Venom-Induced Immunosuppression: An Overview of Hemocyte-Mediated Responses

Parasitic wasps are important natural enemies of several insect pests. They use a variety of methods to modulate their insect host for their progeny to develop. For example, the female wasp needs to avoid or suppress the host immune responses by introducing venom with or without virus like particles and/or polydnaviruses. The aim of this paper is to provide a synthesis of current knowledge regarding the immunosuppression of host immunity with venom in parasitoids that are devoid of symbiotic viruses. Special emphasis is given through disabling host hemocytes by venom of the endoparasitoid Pimpla turionellae (Hymenoptera: Ichneumonidae) with comparisons of venoms from other parasitoid species

Industrial relations in European hypermarkets: Home and host country influences

YesIn this article we examine the industrial relations practices of three large European food retailers when they transfer the hypermarket format to other countries. We ask, first, how industrial relations in hypermarkets differ from those in other food retailing outlets. Second, we examine how far the approach characteristic of each company’s country-of-origin (Germany, France and the UK) shapes the practices adopted elsewhere. Third, we ask how they respond to the specific industrial relations systems of each host country (Turkey, Poland, Ireland and Spain)

Terminal Investment: Individual Reproduction of Ant Queens Increases with Age

The pattern of age-specific fecundity is a key component of the life history of organisms and shapes their ecology and evolution. In numerous animals, including humans, reproductive performance decreases with age. Here, we demonstrate that some social insect queens exhibit the opposite pattern. Egg laying rates of Cardiocondyla obscurior ant queens increased with age until death, even when the number of workers caring for them was kept constant. Cardiocondyla, and probably also other ants, therefore resemble the few select organisms with similar age-specific reproductive investment, such as corals, sturgeons, or box turtles (e.g., [1]), but they differ in being more short-lived and lacking individual, though not social, indeterminate growth. Furthermore, in contrast to most other organisms, in which average life span declines with increasing reproductive effort, queens with high egg laying rates survived as long as less fecund queens

