nfective nymphal stages of the family Sebekidae Sambon, 1922 are reported from four species of fish in Australian waters for the first time. Infected fish were collected from locations in Western Australia, the Northern Territory and north Queensland. The infective nymphs of Alofia merki Giglioli in Sambon, 1922 and Sebekia purdieae Riley, Spratt et Winch, 1990 are reported and described for the first time. The remaining specimens were identified as belonging to the genus Sebekia Sambon, 1922 based on the combination of buccal cadre shape, shape and size of hooks, and overall body size, but could not be attributed to any of the other species of Sebekia already reported due to missing required morphological features. DNA sequences of members of the family Sebekidae are presented for the first time. The lack of knowledge on the pentastome fauna of wild crocodiles, and any potential intermediate hosts, in northern Australia, is also outlined., Diane P. Barton, Jess A.T. Morgan., and Obsahuje bibliografii
A new mite species Schizocoptes daberti sp. n. (Acariformes: Chirodiscidae) from Chrysochloris stuhlmanni Matsche (Afrosoricida: Chrysochloridae) from the Democratic Republic of the Congo is described. It differs from the closely related species S. conjugatus Lawrence, 1944 in both sexes by distance si-si at least twice longer than si-se (vs these distances are subequal in S. conjugatus); in females by setae cp 30-40 µm long (vs about 65 µm long), and in males by the very weakly sclerotised posterior parts of the hysteronotal shield (vs strongly sclerotised), setae d1 situated anterior to the hysteronotal shield (vs at the hysteronotal shield), and by opened coxal fields III (vs closed). An amended generic diagnosis, including description of immature stages, and a key to named species of Schizocoptes Lawrence, 1944 are provided., Andre V. Bochkov., and Obsahuje bibliografii
Let F be a class of entire functions represented by Dirichlet series with complex frequencies ∑ ake hλ k ,zi for which (|λ k |/e)|λ k | k!|ak| is bounded. Then F is proved to be a commutative Banach algebra with identity and it fails to become a division algebra. F is also proved to be a total set. Conditions for the existence of inverse, topological zero divisor and continuous linear functional for any element belonging to F have also been established.
The ascarid nematodes Toxocara canis (Werner, 1782) and Toxocara cati (Schrank, 1788) may infect humans resulting in toxocariasis. A prior study associated species of Toxocara Stiles, 1905 with cognitive deficits in children. To determine if a similar association between toxocariasis and cognition exists in adults, we analysed a large dataset from the United States' Center for Disease Control's National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. We used linear-regression and multivariate models to examine the association between toxocariasis as assessed by the presence of anti-Toxocara IgG antibodies and three measures of cognitive function - simple reaction time (SRT), symbol-digit substitution (SDS) and serial-digit learning (SDL) in 4 279 adults aged 21 to 59 years. Toxocara seroprevalence did not vary with age or blood-lead concentration but did vary with gender, ethnicity, educational attainment and poverty-to-income ratio. Controlling for gender, age, blood-lead concentration, educational attainment, ethnic background and the poverty-to-income ratio, we found that toxocariasis predicted worse performance on the SDS but not on the SRT or the SDL. Moreover, there were significant interactions between toxocariasis and age, gender and educational attainment. In conclusion, toxocariasis appears to be associated with decreased cognitive function. Interactions between toxocariasis and gender, age and educational attainment further suggest that certain groups may be more susceptible than others to the cognitive dysfunction associated with toxocariasis in adults., Lance D. Erickson, Shawn D. Gale, Andrew Berrett, Bruce L. Brown, Dawson W. Hedges., and Obsahuje bibliografii
Bacillus Calmette-Guérin (BCG) is an attenuated Mycobacterium tuberculosis vaccine. We performed a series of co-infection experiments with BCG-Plasmodium chabaudi chabaudi Landau, 1965 AS using C57BL/6 mice to analyse whether BCG can affect the development of protective immunity to infection with Plasmodium spp. and the mechanism of this protection. We divided mice into four groups: BCG-inoculation 4 weeks prior to P. c. chabaudi AS infection (B-4w-Pc); simultaneous BCG-inoculation and P. c. chabaudi AS infection (Pc+B); BCG-inoculation 3 days post P. c. chabaudi AS (Pc-3-B) infection; and mono-P. c. chabaudi AS infection as control (Pc). The parasitemia level in the B-4w-Pc group was noticeably higher than control group at 6-19 days post infection (dpi). Compared with the control group, the proportion of CD4+CD69+ T cells was significantly reduced 5, 8 and 12 dpi, but the proportion of CD4+CD25+Foxp3+ Tregs was significantly increased in the B-4w-Pc group on 5 and 8 dpi. The B-4w-Pc group also demonstrated reduced levels of IFN-γ and TNF-α on 5 and 8 dpi and significantly elevated level of IL-10 on 12 dpi. There were significantly fewer mDCs (CD11c+CD11b+) and pDCs (CD11c+B220+) in the B-4w-Pc group than the control group at all the time points post infection and the expression of MHC II was noticeably reduced on day 8 pi. Our findings confirmed that BCG inoculation prior to Plasmodium infection resulted in excessive activation and proliferation of Tregs and upregulation of anti-inflammatory mediators, which inhibited establishment of a Th1-dominant immune response during the early stages of Plasmodium infection by inhibiting dendritive cells response. BCG inoculation prior to P. c. chabaudi AS infection may contribute to overgrowth of parasites as well as mortality in mice., Dong-Hua Cao, Ji-Chun Wang, Jun Liu, Yun-Ting Du, Li-Wang Cui, Ya-Ming Cao., and Obsahuje bibliografii
This study examined the effects of different types on anthropogenic disturbance on behaviours of grey herons Ardea cinerea, and great egrets Ardea alba, that gather in an Important Bird Area near Belgrade (Serbia), during their autumn migration, with the goal of assessing how diverse human-caused stimuli affect the behaviours of foraging and resting birds. I obtained behavioural data through scan sampling, with six categories of behaviour distinguished: vigilant, flying, feeding, comfort, inactive and other. In total, I collected 5,065 observations of individual birds: 1,293 for grey herons and 3,772 for great egrets. Significantly more birds were vigilant or in flight when they were disturbed by construction vehicles, military jets, and rural free-ranging dogs, whereas no statistical significance was associated with shooting and passing cars. Using a linear mixed model, it was shown that a greater proportion of birds was vigilant during disturbance than following disturbance or in the absence of disturbance, whereas air temperature and wind speed were not statistically significant. This study demonstrates that anthropogenic disturbance can alter the behaviour of the study species, which could aid future management and conservation planning.
