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Inflammation and genetics may play a role in the pathogenesis of febrile seizures. The aim of this study was to investigate the spontaneous and lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-induced production of IL-1β and IL-10, and the association between IL-1β (-511) and IL-10 (-1082) single nucleotide polymorphisms with LPS-induced cytokine production. The study included 92 febrile seizure patients and 132 healthy controls. First, we isolated genomic DNA and by using PCR-RFLP we genotyped the individuals for the cytokines gene polymorphism. Second, peripheral mononuclear cells of the individuals were isolated and stimulated with LPS to measure secretion capacity of IL-1β and IL-10 using specific ELISA kits. We found that both the IL-1β and IL-10 production was increased in febrile seizures. The rapid increase of IL-1β production in the supernatants of the LPS-induced cells was significantly higher at the fourth and the twenty-fourth hours in febrile and complex febrile seizures, respectively. The distribution of IL-10 (-1082) G allele differs significantly between cases and controls. The IL-1β (-511) G/A and the IL-10 (-1082) G/A genotype combination was found to be higher in patients with febrile seizure. Our results showed that IL-1β and IL-10 production was not influenced by the single nucleotide polymorphisms in the pathogenesis of febrile seizures.

Several countries in the Balkan region participated in the European surveys of atmospheric metal deposition in 2000 and 2005 based on sampling and analysis of naturally growing moss. The present paper summarises results from moss samples collected in Bulgaria, Croatia, Macedonia, Serbia, and Turkey (Thrace), in most cases Hypnum cupressiforme. About 40 elements were determined in the moss samples, mainly by neutron activation analysis in Dubna, and the results were subjected to principal component factor analysis. The factors were used to separate contributions from different source categories and associating individual elements to each of these categories. Factor scores of individual samples were useful in identification of discrete sources. Dominant emission sources were located in Burgas and Plovdiv (Bulgaria), Sisak and Zagreb (Croatia), Veles (Macedonia), Bor (Serbia), and Istanbul (Turkey). The metals V, Cr, Ni, Cu, Zn, As, Cd, Sb, and Pb were most typically associated with emissions of air pollutants. Median values for each of these elements in each of the territories studied served to compare the general air pollution levels among the Balkan countries and with countries in other parts of Europe participating in the moss surveys. In general the present countries were substantially more polluted than most countries in western and northern Europe. Croatia appeared to be generally less polluted than the other countries studied. In some cases transboundary pollution among the present countries or from neighbouring countries was indicated.

The International Cooperative Programme on Effects of Air Pollution on Natural Vegetation and Crops (ICP Vegetation) was established in the late 1980s, initially with the aim of assessing the impacts of air pollutants on crops, but in recent years impacts on (semi-) natural vegetation have also been considered. The ICP Vegetation is led by the UK and has its Programme Coordination Centre at the Centre for Ecology and Hydrology (CEH) in Bangor. It is one of seven ICPs and Task Forces that report to the Working Group on Effects (WGE) of the Convention on Long-range Transboundary Air Pollution (LRTAP Convention) on the effects of atmospheric pollutants on different components of the environment (e.g. forests, fresh waters, materials) and health in Europe and North-America. Today, the ICP Vegetation comprises an enthusiastic group of over 200 scientists from 35 countries in the UNECE region. An overview of contributions to the WGE work-plan and other research activities in the year 2008/9 is provided in this report.

PubMedID: 20136056 The effects of 0.001, 0.01, 0.1 and 0.5 ppm concentrations of malathion, an organophosphorus insecticide, viewed over the course of the experiment, on adult emergence and sex ratios of emerging adults of the parasitic wasp, Pimpla turionellae L. (Hymenoptera: Ichneumonidae) were investigated. Diets which contain 0.001 and 0.01 ppm malathion significantly increased the total adult emergence on day 13, 28 and 31 when compared to control diet. Although 0.01 and 0.1 ppm malathion increased the female emergence, higher concentration of malathion (0.5 ppm) significantly decreased the female emergence. Adult female emergence significantly decreased on day 10, 16 and 25 in the group which was fed with the meridic diet containing 0.5 ppm malathion. This study indicated that orally administrated high concentration of malathion (0.5 ppm) significantly decreased female emergence of P. turionellae. © Triveni Enterprises.

