Glucose and lipid lowering effects of Enhydra fluctuans extract in cadmium treated normal and type-2 diabetic model rats.

Background: Recent epidemiological and experimental studies suggest that cadmium and diabetes-related hyperglycemia may act synergistically to worsen metabolic regulation. The present study aims to evaluate the potential effects of Enhydra fluctuans extract in diabetes and dyslipidemia in cadmium (CdCl) induced- normal and type 2 diabetic model rats.

Method: Forty-eight Long-Evans rats were divided equally into the following six groups: Normal Control (N-C), Normal treated with CdCl (N-Cd), Normal treated with plant extract (N-P), Normal treated with both plant extract and CdCl (N-PCd), Diabetic treated with plant extract (DM-P) and Diabetic treated with both plant extract and CdCl2 (DM-PCd).

Factors associated with crisis pregnancies in Ireland: findings from three nationally representative sexual health surveys.

Background: Findings on the demographic and sexual health characteristics associated with the experience of a crisis pregnancy are important to inform the public health policy of a country, including Ireland. Studies from other jurisdictions have suggested that certain demographic groups are at risk for unintended pregnancies and the disparity between the groups has been growing in recent years. Ireland is a country which experienced much economic and societal change in the first decade of the 21(st) century; changes which are likely to have affected demographic variables pertaining to sexual health.

The life and significance of Charles Lucas (1713-1771).

Charles Lucas (1713-1771) was one of the most controversial popular politicians to stride the Irish political stage in the eighteenth century. Though the descendant of a beneficiary of the Cromwellian plantation, Lucas's personal inheritance was small, and he was apprenticed in his teens to an apothecary in Dublin. Lucas prospered in that capacity, both as an advocate of higher standards within the profession, and as a representative on the lower house (the common council) of Dublin Corporation.

Community mental health initiatives in Pakistan.

Aim: To identify mental health needs in local communities, and provide and evaluate nurse-led services to promote community mental health in Karachi, Pakistan.

Method: Using an action research approach, mental health nurses implemented activities to promote mental health and psychiatric rehabilitation in 15 urban communities in Karachi. The activities were planned and implemented in collaboration with a community-based social welfare organisation.

An exploration of children's perceptions and enjoyment of school-based physical activity and physical education.

Background: The promotion of physical activity among young children has become a universal challenge. Children spend large amounts of time in school, making it an attractive setting in which to promote positive health behaviors. The purpose of this study was to investigate school-based physical activity behavior and its determinants in young Irish children.

Young people's heroes in France and Spain.

Heroes play collectivist or individualist roles in imagination and self-development. Representations of heroic figures in questionnaires given to French (n = 241) and Spanish (n = 227) samples of 10 and 15-year-olds were examined to assess the extent that heroes originated in digital media, and whether they were proximal or distal personalities. There is strong evidence that heroes in this sample were largely learned about in digital media (France 45%, Spain 50%): family and community heroes were a minority (France 11%, Spain 9%).

The Revised-Perceived Illness Experience Scale (R-PIE): data from the Barretstown studies.

The Perceived Illness Experience Scale (PIE) was developed to measure children's perception of their illness experience. In this article, the authors examine the previously uninvestigated factor structure of the PIE using the responses of 184 European children (mean age = 11.61 years, SD = 2.

A contrastive view of Irish language dynamics.

This paper presents an analysis of the linguistic anthropology which underpins the language dynamics of two Gaeltacht (Irish-speaking) areas, Ros Muc in Conamara, Co. Galway and Ráth Cairn in Co. Meath.

Persistence of psychological problems in adolescence: a one year follow-up study.

Objectives: To examine the prevalence and persistence of psychological problems in older adolescents.

Methods: This study is a one year follow-up of 110 adolescents, 64 girls and 46 boys attending three secondary schools in Ireland. All were 16 at initial testing.

Cross-cultural structures of concentric and diametric dualism in Lévi-Strauss' structural anthropology: structures of relation underlying the self and ego relation?

The parallels between Jung's and Lévi-Strauss' concentric cross-cultural structures of the unconscious are highlighted. Lévi-Strauss' basic contrasts between concentric and diametric dualisms are developed into psychologically relevant differences regarding symmetry, connection and separation, and interaction between foreground and background structures respectively. These contrasts between concentric and diametric structures are applied as a common structural framework for understanding Jungian conceptions of the self, the ego and their relations, Freudian views of compensation and repetition in obsessional neurosis, and Winnicott's conception of a child's transitional object.

Human factors in technology replacement: a case study in interface design for a public transport monitoring system.

This paper describes ergonomic issues raised during a project to provide a replacement real-time bus route control system to a large public transport company. Task and system analyses highlighted several deficiencies in the original system architecture, the human-machine interfaces and the general approach to system management. The eventual live prototype replaced the existing original system for a trial evaluation period of several weeks.

Correlates of change in adolescent alcohol consumption in Ireland: implications for understanding influences and enhancing interventions.

Studies of two similar cohorts of students in Ireland in 1984 and 1992 showed a dramatic increase in the consumption of alcohol, especially in the frequency with which students reported being drunk. A comparison of measures obtained at both times showed that there were major changes with regard to beliefs about consequences of alcohol consumption in a direction favorable to consumption as well as increases in the perceived social support for drinking. However, there were no strong indications that changes in problem behavior were associated with the observed increases in drinking patterns.

