Selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) are a widely used group of antidepressants (ADs) with reported potential detrimental effects on bone mineral density (BMD) and increased fracture risk. Here, a comprehensive review of the in vitro, in vivo and clinical studies to date was carried out using the medical search engines MEDLINE (1950 to September 2010) and EMBASE (1980 to September 2010). Serotonin (5-HT) receptors have been identified on osteoclast, osteoblast and osteocyte cell lines. The effect of SSRIs on bone formation and resorption appears to be governed by the activation of a number of 5-HT receptors on osteoblasts and osteoclasts via endocrine, autocrine/paracrine and neuronal pathways. In vitro, in vivo and clinical collective data appears to indicate that SSRIs have a negative effect on bone at the therapeutic dose levels widely used for the treatment of depression in current clinical practice. Caution may therefore have to be employed with the use of SSRIs in patients at an increased risk of falls and osteoporosis. Further studies are needed in order to fully elicit the role of SSRIs in bone formation and their effects in the low oestrogen state.

This study was designed to evaluate the effects of elevated fruit and vegetable intake on bone turnover markers. In all, twenty-nine subjects (nine male and twenty female, with a mean age of 32·1 (sem 2·5) years) participated in a 28-week single-arm experimental feeding intervention trial and consumed a prescribed low-fruit and vegetable diet for 6 weeks (depletion-1), a provided high-fruit and vegetable diet for 8 weeks (fruit: 360–560 g; vegetables: 450–705 g), another prescribed low-fruit and vegetable diet for 6 weeks (depletion-2) and then their usual diets for 8 weeks (repletion). Serum bone-related biomarkers were analysed with commercial ELISA kits. Plasma carotenoid levels decreased as a result of the depletion phase and increased with the high-fruit and vegetable diet. Compared with the baseline, depletion-1 resulted in higher serum bone resorption marker C-terminal telopeptide of type 1 collagen (CTX) and lower bone formation marker alkaline phosphatase (BAP) (CTX, 0·68 (sem 0·05) v. 0·97 (sem 0·08) ng/ml and BAP, 10·7 (sem 0·7) v. 9·5 (sem 0·8) µg/l for the baseline and the depletion-1, respectively, P<0·05). High intake of fruit and vegetables decreased serum CTX (P<0·05) to 0·60 (sem 0·04) ng/ml and increased serum BAP to 11·3 (sem 0·7) µg/l (P<0·05), compared with the depletion-1 phase. Serum concentrations of CTX were inversely correlated and those of BAP were positively correlated with blood lycopene. These data show that increased fruit and vegetable consumption at or above federal dietary guidance may be beneficial to bone health.

The occurrence of spheroidal, ovoid or deeply embayed plagioclase inclusions within cumulus bronzite and olivine grains of both pyroxenites and norites here implies the existence of plagioclase feldspar in melts prior to the separation of ultramafic cumulates from these melts. Variations of Sr-isotope initial ratio are shown to exist within the feldspar populations of such rocks, even on a grain-to-grain scale. Five separate stratigraphic intervals within the Lower and Critical Zones exhibit this texture, and in each case these are intervals wherein normal fractionation trends (decline in both whole-rock and orthopyroxene Mg/(Mg+Fe2+); decline in Cr contents of orthopyroxene) became reversed. The data support a model for evolution of the texture during major episodes of influx of hot, primitive magmatic liquid into the chamber. Progressive mixing of the new liquid with resident liquids (bearing feldspar on the liquidus) effected progressive changes in the composition of the hybrid liquids produced, and resorption and imposition of reversed zoning upon the inclusions.

Late Cenozoic basalts of the Bazman volcanic field, Makran volcanic arc of southern Iran, contain two types of plagioclase feldspar phenocrysts with significant textural and compositional differences. The most common type is rather homogeneous with only weak zoning and maximum An content of 83 mol.%. The less common type of phenocryst exhibits complex zoning and, other than rims, is close in composition and similar in texture to those of associated andesites. This type of plagioclase phenocryst is characterized by an engulfed core with oscillatory zoning, which is overgrown by sieve-textured, moderately zoned mantle, and a relatively narrow rim. In both rock types, the An content of the core is between 40 and 63 mol.% with abrupt fluctuations. No significant correlation between An content and MgO, FeO, SrO and BaO is apparent in the core of phenocrysts in basalts. Anorthite content of the core of phenocrysts in andesites inversely correlates with SrO and BaO. The mantle of plagioclase phenocrysts in both rock types is characterized by sharp increases of An (up to 41 mol.%), MgO, and FeO, in the contact with the core. Anorthite correlates positively with MgO and FeO in the mantle, but correlation between An and SrO and BaO is not evident. It is assumed that plagioclase phenocrysts originally crystallizing from the host andesitic magma were interrupted by mixing with a hotter, juvenile basaltic magma. The resulting changes in temperature, composition, and H2O content of the surrounding melt caused compositional zonation, and the development of resorption in the cores and sieve texture in the mantles. As the An contents of the rims of the phenocrysts resemble the average An content of the groundmass plagioclases in both rock types, it is thought that the two involved magmas gained their independent physical identity before the formation of compositionally-distinct rims of plagioclase phenocrysts.

