Ancestral Times Research Articles

Effect of aqueous extracts of pausinystalia yohimbe trunk bark on castration-induced sexual impotence in male rats

Medicinal plants have occupied since ancestral times a place of choice in the treatment of many pathologies that affect man, following the example of sexual impotence. The aim of the present study was to investigate the effect of an aqueous extract of P. yohimbe trunk bark on castration-induced sexual impotence in male rats. The animals were castrated using the slightly modified Roubinian technique. Fifteen days after castration the animals were divided and treated as follows: one batch distilled water control (0.5ml/100g W.O.), one batch testosterone enanthate (0.2ml/kg subcutaneously), one batch yohimbine (10mg/kg) and three batches aqueous extract of P. yohimbe (100, 250 and 500 mg/kg W.O.). The animals were dosed for seven days. On the last day, each animal was mated with a female previously treated with 600 µg of 17 β-Oestradiol. The study parameters were sexual mounts, number of erections, number of ejaculations and latency time between two consecutive mounts. In other castrated animals, previously treated with testosterone enanthate (0.2 ml/kg subcutaneously), the aqueous extract of P. yohimbe (100, 250 and 500 mg/kg) was administered and the study parameters were observed as before. Analysis of the results shows that the aqueous extract of P. yohimbe bark (100, 250 and 500 mg/kg) alone and the two reference molecules activate the sexual parameters compared with distilled water (0.5 ml/100g). The same result was observed when the administration of the extract was followed by that of the reference molecules. P. yohimbe trunk bark contains phytoandrogens and acts by potentiating the action of natural testosterone. The extract is an important remedy for the treatment of sexual impotence.

Advances in the Integrated Pest Management of Quinoa (Chenopodium quinoa Willd.): A Global Perspective.

Since ancestral times, quinoa (Chenopodium quinoa Willd.) has been cultivated in the Andean regions. Recently, this pseudocereal has received increasing international attention due to its beneficial properties, such as adaptation and resilience in the context of global change, and the nutritional value of the grains. As a result, its production areas have not only increased in the highlands of South America but have also expanded outside of its Andean origins, and the crop is currently produced worldwide. The key pests of quinoa in the Andean region are the gelechiid moths Eurysacca melanocampta and Eurysacca quinoae; in other parts of the world, new pest problems have recently been identified limiting quinoa production, including the gelechiid Scrobipalpa atripicella in North America and Europe and the agromyzid fly Amauromyza karli in North America. In this review, the status of quinoa pests in the world is presented, and different aspects of their integrated management are discussed, including sampling methodologies for pest monitoring, economic threshold levels, and various control strategies.

Analysis of the knowledge, attitudes and practices of the population of the Mokambo chiefdom on the thermal waters of Kaswa/Mahagi (Ituri, D.R. Congo)

Since ancestral times, farmers have used the thermal waters of Kaswa/Mahagi for hygienic and sanitary practices. The present study is aimed at evaluating the knowledge, attitudes and practices of the indigenous people with regards to these waters. It was carried out from 15th January to 12th April 2022 and focused on a sample of 323 adult people obtained using the Schwartz formula. The descriptive study shows that almost all of the farmers knew the location of the thermal springs had an indigenous name which meant their hyperthermia or their therapeutic virtue. 68.89% of respondents suggested volcanic or geothermal origin of the heat of these waters, the information being transmitted mainly from parents to members of their families. The practices highlighted are frequenting thermal waters for curiosity, natural hot baths, for the relief of muscular fatigue and dermatoses including wounds and scabies according to 41.13% and 39.18% of respondents respectively. The attitude highlighted is the belief in divine and ancestral power transmitted through these waters accompanied by rituals at the hot springs. Certain knowledge, attitudes and practices were dependent on the sex, age and occupation of users. These results constitute essential basic information for future multidisciplinary research with a view to enlightening the population.

Evidence of positive selection of genetic variants associated with PCOS.

