Sperm antioxidant defences decrease during epididymal transit from caput to cauda in parallel with increases in epididymal fluid in the goat (Capra hircus)

2017 ◽  
Vol 29 (9) ◽  
pp. 1708 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mashidur Rana ◽  
Sudhir C. Roy ◽  
Bannur C. Divyashree

The status of antioxidant defences of both spermatozoa and their associated fluids during epididymal transit from the caput to cauda have not been studied so far in any species. Herein we report for the first time that sperm antioxidant defences, namely Cu,Zn-superoxide dismutase (Cu,Zn-SOD) and catalase activity, decrease significantly (P < 0.05) from the caput to cauda during epididymal transit in parallel with increases in Cu,Zn-SOD, total SOD and total glutathione peroxidase (GPx) activity in the luminal fluid of the respective segments. However, levels of GPX1 and GPX3 in epididymal fluid did not change significantly from the caput to cauda. Catalase was detected for the first time in goat spermatozoa. A significantly higher total antioxidant capacity of caudal fluid than of the caput suggests a requirement for a rich antioxidant environment for the storage of spermatozoa. The retention of cytoplasmic droplets in most of the caudal spermatozoa confirmed that these droplets do not contribute to the increased antioxidant defences of cauda epididymidal fluid. Thus, the antioxidant defences of the spermatozoa and their associated epididymal fluid are modulated from the caput to cauda in a region-specific manner. This may be one of the compensatory mechanisms of epididymal fluid to scavenge any excess reactive oxygen species produced in the microenvironment of spermatozoa.

2013 ◽  
Vol 58 (No. 12) ◽  
pp. 609-612 ◽  
Author(s):  
EB Gebeyehu ◽  
BY Jung ◽  
J-W Byun ◽  
JK Oem ◽  
H-Y Kim ◽  
...  

The purpose of this study was to determine a nationwide seroprevalence of Fasciola hepatica in native Korean goats (Capra hircus coreanae). A total of 464 blood samples were collected from the three geographical regions (northern, central and southern regions) of the country between November 2009 and August 2011. Sera were separated from whole blood following standard procedures and analysed with an ELISA to detect antibodies against F. hepatica. The positive samples were further classified as mildly, moderately and strongly positive. Out of 464 goat sera samples assessed, five (1.1%) were seropositive. From these, three (0.6%) were mildly positive, two (0.4%) were moderately positive while no samples were observed to be strongly positive. All the five positive animals were adults (&ge; 2 year old) rather than young goats (&lt; 2 year old). There was no significant difference in seropositivity between age and regions. In conclusion, this study determined for the first time the seroprevalence of F. hepatica infection in native Korean goats. The findings also provide an update on the status of F. hepatica infection and can serve as a foundation for future investigations on the significance of this parasite in Korea.


Author(s):  
Rachel Ablow

The nineteenth century introduced developments in science and medicine that made the eradication of pain conceivable for the first time. This new understanding of pain brought with it a complex set of moral and philosophical dilemmas. If pain serves no obvious purpose, how do we reconcile its existence with a well-ordered universe? Examining how writers of the day engaged with such questions, this book offers a compelling new literary and philosophical history of modern pain. The book provides close readings of novelists Charlotte Brontë and Thomas Hardy and political and natural philosophers John Stuart Mill, Harriet Martineau, and Charles Darwin, as well as a variety of medical, scientific, and popular writers of the Victorian age. The book explores how discussions of pain served as investigations into the status of persons and the nature and parameters of social life. No longer conceivable as divine trial or punishment, pain in the nineteenth century came to seem instead like a historical accident suggesting little or nothing about the individual who suffers. A landmark study of Victorian literature and the history of pain, the book shows how these writers came to see pain as a social as well as a personal problem. Rather than simply self-evident to the sufferer and unknowable to anyone else, pain was also understood to be produced between persons—and even, perhaps, by the fictions they read.