In order to understand the stoichiometric balance between foliar nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) on P-poor soils, we investigated how foliar N and P attributes (i.e. N and P concentrations in green and senesced leaves, N and P resorption efficiencies) of 30 tropical tree species co-vary along a gradient of soil P availability across three forests on Mount Kinabalu, Borneo. We found strong and positive correlations between foliar N and P in the concentrations and resorption efficiencies within each forest and across the three forests. Slopes of standardized major axis between foliar N and P concentrations for both green and senesced leaves were not different among the three forests, although the values of the scaling exponent in the relationships of foliar N to P across the three forests were significantly lower than 1. We suggest that down-regulation of N concentrations in green leaves on P-poor soils is one of several possible mechanisms explaining why N concentrations decrease with decreasing P concentrations in both green and senesced leaves toward a lower P availability in soils. On the other hand, the physiological and ecological reasons why N and P resorption efficiencies are positively correlated with each other across tree species remain unclear.

Maillard products arise from condensation reactions between amino acids or proteins with reducing sugars during food processing. As ubiquitous components of human food, these early or advanced glycation products may be subject to intestinal absorption. The present study was performed to investigate the intestinal uptake of Maillard products and to determine whether they are substrates for peptide and amino acid transporters expressed at the apical membrane of Caco-2 cells. At a concentration of 10mm, Nɛ-(carboxymethyl)-L-lysine, Nα-hippuryl-Nɛ-(1-deoxy-d-fructosyl)-l-lysine,Nα-hippuryl-Nɛ-(carboxymethyl)-L-lysine and Nɛ-(1-deoxy-d-fructosyl)-l-lysine inhibited the [14C]glycylsarcosine uptake mediated by the H+–peptide co-transporter PEPT1 by 13 to 45%.For Nɛ-(1-deoxy-d-fructosyl)-l-lysine, an inhibitory constant of 8·7mm was determined, reflecting a low affinity to PEPT1 in comparison with natural dipeptides. Uptake of l-[3H]lysine was weakly affected by Nɛ-(carboxymethyl)-L-lysine, Nα-hippuryl-l-lysine and Nα-hippuryl-Nɛ-(carboxymethyl)-L-lysine but strongly inhibited by Nɛ-(1-deoxy-d-fructosyl)-l-lysine (81%). None of the Maillard products was able to inhibit the uptake of l-[3H]leucine by more than 15%. We also studied the transepithelial flux of Maillard productsacross Caco-2 cell monolayers cultured on permeable filters. The flux rates of Maillard products ranged from 0·01 to 0·3%/cm2 per h and were shown to be muchlower than those of carrier substrates such as glycylsarcosine, l-proline and the space marker 14C]mannitol. We conclude that the Maillard products investigated in the present study are neither transported by PEPT1 nor by carriers for neutral amino acids. The low transepithelial flux measured for these compounds most probably occurs by simple diffusion.

Nutrient resorption efficiency of woody plants, litterfall and nutrient fluxes were investigated in a burned and an unburned cerrado plot between October 1997 and September 1999. A large experiment (Fire Project, Brasília, Brazil) on the effects of prescribed burnings was initiated in 1992. Cerrado plots were delimited and subjected to different fire regimes. Seasonal trend of litterfall was similar in both plots but the production in the burned plot was 42.2 g m−2 y−1 before the fourth prescribed fire (September 1998) and decreased by 22% 1 y after burning while in the unburned plot it was around 230 gm−2 y−1. Although nutrient concentrations in leaf litter were higher in the burned plot, the nutrient fluxes were 60–80% lower than in the unburned plot. Nutrient use efficiency (ecosystem level) was 4373 for P and 137 for N. Measured resorption efficiency for 10 cerrado species ranged from 14.5 to 37.2% for N and from 40 to 70.4% for P and in general, there were no differences between plots. N is in short supply, partly because of fire history, but the results, both at ecosystem and species levels (mean N/P in fresh leaves was 18), indicated a stronger limitation by P than by N.

