Birds' tails as signaling devices: markings, shape, length, and feather quality

While exaggerated length and ornamental shapes are confirmed sexually selected tail traits in birds, the signal function of tail markings has received less study. Signal roles for tail markings as amplifiers of length, shape, and feather quality are discussed, and the role of tail markings as feather-quality handicaps is proposed: absence of melanin increases damage and abrasion. Predicted correlations of tail markings with other tail traits are derived for these signal roles. A comparative study of the relationships between these tail traits in an entire avifauna, the western Palearctic, tested the predictions. Tail displays were present in nearly 80% of species, associated with greater long-tailedness, but not all displayed tails had markings or ornamental shape. The incidence of marks across tail shapes and the combinations of marks indicate that tail markings act as handicaps or amplifying handicaps of tail feather quality. Tail elongation and ornamental shapes could act as additional handicaps of feather quality-that is, they could be multipurpose signals. Incorporation of revealing indicators such as feather damage and associated handicap and/or amplifying traits may allow a reduction in the cost of signaling while maintaining signal reliability and, hence, influence sexual selection in complex signaling systems.

Plastic baton round injuries

OBJECTIVES

To review the injuries resulting from a new plastic baton round.

METHODS

Review of case notes of patients presenting with injuries caused by plastic baton rounds over a four month period in Northern Ireland.

RESULTS

Twenty nine patients were identified, 28 with 30 injuries were included in the study. Eighty nine per cent were male; the average age was 24.3 years. Seven patients required admission. There were no fatalities. Five injuries were to the upper limbs and 16 to the lower limbs. Three patients sustained pulmonary contusions. There were no head injuries.

CONCLUSIONS

Although the numbers in this study are small it should be noted that no patient suffered a face, neck, or head injury. This is in contrast with previous studies in which up to 41.4% of attendances were for face, neck, or head injuries. In this study there were seven injuries to the trunk. Of the 14 deaths attributable to plastic baton rounds in Northern Ireland, all have been the result of head or chest trauma. The use of plastic baton rounds has decreased and, while a reduction in head injuries is noted, potentially serious chest injuries are still occurring. It is vital that guidelines on firing are adhered to. A large proportion of people who have been struck by plastic baton rounds do not attend an accident and emergency department and therefore doctors must be aware of patients with potentially serious injuries presenting late.

Once-daily budesonide inhalation suspension in infants and children < 4 and > or = 4 years of age with persistent asthma

BACKGROUND

Budesonide inhalation suspension (Pulmicort Respules; AstraZeneca LP, Wilmington, DE), a nebulized corticosteroid, was developed for use in infants and young children with persistent asthma.

OBJECTIVE

To compare the efficacy and safety of once-daily budesonide inhalation suspension in children < 4 years of age and in those > or = 4 years of age with persistent asthma.

METHODS

A retrospective analysis stratified by age group was performed on data from two randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled, parallel-group studies that evaluated the efficacy and safety of budesonide inhalation suspension 0.25 mg, 0.5 mg, or 1.0 mg once daily for 12 weeks in children 6 months to 8 years of age with persistent asthma. Clinical assessments included nighttime and daytime asthma symptoms, breakthrough medication use, adverse events, and hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal-axis function.

RESULTS

In both randomized studies, budesonide inhalation suspension demonstrated statistically significant improvement in nighttime and daytime asthma symptom scores compared with placebo. In the retrospective analysis of pooled data from these studies, the efficacy of budesonide was maintained when children were stratified by age group. Clinical improvements from baseline in nighttime and daytime asthma symptom scores were observed in both age groups at all budesonide inhalation suspension dose levels. No significant differences were observed between age groups in breakthrough medication use in any of the treatment groups. No differences were observed in the incidence of adverse events between the two age groups, and significant (P < 0.01) effect on hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal-axis function was apparent only in children < 4 years of age at the 0.25-mg dose level.

