青海黄芪属新分类群

青海黄芪属新分类群:贵南黄芪Astragalus guinanicus ; 都兰黄芪Ast ragalusclulanensis ;白花松潘黄芪Astragalus polyclandous ;大花多枝黄芪Ast ragaluspolyclaclus ;长苞东俄洛黄芪Ast ragalus tongolensis ; 少毛格尔木黄芪Astragalus goluensis ;多毛多花黄芪Astragalus floridus ;白花丛生黄芪Astragalus confertus

喀斯特山区先锋植物叶片解剖特征及其生态适应性评价——以贵州花江峡谷区为例

通过研究贵州西南部典型喀斯特植被退化区花江峡谷植被现状，选取具一定经济价值和推广价值的先锋植物，采用生物显微制片技术与数理统计方法相结合，报导了6科10种分属不同生活型的植物叶片的解剖结构特征，并进行了比较和解剖因子分析。结果表明研究区喀斯特先锋植物叶片在不同种类之间具有明显差异，这些差异除受遗传因子控制外，环境因子(主要为光照和水分)也有重要作用；生活型不同对先锋植物叶片特征有一定影响，但未表现出规律性。根据叶片适应特征的差异，10种先锋植物可分为3种类型，即旱生或阳生叶类型的构树(Broussonetia papyrifera)、火棘(pyracantha fortuneana)、刺槐(Robinia pseudoacacia)、白三叶(Trifolium repens)；偏中生叶类型(香椿的Toona sirensis)、顶坛花椒(Zanthaxylum pinum var．dingtanensis)、黔滇木蓝(In-digofera esquirolii)、忍冬(Lomicera japonica)、紫云英(Astragalus sinicus)；偏阴生叶类型的繁缕(Stellaria media)。

湖北恩施地区发现超富集硒植物

重金属元素超富集植物（Hyperaeeumulator）是生物修复生态环境污染的最佳选择材料，在矿山土地复垦，污染土壤和水体修复方面发挥了越来越重要的作用。国内外对超富集植物的调查筛选和研究颇为重视，是当前研究的热点。硒超富集植物，不仅可用于修复生态环境污染，而且可用于提取有效的抗癌药物和开发富硒保健产品，具有重要的研究利用价值。国外早已富硒地区发现了包括豆科黄芪属（Astragalus spp），十字花科鸡冠花属（stanleya spp）、假含羞草属（Neptunia spp）等几十种超富集硒植物。

New method for analysis of Chinese herbal complex prescription and its application

Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) is a great treasure of China, the analysis of which is an arduous task. The viewpoint that all chemical constituents of Chinese herbal complex prescription should be analyzed as a black box is elucidated for the first time. Intelligent multi-mode multi-column chromatographic system (IMMCC) with its hybrids is the basic method and HPLC Unified Method is the breakthrough for the black box analysis. Dang-Gui-Bu-Xue-Tang was selected as a typical TCM and a systematic separation method from non-aqueous mobile phase to pure water mobile phase was put forward in order to convert unknown sample to known sample. The a, c values and UV spectra of 66 components of Astragalus, 78 components of Angelica and 71 components of Dang-Gui-Bu-Xue-Tang were obtained. Intelligent optimization and peak identification method and software for complex samples were developed and the optimum multi-step multi-binary gradient curve of mobile phase for Astragalus was ascertained. The maximum error and minimum error of predicted retention time for all components of Astragalus are 8.62% and 0.05% respectively. All components of Astragalus were compared with those of Angelica and it is found that many components of Astragalus are the same as those of Angelica, while the contents of these components are different. Many components of Dang-Gui-Bu-Xue-Tang are also the same as those of Astragalus and Angelica with different contents.

