A research report submitted to the Faculty of Health Sciences, University of the Witwatersrand, in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science in Emergency Medicine. MScMed (Emergency Medicine) Johannesburg, November 2013 / Background: Little research has addressed the types and meaning of genital injury in South African rape victims. In South Africa, rape victims in private practice are examined using gross visualisation and a light source only. Research has shown that the use of toluidine blue and/ or a colposcope increases the number of injuries seen. Objective: To determine rape victim demographics and describe the genital injuries and other associated injuries reported during medico-legal examination of female rape victims older than 15 in four private Johannesburg hospitals between 1 January 2008 and 31 December 2009, as well as to determine any associations between these variables and the race or age of the victim. Method: A retrospective chart review of 310 sexual assault victims seen at these hospitals. Results: Black victims made up 62% of the study. One genital injury was recorded for 27% of the victims, while 21% had between 2 and 8 of a possible 11 injuries. The most commonly injured sites were the posterior fourchette, the hymen and the fossa navicularis. Bruising was the most common associated injury. Alcohol was reported in just fewer than 10% of cases. Conclusion: The incidence of positive genital injury documented is comparable to other research. Genital injuries are not inevitable consequences of sexual assault.

Proefschrift Universiteit van Amsterdam. / Met lit.opg. en een samenvatting in het Nederlands.

Proefschrift Maastricht. / Met lit. opg. Met samenvatting in het Nederlands.

The paired preputial glands of the albino mouse, Mus musculus, (Swiss strain) were studied with regard to histology, physiology and basic histochemistry. For the histological study of the development and subsequent aging of the preputial gland, the glands of male and female mice of different ages, ranging from newborn to 12 months old, were used. In order to study the effects of androgens and estrogens upon the macroscopic and microscopic structure of the preputial gland, white Swiss mice were divided into four major groups (according to age and status) each of which were, in turn, divided into subgroups a, b, c, and d for treatment; mice in subgroups a and b received daily subcutaneous injections of testosterone propionate and of estradiol benzoate respectively; mice in subgroup creceived daily subcutaneous injections of the vehicle, sesame oil; mice in subgroup d served as controls. There were, of course, male and female mice in each grouping. Routine histochemical tests for lipids and proteins were carried out on the excised preputial glands of weanling and of young adult mice, of both sexes, in order to localize and to identify the secretory products of the acinar cells. Histologically and physiologically (in terms of response to androgens and estrogens) the preputial glands of the mouse are similar, in most respects, to those of the rat as described by other authors. However, there are apparent differences in the microscopic anatomy and in the histochemistry of these homologous organs; firstly, the presence of an intimate association of the mouse preputial gland with a central hair follicle which persists throughout the lifetime of the animal and which is not found in the rat gland; secondly, the absence of perinuclear proteinaceous granules in the acinar cells of the mouse preputial gland which are present in the acinar cells of the rat preputial gland, in addition to lipid droplets. Lipids, primarily in the form of droplets of neutral fats are, to my knowledge, the only secretory products of the mouse preputial gland. Developmentally, histologically, and histochemically, the preputial gland of the mouse is an excessively developed sebaceous gland and unlike the rat preputial gland which cannot be categorized so simply, belongs to the "monocrine" variety of holocrine gland. / Science, Faculty of / Zoology, Department of / Graduate

No description available.

One important source of phenotypic variation on which natural selection can act is developmental plasticity (the capacity of a single genotype to produce different environment-dependent forms). Therefore, studies of how the environment influences development can facilitate our understanding of how natural selection acts to yield phenotypic evolution. Using the Pacific barnacle (Balanus glandula Darwin), I explored how functionally independent appendages (the legs and unusually long penises of barnacles) respond to widespread spatial and temporal variation in water velocity and conspecific density. Through field surveys, reciprocal transplant experiments, and histological sectioning, I show that barnacle legs and penises appear remarkably well adapted to spatial and temporal variation in water velocity. Building on past work on leg form variation, I show that penises from exposed shores were shorter than, stouter than, and more than twice as massive for their length, as those from nearby protected bays (this effect holds true for artificially inflated penises as well). A transplant experiment confirmed that most of this variation in penis and leg form variation was due to developmental plasticity. Penises and legs of barnacles from an exposed shore also had thicker cuticle, and muscles with greater cross-sectional area (and shorter sarcomeres) compared to those from a protected shore. Form variation was consistent with numerous predictions from engineering theory suggesting that barnacles show dramatic, complex and likely adaptive variation in leg and penis form among sites that differ dramatically in water velocity. Additional experiments showed evidence for and against developmental limits to plasticity in barnacles. A transplant experiment identified an important (and asymmetrical) developmental limit to leg-length response time – likely mediated by food limitation – while a field survey showed that developmental coupling does not restrict adaptive plastic responses of legs and penises to multiple conflicting cues (conspecific density and water velocity). Finally, a two-year survey of natural populations revealed the first evidence that barnacles also change leg form seasonally. Together these results contribute valuable information on the mechanisms of phenotypic change. This research also sheds light on the circumstances that allow decoupling of developmental processes to produce novel combinations of characters on which natural selection can act. / Ecology

No description available.

by Meng Chunling. / "September 2002." / Thesis (Ph.D.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2002. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 143-159). / Electronic reproduction. Hong Kong : Chinese University of Hong Kong, [2012] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Mode of access: World Wide Web. / Abstracts in English and Chinese.

