Giant tortoise

Giant tortoises are any of several species of various large land tortoises, which include a number of extinct species, as well as a few living species formerly common on the islands of the western Indian Ocean and on the Galápagos Islands.
History.
As of February 2021, giant tortoises are found on two remote groups of tropical islands: Aldabra Atoll and Fregate Island in the Seychelles and the Galápagos Islands in Ecuador. These tortoises can weigh as much as and can grow to be long. Giant tortoises originally made their way to islands from the mainland via oceanic dispersal. Tortoises are aided in such dispersal by their ability to float with their heads up and to survive for up to six months without food or fresh water. Giant tortoises were once all placed in a single genus (often referred to as "Testudo" or "Geochelone"), but more recent studies have shown that giant tortoises represent several distinct lineages that are not closely related to one another. These lineages appear to have developed large size independently and, as a result, giant tortoises are polyphyletic. For example, the Aldabra Atoll ("Aldabrachelys") and Mascarenes ("Cylindraspis") giant tortoises are related to Malagasy tortoises ("Asterochelys") while the Galapagos giant tortoises are related to South American mainland tortoises, particularly the Chaco tortoise ("Chelonoidis chiliensis"). Giant tortoises are classified into several distinct genera, including "Aldabrachelys", "Centrochelys" (in part, often excluding the extant African spurred tortoise ("Centrochelys sulcata")), "Chelonoidis" (in part), †"Cylindraspis," †"Hesperotestudo," †"Megalochelys and" †"Titanochelon".
The phenomenon of animal species evolving in cache to unusually large size on islands (in comparison to continental relatives) is known as island gigantism or insular gigantism. This may occur due to factors such as relaxed predation pressure, competitive release, or as an adaptation to increased environmental fluctuations on islands. However, giant tortoises are no longer considered to be classic examples of island gigantism, as similarly massive tortoises are now known to have once been widespread. Giant tortoises were formerly common (prior to the Quaternary extinctions) across the Cenozoic faunas of Eurasia, Africa and the Americas.
Giant tortoises are notably absent from Australia and the South Pacific. However, extinct giant horned turtles (Meiolaniidae) likely filled a similar niche, with Late Pleistocene-Holocene meiolaniid species being known from Australia, New Caledonia, Lord Howe Island, Vanuatu, and the Fijian Archipelago. The identity of the Vanuatu meiolaniid has been controversial, however, with some studies concluding the remains actually belong to a giant tortoise, which are otherwise unknown from this region. Older (Early Miocene) meiolaniids are also known from the St. Bathans fauna in New Zealand.
Although often considered examples of island gigantism, prior to the arrival of "Homo sapiens" giant tortoises also occurred in non-island locales, as well as on a number of other, more accessible islands. During the Pleistocene, and mostly during the last 50,000 years, tortoises of the mainland of southern Asia (†"Megalochelys atlas"), North America (†"Hesperotestudo" spp.) and South America ("Chelonoidis" spp.), Indonesia, Madagascar (†"Aldabrachelys") and even the island of Maltaall became extinct. Giant tortoises (†"Titanochelon") also inhabited mainland Europe until the Early Pleistocene (2.0 Mya). The giant tortoises formerly of Africa died out somewhat earlier, during the Late Pliocene. While the timing of the disappearances of various extinct giant tortoise species seems to correlate with the arrival of humans, direct evidence for human involvement in these extinctions is usually lacking; however, such evidence has been obtained in the case of the distantly-related giant meiolaniid turtle "Meiolania damelipi" in Vanuatu. One interesting relic is the shell of an extinct giant tortoise found in a submerged sinkhole in Florida with a wooden spear piercing through it, carbon dated to 12,000 years ago. Today, only one of the species of the Indian Ocean survives in the wild; the Aldabra giant tortoise (two more are claimed to exist in captive or re-released populations, but some genetic studies have cast doubt on the validity of these as separate species) and 10 extant species in the Galápagos.
Life expectancy.
Giant tortoises are among the world's longest-living animals, with an average lifespan of 100 years or more. The Madagascar radiated tortoise Tu'i Malila was 188 at her death in Tonga in 1965. Harriet (initially thought to be one of the three Galápagos tortoises brought back to England from Charles Darwin's "Beagle" voyage, but later shown to be from an island not even visited by Darwin) was reported by the Australia Zoo to be 176 years old when she died in 2006. Also, on 23 March 2006, an Aldabra giant tortoise named Adwaita died at the Alipore Zoological Gardens in Kolkata. He was brought to the zoo in the 1870s from the estate of Lord Clive and is thought to have been around 255 years old when he died. Around the time of its discovery, they were caught for food in such large numbers that they became virtually extinct by 1900. Giant tortoises are now protected by strict conservation laws and are categorized as threatened species.
Aldabra giant tortoise.
The Aldabra giant tortoise lives on the remote Aldabra Atoll, one of the Seychelles group of islands in the Indian Ocean.
Distribution and habitat.
Aldabra giant tortoises have large dome-shaped shells in order to protect their delicate bodies that lie beneath their shells. They also have long necks in order to eat leaves from the higher branches of trees. The males, although not much bigger than the females, weigh nearly 100 kg (220 lbs) more. They move slowly and have small, thick legs and round, almost flat feet that assist them in walking on sand.
The Aldabra giant tortoise mainly inhabits grasslands and swamps on Aldabra Atoll's islands, which form a part of the Seychelles island chain in the Indian Ocean. In the past, they shared the islands with multiple other giant tortoise species, but many of them were hunted to extinction in the 1700s and 1800s. Despite the fact that they are usually found in regions of dense low-lying vegetation, they have been known to wander into areas with more sparse vegetation and rocks when food is scarce. They can also be seen resting in shaded areas or shallow pools of water in order to cool themselves on hot days. Aldabra giant tortoises tend to spend their lives grazing, but will cover surprising distances in search of food and have also been observed on bare rock and thin soil. They can drink from very shallow pools through their nostrils; the former genus "Dipsochelys" refers to this adaptation.
Canary Islands giant tortoises.
Remains have been found in the Canary Islands of two extinct species of large tortoises: the Tenerife giant tortoise ("Centrochelys burchardi") and the Gran Canaria giant tortoise ("Centrochelys vulcanica"). These species are believed to have died out due to volcanic eruptions.
The Canary Islands tortoises were similar to those currently found in the Galapagos and Seychelles. "C. burchardi" had a larger shell, with a length of approximately 65 to 94 cm, while "G. vulcanica" had a 61 cm long shell.
The remains date mostly to the Miocene. It is believed that these species survived until the Late Pleistocene.
Galápagos giant tortoises.
The closest living relative of the Galápagos giant tortoise is the small Chaco tortoise from South America, although it is not a direct ancestor. Scientists believe the first tortoises arrived to the Galápagos 2–3 million years ago by drifting 600 miles from the South American coast on vegetation rafts or on their own. They were already large animals before arriving in the Galápagos. Colonizing the easternmost islands of Española and San Cristóbal first, they then dispersed throughout the archipelago, eventually establishing about 16 separate populations on 10 of the largest of the Galápagos Islands. Currently, there are only 10 species of Galápagos giant tortoises left of the original 16 species. During the 16th and 17th centuries, the Galápagos were frequented by buccaneers preying on Spanish treasure ships. Filling a ship's hold with tortoises was an easy way to stock up on food, a tradition that was continued by whalers in the centuries that followed: "whaling skippers were almost lyrical in their praise of tortoise meat, terming it far more delicious than chicken, pork or beef". They said the meat of the giant tortoise was 'succulent meat and the oil from their bodies as pure as butter, but best of all, the giants could hibernate in a ship's damp for a year or more." The tortoises also conveniently held water in their necks that could be used as drinking water.
These buccaneers took giant tortoises not only because of their meat and oil but because of their incredible adaption that allows these animals to survive one year without food or water. Once buccaneers, whalers and fur sealers discovered that they could have fresh meat for their long voyages by storing live giant tortoises in the holds of their ships, massive exploitation of the species began. Tortoises were also exploited for their oil, which was used to light the lamps of Quito. Two centuries of exploitation resulted in the loss of between 100,000 and 200,000 tortoises. Three species have been extinct for some time, and a fourth species lost its last member, Lonesome George, in June 2012. In February 2019, a tortoise species once thought to have been extinct since 1906, the Fernandina giant tortoise, was discovered on its namesake island in the Galápagos. It is estimated that 20,000–25,000 wild tortoises live on the islands today.
Distribution and habitat.
Galápagos tortoises are herbivorous, feeding primarily on cactus pads, grasses, and native fruit. They drink large quantities of water when available that they can store in their bladders for long periods of time. There are two main types of shell among them, the saddle-backed shell and the domed shell. They both provide special adaption to different environments. The saddle-backed tortoises are the smallest Galápagos tortoises, but present a very long neck and pairs of legs. They live on arid zone and feed on cactus. The domed tortoises are bigger with shorter neck and legs, they are found in the more vegetated islands and feed on grass.
They spend an average of 16 hours a day resting. Their activity level is driven by ambient temperature and food availability. In the cool season, they are active at midday, sleeping in in the morning and afternoon. In the hot season, their active period is early morning and late afternoon, while midday finds them resting and trying to keep cool under the shade of a bush or half-submerged in muddy wallows.
Life cycle.
Tortoises breed primarily during the hot season from January to May; however, tortoises can be seen mating any month of the year. During the cool season (June to November), female tortoises migrate to nesting zones, which are generally located in low lands of the islands, to lay their eggs. A female can lay from 1–4 nests over a nesting season from June to December. She digs the hole with her hind feet, then lets the eggs drop down into the nest, and finally covers it again with her hind feet. The number of eggs ranges from 2 to 7 for saddle-backed tortoises to sometimes more than 20 to 25 eggs for domed tortoises. The eggs incubate from 110 to 175 days (incubation periods depend on the month the clutch was produced, with eggs laid early in the cool season requiring longer incubation periods than eggs laid at the end of the cool season, when the majority of their incubation will occur at the start of the hot season). After hatching, the young hatchlings remain in the nest for a few weeks before emerging out a small hole adjacent to the nest cap. Usually, the temperature of the nest influences on the sex of the hatchling. Warm temperatures would yield more females, while colder temperatures would yield more males.
Mascarenes giant tortoises.
The Mascarene Islands of Mauritius, Réunion and Rodrigues once harboured five species of giant tortoise, comprising two species occurring on Mauritius, another two on Rodrigues, and one on Réunion. The tortoises were unique to these islands and had gained a number of special adaptations in the absence of ground predators. They differed from any other giant tortoise species because of their modified jaws, reduced scales on the legs and shells averaging just 1mm thick. The shells of the giant tortoises were open-ended; the name "Cylindraspis" actually means "cylinder-shaped". This was a specific adaptation in response to the lack of predators, where thick, heavily armored shells were no longer necessary.
Around the 16th century, with human arrival and the subsequent introduction of domestic animals, particularly pigs, the tortoises were rapidly hunted to extinction. Unfortunately, the thin shells were of no protection against these new invaders; rats, cats and pigs devoured the eggs and young and thousands were collected alive for provisioning ships. Sometimes they were even hunted for their oil, which was very valuable around that time because it provided a cure for many ailments, including scurvy.
On Mauritius, the giant tortoise disappeared from the main island by the end of the 17th century and the very last tortoises survived until the 1730s on the islets in the north. Around the late 1800s, large number of tortoise bones were discovered in the Mare aux Songes excavations. These resulted in the description of the two species of giant tortoise endemic to Mauritius, the Mauritius saddle-backed ("Cylindraspis inepta") and the Mauritius domed ("Cylindraspis triserrata").
Today, the only remains from these five species are a number of fossil bones and shells, a few drawings of live animals and one stuffed Rodrigues saddle-backed giant tortoise in France's National Museum of Natural History.


