Ethnomedicine of the Kagera Region, north western Tanzania. Part 2: The medicinal plants used in Katoro Ward, Bukoba District

\ud The Kagera region of north western Tanzania has a rich culture of traditional medicine use and practices. The dynamic inter-ethnic interactions of different people from the surrounding countries constitute a rich reservoir of herbal based healing practices. This study, the second in an ongoing series, reports on the medicinal plant species used in Katoro ward, Bukoba District, and tries to use the literature to establish proof of the therapeutic claims. Ethnomedical information was collected using semi-structured interviews in Kyamlaile and Kashaba villages of Katoro, and in roadside bushes on the way from Katoro to Bukoba through Kyaka. Data collected included the common/local names of the plants, parts used, the diseases treated, methods of preparation, dosage, frequency and duration of treatments. Information on toxicity and antidote were also collected. Literature was consulted to get corroborative information on similar ethnomedical claims and proven biological activities of the plants. Thirty three (33) plant species for treatment of 13 different disease categories were documented. The most frequently treated diseases were those categorized as specific diseases/conditions (23.8% of all remedies) while eye diseases were the least treated using medicinal plants (1.5% of all remedies). Literature reports support 47% of the claims including proven anti-malarial, anti-microbial and anti-inflammatory activity or similar ethnomedical uses. Leaves were the most frequently used plant part (20 species) followed by roots (13 species) while making of decoctions, pounding, squeezing, making infusions, burning and grinding to powder were the most common methods used to prepare a majority of the therapies. Therapeutic claims made on plants used in traditional medicine in Katoro ward of Bukoba district are well supported by literature, with 47% of the claims having already been reported. This study further enhances the validity of plants used in traditional medicine in this region as resources that can be relied on to provide effective, accessible and affordable basic healthcare to the local communities. The plants documented also have the potential of being used in drug development and on farm domestication initiatives.\u

Device for electrical stimulation of the vagus nerve

A device for auricular electrical stimulation of the vagus nerve was developed. The advantage of the developed product is the possibility of changing the shape of the stimulation signal, setting the duration of the stimulation session and monitoring the impedance of the load during the stimulation procedure

Electron-Ion Recombination on Grains and Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons

With the high-resolution spectroscopy now available in the optical and satellite UV, it is possible to determine the neutral/ionized column density ratios for several different elements in a single cloud. Assuming ionization equilibrium for each element, one can make several independent determinations of the electron density. For the clouds for which such an analysis has been carried out, these different estimates disagree by large factors, suggesting that some process (or processes) besides photoionization and radiative recombination might play an important role in the ionization balance. One candidate process is collisions of ions with dust grains. Making use of recent work quantifying the abundances of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon molecules and other grains in the interstellar medium, as well as recent models for grain charging, we estimate the grain-assisted ion recombination rates for several astrophysically important elements. We find that these rates are comparable to the rates for radiative recombination for conditions typical of the cold neutral medium. Including grain-assisted ion recombination in the ionization equilibrium analysis leads to increased consistency in the various electron density estimates for the gas along the line of sight to 23 Orionis. However, not all of the discrepancies can be eliminated in this way; we speculate on some other processes that might play a role. We also note that grain-assisted recombination of H+ and He+ leads to significantly lower electron fractions than usually assumed for the cold neutral medium.Comment: LaTeX(12 pages, 8 figures, uses emulateapj5.sty, apjfonts.sty); submitted to ApJ; corrected typo

Gene silencing in tick cell lines using small interfering or long double-stranded RNA

