speaking groupings in Southern Africa. Whilst scholarship on beadwork deals largely with the denotative and connotative value it offers wearers, this article’s contribution relates both to its commodification and apolitical value by confronting a general assumption that a beadwork style known as isimodeni (modern beadwork), produced as a trinket for tourists along Durban’s racially stratified Golden Mile since the 1960s, is an authentic representation of a Zulu material culture. The paper probes how traditional beadwork and rickshaw rides (with both highly decorated carts and pullers) were earmarked by tourism officials of the time as commodities that could serve a demand for colourful exoticism and accessible “Zulu” culture. Methodologically, the article draws on the visual analysis of beaded artefacts and photographs, in addition to ethnographic data derived from unstructured interviews with beadworkers on the Durban beachfront, to examine how a beadwork tradition transformed into a “Zulu” tourism commodity, and then transmuted into a nationalised form of ethnic identity and sartorial tradition

A simplified (modified) Duke Activity Status Index (M-DASI) to characterise functional capacity: A secondary analysis of the Measurement of Exercise Tolerance before Surgery (METS) study

Background Accurate assessment of functional capacity, a predictor of postoperative morbidity and mortality, is essential to improving surgical planning and outcomes. We assessed if all 12 items of the Duke Activity Status Index (DASI) were equally important in reflecting exercise capacity. Methods In this secondary cross-sectional analysis of the international, multicentre Measurement of Exercise Tolerance before Surgery (METS) study, we assessed cardiopulmonary exercise testing and DASI data from 1455 participants. Multivariable regression analyses were used to revise the DASI model in predicting an anaerobic threshold (AT) >11 ml kg −1 min −1 and peak oxygen consumption (VO 2 peak) >16 ml kg −1 min −1, cut-points that represent a reduced risk of postoperative complications. Results Five questions were identified to have dominance in predicting AT>11 ml kg −1 min −1 and VO 2 peak>16 ml.kg −1min −1. These items were included in the M-DASI-5Q and retained utility in predicting AT>11 ml.kg −1.min −1 (area under the receiver-operating-characteristic [AUROC]-AT: M-DASI-5Q=0.67 vs original 12-question DASI=0.66) and VO 2 peak (AUROC-VO2 peak: M-DASI-5Q 0.73 vs original 12-question DASI 0.71). Conversely, in a sensitivity analysis we removed one potentially sensitive question related to the ability to have sexual relations, and the ability of the remaining four questions (M-DASI-4Q) to predict an adequate functional threshold remained no worse than the original 12-question DASI model. Adding a dynamic component to the M-DASI-4Q by assessing the chronotropic response to exercise improved its ability to discriminate between those with VO 2 peak>16 ml.kg −1.min −1 and VO 2 peak<16 ml.kg −1.min −1. Conclusions The M-DASI provides a simple screening tool for further preoperative evaluation, including with cardiopulmonary exercise testing, to guide perioperative management