Hypsibius vaskelae

Hypsibius vaskelae is a species of tardigrade in the class Eutardigrada. The species was described from a freshwater sample near Saint Petersburg, Russia. It has wrinkled cuticle and cuticular bars between the bases of its claws on the first four legs. The species most closely resembles "Hypsibius marcelli" and "Hypsibius septulatus", although has a wrinkled dorsal cuticle, thinner claws, and presence of lunules on the claws of all legs.


Dasydytidae

Dasydytidae is a family of gastrotrichs in the order Chaetonotida.


Chrysopetalum

Chrysopetalum is a genus of polychaete worms.
Genus description.
Feet uniramose, furnished with only one tuft of setae. Headlobe with four or (?) two eyes, a tentacle, two antennae, and two palpi. The first segment of body provided with four cirri on
each side ; the succeeding segments with a cirrus on each side. Body nearly as broad as long. Branchiae placed on each seg- ment, on each side of body, disposed in a fan-shaped row of flat setae or paleae. Paleae broad and rather short.
"Chrysopetalum elegans" is a synonym for "Bhawania goodei".


Elephantoidea

Elephantoidea is a taxonomic group that contains the elephants as well as their closest extinct relatives. The following cladogram shows the relationships among elephantoids, based on hyoid characteristics:


Basophil cell

An anterior pituitary basophil is a type of cell in the anterior pituitary which manufactures hormones.
It is called a basophil because it is basophilic (readily takes up bases), and typically stains a relatively deep blue or purple.
These basophils are further classified by the hormones they produce. (It is usually not possible to distinguish between these cell types using standard staining techniques.)
B-FLAT for Basophils: FSH, LH, ACTH, TSH


Nasal scale

In reptiles, the nasal scale refers to the scale that encloses the nostril.
Sometimes this scale is paired (divided). In such cases, the anterior half is referred to as the prenasal and the posterior half is referred to as the postnasal.
Supranasal scales are located above the nasal scale.


Barry James Thompson

Barry James Thompson (born 1978) is an Australian and British developmental biologist and cancer biologist. He is a professor of the John Curtin School of Medical Research at the Australian National University in Canberra. Thompson is known for identifying genes, proteins and mechanisms involved in epithelial polarity, morphogenesis and cell signaling via the Wnt and Hippo signaling pathways, which have key roles in human cancer.
Early life and education.
Barry Thompson was born in 1978 into a British-Australian family. He was raised on the Atherton Tableland and in Brisbane in the state of Queensland (Australia). He attended Atherton State Primary School and Brisbane State High School and graduated as school Dux in 1995.
Scientific career.
Thompson became interested in developmental biology and the control of tissue growth in 2000 when studying BSc(Hons) at the University of Queensland's Institute for Molecular Biology (IMB) with Professor Michael Waters.
He earned his PhD degree at the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology and University of Cambridge (United Kingdom), where he studied the Wnt signaling pathway in Drosophila melanogaster with Dr Mariann Bienz.
He then moved to Germany to work at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory with Prof Stephen M Cohen. There he studied the role of the Hippo signaling pathway during Drosophila development.
In 2007, Thompson was a visiting scientist at the Research Institute of Molecular Pathology in Vienna (Austria), where he worked in the laboratory of Dr Barry Dickson to perform a genome-wide in vivo RNAi screen in Drosophila. In 2008, Thompson established his own laboratory at the Cancer Research UK London Research Institute, which became part of the Francis Crick Institute in 2015. In 2019, Thompson was appointed Professor at the John Curtin School of Medical Research at the Australian National University.
Research areas.
Epithelial cell polarity.
His laboratory works on the molecular mechanisms of epithelial polarity, including both apical-basal polarity and planar cell polarity, using Drosophila melanogaster epithelial tissues as an experimental model system. His laboratory discovered that apical-basal polarisation of the transmembrane protein Crumbs - a key apical determinant - depends upon both a Cdc42-driven positive feedback loop as well as mutual antagonism between apical and basolateral determinants. The Cdc42-driven positive feedback loop involves recruitment of Cdc42 complexes by Crumbs, followed by Cdc42-mediated polarisation of the cytoskeleton, including both actin filaments and microtubules, that allow transport of Crumbs-containing vesicles by the microtubule motor protein Dynein and the actin motor protein Myosin-V. How Cdc42 polarises the cytoskeleton remains an important unsolved problem, but Cdc42 appears to act primarily via activating the kinases aPKC and Pak1 in Drosophila follicle cells.
His laboratory also discovered that planar cell polarisation of the atypical myosin Dachs by the Fat and Dachsous cadherins is responsible for polarising tension at adherens junctions and thus influencing the orientation of cell shapes and cell divisions within the plane of the epithelium. His lab subsequently found that this involved recruitment of the ubiquitin ligase FbxL7 to Fat, in order to degrade Dachs on one side of the cell, such that Dachs binds to Dachsous on the opposite side of the cell.
Epithelial cell division and spindle orientation.
Thompson's laboratory found that cell divisions in epithelia can also be oriented by mechanical forces arising from adjacent tissues growing at different rates. In order for the mitotic spindle to orient in response to planar forces, highly columnar pseudostratified epithelial cells must round up at mitosis in a process that involves the Aurora A and B kinases, activation of Rho-mediated actomyosin contractility, remodelling of adherens junctions, and removal of the Lgl protein from the plasma membrane to allow spindle orienting factors to interact with Dlg/Scrib proteins and thereby align the spindle within the plane of the epithelium.
Epithelial morphogenesis.
While epithelial cell polarity and cell proliferation are fundamental to the construction of an epithelium, and can influence the form of the entire tissue, epithelial morphogenesis also depends fundamentally on anchorage to the extracellular matrix (ECM). Thompson's lab showed that synthesis and enzymatic remodelling of the ECM were crucial to the shaping of Drosophila melanogaster tissues, particularly for formation of the adult fly wings, legs and halteres during metamorphosis.
Hippo signaling.
Thompson's lab discovered several components of the Hippo signaling pathway in Drosophila melanogaster (including Kibra, Spectrins, Mask) and that this pathway functions to sense mechanical strain during development of epithelial cells in vivo, as well as to sense nutritional status via the hormonal Insulin/IGF-1 and PI3K-Akt pathway, in order to control cell proliferation, cellular morphology, and invasive cell migration. His lab has also had a major interest in the role of the Hippo pathway in mammals, including humans, where (unlike Drosophila) the pathway also responds to input from Integrin-Src family kinase signals to enable the mechanical control of epithelial cell proliferation and tissue regeneration, .


Juxtamedullary nephron


Siphonostomites

Siphonostomites hesionoides is a species of polychaete annelid known only from subtidal lagoon deposits from the Early Eocene of Monte Bolca, Verona, Italy.
It has a fusiform body with chaetae along its length, decreasing in length towards front and rear.
History of classification.
Originally described as an alga, 19th century palaeontologists lumped Siphonostomites into wastebasket 'worm' taxa such as "Nereites" or "Eunicites". Roverto (1904) formally established the separate genus, without illustration; a full description was not provided until Alessandrello's 1990 work.
It was considered in the 1962 Treatise to belong to the Flabelligeridae (the current name for Chloraemidae), though this designation is treated with some scepticism by modern experts.


Chondrilla nucula

Chondrilla nucula, sometimes called the Caribbean Chicken-liver sponge, is a species of sea sponge belonging to the family Chondrillidae.
It is an amorphous shaped sponge that grows in flat, sometimes bulbous sheets in benthic communities. It is sometimes found in marginal, stressful systems such as caves. Such sponges are white, lacking access to sunlight, and photosymbionts. It is known to be preyed upon by the hawksbill turtle, "Eretmochelys imbricata".


Malacologia

Malacologia is a peer-reviewed scientific journal in the field of malacology, the study of mollusks. The journal publishes articles in the fields of molluscan systematics, ecology, population ecology, genetics, molecular genetics, evolution, and phylogenetics.
The journal specializes in publishing long papers and monographs. The journal publishes at least one, sometimes two, volumes of about 400 pages per year, which may consist of 1 or 2 issues. According to the "Journal Citation Reports," its 2019 impact factor is 13.5. This ranks "Malacologia" 1st out of 145 listed journals in the category "Zoology". The journal started publication in 1962.


