门诊下腰疼437例的病因分析

通过对４３７例门诊下腰疼患者的病因分析，发现中老年患者是主要就诊对象，女性患者多于男性，慢性腰疼患者居多。腰部外伤和退行性变是腰疼的主要病因。各种病因与腰部组织的结构、患者年龄、性别、工作性质、环境、气候等有密切关系。引起腰疼的病因或单一存在，或重叠并存；有直接原因，也有继发因素；有新鲜损伤，也有陈旧病灶，存在诊断的复杂性。因此，详细询问病史，认真查体是了解发病原因的主要手段。     

Comparing vibrissal morphology and infraorbital foramen area in pinnipeds

Pinniped vibrissae are well-adapted to sensing in an aquatic environment, by being morphologically diverse and more sensitive than those of terrestrial species. However, it is both challenging and time-consuming to measure vibrissal sensitivity in many species. In terrestrial species, the infraorbital foramen (IOF) area is associated with vibrissal sensitivity and increases with vibrissal number. While pinnipeds are thought to have large IOF areas, this has not yet been systematically measured before. We investigated vibrissal morphology, IOF area, and skull size in 16 species of pinniped and 12 terrestrial Carnivora species. Pinnipeds had significantly larger skulls and IOF areas, longer vibrissae, and fewer vibrissae than the other Carnivora species. IOF area and vibrissal number were correlated in Pinnipeds, just as they are in terrestrial mammals. However, despite pinnipeds having significantly fewer vibrissae than other Carnivora species, their IOF area was not smaller, which might be due to pinnipeds having vibrissae that are innervated more. We propose that investigating normalized IOF area per vibrissa will offer an alternative way to approximate gross individual vibrissal sensitivity in pinnipeds and other mammalian species. Our data show that many species of pinniped, and some species of felids, are likely to have strongly innervated individual vibrissae, since they have high values of normalized IOF area per vibrissa. We suggest that species that hunt moving prey items in the dark will have more sensitive and specialized vibrissae, especially as they have to integrate between individual vibrissal signals to calculate the direction of moving prey during hunting.     

Norovirus in captive lion cub (Panthera leo)

African lions (Panthera leo) are susceptible to viral diseases of domestic carnivores, including feline calici-virus infection. We report the identification of a novel enteric calicivirus, genetically related to human noroviruses of genogroup IV, in a lion cub that died of severe hemorrhagic enteritis.     

From the Cover: Lion (Panthera leo) populations are declining rapidly across Africa,except in intensively managed areas

We compiled all credible repeated lion surveys and present time series data for 47 lion (Panthera leo) populations. We used a Bayesian state space model to estimate growth rate-λ for each population and summed these into three regional sets to provide conservation-relevant estimates of trends since 1990. We found a striking geographical pattern: African lion populations are declining everywhere, except in four southern countries (Botswana, Namibia, South Africa, and Zimbabwe). Population models indicate a 67% chance that lions in West and Central Africa decline by one-half, while estimating a 37% chance that lions in East Africa also decline by one-half over two decades. We recommend separate regional assessments of the lion in the World Conservation Union (IUCN) Red List of Threatened Species: already recognized as critically endangered in West Africa, our analysis supports listing as regionally endangered in Central and East Africa and least concern in southern Africa. Almost all lion populations that historically exceeded ∼500 individuals are declining, but lion conservation is successful in southern Africa, in part because of the proliferation of reintroduced lions in small, fenced, intensively managed, and funded reserves. If management budgets for wild lands cannot keep pace with mounting levels of threat, the species may rely increasingly on these southern African areas and may no longer be a flagship species of the once vast natural ecosystems across the rest of the continent.Large carnivores are generally declining worldwide (1), but trends vary according to geography (2) and the severity of threats posed to humans (3). The African lion (Panthera leo) exemplifies the challenges of carnivore conservation: widespread habitat loss (4), extensive prey base depletion (5–7), indiscriminate retaliatory or preemptive killing to protect humans and their livestock (8–10), poorly regulated sport hunting (11–18), and demand for traditional African and Chinese medicines (19). Although lions are relatively well-studied compared with most large felids, regional-scale population estimates remain scant across much of its range (20), and population surveys are generally repeated at irregular intervals because of the inherent difficulty of counting lions (21, 22) and shortage of funds for systematic surveys. No reliable data are available for Angola, Central African Republic, Somalia, South Sudan, and Ethiopia. Furthermore, systematic surveys are absent from large areas of potential lion habitat in countries with a rich tradition of wildlife research, such as Zambia and Tanzania.With widespread declines in many reserves (23) and rapid deterioration of the lion’s status in a substantial portion of the species’ range (24), there is growing concern that lion numbers may be declining rapidly, leading to the lion’s consideration for listing as threatened or endangered on the US Endangered Species Act. The lion is currently listed as vulnerable on the World Conservation Union (IUCN) Red List and would be considered endangered if numbers were to decline by at least 50% over three lion generations (LGs) (25). Here, we use a comprehensive dataset of repeated counts to assess lion status, calculate growth rate per population, and estimate broader trends per geographic region. We show that lion populations are rapidly disappearing from large parts of Africa, signaling a major trophic downgrading of savannah ecosystems.     