CONCLUSIONS

Once-daily budesonide inhalation suspension is effective in the treatment of persistent asthma in children aged < 4 and > or = 4 years of age.

p22 is a novel plasminogen fragment with antiangiogenic activity

Tumor or tumor-associated cells cleave circulating plasminogen into three or four kringle-containing antiangiogenic fragments, collectively referred to as angiostatin. Angiostatin blocks tumor growth and metastasis by preventing the growth of endothelial cells that are critical for tumor vascularization. Here, we show that cancer and normal cells convert plasminogen into a novel 22 kDa fragment (p22). Production of this plasminogen fragment in a cell-free system has allowed characterization of the structure and activity of the protein. p22 consists of amino acid residues 78-180 of plasminogen and therefore embodies the first plasminogen kringle (residues 84-162) as well as additional N- and C-terminal residues. Circular dichroism and intrinsic fluorescence spectrum analysis have defined structural differences between p22 and recombinant plasminogen kringle 1 (rK1), therefore suggesting a unique conformation for kringle 1 within p22. Proliferation of capillary endothelial cells but not cells of other lineages was selectively inhibited by p22 in vitro. In addition, p22 prevented vascular growth of chick chorioallantoic membranes (CAMs) in vivo. Furthermore, administration of p22 at low dose suppressed the growth of murine Lewis lung carcinoma (LLC) metastatic foci in vivo. This is the first identification of a single kringle-containing antiangiogenic plasminogen fragment produced under physiological conditions.

Safety of budesonide inhalation suspension (Pulmicort Respules) after up to 52 weeks of treatment in infants and young children with persistent asthma

Three open-label extension trials evaluated the safety of budesonide inhalation suspension (BIS; Pulmicort Respules) in 670 children (8 months-9 years of age) with mild-to-severe persistent asthma. Patients were randomized to receive either BIS or conventional asthma therapy (CAT) for 52 weeks. The percentage of patients who discontinued because of clinical adverse events was low and similar among the CAT (0.4%) and BIS (0.7%) groups. After adjusting for length of time in the studies, there were no clinically relevant differences between the BIS and CAT groups in the type, incidence, or intensity of adverse events; vital signs or physical examination outcomes; or changes in clinical laboratory evaluations or oral fungal cultures.

Asthma and allergy in Albania and the UK

In the first phase of the International Study of Asthma and Allergies in Childhood, a large difference in occurrence of asthma symptoms was seen between children in Albania and the UK. We did skin-prick tests with various allergens and measured peak expiratory flow rate in about 1000 children from each country. A large difference in the proportion of exercise-induced bronchial reactivity was evident between children from Albania and the UK (0.8% vs 5.4%, respectively). However, the frequency of allergic sensitisation was closely similar (15.0% vs 17.8%, respectively). These results suggest that large geographical variations in asthma prevalence can arise without differences in frequency of atopy.

The gene encoding the immunoregulatory signaling molecule CMRF-35A localized to human chromosome 17 in close proximity to other members of the CMRF-35 family

The immunoregulatory signaling (IRS) family includes several molecules, which play major roles in the regulation of the immune response. The CMRF-35A and CMRF-35H molecules are two new members of the IRS family of molecules, that are found on a wide variety of haemopoietic lineages. The extracellular functional interactions of these molecules is presently unknown, although CMRF-35H can initiate an inhibitory signal and is internalized when cross-linked. In this paper, we described the gene structure for the CMRF-35A gene and its localization to human chromosome 17. The gene consists of four exons spanning approximately 4.5 kb. Exon 1 encodes the 5' untranslated region and leader sequence, exon 2 encodes the immunoglobulin (Ig)-like domain, exon 3 encodes the membrane proximal region and exon 4 encodes the transmembrane region, the cytoplasmic tail and the 3' untranslated region. A region in the 5' flanking sequence of the CMRF-35A gene, that promoted expression of a reporter gene was identified. The genes for the CMRF-35A and CMRF-35H molecules are closely linked on chromosome 17. Similarity between the Ig-like exons and the preceding intron of the two genes suggests exon duplication was involved in their evolution. We also identified a further member of the CMRF-35 family, the CMRF-35J pseudogene. This gene appears to have arisen by gene duplication of the CMRF-35A gene. These three loci - the CMRF-35A, CMRF-35J and CMRF-35H genes-form a new complex of IRS genes on chromosome 17.