Hypechiniscus

Hypechiniscus is a genus of tardigrades in the family Echiniscidae. It was named and described by Gustav Thulin in 1928.
Species.
The genus includes the following species:


Occupational lung disease

Occupational lung diseases are occupational, or work-related, lung conditions that have been caused or made worse by the materials a person is exposed to within the workplace. It includes a broad group of diseases, including occupational asthma, industrial bronchitis, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), bronchiolitis obliterans, inhalation injury, interstitial lung diseases (such as pneumoconiosis, hypersensitivity pneumonitis, lung fibrosis), infections, lung cancer and mesothelioma. These diseases can be caused directly or due to immunological response to an exposure to a variety of dusts, chemicals, proteins or organisms.
Occupational cases of interstitial lung disease may be misdiagnosed as COPD, idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, or a myriad of other diseases; leading to a delay in identification of the causative agent.
Types of occupational lung diseases.
Asthma.
Asthma is a respiratory disease that can begin or worsen due to exposure at work and is characterized by episodic narrowing of the respiratory tract. Occupational asthma has a variety of causes, including sensitization to a specific substance, causing an allergic response; or a reaction to an irritant that is inhaled in the workplace. Exposure to various substances can also worsen pre-existing asthma. People who work in isocyanate manufacturing, who use latex gloves, or who work in an indoor office environment are at higher risk for occupational asthma than the average US worker. Approximately 2 million people in the US have occupational asthma.
Bronchiolitis obliterans.
Bronchiolitis obliterans, also known as constrictive bronchiolitis or obliterative bronchiolitis is a respiratory disease caused by injury to the smallest airways, called bronchioles. It has been reported to occur from exposure to inhaled toxins and gases including sulfur mustard gas, nitrogen oxides, diacetyl (used in many food and beverage flavorings), 2,3-pentanedione, fly ash and fiberglass.
COPD.
Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease is a respiratory disease that can encompass chronic bronchitis and/or emphysema. 15% of the cases of COPD in the United States can be attributed to occupational exposure, including exposure to silica and coal dust. People who work in mining, construction, manufacturing (specifically textiles, rubber, plastic, and leather), building, and utilities are at higher risk for COPD than the average US worker.
Hypersensitivity pneumonitis.
Hypersensitivity pneumonitis (HP; also called allergic alveolitis, bagpipe lung, or extrinsic allergic alveolitis, EAA) is an inflammation of the alveoli within the lung caused by hypersensitivity to inhaled organic dusts.
Lung cancer.
Numerous categories of ionizing radiation, chemicals and mixtures, occupational exposures, metals, dust and fibers have been linked to occurrence of lung cancer.
Mesothelioma.
Mesothelioma is a cancer of the mesothelium, part of which is the pleura, the lining of the lungs. Mesothelioma is caused by exposure to asbestos.
Pneumoconiosis.
Pneumoconiosis are occupational lung diseases that are caused due to accumulation of dust in the lungs and body's reaction to its presence. Most common pneumoconiosis are silicosis, coal workers’ pneumoconiosis (CWP), and asbestosis. Other examples include minerals (such kaolin, talc, mica), beryllium lung disease, hard metal disease and silicon carbide pneumoconiosis.
Smoke Inhalation.
Inhaling smoke and other byproducts of combustion can cause pulmonary injury. A third of all burn victims admitted to a hospital are affected with pulmonary injury from inhaling smoke and fatality from inhalation injuries is higher than burn injuries - mortality exceeds 50% for burn victims with severe burn and inhalation injury. Tissue oxygenation is significantly affected and thermal injury to the upper airways, lower airways, and lung parenchyma occurs.
poor tissue oxygenation is a life-threatening conditions and results from inhaling carbon monoxide, cyanide, a gas mixtures devoid of  oxygen, or from an imbalance between alveolar ventilation and blood supply.
Carbon monoxide is a colorless and odorless gas, which can interfere with and impede respiration. Oxygen’s tendency to bind with hemoglobin is 250 times less than carbon monoxide, severely reducing the quantity of circulating oxygen and limiting tissue oxygenation in carbon monoxide poisoning. Exposure can be deliberate (suicidal) or accidental and can come from automobile exhaust pipes, inhaling smoke during a fire accident, and poorly vented gas heaters, generators, and other appliances.
Cyanide is inhaled into the lungs in gaseous form – as hydrogen cyanide. It is a highly toxic chemical often used in industries and in laboratories. In some plants such as in pits of apricots, cyanide can be found as glycosides can synthesize cyanide.
Cyanide is produced when nitroprusside is broken down into its constituents. Rapid infusion of high-dose cyanide cause cyanide poisoning. Finger nail glue remover products contain acetonitrile and its metabolic break down produces cyanide. Cyanide can enter the body via inhalation, diffuse through the skin, or when ingested. It inhibits cells from properly utilizing oxygen by disrupting cytochrome oxidase.
Pulmonary Aspiration Syndromes.
Deglutition is the main cause for minute food and fluid to get aspirated into the lungs. Impaired consciousness and esophageal disorders can cause deglutition.
Acute Aspiration of Gastric Content (Mendelson Syndrome): pulmonary response to aspirated content depend on the quantity and constituent of aspirated gastric content. Chemical pneumonitis is severe if aspirated content is acidic and aspirated gastric acid – pH less than 2.5 – can inflame bronchial epithelium and cause bronchiolitis, hemorrhagen, and pulmonary edema.
Chronic Aspiration of Gastric Contents: disorders of the larynx and the esophagus are major causes of chronic aspiration of gastric content – achalasia, esophageal stricture, systemic sclerosis (scleroderma), esophageal carcinoma, esophagitis, and gastro-esophageal reflux. Pulmonary aspiration can result when the lower intestinal sphincter relax and spill out gastric content into the esophagus.
Smoking, consuming alcohol or caffeine, and the drug theophylline used in asthma patients are known to cause lower intestinal sphincter relaxation. Gastro-esophageal reflux and chronic aspiration are associated with few pulmonary disorders: asthma, chronic cough, bronchiectasis, and pulmonary fibrosis.
Difficulty swallowing, ageing, dental problems impeding proper chewing, consuming alcohol, and taking sedatives cause café coronary, obstruction of the upper airways by food particles.
Retaining an Aspirated Foreign Body: poor clearance of aspirated material out of the tracheobronchial tree can result in acute and chronic conditions including atelectasis, post obstructive hyperinflation, acute and recurrent pneumonia, bronchiectasis, and lung abscesses. Retained aspirated foreign body can sometimes get misdiagnosed as asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), or lung cancer
Aspirating an Inert Material: aspirating large inert material coupled with an impaired cough can cause asphyxia
Hydrocarbon Pneumonitis: secondary aspiration following vomiting ingested petroleum products – gasoline, kerosene, furniture polish, and other petroleum products used around home environment – can injure lungs and result in hydrocarbon pneumonitis
Lipoid Pneumonia: is a chronic disorder common among older people who have difficulty swallowing, with aspiration of oily material - mineral oil, cod liver oil, and oily nose drops - as its mains cause
Occupational environmental exposure.
Arsenic.
Arsenic is classified as an IARC Group 1 carcinogen and is a cause of lung cancer. Workers can be exposed to arsenic through work with some pesticides or in copper smelting.
Asbestos.
Asbestos is a mineral which was extensively used in the United States to fireproof buildings and textiles, among other items, in the 1950s-1980s. Workers are frequently exposed to asbestos during demolition and renovation work, which can cause asbestosis and/or mesothelioma. Asbestos exposure can also cause pleural effusion, diffuse pleural fibrosis, pleural plaques, and non-mesothelioma lung cancer. Smoking greatly increases the lung cancer risk of asbestos exposure.
Residents and workers of asbestos mining centers such as the town of Asbest, Russia suffer dangerous exposure to asbestos and asbestos dust.
BCME.
BCME (Bis(chloromethyl) ether) is associated with small cell lung cancer in workers who have been exposed. Exposure can occur via direct manufacture of BCME or its presence as a byproduct.
Beryllium.
Beryllium is classified as an IARC Group 1 carcinogen and can also cause interstitial lung disease. Manufacturing workers, dental technicians, machinists, jewelers, plumbers, electricians, precious metal reclamation workers, and welders are at risk for beryllium exposure.
Cadmium.
Cadmium is classified as an IARC Group 1 carcinogen and it is a cause of several cancers, including lung cancer. Workers can be exposed to cadmium through welding, zinc smelting, copper smelting, lead smelting, electroplating, battery manufacture, plastics manufacture, and in alloying.
Chromium.
Chromium is classified as an IARC Group 1 carcinogen and is linked to lung cancer. Workers can be exposed to chromium via welding, steel manufacturing, pigment/dye manufacturing, and electroplating.
Coal dust.
Exposure to coal dust is the cause of coalworker's pneumoconiosis, also called "black lung disease", is an interstitial lung disease caused by long-term exposure (over 10 years) to coal dust. Symptoms include shortness of breath and lowered pulmonary function. It can be fatal when advanced. Between 1970–1974, prevalence of CWP among US coal miners who had worked over 25 years was 32%; the same group saw a prevalence of 9% in 2005–2006. It can also exacerbate or cause COPD.
Diesel exhaust.
Diesel exhaust contains a variety of gaseous and particulate chemicals, including soot, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, and other known carcinogens.
Flock.
Flocking is the technique of adding small pieces of nylon or other material to a backing, usually a textile, to create a contrasting texture. Inhalation of flock can cause flock worker's lung.
Indium lung.
Indium lung is an interstitial lung disease caused by occupational exposure to indium tin oxide.
Nanoparticles.
The high surface area to volume ratio of nanoparticles may make them an inhalation hazard for workers exposed to them. This is a topic of ongoing research as of 2015.
Nickel.
Nickel is classified by the IARC as a Group 1 carcinogen; nickel compound exposure is associated with nasal cancer as well as lung cancer. Workers may be exposed to nickel in machining/grinding industry, nickel extraction/production, welding, and electroplating.
Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons.
Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), fused-ring chemicals formed during the combustion of fossil fuels, are metabolized by the cytochrome P450 complex to highly reactive carbocations, which can mutate DNA and cause cancer. Workers may be exposed to PAHs while working in a foundry, in the roofing industry, or due to environmental tobacco smoke.
Silica.
Exposure to silica can cause Silicosis, which is a fibrosing interstitial lung disease caused by inhaling fine particles of silica, most commonly in the form of quartz or cristobalite. Short-term exposures of large amounts of silica or long-term (10 years or more) exposure of lower levels of silica can cause silicosis. In 1968, more than 1060 US workers died of silicosis; this number fell to 170 by 2005.
Besides causing silicosis, inhalation of silica can cause or exacerbate COPD. It can also impair lung function in general and cause cancer by oxidation damage. It is classified as a "known human carcinogen" (Group 1 carcinogen) by the IARC. Exposure is common for people working in tunneling, quarrying, construction, sandblasting, roadway repair, mining, and foundry work.
Silo-filler's disease.
Silo-filler's disease (not to be confused with farmer's lung associated with inhalation of biologic dusts) results from inhalation of nitrogen dioxide (NO2) gas from fresh silage. The presentation is variable depending on level of exposure. Often the gas penetrates throughout the lung and if severe can manifest as a form of acute respiratory distress syndrome, such as significant pulmonary edema, hyalinized alveolar membranes, congestion and other respiratory illnesses.
Tobacco smoke.
Tobacco smoke is a known carcinogen. Workers in the hospitality industry may be exposed to tobacco smoke in the workplace, especially in environments like casinos and bars/restaurants.
Infectious exposure.
Influenza.
Health care professionals are at risk of occupational influenza exposure; during a pandemic influenza, anyone in a close environment is at risk, including those in an office environment.
Tuberculosis.
Tuberculosis is a lung disease endemic in many parts of the world. Health care professionals and prison guards are at high risk for occupational exposure to tuberculosis, since they work with populations with high rates of the disease.
Others.
World Trade Center lung.
World Trade Center lung is a cluster of diseases caused by exposure to fallout at Ground Zero of the September 11 attacks in 2001. These diseases include asthma, asthmatic bronchitis, terminal airways disease, sarcoidosis, and acute eosinophilic pneumonia.