2018 ◽  
Vol 33 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Mbuzeni Mathenjwa

The history of local government in South Africa dates back to a time during the formation of the Union of South Africa in 1910. With regard to the status of local government, the Union of South Africa Act placed local government under the jurisdiction of the provinces. The status of local government was not changed by the formation of the Republic of South Africa in 1961 because local government was placed under the further jurisdiction of the provinces. Local government was enshrined in the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa arguably for the first time in 1993. Under the interim Constitution local government was rendered autonomous and empowered to regulate its affairs. Local government was further enshrined in the final Constitution of 1996, which commenced on 4 February 1997. The Constitution refers to local government together with the national and provincial governments as spheres of government which are distinctive, interdependent and interrelated. This article discusses the autonomy of local government under the 1996 Constitution. This it does by analysing case law on the evolution of the status of local government. The discussion on the powers and functions of local government explains the scheme by which government powers are allocated, where the 1996 Constitution distributes powers to the different spheres of government. Finally, a conclusion is drawn on the legal status of local government within the new constitutional dispensation.


2016 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
D.G. Shah ◽  
D.N. Mehta ◽  
R.V. Gujar

Bryophytes are the second largest group of land plants and are also known as the amphibians of the plant kingdom. 67 species of bryophytes have been reported from select locations across the state of Gujrat. The status of family fissidentaceae which is a large moss family is being presented in this paper. Globally the family consists of 10 genera but only one genus, Fissidens Hedw. has been collected from Gujarat. Fissidens is characterized by a unique leaf structure and shows the presence of three distinct lamina, the dorsal, the ventral and the vaginant lamina. A total of 8 species of Fissidens have been reported from the state based on vegetative characters as no sporophyte stages were collected earlier. Species reported from the neighboring states also showed the absence of sporophytes. The identification of different species was difficult due to substantial overlap in vegetative characters. Hence a detailed study on the diversity of members of Fissidentaceae in Gujarat was carried out between November 2013 and February 2015. In present study 8 distinct species of Fissidens have been collected from different parts of the state. Three species Fissidens splachnobryoides Broth., Fissidens zollingerii Mont. and Fissidens curvato-involutus Dixon. have been identified while the other five are still to be identified. Fissidens zollingerii Mont. and Fissidens xiphoides M. Fleisch., which have been reported as distinct species are actually synonyms according to TROPICOS database. The presence of sexual reproductive structures and sporophytes for several Fissidens species are also being reported for the first time from the state.


The recycling and reuse of materials and objects were extensive in the past, but have rarely been embedded into models of the economy; even more rarely has any attempt been made to assess the scale of these practices. Recent developments, including the use of large datasets, computational modelling, and high-resolution analytical chemistry, are increasingly offering the means to reconstruct recycling and reuse, and even to approach the thorny matter of quantification. Growing scholarly interest in the topic has also led to an increasing recognition of these practices from those employing more traditional methodological approaches, which are sometimes coupled with innovative archaeological theory. Thanks to these efforts, it has been possible for the first time in this volume to draw together archaeological case studies on the recycling and reuse of a wide range of materials, from papyri and textiles, to amphorae, metals and glass, building materials and statuary. Recycling and reuse occur at a range of site types, and often in contexts which cross-cut material categories, or move from one object category to another. The volume focuses principally on the Roman Imperial and late antique world, over a broad geographical span ranging from Britain to North Africa and the East Mediterranean. Last, but not least, the volume is unique in focusing upon these activities as a part of the status quo, and not just as a response to crisis.


2021 ◽  
Vol 1 ◽  
pp. 131-140
Author(s):  
Federica Cappelletti ◽  
Marta Rossi ◽  
Michele Germani ◽  
Mohammad Shadman Hanif

AbstractDe-manufacturing and re-manufacturing are fundamental technical solutions to efficiently recover value from post-use products. Disassembly in one of the most complex activities in de-manufacturing because i) the more manual it is the higher is its cost, ii) disassembly times are variable due to uncertainty of conditions of products reaching their EoL, and iii) because it is necessary to know which components to disassemble to balance the cost of disassembly. The paper proposes a methodology that finds ways of applications: it can be applied at the design stage to detect space for product design improvements, and it also represents a baseline from organizations approaching de-manufacturing for the first time. The methodology consists of four main steps, in which firstly targets components are identified, according to their environmental impact; secondly their disassembly sequence is qualitatively evaluated, and successively it is quantitatively determined via disassembly times, predicting also the status of the component at their End of Life. The aim of the methodology is reached at the fourth phase when alternative, eco-friendlier End of Life strategies are proposed, verified, and chosen.


