Ms Black is a 60-year-old widow with no children, who has severe rheumatoid arthritis and uses a wheelchair. She has pulmonary disease and requires continuous oxygen therapy. For the past two years her 90-year-old mother, who has dementia, has lived with her.

Abstract We report the discovery of two Black Widow millisecond pulsars in globular cluster (GC) M28 with MeerKAT telescope. PSR J1824−2452M (M28M) is a 4.78 ms pulsar 5.82 hr orbit, and J1824−2452N (M28N) 3.35 4.76 orbit. Both have dispersion measures near 119.30 pc cm −3 low-mass companion stars (∼0.01–0.03 M ⊙ ) that do not cause strong radio eclipses or orbital variations. Including these s...

During the summer period 2011-2012, seven widow spider bites in Greece were reported to the Hellenic Center for Disease Control and Prevention. Widow spiders (in the genus Latrodectus) are found all over the world, including Europe, Asia, Africa, Australia, and the US. Alpha-latrotoxin (main mammalian toxin) causes the toxic effects observed in humans. Victims should receive timely medical care...

Venomous animals account for considerable morbidity and mortality worldwide. Snakes alone are estimated to inflict 2.5 million venomous bites annually, with approximately 125,000 deaths. The actual numbers may be much larger. Southeast Asia, India, Brazil, and areas of Africa lead the world in snakebite mortality. It is impossible to estimate the worldwide morbidity and mortality resulting from...

Frog cutaneous pectoris muscles were treated with low doses of crude black widow spider venom (BWSV) or purified alpha-latrotoxin, and neuromuscular transmission, quantal secretion, changes in ultrastructure and uptake of horseradish peroxidase (HRP) were studied. When these agents were applied to muscles bathed in a Ca2+-free solution with 1 mM EGTA and 4 mM Mg2+, the rate of quantal secretion...