Histology Group of Victoria

History.
The current Histology Group of Victoria & Tasmania Inc. has evolved from a group which was created several years ago, driven by a committee predominantly comprising senior Histology personnel throughout Melbourne.
The original committee comprised President: Tristan Roberts; Vice President: Sue Sturrock; Treasurer: John Mills; Secretary: Alan Sutton; Committee: Clare Christian; Irene Giouzeppos; Piero Nelva; Mike Rentsch; Clyde Riley; Ruth Wilkinson; Jane Witte.
Their intent was to create a histology group which catered to the needs of all people with an interest in histology. This does not just mean medical scientists, which is why it was felt necessary to be independent of AIMS (Australian Institute of Medical Scientists) Histology Discussion group. AIMS, like AACB (Australian Association of Clinical Biochemists) and ASM (Australian Society of Microbiologists), but unlike AACB and ASM, the primary concern is for local members, those in Victoria. Being affiliated with AIMS, however, has proven to be of mutual benefit to both organisations.
In 1998, with Tristan Roberts at the helm, the Histology Group of Victoria (affectionately known as the HGV) became an incorporated group. The HGV Inc. still remains a non-profit organisation with over 500 members subscribing to its bi-monthly newsletter "Paraffinalia".
Activities.
The HGV runs a number of educational scientific meetings throughout the year as well as social events.
In 2007 the HGV "gossip" column "Embed with Madonna" was "retired" from the Bi-monthly newsletter Paraffinalia.
Travelling Europe was the reason given for Madonna's "retirement". Madonna's farewell column was published in the June 2007 edition of Paraffinalia.


Veil (mycology)

A veil or velum, in mycology, is one of several structures in fungi, especially the thin membrane that covers the cap and stalk of an immature mushroom.
Veils fall into two categories:


Allan Octavian Hume

Allan Octavian Hume, CB ICS (4 June 1829 – 31 July 1912) was a British member of the Imperial Civil Service (later the Indian Civil Service), a political reformer, ornithologist and botanist who worked in British India. He was one of the founders of the Indian National Congress. A notable ornithologist, Hume has been called "the Father of Indian Ornithology" and, by those who found him dogmatic, "the Pope of Indian ornithology".
As an administrator of Etawah, he saw the Indian Rebellion of 1857 as a result of misgovernance and made great efforts to improve the lives of the common people. The district of Etawah was among the first to be returned to normalcy and over the next few years Hume's reforms led to the district being considered a model of development. Hume rose in the ranks of the Indian Civil Service but like his father Joseph Hume, a radical member of parliament, he was bold and outspoken in questioning British policies in India. He rose in 1871 to the position of secretary to the Department of Revenue, Agriculture, and Commerce under Lord Mayo. His criticism of Lord Lytton however led to his removal from the Secretariat in 1879.
He founded the journal "Stray Feathers" in which he and his subscribers recorded notes on birds from across India. He built up a vast collection of bird specimens at his home in Shimla by making collection expeditions and obtaining specimens through his network of correspondents.
Following the loss of manuscripts that he had long been maintaining in the hope of producing a magnum opus on the birds of India, he abandoned ornithology and gifted his collection to the Natural History Museum in London, where it continues to be the single largest collection of Indian bird skins. He was briefly a follower of the theosophical movement founded by Madame Blavatsky. He left India in 1894 to live in London from where he continued to take an interest in the Indian National Congress, apart from taking an interest in botany and founding the South London Botanical Institute towards the end of his life.
Life and career.
Early life.
Hume was born at St Mary Cray, Kent, a younger son (and the eighth child in a family of nine) of Joseph Hume, the Radical Scottish member of parliament, by his marriage to Maria Burnley. Until the age of eleven he was privately tutored growing up at the town house at 6 Bryanston Square in London and at their country estate, Burnley Hall in Norfolk. He was educated at University College Hospital, where he studied medicine and surgery and was then nominated to the Indian Civil Services which led him to study at the East India Company College, Haileybury. Early influences included his friend John Stuart Mill and Herbert Spencer. He briefly served as a junior midshipman aboard a navy vessel in the Mediterranean in 1842.
Etawah (1849–1867).
Hume sailed to India in 1849 and the following year, joined the Bengal Civil Service at Etawah in the North-Western Provinces, in what is now Uttar Pradesh. His career in India included service as a district officer from 1849 to 1867, head of a central department from 1867 to 1870, and secretary to the Government from 1870 to 1879. He married Mary Anne Grindall (26 May 1824, Meerut – March 1890, Simla) in 1853.
It was only nine years after his entry to India that Hume faced the Indian Rebellion of 1857 during which time he was involved in several military actions for which he was created a Companion of the Bath in 1860. Initially it appeared that he was safe in Etawah, not far from Meerut where the rebellion began but this changed and Hume had to take refuge in Agra fort for six months. Nonetheless, all but one Indian official remained loyal and Hume resumed his position in Etawah in January 1858. He built up an irregular force of 650 loyal Indian troops and took part in engagements with them. Hume blamed British ineptitude for the uprising and pursued a policy of "mercy and forbearance". Only seven persons were executed at the gallows on his orders. The district of Etawah was restored to peace and order in a year, something that was not possible in most other parts.
Shortly after 1857, he set about in a range of reforms. As a District Officer in the Indian Civil Service, he began introducing free primary education and held public meetings for their support. He made changes in the functioning of the police department and the separation of the judicial role. Noting that there was very little reading material with educational content, he started, along with Koour Lutchman Singh, a Hindi language periodical, "Lokmitra" ("The People's Friend") in 1859. Originally meant only for Etawah, its fame spread. Hume also organized and managed an Urdu journal "Muhib-i-riaya".
He took up the cause of education and founded scholarships for higher education. He wrote, in 1859, that education played a key role in avoiding revolts like the one in 1857:
"... assert its supremacy as it may at the bayonet's point, a free and civilized government must look for its stability and permanence to the enlightenment of the people and their moral and intellectual capacity to appreciate its blessings."
In 1863 he moved for separate schools for juvenile delinquents rather than flogging and imprisonment which he saw as producing hardened criminals. His efforts led to a juvenile reformatory not far from Etawah. He also started free schools in Etawah and by 1857 he established 181 schools with 5186 students including two girls. The high school that he helped build with his own money is still in operation, now as a junior college, and it was said to have a floor plan resembling the letter "H". This, according to some was an indication of Hume's imperial ego. Hume found the idea of earning revenue earned through liquor traffic repulsive and described it as "The wages of sin". With his progressive ideas on social reform, he advocated women's education, was against infanticide and enforced widowhood. Hume laid out in Etawah, a neatly gridded commercial district that is now known as Humeganj but often pronounced "Homeganj".
Commissioner of Customs (1867–1870).
In 1867 Hume became Commissioner of Customs for the North West Province, and in 1870 he became attached to the central government as Director-General of Agriculture. In 1879 he returned to provincial government at Allahabad.
Secretary to the Department of Revenue, Agriculture and Commerce (1871–1879).
Hume was very interested in the development of agriculture. He believed that there was too much focus on obtaining revenue and no effort had been spent on improving the efficiency of agriculture. He found an ally in Lord Mayo who supported the idea of developing a complete department of agriculture. Hume noted in his "Agricultural reform in India" that Lord Mayo had been the only Viceroy who had any experience of working in the fields.
Hume made a number of suggestions for the improvement of agriculture placing carefully gathered evidence for his ideas. He noted the poor yields of wheat, comparing them with estimates from the records of Emperor Akbar and yields of farms in Norfolk. Lord Mayo supported his ideas but was unable to establish a dedicated agricultural bureau as the scheme did not find support from the Secretary of State for India, but they negotiated the setting up of a "Department of Revenue, Agriculture and Commerce" despite Hume's insistence that "Agriculture" be the first and foremost aim. The Department had charge on land revenue, settlements, advances for works in agricultural improvement, horticulture, livestock breeding, silk, fibre, forests, commerce and trade, salt, opium, excise, stamps, and industrial art. It also collected data and was in charge of censuses, the gazetteers, surveys, geology, and meteorology. Hume was made Secretary of this department in July 1871 leading to his move to Shimla.
With the murder of Lord Mayo in the Andamans in 1872, Hume lost patronage and support for his work. He however went about reforming the department of agriculture, streamlining the collection of meteorological data (the meteorological department was set up by order number 56 on 27 September 1875 signed by Hume) and statistics on cultivation and yield.
Hume proposed the idea of having experimental farms to demonstrate best practices to be set up in every district. He proposed to develop fuelwood plantations "in every village in the drier portions of the country" and thereby provide a substitute heating and cooking fuel so that manure (dried cattle dung was used as fuel by the poor) could be returned to the land. Such plantations, he wrote, were ""a thing that is entirely in accord with the traditions of the country – a thing that the people would understand, appreciate, and, with a little judicious pressure, cooperate in." He wanted model farms to be established in every district. He noted that rural indebtedness was caused mainly by the use of land as security, a practice that had been introduced by the British. Hume denounced it as another of "the cruel blunders into which our narrow-minded, though wholly benevolent, desire to reproduce England in India has led us."" Hume also wanted government-run banks, at least until cooperative banks could be established.
The department also supported the publication of several manuals on aspects of cultivation, a list of which Hume included as an appendix to his "Agricultural Reform in India". Hume supported the introduction of cinchona and the project managed by George King to produce quinine in India and deliver malaria medication across India through the postal department at low cost.
Hume was very outspoken and never feared to criticise when he thought the Government was in the wrong. Even in 1861, he objected to the concentration of police and judicial functions in the hands of police superintendents. In March 1861, he took a medical leave due to a breakdown from overwork and departed for Britain. Before leaving, he condemned the flogging and punitive measures initiated by the provincial government as 'barbarous ... torture'. He was allowed to return to Etawah only after apologising for the tone of his criticism. He criticised the administration of Lord Lytton before 1879 which according to him, had cared little for the welfare and aspiration of the people of India.
Lord Lytton's foreign policy according to Hume had led to the waste of "millions and millions of Indian money". Hume was critical of the land revenue policy and suggested that it was the cause of poverty in India. His superiors were irritated and attempted to restrict his powers and this led him to publish a book on "Agricultural Reform in India" in 1879.
Hume noted that the free and honest expression was not only permitted but encouraged under Lord Mayo and that this freedom was curtailed under Lord Northbrook who succeeded Lord Mayo. When Lord Lytton succeeded Lord Northbrook, the situation worsened for Hume. In 1879 Hume went against the authorities. The Government of Lord Lytton dismissed him from his position in the Secretariat. No clear reason was given except that it ""was based entirely on the consideration of what was most desirable in the interests of the public service". The press declared that his main wrongdoing was that he was too honest and too independent. The "Pioneer" wrote that it was "the grossest jobbery ever perpetrated"" ; the "Indian Daily News" wrote that it was a "great wrong" while "The Statesman" said that "undoubtedly he has been treated shamefully and cruelly." "The Englishman" in an article dated 27 June 1879, commenting on the event stated, "There is no security or safety now for officers in Government employment." Demoted, he left Simla and returned to the North-West Provinces in October 1879, as a member of the Board of Revenue. It has pointed out that he was victimised as he was out of step with the policies of the Government, often intruding into aspects of administration with critical opinions.
Demotion and resignation (1879–1882).
In spite of the humiliation of demotion, he did not resign immediately from service and it has been suggested that this was because he needed his salary to support the publication of "The Game Birds of India" that he was working on. Hume retired from the civil service only in 1882. In 1883 he wrote an open letter to the graduates of Calcutta University, having been a fellow of the University of Calcutta from 1870, calling upon them to form their own national political movement. This led in 1885 to the first session of the Indian National Congress held in Bombay. In 1887 writing to the Public Commission of India he made what was then a statement unexpected from a civil servant — "I look upon myself as a Native of India".
Return to England 1894.
Hume's wife Mary died on 30 March 1890 and news of her death reached him just as he reached London on 1 April 1890. Their only daughter Maria Jane Burnley ("Minnie") (1854–1927) had married Ross Scott at Shimla on 28 December 1881. Maria became a member of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, another occult movement, after moving to England. Ross Scott had been the founding secretary of the Simla Eclectic Theosophical Society, and was sometime Judicial Commissioner of Oudh before his death in 1908. Hume's grandson Allan Hume Scott served with the Royal Engineers in India.
Hume left India in 1894 and settled at The Chalet, 4 Kingswood Road, Upper Norwood in south London. He died at the age of eighty-three on 31 July 1912. His ashes were buried in Brookwood Cemetery. The bazaar in Etawah was closed on hearing of his death and the Collector, H. R. Neville, presided over a memorial meeting.
The Indian postal department issued a commemorative stamp with his portrait in 1973 and a special cover depicting Rothney Castle, his home in Shimla, was released in 2013.
Contribution to ornithology and natural history.
From early days, Hume had a special interest in science. Science, he wrote:
and of natural history he wrote in 1867:
During his career in Etawah, he built up a personal collection of bird specimens, however the first collection that he made was destroyed during the 1857 rebellion. After 1857 Hume made several expeditions to collect birds both on health leave and where work took him but his most systematic work began after he moved to Shimla. He was Collector and Magistrate of Etawah from 1856 to 1867 during which time he studied the birds of that area. He later became Commissioner of Inland Customs which made him responsible for the control of of coast from near Peshawar in the northwest to Cuttack on the Bay of Bengal. He travelled on horseback and camel in areas of Rajasthan to negotiate treaties with various local maharajas to control the export of salt and during these travels he took note of the birdlife:
Hume appears to have planned a comprehensive work on the birds of India around 1870 and a "forthcoming comprehensive work" finds mention in the second edition of "The Cyclopaedia of India" (1871) by his cousin Edward Balfour. His systematic plan to survey and document the birds of the Indian Subcontinent began in earnest after he started accumulating the largest collection of Asiatic birds in his personal museum and library at home in Rothney Castle on Jakko Hill, Simla. Rothney Castle, originally Rothney House was built by Colonel Octavius Edward Rothney and later belonged to P. Mitchell, C.I.E from whom Hume bought it and converted it into a palatial house with some hope that it might be bought by the Government as a Viceregal residence since the Governor-General then occupied "Peterhoff", a building too small for large parties. Hume spent over two hundred thousand pounds on the grounds and buildings. He added enormous reception rooms suitable for large dinner parties and balls, as well as a magnificent conservatory and spacious hall with walls displaying his superb collection of Indian horns. He used a large room for his bird museum. He hired a European gardener, and made the grounds and conservatory a perpetual horticultural exhibition, to which he courteously admitted all visitors. Rothney Castle could only be reached by a steep road, and was never purchased by the British Government.
Hume made several expeditions almost solely to study ornithology the largest being an expedition to the Indus area in late November 1871 and continued until the end of February 1872. He was assisted here by Sir W. Merewether and Francis Day. In March 1873, he visited the Andaman and Nicobar Islands in the Bay of Bengal along with geologists Dr. Ferdinand Stoliczka and Valentine Ball of the Geological Survey of India and James Wood-Mason of the Indian Museum in Calcutta. They were also accompanied by Surgeon-Major Joseph Dougall, medical superintendent at Port Blair, six native trappers-skinners, and supported by others like Jeremiah Nelson Homfray, superintendent of the Andaman orphanage. In 1875, he made an expedition to the Laccadive Islands aboard the marine survey vessel IGS "Clyde" under the command of Staff-Commander Ellis and accompanied by surgeon-naturalist James Armstrong of the Marine Survey. The official purpose of the visit was ostensibly to examine proposed sites for lighthouses. During this expedition Hume collected many bird specimens, apart from conducting a bathymetric survey to determine whether the island chain was separated from continental India by a deep canyon. And in 1881 he made his last ornithological expedition to Manipur, a visit in which he collected and described the Manipur bush quail ("Perdicula manipurensis"), a bird that has remained obscure with few reliable reports since. Hume spent an extra day with his assistants cutting down a large tract of grass so that he could obtain specimens of this species. This expedition was made on special leave following his demotion from the Central Government to a junior position on the Board of Revenue of the North Western Provinces. Apart from personal travel, he also sent out a trained bird-skinner to accompany officers travelling in areas of ornithological interest such as Afghanistan. Around 1878 he was spending about £1500 a year on his ornithological surveys.
Hume was a member of the Asiatic Society of Bengal from January 1870 to 1891 and admitted Fellow of the Linnean Society on 3 November 1904. After returning to England in 1890 he also became president of the Dulwich Liberal and Radical Association.
Collection.
Hume used his vast bird collection to good use as editor of his journal "Stray Feathers". He also intended to produce a comprehensive publication on the birds of India. Hume employed William Ruxton Davison, who was brought to notice by Dr. George King, as a curator for his personal bird collection. Hume trained Davison and sent him out annually on collection trips to various parts of India as he himself was held up with official responsibilities. In 1883 Hume returned from a trip to find that many pages of the manuscripts that he had maintained over the years had been stolen and sold off as waste paper by a servant. Hume was completely devastated and he began to lose interest in ornithology due to this theft and a landslip, caused by heavy rains in Simla, which had damaged his museum and many of the specimens. He wrote to the British Museum wishing to donate his collection on certain conditions. One of the conditions was that the collection was to be examined by Dr. R. Bowdler Sharpe and personally packed by him, apart from raising Dr. Sharpe's rank and salary due to the additional burden on his work caused by his collection. The British Museum was unable to heed his many conditions. It was only in 1885 after the destruction of nearly 20000 specimens, that alarm bells were raised by Dr. Sharpe and the museum authorities let him visit India to supervise the transfer of the specimens to the British Museum.
Sharpe wrote of Hume's impressive private ornithological museum:
Sharpe also noted:
The Hume collection of birds was packed into 47 cases made of deodar wood constructed on site without nails that could potentially damage specimens and each case weighing about half a ton was transported down the hill to a bullock cart to Kalka and finally the port in Bombay. The material that went to the British Museum in 1885 consisted of 82,000 specimens of which 75,577 were finally placed in the museum. A breakup of that collection is as follows (old names retained). Hume had destroyed 20,000 specimens prior to this as they had been damaged by dermestid beetles.
The Hume Collection contained 258 type specimens. In addition there were nearly 400 mammal specimens including new species such as "Hadromys humei".
The egg collection was made up of carefully authenticated contributions from knowledgeable contacts and on the authenticity and importance of the collection, E. W. Oates wrote in the 1901 "Catalogue of the Collection of Birds' Eggs in the British Museum" (Volume 1):
Hume and his collector Davison took an interest in plants as well. Specimens were collected even on the first expedition to the Lakshadweep in 1875 were studied by George King and later by David Prain. Hume's herbarium specimens were donated to the collection of the Botanical Survey of India at Calcutta.