The Acentropinae represents a species-rich crambid group with more than 700 species distributed in all the zoogeographic regions except Antarctica, and the highest diversity occurs in the Oriental, Indo-Autralian and Neotropical regions. Most caterpillars of Acentropinae are widely adapted to feed on vegetation in different types of aquatic environments, such as ponds, streams and rivers. However, some of them are known to utilize mosses on land. Therefore the evolutionary relationships between the terrestrial and aquatic lineage become intriguing. The genus Paracymoriza Warren, 1890, is a moderate-sized acentropine genus comprising 39 species ranging throughout southeast and east Asia. Historically the genus was often confused with many unrelated genera due to the superficial resemblance in wing maculation, which is termed the ¡§nymphuliform wing pattern¡¨. The genus is currently divided into 8 species groups, with 5 of them known having aquatic immature stages, while the others having terrestrial immatures. The fact that Paracymoriza includes both truly aquatic and terrestrial species represents a unique case for the Lepidoptera, thus making the monophyly of the genus doubtful. In the present study, a phylogenetic hypothesis Paracymoriza was reconstructed by using morphological characters including wing pattern and immature stage characters obtained from 63 species representing 25 acentropine genera. The results suggest that Paracymoriza is monophyletic. The genus is composed of two major clades: one aquatic, and the other terrestrial. It suggests that Paracymoriza represents a unique example with amphibious immature stage in the Lepidoptera although the tree support values of this phylogenetic hypothesis remains relatively weak due to large amount of homoplasious characters.

Made available in DSpace on 2012-09-06T01:12:29Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 2 license.txt: 1748 bytes, checksum: 8a4605be74aa9ea9d79846c1fba20a33 (MD5) 616.pdf: 4168242 bytes, checksum: 59e0b30e0d6358d8c0e2e8d361324a50 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2003 / (...) O objetivo foi investigar as mudanças na expressão do RE-alfa em alguns tecidos responsivos a estrógenos, tais como ovário, útero e vagina, durante a abertura de vagina, um evento crítico que marca o início da puberdade em ratas. A expressão de RE-alfa foi avaliada em grupos de ratas Sprague-Dawley sacrificados por decapitação no dia 21 pós-natal (21 DPN) e no dia de abertura de vagina (VA). A expressão de RE-alfa também foi avaliada em um terceiro grupo de ratas com vagina fechada (VF) pareados com animais do grupo VA por idade e(...)por ninhada de origem. Imediatamente após o sacrifício os órgãos-alvo (ovários, útero e vagina) foram removidos e armazenados à - 80°C até o uso. Os órgãos foram pesados ainda congelados, descongelados e homogeneizados (útero e vagina, individualmente, e pool de três ovários do mesmo grupo) antes das análises de SDS-PAGE e Western Blot. As membranas foram incubadas com anticorpo policlonal contra RE-alfa de camundongo (1:200) e posteriormente com anticorpo IgG secundário anti-coelho (1:5000). Diferenças de peso corporal entre os grupos VA e VF foram analisadas pelo teste de Wilcoxon Signed-rank entre animais pareados. Os pesos dos órgãos absolutos foram comparados por ANOVA e pelo teste t de student e as diferenças de peso relativo dos órgãos e densidades de bandas foram avaliados pelo teste de Kruskal Wallis seguido pelo teste U de Mann-Whitney. Em todos os casos a diferença foi considerada como estatisticamente significativa quando p menor ou igual a 0,05. Apesar de terem a mesma idade, e pertencerem à mesma ninhada, as fêmeas do grupo VA estavam mais pesadas que as do grupo VF. Esse fato vem confirmar achados anteriores de diferentes autores sugerindo que o peso corporal e os fatores meólicos desempenham papel fundamental no período da puberdade. Três variantes do RE-alfa - com pesos moleculares aparentes de 64, 56 e 42 kD - foram encontradas nos ovários, útero e vagina. A expressão de todas as três variantes em ovários e úteros, bem como as variantes 64 e 56 kD na vagina, das fêmeas do grupo VA, parece ter sido menor do que em ratas do grupo 21 DPN. Por outro lado, a expressão da variante 42 kD em tecido de vagina de ratas do grupo 21 DPN foi menor do que a expressão nas fêmeas do grupo VA e VF. Nossos resultados sugerem que - com exceção da variante 42 kD na vagina - a expressão de todas as variantes de RE-alfa nos ovários, úteros e vaginas parecem diminuir nas ratas quando ocorre a abertura de vagina