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Body Structure (body + structure)
Selected AbstractsSexuality in children and adolescents with disabilitiesDEVELOPMENTAL MEDICINE & CHILD NEUROLOGY, Issue 9 2005Nancy Murphy MD This review presents a discussion of the sexual development of children and adolescents with disabilities, described in the framework of body structure and function, individual activities, and societal perspectives presented in the World Health Organization's International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health. Issues of sexual development, gynecological care and contraception, sexual functioning, societal barriers, sexual victimization, and sexuality education are presented. Overall, adolescents with disabilities seem to be participating in sexual relationships without adequate knowledge and skills to keep them healthy, safe, and satisfied. Although their sexual development may be hindered both by functional limitations and by intentional or unintentional societal barriers, the formal and informal opportunities for teenagers with disabilities to develop into sexually expressive and fulfilled persons do exist. Health care providers are urged to increase their awareness of this unmet need and to implement strategies that promote the physical, emotional, social, and psychosexual independence of children, teenagers, and young adults with disabilities. [source] Dual effect of ecdysone on adult cricket mushroom bodiesEUROPEAN JOURNAL OF NEUROSCIENCE, Issue 2 2000Myriam Cayre Abstract Mushroom bodies, which are the main integrative centre for insect sensorial information, play a critical role in associative olfactory learning and memory. This paired brain structure contains interneurons grouped in a cortex, sending their axons into organized neuropiles. In the house cricket (Acheta domesticus) brain, persistent neuroblasts proliferate throughout adult life. Juvenile hormone (JH) has been shown to stimulate this proliferation [Cayre, M., Strambi, C. & Strambi, A. (1994) Nature, 368, 57,59]. In the present study, the effect of morphogenetic hormones on mushroom body cells maintained in primary culture was examined. Whereas JH did not significantly affect neurite growth, ecdysone significantly stimulated neurite elongation. Moreover, ecdysone also acted on neuroblast proliferation, as demonstrated by the reduced number of cells labelled with 5-bromodeoxyuridine following ecdysone application. Heterospecific antibodies raised against ecdysone receptor protein and ultraspiracle protein, the two heterodimers of ecdysteroid receptors, showed positive immunoreactivity in nervous tissue extracts and in nuclei of mushroom body cells, indicating the occurrence of putative ecdysteroid receptors in cricket mushroom body cells. These data indicate a dual role for ecdysone in adult cricket mushroom bodies: this hormone inhibits neuroblast proliferation and stimulates interneuron differentiation. These results suggest that a constant remodelling of mushroom body structure could result from physiological changes in hormone titres during adult life. [source] The reaction-diffusion system: a mechanism for autonomous pattern formation in the animal skinGENES TO CELLS, Issue 6 2002Shigeru Kondo How do animals acquire their various skin patterns? Although this question may seem easy, in fact it is very difficult to answer. The problem is that most animals have no related structures under the skin; therefore, the skin cells must form the patterns without the support of a prepattern. Recent progress in developmental biology has identified various molecular mechanisms that function in setting the positional information needed for the correct formation of body structure. None of these can explain how skin pattern is formed, however, because all such molecular mechanisms depend on the existing structure of the embryo. Although little is known about the underlying molecular mechanism, many theoretical studies suggest that the skin patterns of animals form through a reaction-diffusion system,a putative ,wave' of chemical reactions that can generate periodic patterns in the field. This idea had remained unaccepted for a long time, but recent findings on the skin patterns of fish have proved that such waves do exist in the animal body. In this review, we explain briefly the principles of the reaction-diffusion mechanism and summarize the recent progress made in this area. [source] The asgE locus is required for cell,cell signalling during Myxococcus xanthus developmentMOLECULAR MICROBIOLOGY, Issue 4 2000Anthony G. Garza In response to starvation, Myxococcus xanthus undergoes a multicellular developmental process that produces a dome-shaped fruiting body structure filled with differentiated cells called myxospores. Two insertion mutants that block the final stages of fruiting body morphogenesis and reduce sporulation efficiency were isolated and characterized. DNA sequence analysis revealed that the chromosomal insertions are located in open reading frames ORF2 and asgE, which are separated by 68 bp. The sporulation defect of cells carrying the asgE insertion can be rescued phenotypically when co-developed with wild-type cells, whereas the sporulation efficiency of cells carrying the ORF2 insertion was not improved when mixed with wild-type cells. Thus, the asgE insertion mutant appears to belong to a class of developmental mutants that are unable to produce cell,cell signals required for M. xanthus development, but they retain the ability to respond to them when they are provided by wild-type cells. Several lines of evidence indicate that asgE cells fail to produce normal levels of A-factor, a cell density signal. A-factor consists of