Changes in mucosal and serum immunoglobulin levels of California sea lions during early development

To date, most studies on pinniped immunoglobulins have focused on circulating antibodies. However, systemic and local immune activities differ in terms of maturation, intensity, and types of effectors that participate. Here, we examined levels of three immunoglobulin isotypes, IgG, IgM and IgA, in the blood and mucosal membranes of free-living California sea lion pups. We investigated whether age, body condition and sex influenced their concentration. Isotype levels varied among tissues, with age-related patterns that could be indicative of differential regulation along development. Serum IgG and IgA increased linearly with age, reaching adult levels at five months of age, while IgM remained unchanged. Mucosal isotypes tended to be low in newborns and remained so until five months of age. Regardless of age, pups with better condition tended to have higher anal IgG levels and higher genital IgA levels, suggesting that their synthesis and transport to the mucosal membranes is costly. Intersex differences were only observed in the genital mucosa, where all isotypes differed between male and female pups, regardless of age, presumably due to histological and anatomical differences.     

Development of a Gene Expression Assay for the Diagnosis of Mycobacterium bovis Infection in African Lions (Panthera leo)

Mycobacterium bovis infection, the cause of bovine tuberculosis (BTB), is endemic in wildlife in the Kruger National Park (KNP), South Africa. In lions, a high infection prevalence and BTB mortalities have been documented in the KNP; however, the ecological consequences of this disease are currently unknown. Sensitive assays for the detection of this infection in this species are therefore required. Blood from M. bovis‐exposed, M. bovis‐unexposed, M. tuberculosis‐exposed and M. bovis‐infected lions was incubated in QuantiFERON^®‐TB Gold (QFT) tubes containing either saline or ESAT‐6/CFP‐10 peptides. Using qPCR, selected reference genes were evaluated for expression stability in these samples and selected target genes were evaluated as markers of antigen‐dependent immune activation. The abundance of monokine induced by gamma interferon (MIG/CXCL9) mRNA, measured in relation to that of YWHAZ, was used as a marker of ESAT‐6/CFP‐10 sensitization. The gene expression assay results were compared between lion groups, and lenient and stringent diagnostic cut‐off values were calculated. This CXCL9 gene expression assay combines a highly specific stimulation platform with a sensitive diagnostic marker that allows for discrimination between M. bovis‐infected and M. bovis‐uninfected lions.     

超薄层等电聚焦技术检测 β—内酰胺酶

本文采用国产试剂,建立超薄层(0.2mm)聚丙烯酰胺等电聚焦电泳技术分析β-内酰胺酶,可在相同条件下同时比较分析多个样品,具有操作简便,分辩率高等优点,且电泳时间短,样品用量少。此技术适用于临床和实验室科研,在改变个别条件下也适用于其它生物样本的分离和分析,值得在生物研究领域推广应用     

Two isoindoline alkaloids from the crude drug, the ant lion (the larvae of Myrmeleontidae species)

Two compounds having an isoindoline skeleton were isolated from the ant lion (the larvae of Myrmeleontidae species). They were characterized as 4-hydroxyisoindolin-1-one and 2-(2-hydroxyethyl)-4-hydroxyisoindolin-1-one on the basis of spectroscopic data.