A method for the determination of solanesol in tobacco

The object or this work was to develop a procedure for the quantitative determination of solanesol in the petroleum ether extract of tobacco. The amount of tobacco extracted into petroleum ether is routinely used to differentiate tobacco types. The extraction procedures have been extensively studied by the Association of Official Agricultural Chemists (AOAC) and reported in the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) Technical Bulletin # 1186. There is at present no method for the quantitative determination of solanesol. One procedure which comes closest, involves an infrared measurement of the tobacco extract. Because of the presence of other bands, the results are reported as solanesol-like substances rather than solanesol. The reported values are considerably higher than estimates obtained from large scale isolation of solanesol from tobacco

World Health Organization Guidelines for Management of Acute Stress, PTSD, and Bereavement: Key Challenges on the Road Ahead

Wietse Tol and colleagues discuss some of the key challenges for implementation of new WHO guidelines for stress-related mental health disorders in low- and middle-income countries. Please see later in the article for the Editors' Summar

Meditation awareness training for the treatment of fibromyalgia syndrome: A randomized controlled trial

Objectives: The purpose of this study was to conduct the first randomised controlled trial to evaluate the effectiveness of a second-generation mindfulness-based intervention (SG-MBI) for treating fibromyalgia syndrome (FMS). Compared to first-generation mindfulness-based interventions, SG-MBIs are more acknowledging of the spiritual aspect of mindfulness. Design: A randomised controlled trial employing intent-to-treat analysis. Methods: Adults with FMS received an eight-week SG-MBI known as Meditation Awareness Training (MAT; n = 74) or an active control intervention known as Cognitive-Behaviour Therapy for Groups (n = 74). Assessments were performed at pre-, post-, and six-month follow-up phases. Results: MAT participants demonstrated significant and sustained improvements over control-group participants in FMS symptomatology, pain perception, sleep quality, psychological distress, non-attachment (to self, symptoms, and environment), and civic engagement. A mediation analysis found that (i) civic engagement partially mediated treatment effects for all outcome variables, (ii) non-attachment partially mediated treatment effects for psychological distress and sleep quality, and (iii) non-attachment almost fully mediated treatment effects for FMS symptomatology and pain perception. Average daily time spent in meditation was found to be a significant predictor of changes in all outcome variables. Conclusions: MAT may be a suitable treatment for adults with FMS and appears to ameliorate FMS symptomatology and pain perception by reducing attachment to self

Olfactory cues of mahogany trees to female Hypsipyla robusta

Abstract The mahogany shoot borer, Hypsipyla robusta (Moore) (Lepidoptera Pyralidae), is a serious pest insect in the tropical forests of Africa, Asia and Australia. This insect causes multiple branching of young shoots in indigenous mahogany plantations. Gravid insects are attracted to oviposition sites by volatile organic compounds (VOCs) released by their hosts. Therefore, in this study, we aimed to (i) identify and characterise the VOCs released by the shoots of Entandrophragma and Khaya mahogany and (ii) to determine the electrophysiologically active VOCs which could influence the olfactory response of H. robusta. Volatile samples were collected from shoots of Entandrophragma angolense (Welwitsch) de Candolle, Entandrophragma utile (Dawe et Sprague) Sprague, Khaya anthotheca (Welwitsch) de Candolle and Khaya ivorensis Chevalier by closed-loop-stripping-analysis. The VOCs were identified by gas-chromatography mass-spectrometry (GC-MS) and characterised by comparing their retention times with those of authentic standards. For the first time, 29 VOCs were characterised as typical of the four mahogany species studied. The VOCs included alcohols, aldehydes, alkanes, alkenes, esters, ketones, monoterpenes, alcohol sesquiterpenes and sesquiterpenes. The majority were esters (10) and sesquiterpenes (8). GC-MS/electroantennographic detection experiments revealed antennal responses of the female moth to (Z)-β-ocimene, (Z)-3-hexen-1-yl acetate, hexan-1-ol, nonanal, (Z)-3-hexen-1-yl butanoate, 2-ethyl hexan-1-ol, decanal, β-caryophyllene, (Z)-3-hexen-1-yl hexanoate and germacrene D. Dose-response experiments with three of the compounds revealed antennal responses at concentrations of 10 -7 to 10 -2 . We therefore suggest that these compounds are olfactory cues of female H. robusta and could be used in behaviour-based control of H. robusta

Clinical Findings in Four Children with Biotinidase Deficiency Detected through a Statewide Neonatal Screening Program

Four children with biotinidase deficiency were identified during the first year of a neonatal screening program for this disease in the Commonwealth of Virginia. Two unrelated probands were identified among the 81,243 newborn infants who were screened. In addition, two siblings of one of these infants were found to be affected. Both probands had mild neurologic symptoms at two and four months, respectively, and the two older children had more severe neurologic abnormalities, cutaneous findings, and developmental delay at two and three years of age. However, none of the affected children had acute metabolic decompensation. Previous studies have shown that the administration of biotin to affected children can be a lifesaving procedure that can reverse acute symptoms and prevent irreversible neurologic damage. Our findings demonstrate that subtle neurologic abnormalities may appear as early as at two months of age and that developmental abnormalities may occur even in the absence of episodes of overt metabolic decompensation. Since screening and treatment are both inexpensive and effective and the incidence of the disease is well within the range of that of other metabolic diseases for which screening is performed, biotinidase deficiency should be added to the group of metabolic diseases for which screening is done in the neonatal period. (N Engl J Med 1985; 313:16–9.

Action Research with Children: Lessons from Tackling Disasters and Climate Change

Recent research and practice from the fields of climate change adaptation and disaster management has created a shift from emphasis of children's vulnerability and need for protection towards their potential as agents of change before, during and after disaster events. This article examines lessons from action research into children's agency in disaster?prone communities of El Salvador and the Philippines. We describe some of the participatory risk management methods that were adapted for use with children, the centrality of ethics to our approach and the importance of working with a non?governmental organisation (NGO) partner that provides ongoing support in the study communities. The research design was led by external agents in order to cross?compare findings across locations and countries. However, we argue that by engaging children in a process of knowledge generation and analysis, the research broke down some of the assumed hierarchies between researcher and researched common to orthodox approaches

Importance sampling method of correction for multiple testing in affected sib-pair linkage analysis

Using the Genetic Analysis Workshop 13 simulated data set, we compared the technique of importance sampling to several other methods designed to adjust p-values for multiple testing: the Bonferroni correction, the method proposed by Feingold et al., and naïve Monte Carlo simulation. We performed affected sib-pair linkage analysis for each of the 100 replicates for each of five binary traits and adjusted the derived p-values using each of the correction methods. The type I error rates for each correction method and the ability of each of the methods to detect loci known to influence trait values were compared. All of the methods considered were conservative with respect to type I error, especially the Bonferroni method. The ability of these methods to detect trait loci was also low. However, this may be partially due to a limitation inherent in our binary trait definitions