Gene silencing by RNA interference (RNAi) is an important research tool in many areas of biology. To effectively harness the power of this technique in order to explore tick functional genomics and tick-microorganism interactions, optimised parameters for RNAi-mediated gene silencing in tick cells need to be established. Ten cell lines from four economically important ixodid tick genera (Amblyomma, Hyalomma, Ixodes and Rhipicephalus including the sub-species Boophilus) were used to examine key parameters including small interfering RNA (siRNA), double stranded RNA (dsRNA), transfection reagent and incubation time for silencing virus reporter and endogenous tick genes. Transfection reagents were essential for the uptake of siRNA whereas long dsRNA alone was taken up by most tick cell lines. Significant virus reporter protein knockdown was achieved using either siRNA or dsRNA in all the cell lines tested. Optimum conditions varied according to the cell line. Consistency between replicates and duration of incubation with dsRNA were addressed for two Ixodes scapularis cell lines; IDE8 supported more consistent and effective silencing of the endogenous gene subolesin than ISE6, and highly significant knockdown of the endogenous gene 2I1F6 in IDE8 cells was achieved within 48 h incubation with dsRNA. In summary, this study shows that gene silencing by RNAi in tick cell lines is generally more efficient with dsRNA than with siRNA but results vary between cell lines and optimal parameters need to be determined for each experimental system

The Ethnomedicine of the Haya people of Bugabo ward, Kagera Region, north western Tanzania

\ud The Kagera region, in north western Tanzania, is endowed with a strong culture of traditional medicine that is well supported by a rich diversity of medicinal plants. However, most of the plants in this region have not been documented nor evaluated for safety and efficacy. As an initiative in that direction, this study documented the knowledge on medicinal plant use by traditional healers of Bugabo Ward in Bukoba District. Key informants were selected with the help of local government officials and information on their knowledge and use of plants for therapeutic purposes was gathered using a semi-structured interview format. In this study 94 plant species representing 84 genera and 43 families were found to be commonly used in the treatment of a variety of human ailments. The family Asteraceae had the highest number of species being used as traditional medicines. The study revealed that Malaria is treated using the highest number of different medicinal species (30), followed by skin conditions (19), maternal illnesses and sexually transmitted diseases (14), respiratory diseases (11) and yellow fever, Herpes simplex and peptic ulcers (10). Majority of the species are used to treat less than five different diseases/conditions each and leaves were the most commonly used part, comprising 40% of all the reports on use of plant parts. Trees comprised the most dominant growth form among all plants used for medicinal purposes in the study area. Bugabo Ward has a rich repository of medicinal plants and this reinforces the need for an extensive and comprehensive documentation of medicinal plants in the area and a concomitant evaluation of their biological activity as a basis for developing future medicines.\u

Wnt/β-catenin Signalling Is Active in a Highly Dynamic Pattern during Development of the Mouse Cerebellum

The adult cerebellum is composed of several distinct cell types with well defined developmental origins. However, the molecular mechanisms that govern the generation of these cell types are only partially resolved. Wnt/β-catenin signalling has a wide variety of roles in generation of the central nervous system, though the specific activity of this pathway during cerebellum development is not well understood. Here, we present data that delineate the spatio-temporal specific pattern of Wnt/β-catenin signaling during mouse cerebellum development between E12.5 and P21. Using the BAT-gal Wnt/β-catenin reporter mouse, we found that Wnt/β-catenin activity is present transiently at the embryonic rhombic lip but not at later stages during the expansion of cell populations that arise from there. At late embryonic and early postnatal stages, Wnt/β-catenin activity shifts to the cerebellar ventricular zone and to cells arising from this germinal centre. Subsequently, the expression pattern becomes progressively restricted to Bergmann glial cells, which show expression of the reporter at P21. These results indicate a variety of potential functions for Wnt/β-catenin activity during cerebellum development

Electric-field control of magnetic domain wall motion and local magnetization reversal