In this study, we determined the effects of a meridic diet on adult emergence, glycogen and protein level of the endoparasitoid Pimpla turionellae, and investigated female lifetime, adult emergence rate, egg numbers and hatching for five generations. The meridic and control diets were fed to P. turionellae for 28 days. The meridic diet was associated with a significant increase in the total adult emergence, which reached 93.33% on day 16; 100% females were produced from eggs laid on day 25. The meridic diet significantly decreased glycogen level in P. turionellae on days 13 and 16, while it significantly increased the protein level on days 13, 16 and 19 in comparison to the control natural diet. The meridic diet did not negatively affect total adult emergence, lifetime and egg numbers over the first and second generations when compared to the control. However, female lifetime and egg numbers were significantly decreased in F3, F4 and F5 generations. This manuscript is the first to report rearing the adult stages of P. turionellae on meridic diets for five generations. It shows that a chemically-defined meridic diet may be beneficial in improving the biological and biochemical fitness of the first couple of generations of these parasitoids reared for use in biological control programs.

The heavy metals in mosses biomonitoring network was originally established as a Swedish initiative (Rühling and Skärby, 1979). The idea of using mosses to measure atmospheric heavy metal deposition is based on the fact that carpet forming, ectohydric mosses obtain most trace elements and nutrients directly from precipitation and dry deposition ; there is little uptake of metals from the substrate (Tyler, 1970). The technique of moss analysis provides a surrogate, time-integrated measure of metal deposition from the atmosphere to terrestrial systems. It is easier and cheaper than conventional precipitation analysis as it avoids the need for deploying large numbers of precipitation collectors with an associated long-term programme of routine sample collection and analysis. Therefore, a much higher sampling density can be achieved than with conventional precipitation analysis. Heavy metals deposited from the atmosphere tend to be retained by the mosses, thereby making sampling and chemical analysis more robust and less prone to contamination. Heavy metal data from precipitation analysis can be very uncertain if the detection limit of the applied analytical techniques is high (Ilyin et al., 2006). Despite improvement of the analytical techniques, the latter remains a problem due to the general decline in anthropogenic emissions and subsequent deposition of heavy metals in recent decades. Although the heavy metal concentration in mosses provides no direct quantitative measurement of deposition, this information can be derived by using regression approaches relating moss and precipitation monitoring data (e.g. Berg and Steinnes, 1997 ; Berg et al., 2003). A more detailed review of the moss technique and its applications has been provided by Onianwa (2001), Tyler (1990) and Zechmeister et al. (2003). During 2001, responsibility for the coordination of the European moss survey was handed over from the Nordic Working Group on Monitoring and Data, Nordic Council of Ministers, to the UNECE ICP Vegetation Programme Coordination Centre at the Centre for Ecology and Hydrology (CEH) Bangor, UK. The ICP Vegetation was established in the late 1980s to consider the science of the effects of air pollution on vegetation. It is one of seven ICPs/Task Forces that report to the Working Group on Effects (WGE) of the Convention on Long-range Transboundary Air Pollution (LRTAP). The WGE monitors and reviews the effects of atmospheric pollutants on different components of the environment (e.g. forests, fresh waters, vegetation, buildings) and human health (Working Group on Effects, 2004).

The International Cooperative Programme on Effects of Air Pollution on Natural Vegetation and Crops (ICP Vegetation) was established in the late 1980s, initially with the aim of assessing the impacts of air pollutants on crops, but in later years impacts on (semi-)natural vegetation have also been considered. The ICP Vegetation is led by the UK and has its Programme Coordination Centre at the Centre for Ecology and Hydrology Bangor (CEH Bangor). It is one of seven ICPs and Task Forces that report to the Working Group on Effects (WGE) of the Convention on Long-range Transboundary Air Pollution (LRTAP Convention) on the effects of atmospheric pollutants on different components of the environment (e.g. forests, fresh waters, materials) and health in Europe and North-America. Today, the ICP Vegetation comprises an enthusiastic group of over 200 scientists from 34 countries. An overview of contributions to the WGE work-plan and other research activities in the year 2007/8 is provided in this report.

