A new species of Pseudoacanthocephalus (Acanthocephala: Echinorhynchidae) from the guttural toad, Sclerophrys gutturalis (Bufonidae), introduced into Mauritius, with comments on the implications of the introductions of toads and their parasites into the UK.

Pseudoacanthocephalus goodmani n. sp. is described from faecal pellets collected from Sclerophrys gutturalis (Power, 1927), the guttural toad. The species is characterized by a suite of characters, including a proboscis armature of 14-18 longitudinal rows of 4-6 hooks with simple roots, lemnisci longer than the proboscis receptacle, equatorial testes, a cluster of elongated cement glands and eggs without polar prolongations of the middle membrane 72.6-85.8 long. The toad had been accidentally translocated from Mauritius to the UK in a tourist's luggage and survived a washing machine cycle. The guttural toad was introduced into Mauritius from South Africa in 1922 and the cane toad, Rhinella marina (Linneaus, 1758), from South America, between 1936 and 1938. It seems most likely, therefore, that P. goodmani was introduced, with the guttural toad, from South Africa. The cane toad is host to the similar species, Pseudoacanthocephalus lutzi, from the Americas, but P. lutzi has not been recorded from places where the cane toad has been introduced elsewhere. Clearly, the guttural toad is a hardy and adaptable species, although it seems unlikely that it could become established in Northern Europe. Nevertheless, any accidental translocation of hosts poses the potential risk of introducing unwanted pathogens into the environment and should be guarded against.

EBSD for analysing the twinning microstructure in fine-grained TWIP steels and its influence on work hardening.

A 22 Mn-0.6 C twinning induced plasticity steel with an average grain size of 2.6 mum was deformed in tension at room temperature. The electron backscattered diffraction technique was used to characterize the twinning structure in relation with the local texture evolution. For nanoscale analysis, additional transmission electron microscopy analysis was performed. Nanotwins were activated in the largest grains from the beginning of the deformation. They interacted with a well-developed dislocation structure that induced detectable intragranular orientation variations. With increasing deformation, dense bundles of nanotwins preferentially developed in grains oriented close to the <111>//tensile direction fibre (promoted by the deformation) as well as medium to high angle sub-boundaries. These key features of the twinned microstructure were finally related to the remarkably high strain hardening, which evolved according to different stages.

Response monitoring without sensory feedback.

OBJECTIVE: The elicitation of an evoked potential, the 'error negativity' (Ne) when subjects commit errors in speeded tasks, is often taken as an index of response monitoring processes. The presence of a Ne-like wave on purely correct trials challenges the current conceptions about the nature of such a monitoring system. Here, we evaluate the possibility that the Ne-like wave on correct trials is merely due to reafferences, and at the same time, we test directly the general opinion according to which the Ne is generated by an internal signal. METHODS: We studied the presence of a Ne-like wave in a completely deafferented patient. The patient performed two reaction time (RT) tasks: a two-responses RT task and a go/no-go task. RESULTS: In this patient, a Ne occurs on errors, on incorrect EMG activations, and on purely correct responses. On errors, the Ne was clearly followed by an error positivity (Pe). CONCLUSIONS: The Ne and the Ne-like wave are not generated by reafferences. This similarity is a further argument to consider that these two waves are of same nature. SIGNIFICANCE: The present data demonstrate that sensory information is not mandatory for the brain to monitor and correct ongoing responses.

Effects of chronic lithium treatment on retinal electrophysiologic function.

Some hypotheses suggest that lithium produces its therapeutic effect by reducing sensitivity to light at the level of the retina. In humans, acute administration of lithium is associated with a reduction in retinal light sensitivity. To determine whether similar retinal light sensitivity changes occur with chronic use, we studied 24 euthymic bipolar patients on chronic lithium treatment and 21 age- and sex-matched normal comparison subjects using electroretinography (ERG) and electro-oculography (EOG). No significant differences were found in ERG b-wave amplitudes or implicit times, or in EOG ratios, between the two groups. We conclude that chronic lithium use is not associated with differences in retinal light sensitivity when bipolar patients are compared to normal comparison subjects, and that there is no evidence for retinal toxicity with long-term lithium treatment.