Isolation and molecular characterization of multidrug-resistant Gram-negative bacteria from imported flamingos in Japan

Imported animals, especially those from developing countries, may constitute a potential hazard to native animals and to public health. In this study, a new flock of lesser flamingos imported from Tanzania to Hiroshima Zoological Park were screened for multidrug-resistant Gram-negative bacteria, integrons and antimicrobial resistance genes. Thirty-seven Gram-negative bacterial isolates were obtained from the flamingos. Seven isolates (18.9%) showed multidrug resistance phenotypes, the most common being against: ampicillin, streptomycin, tetracycline, trimethoprim/sulfamethoxazole and nalidixic acid. Molecular analyses identified class 1 and class 2 integrons, β-lactamase-encoding genes, blaTEM-1 and blaCTX-M-2 and the plasmid-mediated quinolone resistance genes, qnrS and qnrB. This study highlights the role of animal importation in the dissemination of multidrug-resistant bacteria, integrons and antimicrobial resistance genes from one country to another

Phylogeographic and Demographic Analysis of the Asian Black Bear (Ursus thibetanus) Based on Mitochondrial DNA.

The Asian black bear Ursus thibetanus is widely distributed in Asia and is adapted to broad-leaved deciduous forests, playing an important ecological role in the natural environment. Several subspecies of U. thibetanus have been recognized, one of which, the Japanese black bear, is distributed in the Japanese archipelago. Recent molecular phylogeographic studies clarified that this subspecies is genetically distantly related to continental subspecies, suggesting an earlier origin. However, the evolutionary relationship between the Japanese and continental subspecies remained unclear. To understand the evolution of the Asian black bear in relation to geological events such as climatic and transgression-regression cycles, a reliable time estimation is also essential. To address these issues, we determined and analyzed the mt-genome of the Japanese subspecies. This indicates that the Japanese subspecies initially diverged from other Asian black bears in around 1.46Ma. The Northern continental population (northeast China, Russia, Korean peninsula) subsequently evolved, relatively recently, from the Southern continental population (southern China and Southeast Asia). While the Japanese black bear has an early origin, the tMRCAs and the dynamics of population sizes suggest that it dispersed relatively recently in the main Japanese islands: during the late Middle and Late Pleistocene, probably during or soon after the extinction of the brown bear in Honshu in the same period. Our estimation that the population size of the Japanese subspecies increased rapidly during the Late Pleistocene is the first evidential signal of a niche exchange between brown bears and black bears in the Japanese main islands. This interpretation seems plausible but was not corroborated by paleontological evidence that fossil record of the Japanese subspecies limited after the Late Pleistocene. We also report here a new fossil record of the oldest Japanese black bear from the Middle Pleistocene, and it supports our new evolutionary hypothesis of the Japanese black bear

Surgical treatment of thoracoabdominal aortic mural and floating thrombi extending to infrarenal aorta

AbstractThe case of a 49-year-old man with thoracoabdominal aortic mural and floating thrombi extending to the infrarenal aorta and occlusion of the common iliac artery is described. He had no factors promoting thrombosis, with a history of thrombectomy of the femoral artery. The thoracoabdominal aortic thrombi were successfully removed with a Forgaty catheter through a thoracotomy under simple aortic clamping and subsequent femoro-femoral cardiopulmonary bypass. Intravascular ultrasound performed through the femoral artery after thrombectomy revealed that little mural thrombi remained and that the celiac, superior mesenteric, and bilateral renal arteries were all patent

International price dispersions of the Big Mac and economic integration

McDonald's Big Mac hamburger is available all over the world, and its recipe and quality are almost identical around the world and have changed little over time. However, Big Mac prices are widely disparate even across countries with more similar per capita incomes. This fact would be amazing because world tariff levels have been falling steadily and world trade volumes have been increasing dramatically in recent decades. We pay attention to the situation of international goods markets' integration and attempt to clarify why the deviations from absolute Big Mac parity are common across countries. To summarize our main results, global price dispersion of the Big Mac did not decrease although per capita income dispersion reduced. On the other hand, price dispersions of the Big Mac decreased within countries where trade ties are strong. These results suggest that Big Mac prices of countries in the world converge to several levels and that existence of trading bloc accounts for deviations from absolute Big Mac parity to some extent.Big Mac parity, dispersion, price convergence, economic integration,

Age structure and trade openness : an empirical investigation

For more about the East-West Center, see http://www.eastwestcenter.org/This research focuses attention on the relationship between age structure and trade openness. We hypothesized that a higher working-age population share of a total population raises trade openness because dependent population tend to spend more than working-age population for non-tradable goods such as education and medical services. We estimated the effects of age structure on trade openness empirically using panel data of 85 countries from 1991 to 2010, and we simulated trade openness based on changes in age structure from 1991 to 2100. The estimation results show that an increase in the share of working-age (dependent) population in a total population has a positive (negative) effect on trade openness. According to the simulation results, an increase in the share of the working-age population will increase trade openness until the beginning of the 21st century. However, the turnover of the share of the working-age population and more rapid increase in the share of the old-dependent population will decrease trade openness after that