Intoxicação por Sida carpinifolia (Malvaceae) em caprinos

Descrevem-se os achados clínicos e patológicos da intoxicação espontânea e experimental por Sida carpinifolia em caprinos. Os achados da intoxicação espontânea serão apresentados em dois artigos. Um deles relata pela primeira vez uma doença investigada em de 1997 no município de Lajeado, RS. O outro artigo descreve os aspectos clínicos e patológicos da intoxicação espontânea em dois surtos adicionais, ocorridos no ano de 2001 no município de Glorinha e em Porto Alegre, RS. Nesses trabalhos caracterizou-se através de exames clínicos, patológicos e ultra-estruturais uma doença de depósito lisossomal. Por análise do padrão de coloração com histoquímica de lectinas, em cortes histológicos do cerebelo, pâncreas e fígado, observou-se afinidade de marcação especificamente com Concanavalia ensiformis, Triticum vulgaris e T. vulgaris-succinilado, similar ao de alfa-manosidose hereditária ou adquirida por ingestão de plantas do gênero Swainsona, Oxytropis, Astragalus e Ipomoea. A caracterização do princípio tóxico da planta, associada com as lesões que induzem o quadro clínico, foi apresentada em forma de um artigo. A metodologia e resultados do estudo experimental da intoxicação por Sida carpinifolia serão aqui descritos. Para caracterizar o quadro clínico e patológico, foi administrada a 14 caprinos, divididos 7 grupos de dois indivíduos cada, Sida carpinifolia, secada a sombra e triturada por períodos de 15, 20, 40, 60, 90 e 120 dias. O consumo diário variou de 14 a 21g/kg nos diferentes grupos durante o experimento. Para outros 3 caprinos efetuou-se a administração forçada da planta seca por via oral, de 10 a 12,5 g/kg, durante 30 dias. O quadro clínico até os 30 dias de consumo da planta consistia principalmente de letargia, alteração intermitente da consistência das fezes e diminuição no ganho de peso. Por volta de 40 dias de consumo, os caprinos demonstravam também incoordenação motora aos estímulos e após os 60 dias de consumo ocorria incoordenação motora espontânea, com tremores musculares de cabeça e pescoço principalmente. As principais alterações histológicas e ultra-estruturais foram vacuolização e tumefação citoplasmática em neurônios, células da tireóide e pâncreas observadas com intensidade leve após 15 dias de consumo e acentuada após os 90 dias de consumo de Sida carpinifolia.

The Use of Ultrasonography to Study Teratogenicity in Ruminants: Evaluation of Ipomoea carnea in Goats

Background: Ipomoea carnea (I. carnea) is a poisonous plant found in Brazil and other tropical countries that often poison livestock. The plant contains the alkaloids calystegines and mainly swainsonine, which inhibit cellular enzymes and cause systematic cell death. The objective of this study was to evaluate the perinatal effects of I. carnea in goats. Methods: Forty-seven pregnant goats were randomly allocated into 5 treatment groups and given the following doses (g/kg BW) of I. carnea: 0 (IC0), 1.0 (IC1), 3.0 (IC3), 5.0 (IC5) and 7.5 (IC7). The treatment animals were given fresh I. carnea from day 27 of gestation to parturition. Weight gains and serum biochemistry were evaluated. Fetuses were evaluated using ultrasonographic measurements. Results: Goats from the IC7 group showed clinical signs of poisoning. Ultrasound examination revealed that I. carnea feeding in all treatment groups reduced fetal movement compared to the controls. There was an increase in the total number of birth defects (retrognathia and arthrogyposis) in the IC7 and IC5 groups compared to the controls. Conclusion: The results show that I. carnea has teratogenic potential in goats. In addition, ultrasounds were useful in evaluating fetotoxicity and teratogenicity. Birth Defects Res (Part B) 00:17, 2012. (c) 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Technical innovations for the diagnosis and the rehabilitation of motor and perceptive impairments of the child with Cerebral Palsy