Zootaxa ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 5048 (4) ◽  
pp. 486-510
Author(s):  
ALEXANDER L. MONASTYRSKII ◽  
VU VAN LIEN

A new species and eight new subspecies of Papilionoidea discovered in Vietnam between 2002 and 2020 are described and illustrated. The status of two taxa are revised. New taxa include Pieridae: Delias sanaca bidoupa Monastyrskii & Vu subspec. nov. and Talbotia naganum aurelia Monastyrskii & Vu subspec. nov.; Nymphalidae: Abrota ganga pulcheria Monastyrskii & Vu, subspec. nov.; Bassarona recta consonensis Monastyrskii & Vu, subspec. nov.; Pantoporia bieti aurantina Monastyrskii & To subspec. nov.; Ragadia latifasciata cristata Monastyrskii & Vu, subspec. nov.; Ragadia latifasciata crystallina Monastyrskii & Vu, subspec. nov.; Faunis indistincta luctus Monastyrskii & Vu subspec. nov. & Aemona gialaica Monastyrskii, K. Saito & Vu, spec. nov. The taxon infuscata Devyatkin & Monastyrskii, previously described as the subspecies Aemona tonkinensis infuscata, was elevated to the species level, while the taxon critias (Ragadia critias Riley & Godfrey) was reduced to a subspecies. Three Satyrinae species were recorded from Vietnam for the first time: Palaeonympha opalina Butler, 1871; Ypthima motschulskyi Bremer & Grey, 1853; and Ragadia latifasciata Leech, 1891.  


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lidia Pakhomova ◽  

This monograph focuses on the activities of Russian consuls in Sarajevo, as well as the work of diplomats on the Bosnian-Herzegovinian issue both during the Great Eastern Crisis and before the Annexation Crisis. The Congress of Berlin, held after the Russian-Turkish War of 1877–78, placed the region under the control of the Habsburg Monarchy, but under the sovereignty of the Ottoman Sultan. The book shows that the Russian Military Ministry had a plan to prevent the occupation. One of the research subjects is the Russian-Austrian negotiation on the status of the provinces. The decisions made by the St Petersburg were based on an analysis of the situation in the province — the center for collecting information was the Consulate in Sarajevo, hence the author’s attention to its functioning. The assessment of the Austro-Hungarian modernisation policy in the occupied territory by the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs is analysed historiographically for the first time. The study of the ethnographic works by Pavel A. Rovinsky and Aleksei N. Kharuzin made it possible to trace the changes in the life of Bosnian and Herzegovinian inhabitants during the Austro-Hungarian occupation. Thus, the author attempts to demonstrate the connection between the internal development of the region and the decisions about its fate at the international level.


1964 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
pp. 282 ◽  
Author(s):  
SI Ali

Reasons for the retention of the name Senecio lautus Forst. f. ex Willd. for both New Zealand and Australian forms are advanced. It is concluded that the New Zealand population should be given the status of a subspecies. Synonymy of S. lautus subsp. lautus and typification of various names involved are discussed. S. glaucophyllus subsp. discoideus (T. Kirk) Ornd. is reported for the first time from Tasmania.


2017 ◽  
Vol 61 (2) ◽  
pp. 379-402
Author(s):  
ANDREW MCKENZIE-MCHARG

AbstractIn 1789 in Leipzig, a slim pamphlet of 128 pages appeared that sent shock waves through the German republic of letters. The pamphlet, bearing the title Mehr Noten als Text (More notes than text), was an ‘exposure’ whose most sensational element was a list naming numerous members of the North German intelligentsia as initiates of a secret society. This secret society, known as the German Union, aimed to push back against anti-Enlightenment tendencies most obviously manifest in the policies promulgated under the new Prussian king Frederick William II. The German Union was the brainchild of the notorious theologian Carl Friedrich Bahrdt (1741–92). But who was responsible for the ‘exposure’? Using material culled from several archives, this article pieces together for the first time the back story to Mehr Noten als Text and in doing so uncovers a surprisingly heterogeneous network of Freemasons, publishers, and state officials. The findings prompt us to reconsider general questions about the relationship of state and society in the late Enlightenment, the interplay of the public and the arcane spheres and the status of religious heterodoxy at this time.


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