Background - There is growing interest in the role of microbial agents in the causation of psychiatric disorders. The neurotropic protozoan parasite Toxoplasma gondii is one of the main candidates and has been associated with various psychiatric conditions, including schizophrenia. Methods - A narrative review of the literature from the main medical databases (Medline, PubMed, PsycINFO), Google Scholar and Google using combinations of applicable terms. Results - T. gondii affects the brain in both the acute and the latent stages of infection causing apparent brain pathologies in infected rodents and both immuno-compromised and immuno-competent humans. In immuno-competent individuals, behavioural disorders are primarily related to the latent stages of the illness. Behavioural/mental disorders that include schizophrenia, mood disorders, personality changes and cognitive impairments may be related to infection with T. gondii. Evidence for a behavioural effect of T. gondii comes from observational reports in animal models and controlled behavioural analysis in humans. Indirect clues of infection also come from raised seroprevalence or serotitres of antitoxoplasma antibodies among those with mental disorders. The pathophysiologic mechanism through which T. gondii may exert its effect is not clear, but direct impact on the brain and changes in neuroimmunomodulation, neurotransmission and some gene-environment interactions are postulated. Conclusion - There is evidence supporting a potential role of T. gondii infection in the onset of some behavioural disorders. Confirmation of such a role would prove a significant breakthrough in the search for the aetiology, treatment and prevention of behavioural disorders, such as schizophrenia. However, the associations remain preliminary.
Toxoplasmosis is caused by intracellular protozoan parasite, Toxoplasma gondii (Nicolle et Manceaux, 1908). Cats and other felids are the definitive hosts. It could be transmitted to man and animals by consumption of infected undercooked meat and contaminated food items including drinking water. Results of toxoplasmosis epidemiological surveys in animals and humans in South-West, North-West, North-East and North-Central Zones of Nigeria have been reported with greater impact on the health of pregnant women and HIV-infected individuals. Meanwhile, studies in states within the South-South and South-East Zones are relatively scanty or non-existent. Overall, the seroprevalence of human toxoplasmosis in Nigeria is estimated at 32% with the following reports for North-West (32%), North-East (22%), North-Central (24%) and South-West (37%). Information on the genetic diversity of isolates of T. gondii in humans and animals including the role of the environment in transmission and maintenance of the disease are highly needed., John Asekhaen Ohiolei, Clement Isaac., and Obsahuje bibliografii
The protective role of nutrition factors such as calcium, vitamin D and vitamin K for the integrity of the skeleton is well understood. In addition, integrity of the skeleton is positively influenced by certain trace elements (e.g. zinc, copper, manganese, magnesium, iron, selenium, boron and fluoride) and negatively by others (lead, cadmium, cobalt). Deficiency or excess of these elements influence bone mass and bone quality in adulthood as well as in childhood and adolescence. However, some protective elements may become toxic under certain condition s, depending on dosage (serum concentration), duration of treatment and interactions among individual elements. We review the beneficial and toxic effects of key elements on bone homeostasis., I. Zofkova, M. Davis, J. Blahos., and Obsahuje bibliografii
We investigate the traceless component of the conformal curvature tensor defined by (2.1) in Kähler manifolds of dimension $\ge 4$, and show that the traceless component is invariant under concircular change. In particular, we determine Kähler manifolds with vanishing traceless component and improve some theorems (for example, [4, pp. 313–317]) concerning the conformal curvature tensor and the spectrum of the Laplacian acting on $p$ $(0\le p\le 2)$-forms on the manifold by using the traceless component.
Including the previously untreated borderline cases, the trace spaces (in the distributional sense) of the Besov-Lizorkin-Triebel spaces are determined for the anisotropic (or quasi-homogeneous) version of these classes. The ranges of the traces are in all cases shown to be approximation spaces, and these are shown to be different from the usual spaces precisely in the cases previously untreated. To analyse the new spaces, we carry over some real interpolation results as well as the refined Sobolev embeddings of J. Franke and B. Jawerth to the anisotropic scales.
We investigate traces of functions, belonging to a class of functions with dominating mixed smoothness in ${\mathbb{R}}^3$, with respect to planes in oblique position. In comparison with the classical theory for isotropic spaces a few new phenomenona occur. We shall present two different approaches. One is based on the use of the Fourier transform and restricted to $p=2$. The other one is applicable in the general case of Besov-Lizorkin-Triebel spaces and based on atomic decompositions.
In Taiwanese literature, as in many other national literatures, realism is a term which has been used to serve many aims. Aesthetic and narrative aspects contribute to realism as much as poliical, ideological and/or social convictions. In Taiwam, it has been used as a label by almost all literary groups and schools since the first wave of native literature (xiangtu wenxue) in the 1920s in order to describe and ligitimize their respective literary and - frequently - political claims. Over time, the very meaning of the term "realism" had been subject to multiple changes, thus turning "realism" into an almost empty signifier that needed to be further framed. Realism increasingly tended to be accompanied by an explanatory adjunct, specifying what kind of realism was indicated. The article re-evaluates epistemological issues connected to the use of realism among Taiwan´s modernists and nativists in the 1960s and 1970s. It argues that the struggle between both groups is primarily in relation to the appropriate adjunct to be attached to realism. Both movements illustrate how realism has grown into a meta-term of modernity, while its aesthetics, subject matter, and ethical impact have became increasingly vague.