The treatment of the Cerebral Palsy (CP) is considered as the “core problem” for the whole field of the pediatric rehabilitation. The reason why this pathology has such a primary role, can be ascribed to two main aspects. First of all CP is the form of disability most frequent in childhood (one new case per 500 birth alive, (1)), secondarily the functional recovery of the “spastic” child is, historically, the clinical field in which the majority of the therapeutic methods and techniques (physiotherapy, orthotic, pharmacologic, orthopedic-surgical, neurosurgical) were first applied and tested. The currently accepted definition of CP – Group of disorders of the development of movement and posture causing activity limitation (2) – is the result of a recent update by the World Health Organization to the language of the International Classification of Functioning Disability and Health, from the original proposal of Ingram – A persistent but not unchangeable disorder of posture and movement – dated 1955 (3). This definition considers CP as a permanent ailment, i.e. a “fixed” condition, that however can be modified both functionally and structurally by means of child spontaneous evolution and treatments carried out during childhood. The lesion that causes the palsy, happens in a structurally immature brain in the pre-, peri- or post-birth period (but only during the firsts months of life). The most frequent causes of CP are: prematurity, insufficient cerebral perfusion, arterial haemorrhage, venous infarction, hypoxia caused by various origin (for example from the ingestion of amniotic liquid), malnutrition, infection and maternal or fetal poisoning. In addition to these causes, traumas and malformations have to be included. The lesion, whether focused or spread over the nervous system, impairs the whole functioning of the Central Nervous System (CNS). As a consequence, they affect the construction of the adaptive functions (4), first of all posture control, locomotion and manipulation. The palsy itself does not vary over time, however it assumes an unavoidable “evolutionary” feature when during growth the child is requested to meet new and different needs through the construction of new and different functions. It is essential to consider that clinically CP is not only a direct expression of structural impairment, that is of etiology, pathogenesis and lesion timing, but it is mainly the manifestation of the path followed by the CNS to “re”-construct the adaptive functions “despite” the presence of the damage. “Palsy” is “the form of the function that is implemented by an individual whose CNS has been damaged in order to satisfy the demands coming from the environment” (4). Therefore it is only possible to establish general relations between lesion site, nature and size, and palsy and recovery processes. It is quite common to observe that children with very similar neuroimaging can have very different clinical manifestations of CP and, on the other hand, children with very similar motor behaviors can have completely different lesion histories. A very clear example of this is represented by hemiplegic forms, which show bilateral hemispheric lesions in a high percentage of cases. The first section of this thesis is aimed at guiding the interpretation of CP. First of all the issue of the detection of the palsy is treated from historical viewpoint. Consequently, an extended analysis of the current definition of CP, as internationally accepted, is provided. The definition is then outlined in terms of a space dimension and then of a time dimension, hence it is highlighted where this definition is unacceptably lacking. The last part of the first section further stresses the importance of shifting from the traditional concept of CP as a palsy of development (defect analysis) towards the notion of development of palsy, i.e., as the product of the relationship that the individual however tries to dynamically build with the surrounding environment (resource semeiotics) starting and growing from a different availability of resources, needs, dreams, rights and duties (4). In the scientific and clinic community no common classification system of CP has so far been universally accepted. Besides, no standard operative method or technique have been acknowledged to effectively assess the different disabilities and impairments exhibited by children with CP. CP is still “an artificial concept, comprising several causes and clinical syndromes that have been grouped together for a convenience of management” (5). The lack of standard and common protocols able to effectively diagnose the palsy, and as a consequence to establish specific treatments and prognosis, is mainly because of the difficulty to elevate this field to a level based on scientific evidence. A solution aimed at overcoming the current incomplete treatment of CP children is represented by the clinical systematic adoption of objective tools able to measure motor defects and movement impairments. A widespread application of reliable instruments and techniques able to objectively evaluate both the form of the palsy (diagnosis) and the efficacy of the treatments provided (prognosis), constitutes a valuable method able to validate care protocols, establish the efficacy of classification systems and assess the validity of definitions. Since the ‘80s, instruments specifically oriented to the analysis of the human movement have been advantageously designed and applied in the context of CP with the aim of measuring motor deficits and, especially, gait deviations. The gait analysis (GA) technique has been increasingly used over the years to assess, analyze, classify, and support the process of clinical decisions making, allowing for a complete investigation of gait with an increased temporal and spatial resolution. GA has provided a basis for improving the outcome of surgical and nonsurgical treatments and for introducing a new modus operandi in the identification of defects and functional adaptations to the musculoskeletal disorders. Historically, the first laboratories set up for gait analysis developed their own protocol (set of procedures for data collection and for data reduction) independently, according to performances of the technologies available at that time. In particular, the stereophotogrammetric systems mainly based on optoelectronic technology, soon became a gold-standard for motion analysis. They have been successfully applied especially for scientific purposes. Nowadays