Taxa described.
Hume described many species, some of which are now considered as subspecies. A single genus name that he erected survives in use while others such as "Heteroglaux" Hume, 1873 have sunk into synonymy since. In his concept of species, Hume was an essentialist and held the idea that small but constant differences defined species. He appreciated the ideas of speciation and how it contradicted divine creation but preferred to maintain a position that did not reject a Creator.
The use of trinomials had not yet gone into regular usage during Hume's time. He used the term "local race". The following subspecies are current placements of taxa that were named as new species by Hume.
An additional species, the large-billed reed-warbler "Acrocephalus orinus" was known from just one specimen collected by him in 1869 but the name that he used, "magnirostris", was found to be preoccupied and replaced by the name "orinus" provided by Harry Oberholser in 1905. The status of the species was contested until DNA comparisons with similar species in 2002 suggested that it was a valid species. It was only in 2006 that the species was seen in the wild in Thailand, with a match to the specimens confirmed using DNA sequencing. Later searches in museums led to several other specimens that had been overlooked and based on the specimen localities, a breeding region was located in Tajikistan and documented in 2011.
"My Scrap Book: Or Rough Notes on Indian Oology and Ornithology" (1869).
This was Hume's first major work on birds. It had 422 pages and accounts of 81 species. It was dedicated to Edward Blyth and Dr. Thomas C. Jerdon who, he wrote "[had] done more for Indian Ornithology than all other modern observers put together" and he described himself as "their friend and pupil". He hoped that his book would form a "nucleus round which future observation may crystallize" and that others around the country could help him "fill in many of the woeful blanks remaining in record". In the preface he notes:
"Stray Feathers".
Hume started the quarterly journal "Stray Feathers" in 1872. At that time the only journal for the Indian region that published on ornithology was the "Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal" and Hume published only two letters in 1870, mainly being a list of errors in the list of Godwin-Austen which had been reduced to an abstract. He had wondered if there was merit to start a new journal and in that idea was supported by Stoliczka, who was an editor for the "Journal of the Asiatic Society":
The President of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, Thomas Oldham, in the annual address for 1873 wrote - "We could have wished that the author had  completed the several works which he had already commenced, rather than started a new publication. But we heartily welcome at the same time the issue of "'Stray Feathers".' It promises to be a useful catalogue of the Editor's very noble collection of Indian Birds, and a means of rapid publication of novelties or corrections, always of much value with ornithologists." Hume used the journal to publish descriptions of his new discoveries. He wrote extensively on his own observation as well as critical reviews of all the ornithological works of the time and earned himself the nickname of "Pope of Indian ornithology". He critiqued a monograph on parrots, "Die Papageien" by Friedrich Hermann Otto Finsch suggesting that name changes (by "cabinet naturalists") were aimed at claiming authority to species without the trouble of actually discovering them. He wrote:
Hume in turn was attacked, for instance by Viscount Walden, but Finsch became a friend and Hume named a species, "Psittacula finschii", after him.
In his younger days Hume had studied some geology from the likes of Gideon Mantell and appreciated the synthesis of ideas from other fields into ornithology. Hume included in 1872, a detailed article on the osteology of birds in relation to their classification written by Richard Lydekker who was then in the Geological Survey of India. The early meteorological work in India was done within the department headed by Hume and he saw the value of meteorology in the study of bird distributions. In a work comparing the rainfall zones, he notes how the high rainfall zones indicated affinities to the Malayan fauna.
Hume sometimes mixed personal beliefs in notes that he published in "Stray Feathers". For instance he believed that vultures soared by altering the physics ("altered polarity") of their body and repelling the force of gravity. He further noted that this ability was normal in birds and could be acquired by humans by maintaining spiritual purity claiming that he knew of at least three Indian Yogis and numerous saints in the past with this ability of "aethrobacy".
Network of correspondents.
Hume corresponded with a large number of ornithologists and sportsmen who helped him by reporting from various parts of India. More than 200 correspondents are listed in his "Game Birds" alone and they probably represent only a fraction of the subscribers of "Stray Feathers". This large network made it possible for Hume to cover a much larger geographic region in his ornithological work.
During the lifetime of Hume, Blyth was considered the father of Indian ornithology. Hume's achievement which made use of a large network of correspondents was recognised even during his time:
Many of Hume's correspondents were eminent naturalists and sportsmen who were posted in India.
Hume exchanged skins with other collectors. A collection made principally by Hume that belonged to the Earl of Northbrook was gifted to Oxford University in 1877. One of his correspondents, Louis Mandelli from Darjeeling, stands out by claiming that he was swindled in these skin exchanges. He claimed that Hume took skins of rarer species in exchange for the skins of common birds but the credibility of the complaint has been doubted. Hume named "Arborophila mandelli" after Mandelli in 1874. The only other naturalist to question Hume's veracity was A.L. Butler who met a Nicobar islander whom Hume had described as diving nearly stark naked and capturing fish with his bare hands. Butler found the man in denial of such fishing techniques.
Hume corresponded and stayed up to date with the works of ornithologists outside India including R. Bowdler Sharpe, the Marquis of Tweeddale, Père David, Henry Eeles Dresser, Benedykt Dybowski, John Henry Gurney, J. H. Gurney, Jr., Johann Friedrich Naumann, Nikolai Severtzov and Dr. Aleksandr Middendorff. He helped George Ernest Shelley with specimens from India aiding the publication of a monograph on the sunbirds of the world (1876–1880).
Collector's "Vade Mecum" (1874).
Hume's vast collection from across India was possible because he began to correspond with coadjutors across India. He ensured that these contributors made accurate notes, and obtained and processed specimens carefully. The "Vade Mecum" was published to save him the trouble of sending notes to potential collaborators who sought advice. Materials for preservation are carefully tailored for India with the provision of the local names for ingredients and methods to prepare glues and preservatives with easy to find equipment. Apart from skinning and preservation, the book also covers matters of observation, keeping records, the use of natives to capture birds, obtain eggs and the care needed in obtaining other information apart from care in labelling.
"Game Birds of India, Burmah and Ceylon" (1879–1881).
This work was co-authored by C. H. T. Marshall. The three volume work on the game birds was made using contributions and notes from a network of 200 or more correspondents. Hume delegated the task of getting the plates made to Marshall. The chromolithographs of the birds were drawn by W. Foster, E. Neale, (Miss) M. Herbert, Stanley Wilson and others and the plates were produced by F. Waller in London. Hume had sent specific notes on colours of soft parts and instructions to the artists. He was dissatisfied with many of the plates and included additional notes on the plates in the book. This book was started at the point when the government demoted Hume and only the need to finance the publication of this book prevented him from retiring from service. He had estimated that it would cost £4000 to publish it and he retired from service on 1 January 1882 after the publication.
In the preface Hume wrote:
while his co-author Marshall, wrote:
"Nests and Eggs of Indian Birds" (1883).
This was another major work by Hume and in it he covered descriptions of the nests, eggs and the breeding seasons of most Indian bird species. It makes use of notes from contributors to his journals as well as other correspondents and works of the time. Hume also makes insightful notes such as observations on caged females separated from males that would continue to lay fertile eggs through the possibility of sperm storage and the reduction in parental care by birds that laid eggs in warm locations (mynas in the Andamans, river terns on sand banks).
A second edition of this book was made in 1889 which was edited by Eugene William Oates. This was published when he had himself given up all interest in ornithology. An event precipitated by the loss of his manuscripts through the actions of a servant. He wrote in the preface:
Eugene Oates wrote his own editorial note:
This nearly marked the end of Hume's interest in ornithology. Hume's last piece of ornithological writing was part of an "Introduction to the Scientific Results of the Second Yarkand Mission" in 1891, an official publication on the contributions of Dr. Ferdinand Stoliczka, who died during the return journey on this mission. Stoliczka in a dying request had asked that Hume edit the volume on ornithology.
Taxa named after Hume.
A number of birds are named after Hume, including:
Specimens of other animal groups collected by Hume on his expeditions and named after him include the Manipur bush rat, "Hadromys humei" (Thomas, 1886) while some others like "Hylaeocarcinus humei", a land crab from the Narcondam Island collected by Hume was described by James Wood-Mason, and Hume's argali, "Ovis ammon humei" Lydekker 1913 (now treated as "Ovis ammon karelini", Severtzov, 1873) are no longer considered valid.
Theosophy.
Hume's interest in theosophy took root around 1879. An 1880 newspaper reports the initiation of his daughter and wife into the movement. Hume did not have great regard for institutional Christianity, but believed in the immortality of the soul and in the idea of a supreme ultimate. Hume wanted to become a "chela" (student) of the Tibetan spiritual gurus. During the few years of his connection with the Theosophical Society Hume wrote three articles on "Fragments of Occult Truth" under the pseudonym "H. X." published in "The Theosophist". These were written in response to questions from Mr. Terry, an Australian Theosophist.
He also privately printed several Theosophical pamphlets titled "Hints on Esoteric Theosophy". The later numbers of the Fragments, in answer to the same enquirer, were written by A.P. Sinnett and signed by him, as authorized by Mahatma K. H., "A Lay-Chela." Hume also wrote under the pseudonym of "Aletheia".
Madame Blavatsky was a regular visitor at Hume's Rothney castle at Simla and an account of her visit may be found in "Simla, Past and Present" by Edward John Buck (whose father Sir Edward Charles Buck succeeded Mr. Hume's role in the Revenue and Agricultural Department).
A long story about Hume and his wife appears in A.P. Sinnett's book "The Occult World", and the synopsis was published in a local paper of India. The story relates how at a dinner party, Madame Blavatsky asked Mrs Hume if there was anything she wanted. She replied that there was a brooch, her mother had given her, that had gone out of her possession some time ago. Blavatsky said she would try to recover it through occult means. After some interlude, later that evening, the brooch was found in a garden, where the party was directed by Blavatsky. According to John Murdoch (1894), the brooch had been given by Mrs. Hume to her daughter who had given it to a man she admired. Blavatsky had happened to meet the man in Bombay and obtained the brooch in return for money. Blavatsky allegedly planted it in the garden before directing people to the location through what she claimed as occult techniques.
After the incident, Hume too had privately expressed grave doubts on the powers attributed to Madame Blavatsky. He subsequently held a meeting with some of the Indian members of the Theosophical Society and suggested that they join hands with him to force the resignation of Blavatsky and sixteen other members for their role as accomplices in fraud. Those present could however not agree to the idea of seeking the resignation of their founder. Hume also tried to write a book on the philosophical basis of Theosophy. His drafts were strongly disapproved by many of the key Theosophists. One ("K.H"=Koot Humi) wrote:
Hume soon fell out of favour with the Theosophists and lost all interest in the theosophical movement in 1883.
Hume's interest in spirituality brought him into contact with many independent Indian thinkers who also had nationalist ideas and this led to the idea of creating the Indian National Congress.
Hume's immersion into the theosophical movement led him to become a vegetarian and also to give up killing birds for their specimens.
Indian National Congress.
After retiring from the civil services and towards the end of Lord Lytton's rule, Hume observed that the people of India had a sense of hopelessness and wanted to do something, noting "a sudden violent outbreak of sporadic crime, murders of obnoxious persons, robbery of bankers and looting of bazaars, acts really of lawlessness which by a due coalescence of forces might any day develop into a National Revolt." Concerning the British government, he stated that "a studied and invariable disregard, if not actually contempt for the opinions and feelings of our subjects, is at the present day the leading characteristic of our government in every branch of the administration."
There were agrarian riots in the Deccan and Bombay, and Hume suggested that an Indian Union would be a good safety valve and outlet to avoid further unrest. On 1 March 1883 he wrote a letter to the graduates of the University of Calcutta:
In 1886 he published a pamphlet "The Old Man's Hope" in which he examined poverty in India, questioning charity as a solution for the problem. Here he makes a case for Richard Cobden's Anti-Corn Law League as a model for the struggle in India through the formation of a representative body.
His poem "Awake" published in Calcutta in 1886 also captures the sentiment:
<poem>
Sons of Ind, why sit ye idle,
Wait ye for some Deva's aid?
Buckle to, be up and doing!
Nations by themselves are made!
Yours the land, lives, all, at stake, tho '
Not by you the cards are played;
Are ye dumb? Speak up and claim them!
By themselves are nations made!
What avail your wealth, your learning,
Empty titles, sordid trade?
True self-rule were worth them all!
Nations by themselves are made!
Whispered murmurs darkly creeping,
Hidden worms beneath the glade,
Not by such shall wrong be righted!
Nations by themselves are made!
Are ye Serfs or are ye Freemen,
Ye that grovel in the shade?
In your own hands rest the issues!
By themselves are nations made!
Sons of Ind, be up and doing,
Let your course by none be stayed;
Lo! the Dawn is in the East;
By themselves are nations made!
</poem>
The idea of the Indian National Union took shape and Hume initially had some support from Lord Dufferin for this, although the latter wished to have no official link to it. Dufferin's support was short-lived and in some of his letters he went so far as to call Hume an "idiot", "arch-impostor", and "mischievous busy-body." Dufferin's successor Lansdowne refused to have any dialogue with Hume. Other supporters in England included James Caird (who had also clashed with Lytton over the management of famine in India) and John Bright. Hume also founded an Indian Telegraph Union to fund the transfer of news of Indian matters to newspapers in England and Scotland without interference from British Indian officials who controlled telegrams sent by Reuters. It has been suggested that the idea of the congress was originally conceived in a private meeting of seventeen men after a Theosophical Convention held at Madras in December 1884 but no evidence exists. Hume took the initiative, and it was in March 1885, when a notice was first issued to convene the first Indian National Union to meet at Poona the following December.
He attempted to increase the Congress base by bringing in more farmers, townspeople and Muslims between 1886 and 1887 and this created a backlash from the British, leading to backtracking by the Congress. Hume was disappointed when Congress opposed moves to raise the age of marriage for Indian girls and failed to focus on issues of poverty. Some Indian princes did not like the idea of democracy and some organizations like the United Indian Patriotic Association went about trying to undermine the Congress by showing it as an organization with a seditious character. There was also major rifts along religious lines within the Congress on issues such as the Age of Consent Bill. In 1892, he tried to get the members to act, warning of a violent agrarian revolution but this only outraged the British establishment and frightened the Congress leaders. Disappointed by the continued lack of Indian leaders willing to work for the cause of national emancipation, Hume left India in 1894.
Many Anglo-Indians were against the idea of the Indian National Congress. The press in India tended to look upon it negatively, so much so that Hume is said to have held a very low opinion of journalists even later in life. A satirical work published in 1888 included a character called "A. O. Humebogue".
The organizers of the 27th session of the Indian National Congress at Bankipur (26–28 December 1912) recorded their "profound sorrow at the death of Allan Octavian Hume, C.B., father and founder of the Congress, to whose lifelong services, rendered at rare self-sacrifice, India feels deep and lasting gratitude, and in whose death the cause of Indian progress and reform sustained irreparable loss."
South London Botanical Institute.
After the loss of his manuscript containing his lifetime of ornithological notes, Hume gave up ornithology and took great interest in horticulture around his home in Shimla. ... He erected large conservatories in the grounds of Rothney Castle, filled them with the choicest flowers, and engaged English gardeners to help him in the work. From this, on returning to England, he went on to scientific botany. But this, as Kipling says, is another story, and must be left to another pen.
Hume took an interest in wild plants and especially on invasive species although his botanical publishing was sparse with only three short notes between 1901 and 1902 including one on a variety of "Scirpus maritimus", and another on the flowering of "Impatiens roylei". Hume contacted W.H. Griffin in 1901 to help develop a herbarium of botanical specimens. Hume would arrange his plants on herbarium sheets in artistic positions before pressing them. The two made many botanical trips including one to Down in Kent to seek some of the rare orchids that had been collected by Darwin. In 1910, Hume bought the premises of 323 Norwood Road, and modified it to have a herbarium and library. He called this establishment the South London Botanical Institute (SLBI) with the aim of "promoting, encouraging, and facilitating, amongst the residents of South London, the study of the science of botany."
One of the aims of the institute was to help promote botany as a means for mental culture and relaxation, an idea that was not shared by Henry Groves, a trustee for the institute. Hume objected to advertisement and refused to have any public ceremony to open the institute. The first curator was W.H. Griffin and Hume endowed the institute with £10,000. Frederick Townsend, F.L.S., an eminent botanist, who died in 1905, had left instructions that his herbarium and collection was to be given to the institute, which was then only being contemplated. Hume left £15,000 in his will for the maintenance of the botanical institute.
In the years leading up to the establishment of the institute, Hume built up links with many of the leading botanists of his day. He worked with F. H. Davey and in the "Flora of Cornwall" (1909), Davey thanks Hume as his companion on excursions in Cornwall and Devon, and for help in the compilation of the 'Flora', publication of which was financed by Hume. The SLBI has since grown to hold a herbarium of approximately 100,000 specimens mostly of flowering plants from Europe including many collected by Hume. The collection was later augmented by the addition of other herbaria over the years, and has significant collections of "Rubus" (bramble) species and of the Shetland flora.


