Wild Edible Plants and Their Traditional Use in the Human Nutrition in Bosnia-Herzegovina

This article presents first systematical procedure results on traditional usage of wild, edible, vitaminous, and aromatic plants in the nutrition of human population in Bosnia and Herzegovina (W. Balkan peninsula; SE Europe). By method of an ethnobotanical interview, which comprised of over 250 persons, whose average age was 55, and by research on edible wild flora all around Bosnia and Herzegovina that extended over many years, detected were 308 plants belonging to 73 plant families that are being used in nutrition and diet of indigenous population. Edible wild plants are used as delicious vegetables, fruits, peer and spices, in either fresh, raw, or dried condition. Plants are being used for the making of cooked food (33%), fresh salads (19%), mush and bread (17%), or as fresh, wild fruits and drinks (13%) or as spices and ethno-pharmacological potions (10%). The majority of identified, wild edible plants may satisfy the daily human need for elementary nutrition material, particularly those of vitamins C and A, and for some minerals, according to the regulations of World Health Organization (WHO).     

The spectrum of opportunistic filamentous fungi present in the CBS culture collection

The mould collection of the Centraalbureau voor Schimmelcultures, Baarn, The Netherlands, was screened for isolates originating from warm-blooded animals. The range of species indicates that distribution of clinically relevant, pathogenic or opportunistic strains over the fungal kingdom is non-random. Some opportunistic fungi possess adaptations to life under hostile environmental conditions, enabling them to survive inside the human body. Presence of melanin or carotene seems to be an important virulence factor. Opportunistic fungi which sporulate in submersion are able to disseminate or cause severe local mycoses when the aspecific immune system of the host is impaired. Mycoses caused by a few dimorphic fungi, mostly in their natural ecological niche living in association with vertebrates, are promoted by specific immune deficiencies.     

Towards an integrated theoretical framework for understanding water insecurity and gender-based violence in Low-and middle-income countries (LMICs)

Disparities in access to basic needs and resources such as water is largely borne out of power imbalance across scale. In examining these power dynamics in the context of health inequalities, scholars have deployed Feminist political ecology analytical framework to situate gender and other forms of vulnerability as emerging from unequal power relations, and political ecology of health to emphasise the health implications of inherent relational power in the distribution of resources. Although appealing, the two theoretical frameworks over time have proven to be limiting in the study of intersectional vulnerabilities such as gender-based violence and water insecurity which reflect multiple dimensions of unequal power structures. This study expands the theoretical space for the study of inequalities in health geography by demonstrating the utility of incorporating feminist political ecology with political ecology of health to form an integrated theoretical framework – Feminist Political Ecology of Health (FPEH). This proposed theoretical framework gives guidance for engaging with a suite of questions and methods related to multifaceted problems such as water insecurity and gender based-violence. The paper highlights these theoretical issues and then discusses how FPEH can enrich research on water security and gender-based violence in Low-and middle-income countries (LMICs).     

相似系数法在川贝母群落分类中的应用研究

目的　探讨数值分类方法应用于川贝母分布群落类型的划分。方法　以群落相似系数百分率划分川贝母分布的群落类型。结论　应用相似系数法可将川贝母野生抚育的适宜群落划定为窄叶鲜卑花灌丛、理塘杜鹃灌丛、硬叶柳灌丛、金露梅 +绣线菊灌丛、香柏灌丛、珠芽蓼 +圆穗蓼草甸等 6种类型     