the optoelectronic systems have significantly improved their performances in term of spatial and temporal resolution, however many laboratories continue to use the protocols designed on the technology available in the ‘70s and now out-of-date. Furthermore, these protocols are not coherent both for the biomechanical models and for the adopted collection procedures. In spite of these differences, GA data are shared, exchanged and interpreted irrespectively to the adopted protocol without a full awareness to what extent these protocols are compatible and comparable with each other. Following the extraordinary advances in computer science and electronics, new systems for GA no longer based on optoelectronic technology, are now becoming available. They are the Inertial and Magnetic Measurement Systems (IMMSs), based on miniature MEMS (Microelectromechanical systems) inertial sensor technology. These systems are cost effective, wearable and fully portable motion analysis systems, these features gives IMMSs the potential to be used both outside specialized laboratories and to consecutive collect series of tens of gait cycles. The recognition and selection of the most representative gait cycle is then easier and more reliable especially in CP children, considering their relevant gait cycle variability. The second section of this thesis is focused on GA. In particular, it is firstly aimed at examining the differences among five most representative GA protocols in order to assess the state of the art with respect to the inter-protocol variability. The design of a new protocol is then proposed and presented with the aim of achieving gait analysis on CP children by means of IMMS. The protocol, named ‘Outwalk’, contains original and innovative solutions oriented at obtaining joint kinematic with calibration procedures extremely comfortable for the patients. The results of a first in-vivo validation of Outwalk on healthy subjects are then provided. In particular, this study was carried out by comparing Outwalk used in combination with an IMMS with respect to a reference protocol and an optoelectronic system. In order to set a more accurate and precise comparison of the systems and the protocols, ad hoc methods were designed and an original formulation of the statistical parameter coefficient of multiple correlation was developed and effectively applied. On the basis of the experimental design proposed for the validation on healthy subjects, a first assessment of Outwalk, together with an IMMS, was also carried out on CP children. The third section of this thesis is dedicated to the treatment of walking in CP children. Commonly prescribed treatments in addressing gait abnormalities in CP children include physical therapy, surgery (orthopedic and rhizotomy), and orthoses. The orthotic approach is conservative, being reversible, and widespread in many therapeutic regimes. Orthoses are used to improve the gait of children with CP, by preventing deformities, controlling joint position, and offering an effective lever for the ankle joint. Orthoses are prescribed for the additional aims of increasing walking speed, improving stability, preventing stumbling, and decreasing muscular fatigue. The ankle-foot orthosis (AFO), with a rigid ankle, are primarily designed to prevent equinus and other foot deformities with a positive effect also on more proximal joints. However, AFOs prevent the natural excursion of the tibio-tarsic joint during the second rocker, hence hampering the natural leaning progression of the whole body under the effect of the inertia (6). A new modular (submalleolar) astragalus-calcanear orthosis, named OMAC, has recently been proposed with the intention of substituting the prescription of AFOs in those CP children exhibiting a flat and valgus-pronated foot. The aim of this section is thus to present the mechanical and technical features of the OMAC by means of an accurate description of the device. In particular, the integral document of the deposited Italian patent, is provided. A preliminary validation of OMAC with respect to AFO is also reported as resulted from an experimental campaign on diplegic CP children, during a three month period, aimed at quantitatively assessing the benefit provided by the two orthoses on walking and at qualitatively evaluating the changes in the quality of life and motor abilities. As already stated, CP is universally considered as a persistent but not unchangeable disorder of posture and movement. Conversely to this definition, some clinicians (4) have recently pointed out that movement disorders may be primarily caused by the presence of perceptive disorders, where perception is not merely the acquisition of sensory information, but an active process aimed at guiding the execution of movements through the integration of sensory information properly representing the state of one’s body and of the environment. Children with perceptive impairments show an overall fear of moving and the onset of strongly unnatural walking schemes directly caused by the presence of perceptive system disorders. The fourth section of the thesis thus deals with accurately defining the perceptive impairment exhibited by diplegic CP children. A detailed description of the clinical signs revealing the presence of the perceptive impairment, and a classification scheme of the clinical aspects of perceptual disorders is provided. In the end, a functional reaching test is proposed as an instrumental test able to disclosure the perceptive impairment. References 1. Prevalence and characteristics of children with cerebral palsy in Europe. Dev Med Child Neurol. 2002 Set;44(9):633-640. 2. Bax M, Goldstein M, Rosenbaum P, Leviton A, Paneth N, Dan B, et al. Proposed definition and classification of cerebral palsy, April 2005. Dev Med Child Neurol. 2005 Ago;47(8):571-576. 3. Ingram TT. A study of cerebral palsy in the childhood population of Edinburgh. Arch. Dis. Child. 1955 Apr;30(150):85-98. 4. Ferrari A, Cioni G. The spastic forms of cerebral palsy : a guide to the assessment of adaptive functions. Milan: Springer; 2009. 5. Olney SJ, Wright MJ. Cerebral Palsy. Campbell S et al. Physical Therapy for Children. 2nd Ed. Philadelphia: Saunders. 2000;:533-570. 6. Desloovere K, Molenaers G, Van Gestel L, Huenaerts C, Van Campenhout A, Callewaert B, et al. How can push-off be preserved during use of an ankle foot orthosis in children with hemiplegia? A prospective controlled study. Gait Posture. 2006 Ott;24(2):142-151.

