Drinking and moral order: Drunken comportment revisited

MacAndrew and Edgerton's seminal Drunken Comportment revealed that normative expectations to drunken behaviour differ greatly across cultures. Such variation also exists within cultures, where different drinking contexts may be associated with great normative variation. However, why social regulation of drunken comportment varies has largely been left unexplored. To examine the basis of such differences, two Norwegian drinking contexts are compared: (i) the high school graduation celebration and (ii) the two introduction weeks at university. Data comprise 71 qualitative interviews and field notes from participant observation. The two practices take place within a time span of only four months and involve many of the same participants. Alcohol plays a key role in both contexts. However, while the first context allows for heavy intoxication, sexual explorations and violating norms that ordinarily regulate behaviour in public, the second context is associated with much more control. We argue that the basis of this difference may be found in the differing value priorities of these practices, with participants' behaviour being guided primarily by hedonism and social integration, respectively. When applied to drinking practices in general this conceptual apparatus might elucidate the basis of context-specific norms and intra-cultural variation in drunken comportment.     

β-Chemokines and neutralizing antibody titers correlate with sterilizing immunity generated in HIV-1 vaccinated macaques

One of the obstacles to AIDS vaccine development is the variability of HIV-1 within individuals and within infected populations, enabling viral escape from highly specific vaccine induced immune responses. An understanding of the different immune mechanisms capable of inhibiting HIV infection may be of benefit in the eventual design of vaccines effective against HIV-1 variants. To study this we first compared the immune responses induced in Rhesus monkeys by using two different immunization strategies based on the same vaccine strain of HIV-1. We then utilized a chimeric simian/HIV that expressed the envelope of a dual tropic HIV-1 escape variant isolated from a later time point from the same patient from which the vaccine strain was isolated. Upon challenge, one vaccine group was completely protected from infection, whereas all of the other vaccinees and controls became infected. Protected macaques developed highest titers of heterologous neutralizing antibodies, and consistently elevated HIV-1-specific T helper responses. Furthermore, only protected animals had markedly increased concentrations of RANTES, macrophage inflammatory proteins 1α and 1β produced by circulating CD8⁺ T cells. These results suggest that vaccine strategies that induce multiple effector mechanisms in concert with β-chemokines may be desired in the generation of protective immune responses by HIV-1 vaccines.     

The pancreatic islets in diabetes

Despite the fact that heterogeneity of diabetes in man has become more and more evident in recent years, its pancreatic pathology is still represented by two distinct entities, roughly corresponding to the classic juvenile-onset and maturity-onset types of the disease.In juvenile-onset, insulin-dependent diabetes, the pancreatic islets show severe and pathognomonic changes. B cells are greatly reduced in number already at clinical onset. Contrary to classic opinion they do not always disappear in the years to follow. Insulin's, a common finding in the pancreas of recent onset juvenile diabetic subjects, is compatible with a viral infection as well as with an autoimmune reaction as the cause of B cell destruction. In the pancreas of juvenile-onset diabetic subjects the islets, which in the past have been regarded as atrophic and inactive, are actually composed of cells containing glucagon and somatostatin. There is also a profound distortion of islet organization, and many endocrine cells are scattered as single cells in the exocrine tissue. These findings may well account for the abnormal secretory behavior of the glucagon-secreting A cells in insulin-dependent juvenile-onset diabetes.In maturity-onset, noninsulin-dependent diabetes, the pancreatic pathology is extremely variable and not pathognomonic. A numeric reduction of the B cells can be demonstrated in many maturity-onset diabetic subjects, but this reduction is much more moderate than in insulin-dependent juvenile-onset diabetic subjects and does not account for the disease. The same amount of B cell reduction can be found in many elderly subjects without clinical evidence of diabetes. In many maturity-onset diabetic subjects, the cytologic characteristics of the B cells suggest a decreased responsiveness to the stimulus of hyperglycemia. Islet fibrosis and hyalinosis (amyloidosis), although common, cannot explain this secretory dysfunction. The exact site of the defect in the B cells of maturity-onset diabetic subjects remains to be defined. Further investigations are necessary to assess the role of disturbed intraislet intercellular relationships in the pathogenesis of late-onset diabetes.The dual pattern of islet pathology in diabetes in man does not preclude a more profound heterogeneity in the etiology and pathogenesis of the disease.     