Interleukin-12 is produced by macrophages in response to live or killed Bordetella pertussis and enhances the efficacy of an acellular pertussis vaccine by promoting induction of Th1 cells.

Using a murine respiratory infection model, we have demonstrated previously that infection with Bordetella pertussis or immunization with a whole-cell pertussis vaccine induced antigen-specific Th1 cells, which conferred a high level of protection against aerosol challenge. In contrast, immunization with an acellular vaccine, consisting of the B. pertussis components detoxified pertussis toxin, filamentous hemagglutinin, and pertactin adsorbed to alum, generated Th2 cells and was associated with delayed bacterial clearance following challenge.

Th1/Th2 cell dichotomy in acquired immunity to Bordetella pertussis: variables in the in vivo priming and in vitro cytokine detection techniques affect the classification of T-cell subsets as Th1, Th2 or Th0.

In studies of the mechanism of immunity to Bordetella pertussis in a murine respiratory infection model, we have previously demonstrated that natural infection of immunization with a whole cell vaccine induces a potent protective immune response, which is mediated by T-helper type-1 (Th1) cells. In contrast an acellular vaccine generates Th2 cells and is associated with delayed bacterial clearance following respiratory challenge. In the present study we have investigated the apparent Th1/Th2 cell dichotomy in acquired immunity and have examined the factors that affect their induction or detection.

Induction and detection of T-cell responses.

The fundamental basis of immunity to infectious diseases involves a complex interplay between humoral and cell-mediated immune responses against antigens on the foreign pathogen. Humoral immunity, either in the form of local IgA antibodies at the mucosal site of infection or neutralizing antibodies in the serum, provides the first line of defense against invading microorganisms. However, cellular immunity, mediated by T-cells, also plays a major role in protection against foreign pathogens.

Immunization with a soluble recombinant HIV protein entrapped in biodegradable microparticles induces HIV-specific CD8+ cytotoxic T lymphocytes and CD4+ Th1 cells.

One of the major obstacles to the development of successful recombinant vaccines against human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and other intracellular pathogens is the identification of a safe and effective vaccine delivery system for the induction of cell mediated immunity with soluble protein antigens. In this study it was demonstrated that immunization with a recombinant HIV envelop (env) protein entrapped in biodegradable poly(lactide-co-glycolide) (PLG) microparticles induced consistent HIV-specific CD4+ and CD8+ T-cell responses in mice. Major histocompatibility complex (MHC) class I-restricted cytotoxic T lymphocytes (CTL) responses were detected following a single systemic immunization with gp120 entrapped microparticles and when given by the intranasal (i.

Poliovirus-specific CD4+ Th1 clones with both cytotoxic and helper activity mediate protective humoral immunity against a lethal poliovirus infection in transgenic mice expressing the human poliovirus receptor.

The current understanding of the function of CD4+ T helper (Th) cells in immunity to infectious diseases is that Th1 cells, which secrete interleukin (IL)-2 and interferon-gamma, induce cellular immune responses, whereas Th2 cells, which secrete IL-4, IL-5, IL-6, and IL-10, provide helper function for humoral immunity. We have used a panel of poliovirus-specific murine CD4+ T cell clones and mice transgenic for the human poliovirus receptor to evaluate the role of Th cell subpopulations in protective immunity to poliovirus. The majority of T cell clones, as well as polyclonal T cells generated from mice infected or immunized with poliovirus, secreted IL-2 and interferon-gamma, but not IL-4, IL-5, or IL-10, a profile typical of Th1 cells.

The oxidative stress response in Bacillus subtilis.

Bacillus subtilis undergoes a typical bacterial stress response when exposed to low concentrations (0.1 mM) of hydrogen peroxide. Protection is thereby induced against otherwise lethal, challenge concentrations (10 mM) of this oxidant and a number of proteins are induced including the scavenging enzymes, catalase and alkyl hydroperoxide reductase, and a putative DNA binding and protecting protein.

Zinc inhibits UV radiation-induced apoptosis but fails to prevent subsequent cell death.

Zinc ions inhibit the morphological and DNA fragmentation features of apoptosis in a number of systems. HL-60 cells pretreated with zinc and exposed to UV irradiation maintained their normal morphology for up to 8 h, whereas non-zinc-treated cells underwent extensive apoptosis. Zinc pretreatment also inhibited both single and double-stranded DNA fragmentation, which is characteristic of apoptosis.

Increased resistance to apoptosis associated with HL-60 myeloid differentiation status.

Morphologically HL-60 leukaemia cells largely resemble promyelocytes and can be induced to terminally differentiate in vitro. Upon reaching terminal maturation these cells rapidly undergo apoptosis. Using three chemotherapeutic agents with known apoptosis inducing capability, the susceptibility of RA - and PMA - differentiated cultures was monitored by morphological means and flow cytometry.

Apoptosis or necrosis: intracellular levels of glutathione influence mode of cell death.

The effect of lowering intracellular glutathione (GSH) concentrations on the toxicity of alkylating agents, and RNA synthesis inhibitor and topoisomerase 1 and 2 inhibitors to a number of human leukaemic cell lines were evaluated. By using the GSH synthesis inhibitor DL-buthionine-(S,R)-sulfoximine (BSO), GSH levels were artificially reduced. Cells with low GSH concentrations were exposed to a number of cytotoxic agents and the resultant mode of cell death was analysed using morphological and biochemical criteria.