Reproductive System of Brown-throated Sloth (Bradypus variegatus, Schinz 1825, Pilosa, Xenarthra): Anatomy and Histology.

In recent years, habitat degradation led to the decline of some populations of brown-throated sloth. The aim of this study was to describe morphological features of the female reproductive system of the species. The oval ovaries were partially surrounded by ovarian bursa. An external cortex and an inner medulla were present. Corpora lutea and corpora albicans together with follicles at various stages of development each with a single oocyte were found in the cortex. Uterine tubes were tortuous, tubular, travelled around the perimeter of the ovary and possessed a folded mucosa with ciliated pseudostratified epithelium. Uterus was simplex, with no horns and divided into three parts: a pear-shaped cranial segment and a long caudal uterine segment (both forming the body of the uterus) and two cervices. Uterus presented three layers: mucosa, lined by pseudostratified epithelium, muscular and serosa. The cervices connected the uterus to the urogenital sinus, a distensible cavity with longitudinal mucosal folds lined by transitional epithelium that extended from the external urethral orifice and the external uterine ostia to the vulva, which was lined by a keratinized stratified squamous epithelium. Brown-throated sloth presented a bipartite clitoris with paired crura, bodies and glandes. The presence of a double cervix and a bipartite clitoris was unique features of the species.

Emerging diseases: a global threat.

A growing and globalizing threat of emerging and re-emerging diseases is best addressed through reliance on rapid detection, diagnosis, and containment. The efficiency and success of this approach depends on intricate networking and collaboration among all stakeholders including intergovernmental and nongovernmental organizations and specialized agencies in the developed and developing countries. Such cooperation, while focusing on eliminating a growing threat, also helps avoid duplication of effort and improves use of scarce financial resources. This review provides a summary of the problem of emerging/re-emerging diseases and the effort being directed at controlling the threat. Opportunities are identified for a more coordinated approach to addressing the problem.

Present status of rescue coronary angioplasty: current polarization of opinion and randomized trials.

Whereas coronary angioplasty has been demonstrated to be unnecessary and perhaps harmful for most patients after successful thrombolytic treatment of acute myocardial infarction, the clinical benefit of rescue angioplasty after failed thrombolysis remains untested in a randomized clinical trial. However, in the clinical judgment of many physicians it is unethical to withhold such treatment, whereas a nearly equal number of physicians believe that such treatment cannot be justified. A review of reported nonrandomized data from a limited number of patients suggests that 1) coronary angioplasty is successful in only 80% of patients after failed thrombolysis, 2) later reocclusion rates may depend on the thrombolytic agent used, 3) left ventricular ejection fraction is seldom improved, and 4) mortality rates after successful angioplasty approximate those after successful thrombolysis alone but mortality rates after failed angioplasty are remarkably high. The arguments for and against rescue angioplasty are reviewed, and it is concluded that results of randomized trials are needed to replace disparate clinical opinion on whether this potentially costly form of therapy should be widely implemented.

UNESCO Regional Network for Microbiology and Allied Activities in Southeast Asia: A model training and research network in microbiology for development.

The Regional Network for Microbiology in Southeast Asia is one of the programmes for regional cooperation in the basis sciences established by UNESCO in collaboration with the government of Japan through a funds-in-trust agreement, in 1974. Up to 1991, the network has organized 50 scientific activities and 945 young microbiologists have received training in microbiology. The nature of the programme's activities has become more specific recently and concerns microbial resources and use of biotechnology to conserve the environment.

Effects of some inorganic elements on nitrogen-fixation in blue-green algae and some ecological aspects of pollution.

Nitrogen-fixation by two species of Nostoc, one of them a lichen phycobiont, was generally stimulated by low concentrations of arsenic, cadmium, nickel, lead, palladium, and zinc. Higher concentrations (0.025 to 0.125 ppm) of arsenic, nickel, and palladium were also stimulatory; however, higher concentrations of cadmium, lead, and zinc tended to inhibit fixation. With the exception of palladium and zinc at low concentrations these six tested elements tended to inhibit nitrogen-fixation in Chlorogloea fritschii and Westiellopsis sp.

Effect of pesticides on blue-green algae and nitrogen-fixation.

The effects of the pesticides, amitrol, a derivative of amitrol (viz. 3,5-diamino-1,2,4-triazole), diquat, paraquat, linuron, MCPA, malathion, and monuron, were studied on the nitrogen-fixing algae, Anabaena cylindrica, Aulosira sp., Calothrix elenkenii. Chlorogloeae frischii, Cylindrospermum muscicola, Nostoc sp. from Collema tenax, Nostoc muscorum Tolypothrix tenuis, and Westiellopsis sp. In general, two types of response were discernible; an initial period of depression succeeded by an increased activity and an initial period of depression followed by a distinct decrease on prolonged incubation. The results indicate that some pesticidal compounds can severely limit the nitrogen-fixing capacities of blue-green algae, thereby affecting the overall nitrogen economy of soils in general.

Simple brominated phenols in the bluegreen alga Calothrix brevissima West.

Through the use of gas chromatography-mass spectrometry techniques two simple brominated phenols, 2,3-dibromo-4,5-dihydroxybenzyl alcohol (lanosol) and 3,5-dibromo-p-hydroxybenzyl alcohol, were identified in an axenically cultured bluegreen alga, Calothrix brevissima. The alga was grown in a mineral medium supplemented with 1% glucose and 0.075% NaBr for 3 weeks. The culture filtrate contained two tribrominated phenols, 2,3,5-tribromo-p-hydroxybenzyl alcohol and 2,3,5-tribromo-p-hydroxybenzaldehyde, and traces of lanosol.