The number of old oaks has decreased during the last century and the saproxylic insects associated with the oak are one of the most endangered organism group all over Europe and Turkey. The beetle fauna on old hollow oaks was studied in Sweden and Turkey with window- and pit-fall traps. The most species rich families in the study were Anobidae and Tenebrionidae. The number of saproxylic beetle species was higher at the Turkish sites in comparison with the Swedish. This was most obvious for the families Elateridae, Cleridae, Anobiidae and Tenebrionidae. The overlap among the saproxylic beetle species at the sites in Turkey and Sweden was small. Only 14 (8%) of the 166 species found were shared between the sites in the two countries, most of them being Tenebrionidae. Many of the found beetle species are very rare and can be found on national redlists in many European countries. One good example is the Violet click beetle (Limoniscus violaceus) found at one of the Turkish sites. It is a very rare beetle all over its European range and is listed in Annexe II of the EC Habitat Directive. Three species from the family Staphylinidae were new to science and have been described as Hesperus gozukarai, H. turcicus and H. auricomus.

7th International Symposium on Osteoporosis -- APR 18-22, 2007 -- Washington, DC WOS: 000245980600556 … Natl Osteoporosis Fdn

7th International Symposium on Osteoporosis -- APR 18-22, 2007 -- Washington, DC WOS: 000245980600552 … Natl Osteoporosis Fdn

7th International Symposium on Osteoporosis -- APR 18-22, 2007 -- Washington, DC WOS: 000245980600553 … Natl Osteoporosis Fdn

We report here the effects of vitamin E concentrations (0.0010%, 0.0015% and 0.0020%) in artificial diets on adult emergence and sex ratios of emerging adults of the parasitic wasp, Pimpla turionellae L. (Hymenoptera: Ichneumonidae). We found that average adult emergence was not affected by the absence or presence of vitamin E at the concentrations tested in the diet. However, the sex ratio differed significantly from a 1:1 ratio, favoring females, at 0.0010% and 0.0015%. A maximum of 65.63% females occurred at the 0.0015% level. When emergence and sex ratio data were viewed on a periodic basis between 10 and 34 d of age of the parasitizing parental females, considerable variation occurred but did not obscure the overall results. The dramatic decrease in the percentage of females emerging in the control and 0.0020% groups beginning on day 19 explains why the overall sex ratio in these two groups did not differ from 1:1. The only additional trend was an apparent decrease in adult emergence toward the end of the experimental period at the 0.0020% level. © 2005 Entomological Society of America.

WOS: 000229458600013 The effects of Malathion, an organophosphate insecticide, on the egg production and hatchability of the adult females of Pimpla turionellae L (Hymenoptera: Ichneumonidae) reared on pupae of the wax moth Galleria mellonella L were investigated. The hatchability ratio of eggs, which are left in the host during the life cycle of P. turionellae, have became less at all concentrations (1.000, 0.100, 0.010 and 0.001 ppm). It is remarkable that the highest reduction in egg production appeared between days 25 and 40 with an average of 43% at a concentration of 0.100 ppm. A concentration of 0.010 ppm increased the egg production with an average of 14% between days 10 and 40.

An 8 1/2-month-old girl with biliary atresia and polysplenia syndrome having multiple vascular anomalies without cardiac anomalies is reported. Interruption of the inferior vena cava with azygous continuation, which is a common anomaly, was seen in conjunction with origin of the common hepatic artery from the superior mesenteric artery and with a circumaortic renal vein. The case has particular importance in that no hepatic artery or renal vein variations have been described with biliary atresia and polysplenia syndrome in the literature thus far to our knowledge. The anomalies were shown using different radiological examinations including computed tomography, echocardiography, angiography, venography and magnetic resonance imaging.

Since its recognition in 1981 and virus definition in 1983, AIDS is a fatal disease that spreading rapidly in the world and also in Turkey. This study aimed to determine the knowledge level and professional attitude of coiffeurs who are at risk because of their profession about HIV/AIDS. Questionnaire form about HIV/AIDS was applied to 271 woman and man coiffeurs in Samsun on March, 4-8, 1996 and according to the true answers in 23 questions, notes were calculated for each coiffeur. 47.3% of coiffeurs were literate and graduated primary school and 52.7% of them took place in more higher education. The mean working period in profession was found as 12.43 ± 0.63 years. 52.3% of them were aware that there was no effective treatment in AIDS and 43.8% were aware of the knowledge that there was no vaccine for prevention of AIDS. The proportion of having true answers in questions about AIDS was 70.1% and 29.9% of them had false or incomplete knowledge. It was determined that 4.7% of coiffeurs were using sterilizer, 47.8% were placing equipment in colonge-zefiran or chlorine solution, 17.1% were making boiling, 14.8% were using hot water and 8.2% were making nothing to disinfect equipment. Results in the study demonstrate that common and continuous health education to the groups especially at risk for HIV/AIDS will be convenient.