Holocene vegetation and fire history of the mountains of Northern Sicily (Italy)

Knowledge about vegetation and fire history of the mountains of Northern Sicily is scanty. We analysed five sites to fill this gap and used terrestrial plant macrofossils to establish robust radiocarbon chronologies. Palynological records from Gorgo Tondo, Gorgo Lungo, Marcato Cixé, Urgo Pietra Giordano and Gorgo Pollicino show that under natural or near natural conditions, deciduous forests (Quercus pubescens, Q. cerris, Fraxinus ornus, Ulmus), that included a substantial portion of evergreen broadleaved species (Q. suber, Q. ilex, Hedera helix), prevailed in the upper meso-mediterranean belt. Mesophilous deciduous and evergreen broadleaved trees (Fagus sylvatica, Ilex aquifolium) dominated in the natural or quasi-natural forests of the oro-mediterranean belt. Forests were repeatedly opened for agricultural purposes. Fire activity was closely associated with farming, providing evidence that burning was a primary land use tool since Neolithic times. Land use and fire activity intensified during the Early Neolithic at 5000 bc, at the onset of the Bronze Age at 2500 bc and at the onset of the Iron Age at 800 bc. Our data and previous studies suggest that the large majority of open land communities in Sicily, from the coastal lowlands to the mountain areas below the thorny-cushion Astragalus belt (ca. 1,800 m a.s.l.), would rapidly develop into forests if land use ceased. Mesophilous Fagus-Ilex forests developed under warm mid Holocene conditions and were resilient to the combined impacts of humans and climate. The past ecology suggests a resilience of these summer-drought adapted communities to climate warming of about 2 °C. Hence, they may be particularly suited to provide heat and drought-adapted Fagus sylvatica ecotypes for maintaining drought-sensitive Central European beech forests under global warming conditions.

Mid-Pliocene palynomorph record of the North Atlantic

The mid-Pliocene was an episode of prolonged global warmth and strong North Atlantic thermohaline circulation, interrupted briefly at circa 3.30 Ma by a global cooling event corresponding to marine isotope stage (MIS) M2. Paleoceanographic changes in the eastern North Atlantic have been reconstructed between circa 3.35 and 3.24 Ma at Deep Sea Drilling Project Site 610 and Integrated Ocean Drilling Program Site 1308. Mg/Ca ratios and d18O from Globigerina bulloides are used to reconstruct the temperature and relative salinity of surface waters, and dinoflagellate cyst assemblages are used to assess variability in the North Atlantic Current (NAC). Our sea surface temperature data indicate warm waters at both sites before and after MIS M2 but a cooling of ~2-3°C during MIS M2. A dinoflagellate cyst assemblage overturn marked by a decline in Operculodinium centrocarpum reflects a southward shift or slowdown of the NAC between circa 3.330 and 3.283 Ma, reducing northward heat transport 23-35 ka before the global ice volume maximum of MIS M2. This will have established conditions that ultimately allowed the Greenland ice sheet to expand, leading to the global cooling event at MIS M2. Comparison with an ice-rafted debris record excludes fresh water input via icebergs in the northeast Atlantic as a cause of NAC decline. The mechanism causing the temporary disruption of the NAC may be related to a brief reopening of the Panamanian Gateway at about this time.