Olympos kazılarında bulunan aydınlatma gereçleri

Olympos Antik Likya bölgesinin doğusunda yer alır. Uzun bir süre korsanlıkla tanınan kentte Roma hâkimiyetine girdikten sonra özellikle MS 2.-3. yüzyıllarda yoğun bir imar faaliyeti görülür. Hıristiyanlıkla birlikte MS 5. yüzyıldan itibaren Roma dönemi kent dokusu üzerinde yeni bir yerleşim dokusu oluşturulmuştur. Roma dönemi cadde ve sokaklarında daralmalar olurken birçok eski yapı dönüştürülerek yeni inşa faaliyetlerinde kullanılmıştır. Mevcut arkeolojik çalışmalara göre Olympos’taki kentsel ölçekteki yaşam MS 7. yüzyılda sonlanmıştır. Erken Bizans dönemine ait mimari kalıntıların üzerinde herhangi bir modern yerleşim bulunmaması bu döneme ait kent dokusunun halen net olarak izlenebilmesini sağlamaktadır. Bu çalışmanın amacı Olympos kazısında bulunan cam ve seramikten yapılmış Bizans dönemi aydınlatma gereçlerini tanıtmaktır. Kazı çalışmaları 2006 yılından itibaren kentin farklı yapılarında devam etmektedir. Dini amaçlı kullanıma sahip alanlar olarak Episkopeion (Piskoposluk Sarayı) ve Nekropol Kilisesi’nde, sivil yerleşim dokusunun tespit edildiği alanlar olarak ise Mozaikli Yapı ve Giriş Kompleksi’nde kazı çalışmaları yapılmıştır. Ayrıca sokak dokusunun tespitine yönelik olarak Nekropol Caddesi ve Köprü Caddesi’nde sondajlar yapılmıştır. Ele geçen aydınlatma gereçlerine ait parçalar kentteki yaşama dair önemli veriler sunmaktadır. Cam buluntular arasında Erken Bizans dönemine ait farklı tipte kandiller tespit edilmiştir. Bu cam kandilleri ‘kulplu kandiller’, ‘çubuklu kandiller’ ve ‘kadeh biçimli kandiller’ olarak ayırmak mümkündür. Giriş Kompleksi’nde farklı tipte birçok cam kandile ait parçaların bulunması cam kandillerin sadece dini yapılarda değil sivil yapılarda da kullanıldığını göstermiştir. Ayrıca Piskoposluk Kilisesi içerisinde yapılan çalışmalarda ele geçen cam ve maden buluntuların azlığı kentin ani bir afet ya da istila ile değil yavaş yavaş terk edilmiş olduğu fikrini desteklemektedir. Yine Episkopeion’da yapılan kazılarda farklı renklerde levha biçimli pencere camlarına ait parçalar bulunmuştur. Küçük buluntular arasında cam kandillerle birlikte kullanılan maden askı ve fitil taşıyıcıları ile seramikten yapılmış fitil taşıyıcıları tespit edilmiştir. Olympos’ta bulunan pişmiş toprak kandiller arasında köken, biçim ve yapım tekniklerine göre dört farklı grup tespit edilmiştir. Bunlardan en yaygın olanı ‘çark yapımı bezemesiz kandiller’dir. Bu grup tek başına Olympos kandil buluntularının % 84’ünü oluşturur. Tespit edilen kandiller arasında Ege kökenli ‘Samos tipi’ ve olasılıkla Kıbrıs kökenli ‘kasnak biçimli’ kalıp yapımı kandiller yer alır. Olasılıkla Kıbrıs kökenli bir diğer kandil ‘konkav gövdeli çark yapımı kandiller’dir. Cam ve seramikten yapılan aydınlatma gereçleri Olympos’un refah dönemi olan 5. yüzyıl-7. yüzyıl başına aittir.Olympos is located east part of ancient Lycia region. The city was notable for piracy before the Roman domination. In the Roman Imperial Period, an intense building activity took place in the AD 2nd-3th centuries. Starting from the 5th century AD, with a new Christian settlement pattern was constituted on the former Roman urban structure of the site. While the streets became narrower, many fields belonging to the older Roman buildings were used for the new construction activity. The recent archaeological research at Olympos revealed that the urban settlement came to an end by the 7th century. Due to lack of modern settlement on the site, the original environmental pattern of the Early Byzantine Period is well preserved. The aim of this study is to present the Byzantine glass and clay lighting devices found in the excavations of Olympos. Starting from 2006, the excavations carried out at various locations at Olympos such as Episkopeion (Bishop’s Palace) and the Necropolis Church, also in the Building with Mosaics and the Entrance Complex, both at religious and secular areas. In addition to this, archaeological excavations were carried out in the Necropolis Street and the Bridge Street for determining the street structure. The fragments belonging to the lighting devices provide important data about life in the city in Early Byzantine period. There are three different types of glass lamps discovered at Olympos: ‘lamps with handles’, ‘stemmed lamps’ and ‘goblet shaped lamps’. The existence of various types of glass lamps found during excavations in the Entrance Complex reveals that glass lamps were not only used in religious buildings, also used in civil spaces in the Early Byzantine period. The lack of fragments belonging to glass and metal lamps in the Episcopal Church supports the idea that Olympos was gradually abandoned in the 7th century, not after a sudden disaster or invasion. In addition to lamps, windowpane fragments in different colors were found in the Episkopeion excavation. Among the finds, there are metal hooks, chains, metal wick holders, as well as clay wick holders used with glass lamps. Four main groups of clay lamps were determined according to origin, technique and body shape. The most common group consists of the ‘undecorated wheel-made lamps’. This group constitutes 84% of the clay lamps from Olympos. There are mold made lamps defined as ‘Samos type’, a lamp type originated from Aegean and ‘galet type’ probably imported from Cyprus. The last group is the ‘wheel-made lamps with concave body’. The glass and clay lighting devices belong to the period of prosperity of Olympos starting from the 5th century and ending by the middle of the 7th century

The effects of gibberellic acid on allium cepa root tip meristematic cells

Gibberellic acid (GA) is a natural plant growth regulator (PGR) which stimulates germination, vegetative growth, flowering, and fruit formation. However, when high concentrations of GA are used, it inhibits plant growth and development and causes abnormalities in the plant tissue. In our study, we determined the effects of different concentrations of GA on Allium cepa L. var. cepa roots. Increasing concentrations of GA (50-5 000 mg dm-3) were used in A. cepa root growth inhibition tests. Further, random amplified polymorphic DNA technique was used for determination of possible genotoxic effects of 600-1200 mg dm-3 GA on A. cepa root tips. Our findings show cytotoxic and genotoxic effects of these concentrations of GA and indicate that the difference among control and treatment groups were statistically significant

Morphology and Ultrastructure of Brain Tissue and Fat Body from the Flesh Fly, Sarcophaga bullata Parker (Diptera: Sarcophagidae), Envenomated by the Ectoparasitic Wasp Nasonia vitripennis (Walker) (Hymenoptera: Pteromalidae)

This study tested the hypothesis that venom from the ectoparasitic wasp Nasonia vitripennis targets brain tissue and fat body from its flesh fly host, Sarcophaga bullata. By 1 h postenvenomation, some brain neurons began to show irregularities in nuclear shape, and though they were predominately euchromatic, there was evidence of heterochromatin formation. Irregularity in the nuclear envelope became more prominent by 3 h after envenomation, as did the condensation of heterochromatin. The severity of ultrastructural changes continued to increase until at least 24 h after parasitoid attack. At this point, cellular swelling and extensive heterochromatic inclusions were evident, multivesicular bodies occurred in the cytoplasm of some cells, and the rough endoplasmic reticulum was dilated in many of the cells. Immunohistochemical staining revealed significant apoptosis in neurons located in brain tissues. By contrast, there was no evidence of any morphological or ultrastructural disturbances in fat body tissues up to 24 h after envenomation, nor did any of the cells display signs of cell death