scholarly journals Toxicity and Toxin Composition of the Greater Blue-Ringed Octopus Hapalochlaena lunulata from Ishigaki Island, Okinawa Prefecture, Japan

Toxins ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (5) ◽  
pp. 245 ◽  
Author(s):  
Asakawa ◽  
Matsumoto ◽  
Umezaki ◽  
Kaneko ◽  
Yu ◽  
...  

The toxicity of the greater blue-ringed octopus Hapalochlaena lunulata, whose bite is fatal to humans, was examined to better understand and prevent deaths from accidental bites. Living specimens were collected from tide pools on Ishigaki Island, Okinawa Prefecture, Japan, in November and December of 2015, 2016, and 2017. The specimens were examined for the anatomical distribution of the toxicity, which was expressed in terms of mouse units (MU), by the standard bioassay method for tetrodotoxin (TTX) in Japan. Paralytic toxicity to mice was detected in all of the soft parts. The posterior salivary glands exhibited the highest toxicity score with a maximum level of 9276 MU/g, which was classified as “strongly toxic” (more than 1000 MU/g tissue) according to the classification of toxicity established by the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare of Japan, followed by the hepatopancreas (21.1 to 734.3 MU/g), gonads (not detectable to 167.6 MU/g), arms (5.3 to 130.2 MU/g), and other body areas (17.3 to 107.4 MU/g). Next, the toxin from the salivary glands was partially purified by a Sep-Pak C18 cartridge and an Amicon Ultra Centrifugal Filter with a 3000-Da cut-off, and analyzed by liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (LC-MS) equipped with a φ2.0 × 150-mm (5 μm) TSKgel Amide-80 column (Tosoh, Tokyo, Japan) with a mixture of 16 mM ammonium formate buffer (pH 5.5) and acetonitrile (ratio 3:7, v/v) as a mobile phase. This study aimed to clarify the toxicity and the composition of TTX and its derivatives in this toxic octopus. The main toxin in this toxic octopus was identified as TTX, along with 4-epi TTX, 4, 9-anhydroTTX and 6-epi TTX. Further, the toxicity of this species is also significant from a food hygiene point of view.

Author(s):  
I. R. Khuzina ◽  
V. N. Komarov

The paper considers a point of view, based on the conception of the broad understanding of taxons. According to this point of view, rhyncholites of the subgenus Dentatobeccus and Microbeccus are accepted to be synonymous with the genus Rhynchoteuthis, and subgenus Romanovichella is considered to be synonymous with the genus Palaeoteuthis. The criteria, exercising influence on the different approaches to the classification of rhyncholites, have been analyzed (such as age and individual variability, sexual dimorphism, pathological and teratological features, degree of disintegration of material), underestimation of which can lead to inaccuracy. Divestment of the subgenuses Dentatobeccus, Microbeccus and Romanovichella, possessing very bright morphological characteristics, to have an independent status and denomination to their synonyms, has been noted to be unjustified. An artificial system (any suggested variant) with all its minuses is a single probable system for rhyncholites. The main criteria, minimizing its negative sides and proving the separation of the new taxon, is an available mass-scale material. The narrow understanding of the genus, used in sensible limits, has been underlined to simplify the problem of the passing the view about the genus to the other investigators and recognition of rhyncholites for the practical tasks.


2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 213-218
Author(s):  
OKSANA KOCHKINA ◽  
◽  
OLGA MARCHUK ◽  

The article examines the legal and moral and ethical aspects of a misdemeanor that discredits the honor of an employee of the criminal Executive system. The considered reason for dismissal has the main feature associated with the integration of legal and moral norms, which often raises a lot of questions about the attribution of a particular offense to this basis. Using the analysis of normative legal acts, the authors attempt to identify the signs that contribute to the separation of the studied grounds for dismissal from all their diversity. The classification of offenses that discredit the honor of an employee of the criminal Executive system is presented, which allows to systematize and organize the knowledge obtained about the considered grounds for dismissal. The analysis of a misdemeanor that defames the honor of an employee of the penal system from a moral and ethical position gives an understanding, first of all, that it does not have a clear regulation from the point of view of the law, but the consequences of committing such a misdemeanor are clearly legal. The concepts of “honor” and “dignity” are considered as ethical categories and are analyzed as personal qualities that are manifested in an employee of the penal correction system during the period of service. These categories in the behavior of a person or employee are manifested both externally (assessment from the outside) and internally (self-assessment). The article describes the value orientation of an employee of the criminal Executive system to ethical standards in professional activity, which is an integral part of the moral and ethical side of a misdemeanor that discredits the honor of an employee.