Spintronic devices currently rely on magnetic switching or controlled motion of domain walls by an external magnetic field or spin-polarized current. Achieving the same degree of magnetic controllability using an electric field has potential advantages including enhanced functionality and low power consumption. Here, we report on an approach to electrically control local magnetic properties, including the writing and erasure of regular ferromagnetic domain patterns and the motion of magnetic domain walls, in multiferroic CoFe-BaTiO3 heterostructures. Our method is based on recurrent strain transfer from ferroelastic domains in ferroelectric media to continuous magnetostrictive films with negligible magnetocrystalline anisotropy. Optical polarization microscopy of both ferromagnetic and ferroelectric domain structures reveals that domain correlations and strong inter-ferroic domain wall pinning persist in an applied electric field. This leads to an unprecedented electric controllability over the ferromagnetic microstructure, an accomplishment that produces giant magnetoelectric coupling effects and opens the way to multiferroic spintronic devices.Comment: 6 pages, 4 figure

Delinquent Behavior of Dutch Rural Adolescents

This article compares Dutch rural and non-rural adolescents’ delinquent behavior and examines two social correlates of rural delinquency: communal social control and traditional rural culture. The analyses are based on cross-sectional data, containing 3,797 participants aged 13–18 (48.7% females). The analyses show that rural adolescents are only slightly less likely to engage in delinquent behavior. Furthermore, while rural adolescents are exposed more often to communal social control, this does not substantially reduce the likelihood that they engage in delinquent behavior. Concerning rural culture, marked differences appeared between rural and non-rural adolescents. First, alcohol use and the frequency of visiting pubs were more related to rural adolescents’ engagement in delinquent behavior. Second, the gender gap in delinquency is larger among rural adolescents: whereas rural boys did not differ significantly from non-rural boys, rural girls were significantly less likely to engage in delinquent behavior than non-rural girls. However, the magnitude of the effects of most indicators was rather low. To better account for the variety of rural spaces and cultures, it is recommended that future research into antisocial and criminal behavior of rural adolescents should adopt alternative measurements of rurality, instead of using an indicator of population density only

Magnetic Behavior of Surface Nanostructured 50-nm Nickel Thin Films

Thermally evaporated 50-nm nickel thin films coated on borosilicate glass substrates were nanostructured by excimer laser (0.5 J/cm2, single shot), DC electric field (up to 2 kV/cm) and trench-template assisted technique. Nanoparticle arrays (anisotropic growth features) have been observed to form in the direction of electric field for DC electric field treatment case and ruptured thin film (isotropic growth features) growth for excimer laser treatment case. For trench-template assisted technique; nanowires (70–150 nm diameters) have grown along the length of trench template. Coercive field and saturation magnetization are observed to be strongly dependent on nanostructuring techniques

BMP signals and the transcriptional repressor BLIMP1 during germline segregation in the mammalian embryo

Molecular factors and tissue compartments involved in the foundation of the mammalian germline have been mainly described in the mouse so far. To find mechanisms applicable to mammals in general, we analyzed temporal and spatial expression patterns of the transcriptional repressor BLIMP1 (also known as PRDM1) and the signaling molecules BMP2 and BMP4 in perigastrulation and early neurulation embryos of the rabbit using whole-mount in situ hybridization and high-resolution light microscopy. Both BMP2 and BMP4 are expressed in annular domains at the boundary of the embryonic disc, which—in contrast to the situation in the mouse—partly belong to intraembryonic tissues. While BMP2 expression begins at (pregastrulation) stage 1 in the hypoblast, BMP4 expression commences—distinctly delayed compared to the mouse—diffusely at (pregastrulation) stage 2; from stage 3 onwards, BMP4 is expressed peripherally in hypoblast and epiblast and in the mesoderm at the posterior pole of the embryonic disc. BLIMP1 expression begins throughout the hypoblast at stage 1 and emerges in single primordial germ cell (PGC) precursors in the posterior epiblast at stage 2 and then in single mesoderm cells at positions identical to those identified by PGC-specific antibodies. These expression patterns suggest that function and chronology of factors involved in germline segregation are similar in mouse and rabbit, but higher temporal and spatial resolution offered by the rabbit demonstrates a variable role of bone morphogenetic proteins and makes “blimping” a candidate case for lateral inhibition without the need for an allantoic germ cell niche