Three-point cyclic bending was applied to intervertebral joint complexes (three vertebrae with two intervertebral discs) of monkey (Macaca fascicularis), wallaby (Wallabia rufogrisea frutica), tiger (Panthera tigris), jaguar (Panthera onca) and seal (Halichoerus grypus). Force-displacement loops were recorded for intact specimens in both extension and flexion. Reductions in peak forces at given...

Hard ticks taken from the Japanese serow, Capricornis crispus, in Yamagata Prefecture, Honshu, harboured infective larvae of onchocercid filariae after incubation from the 22nd to the 158th day. Haemaphysalis flava and H. japonica contained one to eight filarial larvae; females, males and a nymph of the ticks were infected. The 44 infective larvae recovered were 612-1,370 μm long, and 11 of the...

A gram-positive, aerobic, non-spore-forming actinobacterial strain, designated strain TL1(T), was isolated from pig manure in Wuhan, China. The cell wall peptidoglycan contained meso-diaminopimelic acid. The major polar lipids were phosphatidylethanolamine, phosphatidylinositol and diphosphatidylglycerol. The predominant menaquinone was MK-8(H(4)). The major fatty acids (>10 %) were iso-C(16 : ...

BACKGROUND Bacterial infections of the gastrointestinal tract (GIT) cause vomiting, diarrhoea and even systemic disease. There is a need for the development of natural products into alternative and safer medicines. OBJECTIVES This study evaluated the anti-microbial activity of extracts prepared from berries, leaves, bark and roots of the edible plant Grewia flava. METHODS The anti-bacterial...

We have identified and characterized the sequence and expression of two Group B Sox genes in the acorn worm, Ptychodera flava. One sequence represents a Group B1 Sox gene and is designated Pf-SoxB1; the other is a Group B2 Sox gene and is designated Pf-SoxB2. Both genes encode polypeptides with an HMG domain in the N-terminal half. Whole-mount in situ hybridization to embryonic and larval stage...

The segmental and zonal variations in the quantitative relationships between elastic and collagen fibers within the lateral costotransverse ligaments have been investigated in the vervet monkey. The lateral costotransverse ligaments of the caudal segments have a largely elastic structure in contrast to those of the cranial segments, which are characteristically collagenous. In the transitional ...

Literature on the anatomy of the human vertebral column characterizes the shape of the lumbar vertebral canal as triangular. The purpose of the present study was to determine the precise shape of the lumbar vertebral canal. Ten lumbar vertebral columns of adult male cadavers were dissected. Two transverse sections were performed in the third lumbar vertebra. One section was performed at the lev...