三种特殊饮用水对小鼠免疫系统的影响

目的　了解碱性离子水、矿溶生态水、活化水对机体免疫系统的影响。方法　根据《保健食品功能学评价程序和检验方法 1 996》 ,选用 1 2 0只 1 7 8～ 2 3 3g健康雄性Balb c小鼠 ,分为 4小组 ,每小组 30只 ,每天分别自由饮用纯净水 (对照组 )、碱性离子水、矿溶生态水、活化水 ,5 0天后进行小鼠脏器体重比值测定、迟发型变态反应实验、腹腔巨噬细胞吞噬鸡红细胞实验、半数溶血值 (HC50 )的测定和抗体生成细胞数的测定(Ⅰ组 )。另选用 1 2 0只 1 7 8～ 2 3 3g健康雄性Balb c小鼠 ,分组同前 ,5 0天后进行ConA诱导的小鼠淋巴细胞转化实验和NK细胞活性测定 (Ⅱ组 ) ,再选用 1 2 0只 1 6 7～ 2 2 0g健康雌性Balb c小鼠 ,分组同前 ,5 0天后进行小鼠碳廓清实验 (Ⅲ组 )。实验数据用stata软件 ,多个实验组和一个对照组间比较 ,进行方差分析。结果　 (1 )三种特殊饮用水与纯净水比较 ,对雌性Balb c小鼠体重增长的影响不显著 ,但饮用碱性离子水和活化水的雄性小鼠的体重增长值均明显低于纯净水 (P <0 0 1和P <0 0 5 ) ;(2 )活化水与纯净水组间比较 ,胸腺体重比值明显增加 (P <0 0 5 ) ;腹腔巨噬细胞鸡红细胞吞噬指数明显增加 (P <0 0 1 ) ;NK细胞活性明显增加(P <0 0 1 )。 (3)其他指标与相应的纯净水比较差?     

Wild great apes as sentinels and sources of infectious disease

Emerging zoonotic infectious diseases pose a serious threat to global health. This is especially true in relation to the great apes, whose close phylogenetic relationship with humans results in a high potential for microorganism exchange. In this review, we show how studies of the microorganisms of wild great apes can lead to the discovery of novel pathogens of importance for humans. We also illustrate how these primates, living in their natural habitats, can serve as sentinels for outbreaks of human disease in regions with a high likelihood of disease emergence. Greater sampling efforts and improvements in sample preservation and diagnostic capacity are rapidly improving our understanding of the diversity and distribution of microorganisms in wild great apes. Linking non-invasive diagnostic data with observational health data from great apes habituated to human presence is a promising approach for the discovery of pathogens of high relevance for humans.     

Microbial life at ?13 °C in the brine of an ice-sealed Antarctic lake

The permanent ice cover of Lake Vida (Antarctica) encapsulates an extreme cryogenic brine ecosystem (−13 °C; salinity, 200). This aphotic ecosystem is anoxic and consists of a slightly acidic (pH 6.2) sodium chloride-dominated brine. Expeditions in 2005 and 2010 were conducted to investigate the biogeochemistry of Lake Vida’s brine system. A phylogenetically diverse and metabolically active Bacteria dominated microbial assemblage was observed in the brine. These bacteria live under very high levels of reduced metals, ammonia, molecular hydrogen (H₂), and dissolved organic carbon, as well as high concentrations of oxidized species of nitrogen (i.e., supersaturated nitrous oxide and ∼1 mmol⋅L⁻¹ nitrate) and sulfur (as sulfate). The existence of this system, with active biota, and a suite of reduced as well as oxidized compounds, is unusual given the millennial scale of its isolation from external sources of energy. The geochemistry of the brine suggests that abiotic brine-rock reactions may occur in this system and that the rich sources of dissolved electron acceptors prevent sulfate reduction and methanogenesis from being energetically favorable. The discovery of this ecosystem and the in situ biotic and abiotic processes occurring at low temperature provides a tractable system to study habitability of isolated terrestrial cryoenvironments (e.g., permafrost cryopegs and subglacial ecosystems), and is a potential analog for habitats on other icy worlds where water-rock reactions may cooccur with saline deposits and subsurface oceans.     

The genome of an influenza virus from a pilot whale: Relation to influenza viruses of gulls and marine mammals

Influenza virus A/whale/Maine/328B/1984 (H13N2) was isolated from a diseased pilot whale. Since only a partial sequence was available, its complete genome was sequenced and compared to the sequences of subtype H13 influenza viruses from shorebirds and various influenza viruses of marine mammals. The data reveal a rare genotype constellation with all gene segments derived of an influenza virus adapted to gulls, terns and waders. In contrast, the phylogenetic trees indicate that the majority of influenza viruses isolated from marine mammals derived from influenza viruses adapted to geese and ducks. We conclude that A/whale/Maine/328B/1984 is the first record of an infection of a marine mammal from a gull-origin influenza virus.