Comparable efficacy of administration with face mask or mouthpiece of nebulized budesonide inhalation suspension for infants and young children with persistent asthma

A randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled, parallel-group study including 481 children at 37 centers in the United States demonstrated the efficacy and safety of budesonide inhalation suspension in doses of 0.25 mg once daily, 0.25 mg twice daily, 0.5 mg twice daily, and 1.0 mg daily in infants and young children with persistent asthma. The retrospective analysis presented here compares the efficacy of treatment with the suspension administered through a face mask or mouthpiece. All patients receiving budesonide inhalation suspension via face mask or mouthpiece showed clinical improvements in nighttime and daytime asthma symptoms as compared with administration of a placebo. The improvements were of similar magnitude as those observed in an analysis of all patients treated. Improvements in nighttime asthma symptoms were statistically significant with budesonide at 0.25 mg daily (p = 0.040), 0.25 mg twice daily (p = 0.008), and 0.5 mg twice daily (p = 0.046) delivered by face mask. In patients using mouthpieces, nighttime asthma symptoms improved significantly in the 0.25-mg twice-daily (p = 0.005) and 1.0-mg daily (p = 0.035) groups. Patients receiving budesonide at 0.5 mg twice daily via a face mask improved significantly in daytime asthma symptoms (p = 0.009). The use of breakthrough medication was reduced in patients receiving budesonide via face masks or mouthpieces relative to placebo, and treatment was well tolerated in all study groups. This retrospective analysis suggests that nebulized budesonide inhalation suspension can be administered effectively by either face mask or mouthpiece to young children with persistent asthma.

Vitamin D-deficient rickets: a multifactorial disease

We present a case of an African-American child with vitamin D-deficient rickets. In addition to being solely breast-fed for the period of 1 year, he resided in New England, where exposure to ultraviolet light is limited owing to its northern latitude and long cold winters. He presented with classical signs of nutritional rickets and was immediately responsive to treatment with vitamin D supplementation.

A transmissible trematode affects the direction and rhythm of movement in a marine gastropod

Microphallus piriformes (Trematoda) is unusual in having only two hosts and no motile free-living stages. The intermediate host, the rough periwinkle, Littorina saxatilis, is present year-round on rocky shores and has a high parasite prevalence near breeding colonies of the definitive host, the herring gull, Larus argentatus, which is present in numbers at these sites for only 4 months per year. Given the seasonal availability of gulls for infection and a low incidence of periwinkles in the normal diet of herring gulls, specialized transmission between stages appears necessary for maintenance of the parasite's life cycle. We investigated the hypothesis that M. piriformes alters its intermediate host's behaviour during the gull's breeding season in a manner that may facilitate predation of the infected periwinkle by breeding gulls. We studied the movements of periwinkles during simulated tidal cycles in the laboratory; parasite status was established subsequently. Periwinkles with mature infections moved further upwards but showed less downwards and horizontal movement than uninfected periwinkles. The movement of periwinkles with immature (nontransmissible) infections was less affected by the parasite. During the tidal cycle, infected and uninfected periwinkles differed in both timing and extent of movement. A field experiment confirmed the greater upwards movement of infected periwinkles. The parasite-induced changes in periwinkle behaviour may increase the chances of predation by the final host and could represent an important survival strategy for M. piriformes. Copyright 2000 The Association for the Study of Animal Behaviour.

Current status of the Maze procedure for the treatment of atrial fibrillation

Since the first patient underwent the Maze procedure on September 25, 1987, 346 patients have undergone this operation for the treatment of atrial fibrillation. The procedure was designed as an open-heart operation performed through a median sternotomy. It underwent 2 major modifications relatively early in the series, evolving into the so-called Maze-III procedure, which has been used exclusively since April 16, 1992. Since that time, the Maze-III procedure has been adapted to allow it to be done by minimally invasive techniques. In addition, we recently performed the entire procedure in 2 patients without the use of cardiopulmonary bypass. The operative mortality rate has remained at 2% to 3%. This includes patients undergoing concomitant high-risk cardiac surgical procedures and all re-do cases. The overall success rate in curing atrial fibrillation has been 99%. The procedure itself has been shown to cause no permanent damage to the sinus node. The left atrium has been documented to function long-term postoperatively in 93% of patients and the right atrium functions in 99% of patients. The Maze-III procedure remains the surgical procedure of choice for the treatment of medically refractory atrial fibrillation.

The Maze-III procedure combined with valve surgery

Previous studies have suggested that the Maze procedure is not as effective in controlling atrial fibrillation when the arrhythmia is associated with significant valvular heart disease. In this study, we evaluate our own results in 83 patients who underwent 96 valve procedures in combination with the Maze-III procedure. Our results indicate that the Maze-III procedure is just as safe and effective in controlling atrial fibrillation associated with valvular heart disease as it is in controlling atrial fibrillation not associated with valvular heart disease.