Author(s):  
Zuzana Kvetanová

The submitted study addresses the topic of the current state of the opinion journalism and its genres in the Slovak periodical press. The author draws attention to the question of classification of the opinion journalism of a rational and emotional type from the genre categorization point of view and, simultaneously, reflects on its application in the present journalistic practice. This brings a certain rate of confrontation between the defined theoretical premises and their subsequent practical (non-)implementation. The main objective of the study is to clarify the presence of genres of analytical and literary opinion journalism stated by media theory in the environment of the Slovak periodicals. Presentation of the basic terminological axis and the related explication of journalism genres included in the opinion journalism constitute the secondary objectives of the paper. For the purposes of achieving the set objectives, the author uses methods of logical analysis of text in combination with discourse analysis. Similarly, she predicts the evident presence of the phenomenon of hybridization in the Slovak journalistic practice.


2020 ◽  
pp. 66-74
Author(s):  
E. Zakablukovskiy

The article highlights certain aspects of the discussion on the topic of reductionism vs. holism in the philosophy of medicine. Classic radical reductionism is defeated by the concept of emergence. The s.c. bio-medical point of view on a malady, despite its relevance and clear benefit, is not recognized as universal as its adherents may claim, and it yields to an integral psycho-bio-social model. The author introduces a new classification of holism (vitalistic, social and individualistic) and makes appropriate recommendations to clinicians. It is social holism at the macro level that has proven effective in combating the spread of COVID-19.


2020 ◽  
pp. 65-75
Author(s):  
S. N. Smirnov

The author considers the problems of typification of society. Some concepts of typification of social stratification models in different countries formulated and justified in historical and legal, historical, sociological, and economic scientific literature are reviewed. The circumstances that make it difficult to formulate universal concepts designed for application in the complex of social Sciences are identified. These circumstances include insufficient consideration of legal factors, including the position of the legislator, the specifics of the corporate legal status, and the characteristics of the mechanism for changing individual legal status. The author offers a variant of classification of society types from the point of view of legal registration of their structure. The possibility of distinguishing types such as consolidated companies and segmented companies is justified.


2020 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 243-251
Author(s):  
Akira Horibata ◽  
Tsuneo Kato

AbstractA total of 145 accessions of the genus Citrus and related genera, maintained in the Conservation Garden for Citrus Germplasm at the Experimental Farm of Kindai University, Yuasa, Wakayama, Japan, were examined for their phylogenetic relationships. The present classification was conducted using an inter-retrotransposon amplified polymorphism (IRAP) method based on the insertion polymorphism of a retrotransposon, CIRE1, identified in C. sinensis. The objective of this study was to evaluate the applicability of the IRAP method for citrus classification. The constructed dendrogram showed that the 145 accessions and two outgroup species were successfully classified into five major clades. A large number of C. sinensis accessions were divided into three traditional groups, navel orange, sweet orange, and blood orange, almost corresponding to the sub-clades in the dendrogram. Several other accessions belonging to the same species, and also many hybrid cultivars from crossbreeding, were localized into the respective sub-clades or near positions in the dendrogram. Several unclassified accessions could also be located in the dendrogram, suggesting novel relationships with other accessions. It was concluded that the IRAP method based on CIRE1 insertion polymorphism was suitable for the classification of citrus from a molecular point of view.


2007 ◽  
Vol 17 (06) ◽  
pp. 1801-1910 ◽  
Author(s):  
ELEONORA BILOTTA ◽  
GIANPIERO DI BLASI ◽  
FAUSTO STRANGES ◽  
PIETRO PANTANO

In this article, we conclude our series of papers on the analysis and visualization of Chua attractors and their generalizations. We present a gallery of 144 n-scroll, 15 hyperchaotic and 37 synchronized systems. Along with time series and FFT we provide 3D visualizations; for some attractors we also supply Lyapunov coefficients and fractal dimensions. The goal in constructing our Gallery has been to make the general public aware of the enormous variety of chaotic phenomena and to change the widespread impression that they are isolated rarities. The Gallery provides a valuable collection of images and technical data which can be used to analyze these phenomena and to reproduce them in future studies. From a scientific point of view, we have tried to identify new methodological approaches to the study of chaos, opening nontraditional perspectives on the complexity of this domain. In our papers, we have discussed a broad range of topics, ranging from techniques for visualizing Chua attractors to computational methods allowing us to make a statistical classification of attractors' positions in phase space and to describe the evolutionary processes through which their shapes change over time. We see these processes as analogous to population dynamics in artificial environments. Within these environments, we use experimental methods to identify the models which guide morphogenetic change and which organize genetic landscapes in parameter space. This paper is organized as follows. First, we provide formal descriptions of the attractors generated by n-scroll, hyperchaotic and synchronized systems. The next section describes a Gallery of Chua attractors, generated by gradually varying the parameters and analyzing the resulting bifurcation maps. We then describe software tools allowing us to perform statistical analyses on selected sets of attractors, to visualize them, to explore their organization in phase space, and to conduct experimental investigations of the morphogenetic processes through which a small set of base attractors can generate a broad range of different forms. In the last section, we describe the creation of a Virtual 3D Gallery displaying some of the attractors we have presented in our six papers. The attractors are organized by theme, as they might be in a museum. The environment allows users to explore the attractors, interact with shapes, listen to music and sounds generated by the attractors, change their spatial organization, and create new shapes. To complete the paper — and the series — we propose a number of general conclusions.


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