Late Pliocene and Early Pleistocene dinoflagellate cysts and sea surface temperture reconstruction for several IODP and DSDP sites in the North Atlantic

In an attempt to document the palaeoecological affinities of individual extant and extinct dinoflagellate cysts, Late Pliocene and Early Pleistocene dinoflagellate cyst assemblages have been compared with geochemical data from the same samples. Mg/Ca ratios of Globigerina bulloides were measured to estimate the spring-summer sea-surface temperatures from four North Atlantic IODP/DSDP sites. Currently, our Pliocene-Pleistocene database contains 204 dinoflagellate cyst samples calibrated to geochemical data. This palaeo-database is compared with modern North Atlantic and global datasets. The focus lies in the quantitative relationship between Mg/Ca-based (i.e. spring-summer) sea-surface temperature (SSTMg/Ca) and dinoflagellate cyst distributions. In general, extant species are shown to have comparable spring-summer SST ranges in the past and today, demonstrating that our new approach is valid for inferring spring-summer SST ranges for extinct species. For example, Habibacysta tectata represents SSTMg/Ca values between 10° and 15°C when it exceeds 30% of the assemblage, and Invertocysta lacrymosa exceeds 15% when SSTMg/Ca values are between 18.6° and 23.5°C. However, comparing Pliocene and Pleistocene SSTMg/Ca values with present day summer values for the extant Impagidinium pallidum suggests a greater tolerance of higher temperatures in the past. This species occupies more than 5% of the assemblage at SSTMg/Ca values of 11.6-17.9°C in the Pliocene and Pleistocene, whereas present day summer SSTs are around -1.7 to 6.9°C. This observation questions the value of Impagidinium pallidum as reliable indicator of cold waters in older deposits, and may explain its bipolar distribution.

Distribution of dinoflagellate cycst at ODP Site 123-765 (Table 1)

Site 765 contains a sequence of tropical, middle Miocene to Holocene dinoflagellate cysts. These diverse assemblages are characterized by abundant Polysphaeridium zoharyi and Spiniferites bulloideus. Abundances of Impagidinium spp. and Nematosphaeridium spp. reflect the shelf-to-slope origin of the assemblages. One new genus, Blysmatodinium, and two new species, Nematosphaeridium (?) wrennii sp. nov. and Blysmatodinium argoi, are described.

Mean cover and frequencies of vascular plant species during three decades around Abisko Scientific Research Station

Plant species distributions are expected to shift and diversity is expected to decline as a result of global climate change, particularly in the Arctic where climate warming is amplified. We have recorded the changes in richness and abundance of vascular plants at Abisko, sub-Arctic Sweden, by re-sampling five studies consisting of seven datasets; one in the mountain birch forest and six at open sites. The oldest study was initiated in 1977-1979 and the latest in 1992. Total species number increased at all sites except for the birch forest site where richness decreased. We found no general pattern in how composition of vascular plants has changed over time. Three species, Calamagrostis lapponica, Carex vaginata and Salix reticulata, showed an overall increase in cover/frequency, while two Equisetum taxa decreased. Instead, we showed that the magnitude and direction of changes in species richness and composition differ among sites.

Organic-walled dinoflagellate cysts analysis and statistical analysis of 116 surface sediment samples from the eastern Indian Ocean

Assemblages of organic-walled dinoflagellate cysts (dinocysts) from 116 marine surface samples have been analysed to assess the relationship between the spatial distribution of dinocysts and modern local environmental conditions [e.g. sea surface temperature (SST), sea surface salinity (SSS), productivity] in the eastern Indian Ocean. Results from the percentage analysis and statistical methods such as multivariate ordination analysis and end-member modelling, indicate the existence of three distinct environmental and oceanographic regions in the study area. Region 1 is located in western and eastern Indonesia and controlled by high SSTs and a low nutrient content of the surface waters. The Indonesian Throughflow (ITF) region (Region 2) is dominated by heterotrophic dinocyst species reflecting the region's high productivity. Region 3 is encompassing the area offshore north-west and west Australia which is characterised by the water masses of the Leeuwin Current, a saline and nutrient depleted southward current featuring energetic eddies.