a mixture of heat-stable amino acids and peptides, and at least two heat-labile extracellular proteases. The asgE mutant yielded about 10-fold less heat-labile A-factor and about twofold less heat-stable A-factor than wild-type cells, suggesting that the primary defect of asgE cells is in the production or release of heat-labile A-factor. [source] Phylogeny of the Thylacosterninae (Coleoptera, Elateridae)CLADISTICS, Issue 2 2009Varpu Vahtera The phylogeny of the Elateridae subfamily Thylacosterninae was studied using morphological characters and mitochondrial 16S rDNA sequences. Five monophyletic groups were recovered: the Asian Cussolenis, the American Pterotarsus, Balgus and Thylacosternus, and the African "Cussolenis", which is described here as Lumumbaia new genus Muona & Vahtera (type-species Cussolenis attenuatus Fleutiaux, 1925). The following new combinations are made: Lumumbaia africanus (Fleutiaux, 1897) [Soleniscus], Lumumbaia praeustus (Fleutiaux, 1926) [Cussolenis], Lumumbaia nigripes (Fleutiaux, 1926) [Cussolenis], Lumumbaia robustus (Fleutiaux, 1925) [Cussolenis], Lumumbaia attenuatus (Fleutiaux, 1925) [Cussolenis] and Lumumbaia notabilis (Fleutiaux, 1926) [Cussolenis]. A key to the genera of the subfamily is provided. The data were efficient in recovering generic limits within the group. At species level the mitochondrial 16S rDNA data seemed to work unpredictably, either agreeing or not with traditional species-level limits based on male genitalia and body structure. The evolution of bioluminescence is optimized as a feature originating in the ancestors of clicking elateroids. © The Willi Hennig Society 2009. [source] Assessing functional health status in adults with haemophilia: towards a preliminary core set of clinimetric instruments based on a literature search in Rheumatoid Arthritis and OsteoarthritisHAEMOPHILIA, Issue 4 2005P. De Kleijn Summary., People with haemophilia experience a progressive deterioration of their functional health status. Regular clinical assessment of functional health status provides insight into their process of disablement. As such, the development of a core-set of measurement tools is warranted. The aim of this study was to gather data to prepare a (preliminary) core set of clinically relevant and feasible instruments to assess the functional health status of adults with haemophilia, and to indicate their psychometric qualities. Therefore, clinimetric instruments frequently used in two haemophilia-resembling diseases (Rheumatoid Arthritis and Osteoarthritis) were reviewed from the literature. An extensive search in Medline yielded 13 relevant review articles, incorporating a total of 182 instruments, of which 40 were appropriate for haemophilia. Of these 40 instruments 3 measure body structures, 13 body functions, 19 activities (of which 5 are performance based and 14 self-report based), and 3 measure participation. This classification is based on the International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health. Detailed information regarding the psychometrics (reliability, validity and responsiveness) of four instruments is described fully in the literature, whereas the psychometrics of the majority of the other instruments are only partly described. The results of this literature study may contribute to the formation of a (preliminary) core set of clinimetric instruments to assess the functional health status of adults with haemophilia. Decisions on the final core set should be held within the Musculoskeletal Committee of the World Federation of Haemophilia. [source] Parasitism and developmental plasticity in Alpine swift nestlingsJOURNAL OF ANIMAL ECOLOGY, Issue 4 2003Pierre Bize Summary 1Development plasticity is a common evolutionary and phenotypic response to poor growth condition, in particular in organisms with determinate growth such as most birds and mammals. Because various body structures can contribute differently to overall fitness, natural selection will adjust the degree of plasticity of each structure to its proportionate contribution to fitness at a given life stage. 2Two non-mutually exclusive mechanisms can account for plasticity in the growth of offspring to compensate for the effect of parasites. First, if parasite infestation levels fluctuate over the nestling period, parasitized young may show reduced growth until peak parasite infestation, and accelerated growth once the conditions improve (the accelerated growth hypothesis). Secondly, if the period of tissue maturation is not fixed in time, hosts may grow slower than parasite-free hosts but for a longer period of time (the delayed maturation hypothesis). 3To test whether hosts compensate for the effects of parasites on their development, the load of the blood-sucking louse-fly Crataerina melbae Rondani in the nests of Alpine swifts, Apus melba Linnaeus, was increased or decreased experimentally. Parasite prevalence was 100% in both treatments, but intensity (no. of parasites per nestling) was significantly lower for deparasitized nestlings. In both treatments, parasite intensity increased up to halfway through the rearing period (i.e. 30 days of age) and decreased afterwards. 4In line with the accelerated growth hypothesis, wings of parasitized nestlings grew at a lower rate than those of deparasitized ones before the peak of parasite infestation, but at a greater rate after the peak. Louse-flies had no significant effect on the growth of body mass. In agreement with the delayed-maturation hypothesis, wings of parasitized nestlings grew for 3 additional days and were of similar size at fledging as in deparasitized birds. 