Fridericia (annelid)

Fridericia is a genus of annelids of the family Enchytraeidae. The genus was described in 1889 by Wilhelm Michaelsen.


Clathrina broendstedi

Clathrina broenstedi is a species of calcareous sponge from the Weddell Sea. The species is named after Holger Brøndsted, a Danish sponge researcher. The only spicules present in this species are triactines.
References.
World Register of Marine Species entry


Prevertebral fascia

The prevertebral fascia (or prevertebral layer of cervical fascia) is a fascia in the neck.
Variations.
In some literature, the prevertebral fascia also includes the other fascial layers extending around the vertebral column and enclosing all muscles laterally and posteriorly to it. However, in this article, it is assumed to be as marked in the corresponding picture.
Location.
The prevertebral fascia extends medially behind the carotid vessels, where it assists in forming their sheath, and passes in front of the prevertebral muscles.
The prevertebral fascia is fixed above to the base of the skull, and below it extends behind the esophagus into the posterior mediastinal cavity of the thorax. It descends in front of the longus colli muscles.
The prevertebral fascia is prolonged downward and laterally behind the carotid vessels and in front of the scalene muscles. It forms a sheath for the brachial nerves, subclavian artery, and subclavian vein in the posterior triangle of the neck; it is continued under the clavicle as the axillary sheath and is attached to the deep surface of the coracoclavicular fascia.
Surrounding structures.
It forms the posterior limit of a fibrous compartment, which contains the larynx and trachea, the thyroid gland, and the pharynx and esophagus.
Parallel to the carotid sheath and along its medial aspect the prevertebral fascia gives off a thin lamina, the buccopharyngeal fascia, which closely invests the constrictor muscles of the pharynx, and is continued forward from the constrictor pharyngis superior on to the buccinator.
Anterior to it, the alar (retrovisceral) fascia is attached to it by loose connective tissue only, and thus an easily distended space, the retropharyngeal space, is found between them.
Immediately above and behind the clavicle an areolar space exists between the investing layer and the sheath of the subclavian vessels, and in this space are found the lower part of the external jugular vein, the descending clavicular nerves, the transverse scapular and transverse cervical vessels, and the inferior belly of the omohyoid muscle.
This space is limited below by the fusion of the coracoclavicular fascia with the anterior wall of the axillary sheath.
Inferiorly, the prevertebral layer blends with the endothoracic fascia peripherally and fuses with the anterior longitudinal ligament centrally at approximately the level of the T3 vertebra. Due to this, the superior extent of the retropharyngeal space is essentially continuous with the root of the neck, and is termed the danger space. It extends laterally as the axillary sheath.


Arum type

Arum-type refers to the morphology of fungal hyphae living in, or around plant root cells.
This is a type of mycorrhizal infection whereby the fungus in question invaginates the cell membrane of a plant cell, and branches in arbuscular manner.
Arum-type growth of hyphae is used in endomycorrhizal symbiosis with a plant.


List of birds

This page lists living orders and families of birds. The links below should then lead to family accounts and hence to individual species.
The passerines (perching birds) alone account for well over 5,000 species. In total there are about 10,000 species of birds described worldwide, though one estimate of the real number places it at almost twice that.
Taxonomy is very fluid in the age of DNA analysis, so comments are made where appropriate, and all numbers are approximate. In particular see Sibley-Ahlquist taxonomy for a very different classification.
Phylogeny.
Cladogram of modern bird relationships based on Jarvis, E.D. et al. (2014) with some clade names after Yuri, T. et al. (2013).
Paleognathae.
The Paleognathae, or "old jaws", are one of the two superorders recognized within the taxonomic class Aves and consist of the ratites and tinamous. The ratites are mostly large and long-legged, flightless birds, lacking a keeled sternum. Traditionally, all the ratites were place in the order Struthioniformes. However, recent genetic analysis has found that the group is not monophyletic, as it is paraphyletic with respect to the tinamous, so the ostriches are classified as the only members of the order Struthioniformes and other rattites placed in other orders.
Struthioniformes.
Africa; 2 species
Notopalaeognathae.
Rheiformes.
South America; 2 species
Casuariiformes.
Australasia; 4 species
Apterygiformes.
Australasia; 5 species
Aepyornithiformes.
Madagascar
Dinornithiformes.
New Zealand
Tinamiformes.
South America; 45 species
Neognathae.
Nearly all living birds belong to the superorder Neognathae or "new jaws". With their keeled sternum (breastbone), unlike the ratites, they are known as carinatae.
Galloanserae.
Galliformes.
Worldwide; 250 species
Anseriformes.
Worldwide; 150 species
Mirandornithes.
Podicipediformes.
Worldwide; 19 species
Phoenicopteriformes.
Worldwide; 6 species
Columbimorphae.
Columbiformes.
Worldwide; 300 species
Pterocliformes.
Africa, Europe, Asia; 16 species
Mesitornithiformes.
Madagascar; 3 species
Cypselomorphae.
Caprimulgiformes.
Worldwide; 500 species
Otidimorphae.
Cuculiformes.
Worldwide; 126 species
Musophagiformes.
Africa; 23 species
Otidiformes.
Africa and Eurasia; 27 species
Gruae.
Opisthocomiformes.
South America; 1 species
Gruiformes.
Worldwide; 164 species
Charadriiformes.
Worldwide; 350 species
Phaethontimorphae.
Eurypygiformes.
Neotropics and New Caledonia; 2 species
Phaethontiformes.
Oceanic; 3 species
Aequornithes.
Gaviiformes.
North America, Eurasia; 5 species
Sphenisciformes.
Antarctic and southern waters; 17 species
Procellariiformes.
Pan-oceanic; 120 species
Ciconiiformes.
Worldwide; 19 species
Suliformes.
Worldwide; 59 species
Pelecaniformes.
Worldwide; 108 species
Afroaves.
Accipitriformes.
Worldwide; 200 species
Strigiformes.
Worldwide; 130 species
Coliiformes.
Sub-Saharan Africa; 6 species
Leptosomiformes.
Madagascar; 1 species
Trogoniformes.
Sub-Saharan Africa, Americas, Asia; 35 species
Bucerotiformes.
Old World, New Guinea; 64 species
Coraciiformes.
Worldwide; 144 species
Piciformes.
Worldwide except Australasia; 400 species
Australaves.
Cariamiformes.
South America; 2 species
Falconiformes.
Worldwide; 60 species
Psittaciformes.
Pan-tropical, southern temperate zones; 330 species
Passeriformes.
Worldwide; 5,000 species


Wumengosaurus

Wumengosaurus is an extinct aquatic reptile from the Middle Triassic (late Anisian stage) Guanling Formation of Guizhou, southwestern China. Originally described as a basal eosauropterygian, and usually recovered as such by recent phylogenetic analyses, one recent phylogeny has placed it as the sister taxon to Ichthyosauromorpha while refraining from a formal re-positioning.