Carcinopodacarus polymorphus gen. n. et sp. n. (Acariformes: Dermationidae: Dermationinae) is described from the guira cuckoo Guira guira (Gmelin) (Cuculiformes: Cuculidae) in Brazil. The new genus differs from the closest genus, Psittophagoides Fain, 1964, by the following features: in both sexes, the anterior spines of trochanters I and II are absent (vs present in Psittophagoides), setae d2 are distinctly developed (vs only alveoli), and genual setae mGI are absent (vs present); in males, the hysteronotal shield is split transversally at the level of trochanters III (vs hysteronotal shield entire); in females, the platelets situated posterior to the propodonotal shield are absent (vs present), the metapodosomal sclerites are present (vs absent), and the adanal shields are fused anteriorly to each other (vs separated from each other). In this species, andropolymorphism is detected for the first time for the family. It involves various characters but the most impressive feature is the structure of legs III. In hetero- and mesomorphic males, these legs are strongly hypertrophied and have a distinct ventral spur on femora III; in homeomorphic males, legs III are not modified and subequal to legs IV., Fabio Akashi Hernandes, Luiz Gustavo A. Pedroso, Andre V. Bochkov., and Obsahuje bibliografii
Taxonomic issues within Trypanorhyncha, e.g., the inaccurate light microscopic visualisation of the hook patterns, are solvable by confocal laser scanning microscopy (CLSM). We applied CLSM imaging to study Trygonicola macropora (Shipley et Hornell, 1906) and Dollfusiella michiae (Southwell, 1929) from Neotrygon caeruliopunctata Last, White et Séret from Bali, Indonesia. To illustrate the strength and limitations of CLSM, images of Otobothrium cysticum (Mayer, 1842) and Symbothriorhynchus tigaminacantha Palm, 2004, both permanent mounts from a collection, were also processed. The CLSM created image stacks of many layers, and edited with IMARIS Software, these layers resulted in three-dimensional images of the armature patterns and internal organs of both species. BABB (benzylalcohol and benzylbenzuolate) clearing was applied to T. macropora. We conclude that trypanorhynch cestodes stained with Mayer-Schuberg's acetic carmine permanently mounted in Canada balsam are suitable for CLSM, allowing detailed analyses of museum type-material as well as freshly collected and processed worms. BABB resulted in imaging the testes in detail, suggesting other stains to be used for CLSM in trypanorhynch cestode research. Application of CLSM for studies of other cestode groups is highly recommended.
We analysed and compared the structure and parameters of the songflight calls of expansive Pipistrellus kuhlii and Pipistrellus lepidus, that recently colonized Central Europe from the south and east, respectively. Bat calls were recorded mainly in urban areas of Central Europe and the Balkans, including a narrow zone of these species' recent parapatric or sympatric occurrence (around the Carpathians and the eastern part of the Pannonian Basin). The newly described songflight calls of P. lepidus consist of more elements (median 6), are longer (mean 56.4 ms) and of a higher frequency of maximum energy (mean 25.7 kHz) than those of P. kuhlii (median 3, mean 41.0 ms and mean 14.0 kHz, respectively). This finding provides new evidence that P. lepidus represents a different species, in accordance with results from previous genetic and morphological studies. Reported differences in songflight calls permit the acoustic discrimination of P. kuhlii and P. lepidus, which is not possible based on overlapping parameters of their echolocation calls. Our findings enable distributional and ecological studies of these two species, based on acoustic methods, in the context of their rapid European expansion and the local co-occurrence.
The presence of the parasitic copepod Neoalbionella globosa in the olfactory chamber of a specimen of the catshark Scyliorhinus canicula has been already reported in the literature, but this is the first record from the north-western Mediterranean Sea. Besides confirming this host-parasite association in the Ligurian Sea, the present study aims to describe some effects of the copepod's presence on the olfactory system of S. canicula, thus inferring potential effects of nasal parasites on olfaction. The copepod was accidentally found during a sampling campaign. The copepod, a mature female with well-developed egg sacs, parasitized the right olfactory rosette; the rosette presented visible swelling in some of the olfactory lamellae while, histologically, restricted edema was detectable close to the zone of attachment. The ipsilateral olfactory bulb, which receives the primary olfactory afferences, had a smaller number of cells and smaller neuron density compared to the contralateral bulb and to the average values for non-parasitized specimens of the same size. The results suggest that, although the olfactory rosette does not seem severely damaged, the presence of the parasite could deeply affect the highly efficient water flow within the nasal chamber, potentially causing partial olfactory impairment.