Ultrastructural characteristics of the vaginae of the basal monogenean Chimaericola leptogaster (Leuckart, 1830)

In the first study of the vaginal ultrastructure of any monogenean, the paired vaginae of Chimaericola leptogaster, a basal polyopisthocotylean from the gills of a holocephalan, are described. Each vagina opens laterally. A unique feature of this relict parasite is a short vagino-intestinal connecting duct, the lining of which is separated by septate junctions from the linings of the vagina and the intestine. After giving rise to this vagino-intestinal duct, each vagina travels in a posterior direction and opens into the vitelline collecting duct. The lining of each vagina close to the vaginal pore resembles the body tegument, the syncytial lining of which measures about 2.5 μm in thickness and has a dense surface layer 0.2 μm in thickness and different apical projections. Proximal to this and before the entrance to the vaginal-intestinal duct, the vaginal lining is characterised by: uniformly distributed electron-dense, lanceolate, spine-like surface structures of about 1.7 μm in length; three kinds of surrounding glands with three kinds of secretory granules (abundant oval or rounded electron-dense granules 0.7–2.5 μm in length, much less numerous spheroidal, vesicular granules 0.3–0.4 μm in diameter, and tightly packed, spheroidal granules 0.8 μm in diameter and containing fine particulate material of low density); and four kinds of sensory receptors (three uniciliate and one aciliate). These features are absent from the rest of the vagina. The likely roles of the vagino-intestinal connection, the different gland cells, sensory structures, and the armament of the distal vaginal regions are discussed. Considering the suggested polyopisthocotylean ancestor for the Neodermata, the relict parasite fauna of holocephalans and the unique vagino-intestinal connection in C. leptogaster, which is also known in turbellarians, an ancient origin for chimaericolids is supported.     

Labeling of pancreatic glycogen by d-[U-14C]glucose in hyperglycemic rats

Under conditions of sustained hyperglycemia, glycogen accumulates in pancreatic islets, but not so in acinar pancreatic cells. We investigated whether advantage could be taken of such a situation in the perspective of the noninvasive imaging of the endocrine pancreas. Control rats or animals injected with streptozotocin (STZ) were infused with solutions of d-glucose mixed with a tracer amount of d-[U-¹⁴C]glucose, and the radio-active glycogen content of both liver and pancreas was then measured. After 48 h of infusion, the radio-active glycogen content of the pancreas was 30 times lower in STZ rats than in control animals, coinciding with a 50 times lower insulin content. In the control rats, a sizable labeling of pancreatic glycogen was also recorded when d-[U-¹⁴C]glucose was infused for only the last 4 h of unlabeled d-glucose infusion; such a labeling was not decreased when the animals were further infused for 1 h with only the unlabeled hexose. Moreover, a pronounced difference in the pancreatic gland and blood radioactive content of control rats was still observed when the hyperglycemic animals were killed only 40 min after the iv injection of d-[U-¹⁴C]glucose. In STZ rats transplanted with islets and later infused with d-[U-¹⁴C]glucose, the total radioactive content and radioactive glycogen content were both much higher in the transplanted islets than in the pancreatic gland. These results allow one to define the conditions under which the administration of either 2-deoxy-2-[¹⁸F]fluoro-d-glucose or ¹¹C-labeled d-glucose could conceivably be used to favor the selective labeling of the endocrine, as distinct from exocrine, pancreas.     

Unilateral Plantar Flexors Static-Stretching Effects on Ipsilateral and Contralateral Jump Measures

The aim of this study was to evaluate the acute effects of unilateral ankle plantar flexors static-stretching (SS) on the passive range of movement (ROM) of the stretched limb, surface electromyography (sEMG) and single-leg bounce drop jump (SBDJ) performance measures of the ipsilateral stretched and contralateral non-stretched lower limbs. Seventeen young men (24 ± 5 years) performed SBDJ before and after (stretched limb: immediately post-stretch, 10 and 20 minutes and non-stretched limb: immediately post-stretch) unilateral ankle plantar flexor SS (6 sets of 45s/15s, 70-90% point of discomfort). SBDJ performance measures included jump height, impulse, time to reach peak force, contact time as well as the sEMG integral (IEMG) and pre-activation (IEMG_{pre-activation}) of the gastrocnemius lateralis. Ankle dorsiflexion passive ROM increased in the stretched limb after the SS (pre-test: 21 ± 4° and post-test: 26.5 ± 5°, p < 0.001). Post-stretching decreases were observed with peak force (p = 0.029), IEMG (P<0.001), and IEMG_{pre-activation} (p = 0.015) in the stretched limb; as well as impulse (p = 0.03), and jump height (p = 0.032) in the non-stretched limb. In conclusion, SS effectively increased passive ankle ROM of the stretched limb, and transiently (less than 10 minutes) decreased muscle peak force and pre-activation. The decrease of jump height and impulse for the non-stretched limb suggests a SS-induced central nervous system inhibitory effect.

Key points

• When considering whether or not to SS prior to athletic activities, one must consider the potential positive effects of increased ankle dorsiflexion motion with the potential deleterious effects of power and muscle activity during a simple jumping task or as part of the rehabilitation process.
• Since decreased jump performance measures can persist for 10 minutes in the stretched leg, the timing of SS prior to performance must be taken into consideration.
• Athletes, fitness enthusiasts and therapists should also keep in mind that SS one limb has generalized effects upon contralateral limbs as well.

Key words: Athletic training, exercise performance, exercise training, crossover, cross-education