Bigfoot and Wildboy

Bigfoot and Wildboy was a live action children's television series on ABC. It began in 1976 as a part of "The Krofft Supershow" on Saturday mornings. Each episode was 15 minutes long, with cliffhanger endings resolved the following week. It became its own series in 1979 with twelve 30-minute episodes. There were a total of 28 episodes produced.
The series was heavily influenced by the two-part Bigfoot episodes of The Six Million Dollar Man, from the super-powered Bigfoot character to “bionic” sound effects used for Bigfoot running and leaping and the use of slow motion photography for action scenes such as throwing a giant object or uprooting a large metal fence post.
Plot.
Bigfoot finds a young boy lost in the vast wilderness of the Northwestern United States. Bigfoot raises the boy who becomes known as Wildboy. Now, eight years later, they fight crime and aliens who show up around their forest home.
Syndication.
Cox Cable's "Retro Saturday Morning" aired the first eight two-part episodes of "Bigfoot and Wildboy" in 2003 and 2004 as part of the second season of the Krofft Supershow.
Home media.
Only two releases were available in the 1980s by Embassy Video, "Bigfoot and Wildboy Volume One" (with "The Secret Invasion" and "Space Prisoner") and "Bigfoot and Wildboy Volume Two" (with "Outlaw Bigfoot," "Eye of the Mummy" and "Birth of the Titan"). Both are now out of print. Columbia House released "The World Of Sid and Marty Krofft" series, which contained "Bigfoot and Wildboy" episodes. Rhino Video released a three-DVD collection also called "The World Of Sid and Marty Krofft" in 2002 included "The Return Of The Vampire" episode.


Rage of the Yeti

Rage of the Yeti is a 2011 monster movie by Syfy.
Plot summary.
Two groups of treasure hunters, each from all walks of life are dispatched to the Arctic to get items that a wealthy millionaire, Mills (David Hewlett) is interested in but both groups soon find themselves fighting for their lives as they battle the freezing cold, Russians and a pack of crazed Yetis.


Glomus cell

Glomus cells are the cell type mainly located in the carotid bodies and aortic bodies. Glomus type I cells are peripheral chemoreceptors which sense the oxygen, carbon dioxide and pH levels of the blood. When there is a decrease in the blood's pH, a decrease in oxygen (pO2), or an increase in carbon dioxide (pCO2), the carotid bodies and the aortic bodies signal the dorsal respiratory group in the medulla oblongata to increase the volume and rate of breathing. The glomus cells have a high metabolic rate and good blood perfusion and thus are sensitive to changes in arterial blood gas tension. Glomus type II cells are sustentacular cells having a similar supportive function to glial cells.
Structure.
The signalling within the chemoreceptors is thought to be mediated by the release of neurotransmitters by the glomus cells, including dopamine, noradrenaline, acetylcholine, substance P, vasoactive intestinal peptide and enkephalins. Vasopressin has been found to inhibit the response of glomus cells to hypoxia, presumably because the usual response to hypoxia is vasodilation, which in case of hypovolemia should be avoided. Furthermore, glomus cells are highly responsive to angiotensin II through AT1 receptors, providing information about the body's fluid and electrolyte status.
Function.
Glomus type I cells are chemoreceptors which monitor arterial blood for the partial pressure of oxygen (pO2), partial pressure of carbon dioxide (pCO2) and pH.
Glomus type I cells are secretory sensory neurons that release neurotransmitters in response to hypoxemia (low pO2), hypercapnia (high pCO2) or acidosis (low pH). Signals are transmitted to the afferent nerve fibers of the sinus nerve and may include dopamine, acetylcholine, and adenosine. This information is sent to the respiratory center and helps the brain to regulate breathing.
Innervation.
The glomus type I cells of the carotid body are innervated by the sensory neurons found in the inferior ganglion of the glossopharyngeal nerve. The carotid sinus nerve is the branch of the glossopharyngeal nerve which innervates them. Alternatively, the glomus type I cells of the aortic body are innervated by sensory neurons found in the inferior ganglion of the vagus nerve. Centrally the axons of neurons which innervate glomus type I cells synapse in the caudal portion of the solitary nucleus in the medulla. Glomus type II cells are not innervated.
Development.
Glomus type I cells are embryonically derived from the neural crest. In the carotid body the respiratory chemoreceptors need a period of time postnatally in order to reach functional maturity. This maturation period is known as "resetting". At birth the chemorecptors express a low sensitivity for lack of oxygen but this increases over the first few days or weeks of life. The mechanisms underlying the postnatal maturity of chemotransduction are obscure.
Clinical significance.
Clusters of glomus cells, of which the carotid bodies and aortic bodies are the most important, are called non-chromaffin or parasympathetic paraganglia. They are also present along the vagus nerve, in the inner ears, in the lungs, and at other sites. Neoplasms of glomus cells are known as paraganglioma, among other names, they are generally non-malignant.
Research.
The autotransplantation of glomus cells of the carotid body into the striatum – a nucleus in the forebrain, has been investigated as a cell-based therapy for people with Parkinson's disease.


Saxon Fairy Swallow pigeon

The Saxon Fairy Swallow is a breed of fancy pigeon developed over many years of selective breeding. Saxon Fairy Swallows, along with other varieties of domesticated pigeons, are all descendants from the rock pigeon ("Columba livia"). The Saxon Swallows and Wing Pigeons have various markings and patterns (spot marking, cap marking etc.).
Saxon Fairy Swallow pigeons are well known for the odd feathered feet.


Carl Attems

Carl August Graf Attems-Petzenstein (13 October 1868 in Graz, Austria – 19 April 1952 in Vienna) was an Austrian myriapodologist and invertebrate zoologist. He published 138 scientific papers, most of them dealing with his specialist field, the myriapods. He described about 1800 new species and subspecies from all over the world.
Life.
Attems was born in 1868 in Graz, to the aristocratic family of Attems. He attended school in Graz, then he followed his family's wish and studied law and law history. After finishing his studies in 1891 he went to Bonn and dedicated himself to his main interest: zoology. He started his zoology studies in Germany, later moved to Vienna. Attems completed his degree with the dissertation "Die Copulationsfüße der Polydesmiden".
During his further studies he spent a lot of time examining the myriapod collection of the Viennese Hofmuseum (today's Naturhistorisches Museum). In 1898 he visited the zoological station at Naples and one year later he went to Crete. The resulting publication was named "Myriopoden von Kreta, nebst Beiträgen zur allgemeinen Kenntnis einiger Gattungen." (Myriopods of Crete, with contributions to common knowledge of some species.)
In 1905 he became an assistant in the Crustacea, Arachnoidea, and Myriapoda collection of the museum. On several excursions to Macedonia, Slovenia, and Croatia he collected myriapods, which he afterwards examined in addition to other collections from all over the world. In between Attems was appointed curator of the Evertebrata-Varia collection and spent the summer of 1911 in Roscoff, France, studying polychaetes. In the same year he married Emma von Montbach.
Befriended scientist Karl Wilhelm Verhoeff dedicated him several genus ("Attemsia" Verh., "Attemsocyphus" Verh., "Attemsodesmus" R. F. Lawrence).
During World War I he was called up for military service. Due to the economic crisis during the late 1920s he had to retire from any bureaucratic activity and focussed exclusively on his myriapod studies. Every day he visited the museum's collection. On 19 April 1952 Attems died on his usual way to the museum.
Major works.
Attems was regarded for synthesizing and generalizing existing knowledge, and making it accessible to future generations. The myriapodologist Richard L. Hoffman, writing nearly 50 years after Attems' death, recognized this skill in Attems' major monographs, most prominently in three volumes on the Polydesmidea published from 1937 to 1940, "the capstone of an illustrious lifetime of accomplishment".
Eponymous taxa.
The following is a selection of taxa named after Carl Attems.


Modena pigeon

The Modena is a breed of fancy pigeon developed over many years of selective breeding. Modenas along with other varieties of domesticated pigeons are all descendants of the rock dove ("Columba livia").
Description.
The breed comes in many different colors in two main varieties, "Gazzi" and "Schietti". Gazzi is a pied marking with the head and portion of the throat, the wings and the tail colored and the rest of the bird being white. Schiettis are non-pied.
Origin.
The breed is of Italian origin and derives its name from the city of Modena where it was first bred centuries ago.


Suprameatal triangle

In the temporal bone, between the posterior wall of the external acoustic meatus and the posterior root of the zygomatic process is the area called the suprameatal triangle, suprameatal pit, mastoid fossa, foveola suprameatica, or Mc Ewan's triangle, through which an instrument may be pushed into the mastoid antrum.
In the adult, the antrum lies approximately 1.5 to 2 cm deep to the suprameatal triangle. This is an important landmark when performing a cortical mastoidectomy.
The triangle lies deep to the cymba conchae.


Metacyclops campestris

Metacyclops campestris is a species of copepod in the family Cyclopidae.
The IUCN conservation status of "Metacyclops campestris" is The IUCN status was reviewed in 1996.