5In summary, the present study shows in a wild bird population that nestling hosts can compensate for the effect of parasitism on their phenotype. It emphasizes the need to take the dynamics of parasite populations into account in studies of host,parasite relationships, and to investigate the effect of parasites on host development over the entire growing period rather than only at fledging, as employed traditionally. [source] AN EXCEPTIONALLY PRESERVED ANTLION (INSECTA, NEUROPTERA) WITH COLOUR PATTERN PRESERVATION FROM THE CRETACEOUS OF BRAZILPALAEONTOLOGY, Issue 6 2005SAM W. HEADS Abstract:, A new species of palaeoleontid neuropteran Baisopardus cryptohymen sp. nov. is described. The holotype is remarkable for the preservation of fine body structures and colour patterning on all of its four wings. The specimen is nearly complete, lacking only the abdomen and the right mesothoracic leg, and is preserved as a black-brown compression in laminated limestone of the Nova Olinda Member, Crato Formation (late Aptian, Early Cretaceous), Ceará, Brazil. The colour pattern of the forewings comprises a series of dark brown bands that overlap with colourless bands of the hindwings; it produced a cryptic colour pattern when the wings were folded. [source] Cultural health beliefs in a rural family practice: A Malaysian perspectiveAUSTRALIAN JOURNAL OF RURAL HEALTH, Issue 1 2006Kamil M. Ariff Abstract Background:, Understanding the sociocultural dimension of a patient's health beliefs is critical to a successful clinical encounter. Malaysia with its multi-ethnic population of Malay, Chinese and Indian still uses many forms of traditional health care in spite of a remarkably modern rural health service. Objective:, The objective of this paper is discuss traditional health care in the context of some of the cultural aspects of health beliefs, perceptions and practices in the different ethnic groups of the author's rural family practices. This helps to promote communication and cooperation between doctors and patients, improves clinical diagnosis and management, avoids cultural blind spots and unnecessary medical testing and leads to better adherence to treatment by patients. Discussion:, Includes traditional practices of ,hot and cold', notions of Yin-Yang and Ayurveda, cultural healing, alternative medicine, cultural perception of body structures and cultural practices in the context of women's health. Modern and traditional medical systems are potentially complementary rather than antagonistic. Ethnic and cultural considerations can be integrated further into the modern health delivery system to improve care and health outcomes. [source] A New Species of the Family Juraperlidae (Insecta: Grylloblattida) from the Middle Jurassic of ChinaACTA GEOLOGICA SINICA (ENGLISH EDITION), Issue 4 2010CUI Yingying Abstract: Juraperla grandis sp. nov. (Grylloblattida: Juraperlidae) is described from the Daohugou locality (Middle Jurassic, China). Its wing venation is very similar to that of Juraperla daohugouensis Huang and Nel, 2007 (Grylloblattida: Juraperlidae), in the particular occurrence of a supplementary longitudinal vein in the area between the anterior wing margin and ScP. The larger size of the new specimen, the lower number of CuAl branches, and the occurrence of two rows of cells between MP and CuA in forewings justify the erection of a new species, J. grandis sp. nov.. The material also preserved hind wing and body structures, described for the first time in Juraperlidae. [source] The use of the comprehensive International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health Core Set for low back pain in clinical practice: a reliability studyPHYSIOTHERAPY RESEARCH INTERNATIONAL, Issue 3 2009Roger Hilfiker Abstract Background and Purpose.,The comprehensive International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (ICF) Core Set for low back pain (LBP) can be used to describe functioning and the influence of the environment of patients with LBP with a selection of 78 categories, from the ICF components ,body functions', ,body structures', ,activities and participation' and ,environmental factors'. The reliability of the qualifiers' scale of the ICF Core Set for LBP has not yet been studied.,Methods.,Reliability study was conducted in three study centres in the German-speaking part of Switzerland. In the first step, two physiotherapists independently assessed 31 patients with LBP with the original qualifier scale of the 78 ICF categories from the comprehensive ICF Core Set for LBP. After the first 31 patients, inter-rater reliability was assessed and the response options were reduced based on a Rasch analysis. The second sample (n = 30) was assessed by the physiotherapists with the modified qualifier scale and inter-rater reliability was calculated again.,Results.,The percentage agreement for the ICF categories ranged from 19% to 87%, mean 44% (nominal kappa from ,0.73 to 0.54, median 0.22; weighted kappa ,0.2 to 0.69, median 0.38) in the first round with the original qualifier scale. In the second round with the reduced response options, the percentage agreement ranged from 23% to 90%, mean 49% (nominal kappa from ,0.15 to 0.71, median 0.24; weighted kappa ,0.16 to 0.81, median 0.25). The overall percentage agreement was 44% in the first round and 49% with the reduced response categories. The overall kappa value in the first round was 0.29 and in the second round 0.32. There was a small but statistically significant improvement in the agreement.,Conclusion.,The low-to-moderate reliability found in this study requires an improved operationalization (e.g. the definition and description of each response category) and improved instructions for the ICF Core Set for LBP. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] | ||||||||||||||||