Digestion of selected foods by Yunnan snub-nosed monkey Rhinopithecus bieti (Colobinae)

Three digestion trials were conducted to quantify aspects of digestive physiology in the Yunnan snub-nosed monkey Rhinopithecus bieti, a foregut fermenter that feeds primarily on lichens. Mean retention time (MRT, the average time plastic markers spent in

Abnormal regional homogeneity of drug-naive obsessive-compulsive patients

To explore the possible abnormal resting-state activity in patients with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), the regional homogeneity (ReHo) of 22 pairs of patients and well-matched healthy controls was calculated. Compared with controls, the patients showed higher ReHo in the left anterior cingulate cortex, but lower ReHo in the left inferior temporal gyrus. These findings supported the abnormal resting-state brain activity in drug-naive OCD patients. No significant correlations between ReHo value and four clinical characteristics were found, suggesting that abnormal ReHo might be trait-related in OCD. NeuroReport 21:786-790 (C) 2010 Wolters Kluwer Health vertical bar Lippincott Williams & Wilkins.

NATURAL FOODS AND THEIR ECOLOGICAL IMPLICATIONS FOR MACACA-THIBETANA AT MOUNT EMEI, CHINA

Natural food plants of partly provisioned groups of Macaca thibetana included about 196 species belonging to 135 genera and 72 families. The macaques consumed mainly bamboo shoots and fruits for about 2 months in autumn, whereas they relied on active or passive provisions from visitors, a variety of structural parts of plants and a small amount of invertebrates in late spring and summer and ate mainly mature leaves and bark for the rest of the year. About half of the species eaten came from the dense herb and shrub layers. This forest-dwelling species shows a distinctive feeding and foraging pattern in comparison with other macaques, explaining why M. thibetana has the largest body weight of all macaques.

PCBs and OCPs in human milk and selected foods from Luqiao and Pingqiao in Zhejiang, China

This study was conducted to measure the levels of 23 PCB congeners and 6 organochlorine pesticides (OCPs) in human milk and three food types collected from Luqiao and Pingqiao in Zhejiang Province, China. An effort was also made to explore the potential health risk for the mothers and breast-fed infants living in these two localities. Luqiao was selected as the sampling site because it is the largest place for the disassembly of obsolete transformers and electrical waste in China. Pingqiao, located 100 kin NW of Luqiao, is not known to be a place for any electronic or electrical waste and hence was chosen as the control site. Both localities are important agricultural places in the province. The organochlorines were measured in the samples using the GC-PECD technique. Micro-EROD bioassay method was also used as a complement of the chemical analysis to estimate the TEQ levels of dioxin-like PCBs in human milk. The data showed that the human milk, rice, hen egg, and fish samples from Luqiao were more heavily contaminated with PCBs than those from Pingqiao, suggesting that the mothers and their breast-fed infants in Luqiao tended to receive greater exposure to PCBs than those living in Pingqiao. The OCP levels in the two localities were found comparable, suggesting that the major source of contamination with these pesticides was from their agricultural uses. Significant correlation (R-2 = 0.87, P < 0.001) of PCB TEQs was found between the bioassay and chemical analysis method, suggesting that micro-EROD is an effective method for comprehensive determination of TEQ levels in human milk. Comparison with literature data showed that the PCB levels in milk samples from Luqiao were significantly higher than those from localities in other Chinese provinces and comparable to those in developed or industrialized countries. (c) 2007 Published by Elsevier B.V.

The effects of fresh and decomposed Microcystis aeruginosa on cladocerans from a subtropic Chinese Lake

We studied in the laboratory the population growth rates of four cladocerans fed both with decomposed Microcystis aeruginosa and with a mixture of fresh colonial M. aeruginosa and Scenedesmus obliquus. The neonates of Diqphanosoma brachyurum and Daphnia carinata were able to develop into adults when they were fed with <64mum decomposed M. aeruginosa, while those of Moina micrura could not use decomposed M. aeruginosa. The population growth rate of the largest species, D. carinata, was less affected by the presence of fresh colonial M. aeruginosa than the other three species. D. carinata obtained the highest growth rate at a biomass level of 10 mg L-1 fresh colonial M. aeruginosa, indicating that, to some extent, it can use colonial M. aeruginosa at a size range of 64-112mum. The population growth rate of M. micrura was negatively correlated with fresh colonial M. aeruginosa within a range of 10-100 mg L-1. The population growth rates of D. brachyurum and Ceriodaphnia cornuta were remarkably decreased by fresh colonial M. aeruginosa, although no significant difference was found within the M. aeruginosa biomass range of 10-100 mg L-1 for either cladoceran. At a biomass level of 50 mg L-1 M. aeruginosa, the population growth rates of the four cladocerans positively correlated with S. obliquus biomass within a range of 0.1-5.0 mg L-1. Our results indicate that the zooplankton community under bloom condition is shaped by the quantity of both M. aeruginosa and other edible algae.

CYCLIC PEPTIDE HEPATOTOXINS FROM FRESH-WATER CYANOBACTERIAL (BLUE-GREEN-ALGAE) WATERBLOOMS COLLECTED IN CENTRAL CHINA

Toxic cyanobacteria (blue-green algae) waterblooms have been found in several Chinese water bodies since studies began there in 1984. Waterbloom samples for this study contained Anabaena circinalis, Microcystis aeruginosa and Oscillatoria sp. Only those waterblooms dominated by Microcystis aeruginosa were toxic by the intraperitoneal (i.p.) mouse bioassay. Signs of poisoning were the same as with known hepatotoxic cyclic peptide microcystins. One toxic fraction was isolated from each Microcystis aeruginosa sample. Two hepatotoxic peptides were purified from each of the fractions by high-performance liquid chromatography and identified by amino acid analysis followed by low and high resolution fast-atom bombardment mass spectrometry (FAB-MS). LD50 i.p. mouse values for the two toxins were 245-mu-g/kg (Toxin A) and 53-mu-g/g (Toxin B). Toxin content in the cells was 0.03 to 3.95 mg/g (Toxin A) and 0.18 to 3.33 mg/kg (Toxin B). The amino acid composition of Toxin A was alanine [1], arginine [2], glutamic acid [1] and beta-methylaspartic acid [1]; for Toxin B it was the same, except one of the arginines was replaced with a leucine. Low- and high-resolution FAB-MS showed that the molecular weights were 1,037 m/z (Toxin A) and 994 m/z (Toxin B), with formulas of C49H76O12N13 (Toxin A) and C49H75O12N10 (Toxin B). It was concluded that Toxin A is microcystin-RR and Toxin B is microcystin-LR, both known cyclic heptapeptide hepatotoxins isolated from cyanobacteria in other parts of the world. Sodium borohydride reduction of microcystin-RR yielded dihydro-microcystin-RR (m/z = 1,039), an important intermediate in the preparation of tritium-labeled toxin for metabolism and fate studies.