Phagocytic resorption during spermatogenesis was studied in the sea urchin Anthocidaris crassispina. Nutritive phagocytes in gonad absorbed both waste sperm cells and residual bodies discarded from maturing spermatids, and these materials were subsequently compartmented in heterophagosomes. Based on 180 heterophagosomes examined by transmission electron microscopy, over 99% of heterophagosomes contained either residual bodies or sperm cells only. Simultaneous resorption of sperm cells and residual bodies in a heterophagosome was uncommon, with only ∼0.56% occurrence, suggesting that heterophagosomes have a selective resorption ability in nutritive phagocytes.

Textural and mineralogical features in the high-K calc-alkaline Kozárovice granodiorite (Hercynian Central Bohemian Pluton, Bohemian Massif) and associated small quartz monzonite masses imply that mixing between acid (granodioritic) and basic (monzonitic/monzogabbroic) magmas was locally petrogenetically significant.

Net veining, with acicular apatite and numerous lath-shaped plagioclase crystals present in the quartz monzonite, and abundant mafic microgranular enclaves (MME) in the granodiorite, indicate that as the monzonitic magma was injected into the granodioritic magma chamber, it rapidly cooled and was partly disintegrated by the melt already present. Evidence from cathodoluminescence suggests that the two magmas exchanged early-formed plagioclase crystals. In the quartz monzonite, granodiorite-derived crystals were overgrown by narrow calcic zones, followed by broad, normally zoned sodic rims. In the granodiorite, plagioclase crystals with calcic cores overgrown by normally zoned sodic rims are interpreted as xenocrysts from the monzonite. After thermal adjustment, crystallisation of the monzonitic magma ceased relatively slowly, forming quartz and K-feldspar oikocrysts.

Although the whole-rock geochemistry of the quartz monzonite and the MME support magma mixing, major- and trace-element based modelling of the host granodiorite has previously indicated an origin dominated by assimilation and fractional crystallisation. Magma mixing therefore seems to represent a local modifying influence rather than the primary petrogenetic process.

Some factors affecting oviposition by Plodia interpunctella (Hubner) were studied under various controlled conditions in the laboratory. The effect of temperature, relative humidity, light and mating on oviposition were investigated.

Temperatures of 25 and 30°C were optimal for oviposition. The best condition was 30°C and 80% r.h. at which an average of 315.3 eggs were laid per female during its lifetime. The least favourable temperatures investigated were 15 and 35°C. Relative humidity did not have significant effect on the number of eggs laid at 15 and 25°C but at higher temperatures of 30 and 35°C, high r.h. increased the number of eggs laid by individual moths.

Light regimes of 12 hr light and 12hr darkness (LD) and 24 hr darkness (DD) were more favourable than 24 hr light (LL) for oviposition.

Virgin females laid fewer eggs than mated females while prolonged virginity reduced the number of eggs laid and caused resorption of immature oocytes and retention of ripe eggs in the ovaries.

In general, it has not been recognized that many twin or multiple gestations are lost in utero early in pregnancy. Until the advent of ultrasound, the ability to document early human fetal loss in multiple gestation was difficult. However, recent reports of serial ultrasound examinations of pregnant women have documented the “disappearance” of at least one of two gestational rings. Furthermore, the number of twins observed at delivery was significantly less than the number of twin conceptions originally identified by ultrasound during the first trimester. These observations led to the concept of the “vanishing twin” [8,10,13,15,17,20,22,35,41].

In order to obtain reference and personal data on this subject, we reviewed the literature and corresponded with members of the International Society for Twin Studies and obstetricians affiliated with Northwestern University Medical School, Chicago, Illinois. The nine studies that have documented this phenomenon cite “disappearance” rates ranging from 0% to 78%, depending on patient population and timing of ultrasonography [8,10,13,15,17,20,22,35,41]. Several explanations are offered: physiological mechanisms of “disappearance” (resorption or formation of a blighted ovum or fetus papyraceus), artifactual error, incomplete scanning technique, and poor quality ultrasound equipment. The only complication thus far associated with “disappearance” of a fetus is slight vaginal bleeding.