Was polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS), which impairs fertility and adheres to the evolutionary paradox, subject to evolutionary selection during ancestral times and did rapidly diminish in prevalence? This study strengthened the hypothesis that positive selection of genetic variants occurred and may account for the high prevalence of PCOS observed today. PCOS is a complex endocrine disorder characterized by both reproductive and metabolic disturbances. As a heritable disease that impairs fertility, PCOS should diminish rapidly in prevalence; however, it is the most common cause of female subfertility globally. Few scientific genetic studies have attempted to provide evidence for the positive selection of gene variants underlying PCOS. We performed an evolutionary analysis of 2,504 individuals from 14 populations of the 1000 Genomes Project. We tested the signature of positive selection for 37 single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) associated with PCOS in previous genome-wide association studies using six parameters of positive selection. Analyzing the evolutionary indices together, there was obvious positive selection at the PCOS-related SNPs loci, especially within the original evolution window of humans, demonstrated by significant Tajima's D values. Compared to the genome background, six of the 37 SNPs in or close to five genes (DENN domain-containing protein 1A: DENND1A, chromosome 9 open reading frame 3: AOPEP, aminopeptidase O: THADA, diacylglycerol kinase iota: DGKI, and netrin receptor UNC5C: UNC5C) showed significant evidence of positive selection, among which DENND1A, AOPEP, and THADA represent the set of most established susceptibility genes for PCOS. First, only well-documented SNPs were selected from well-designed experiments. Second, it is difficult to determine which hypothesis of PCOS evolution is at play. After considering the most significant functions of these genes, we found that they had a wide variety of functions with no obvious association between them. Our findings provide additional evidence for the positive evolution of PCOS. Our analyses require confirmation in a larger study with more evolutionary indicators and larger data range. Further research to identify the roles of the DENND1A, AOPEP, THADA, DGKI, and UNC5C genes is also necessary. This study was supported by the National Key Research and Development Program of China (2021YFC2700400 and 2021YFC2700701), Basic Science Center Program of NSFC (31988101), CAMS Innovation Fund for Medical Sciences (2021-I2M-5-001), National Natural Science Foundation of China (82192874, 31871509, and 82071606), Shandong Provincial Key Research and Development Program (2020ZLYS02), Taishan Scholars Program of Shandong Province (ts20190988), and Fundamental Research Funds of Shandong University. The authors have no conflicts of interest to disclose. N/A.

Are cooks more disgust sensitive? Preliminary examination of the food preparation hypothesis

According to the food preparation hypothesis, sex differences in disgust sensitivity may stem from different sex roles that males and females played in our ancestral times. In current times, these differences may be reflected in varying levels of disgust sensitivity between people who frequently versus rarely engage in meal preparation, or who are versus are not professionally responsible for providing meals for others. To test this reasoning, we conducted a preregistered study with 493 individuals (55% female), with 280 of them working in the restaurant industry. Participants reported their weekly time spent on cooking-related activities and completed the Food Disgust Scale and pathogen subscale of Three Domain Disgust Scale. These measures capture specific, food-related disgust sensitivity, and generalised pathogen disgust sensitivity, respectively. We found that while time spent on cooking was not associated with disgust sensitivity, people professionally engaged in food preparation displayed higher levels of food-related disgust sensitivity. There was no effect of cooking on the generalised pathogen disgust sensitivity. Additionally, we observed sex differences in both types of disgust sensitivity and found that vegetarians exhibited lower disgust sensitivity than meat-eaters. Overall, our findings offer preliminary support for the food preparation hypothesis, and point out that the mechanisms adjusting our disgust sensitivity levels are category-specific, even within the broader pathogen disgust domain.

When to shed? Patterns and drivers of time to first ecdysis in snakes.

Time from birth or hatching to the first shed (postnatal ecdysis) in snakes ranges from about an hour to several weeks depending upon the species. We assessed patterns in time to postnatal ecdysis in 102 snake species for which we could source appropriate information, covering 2.6% of all extant snake species, and related measures to various biological traits. Reconstruction revealed ancestral time to postnatal ecdysis to be 11 days. Since time to postnatal ecdysis can be shorter or longer than the ancestral state, we argue that there are several competing drivers for time to postnatal ecdysis. A reduced time to postnatal ecdysis has evolved in several lineages, commonly in ambush-foraging, viviparous vipers, while extended time to postnatal ecdysis is associated with oviparous species with maternal care. Of central importance is the impact of postnatal ecdysis on the scent levels of neonates, resulting in a reduction of time to postnatal ecdysis in chemically cryptic species, while the pivotal role of scent in mother-neonate recognition has resulted in the retention or extension of time to postnatal ecdysis. We showed that postnatal ecdysis improves chemical crypsis. The patterns revealed in this study suggest that measures of time to postnatal ecdysis can provide insights into the biology of snakes and be used as an indicator of certain life history traits.

PRAKTIK NAZAR KOLEKTIF PADA MASYARAKAT KUNTU KABUPATEN KAMPAR

Naghohgi tongue debt is a vow that is done simultaneously (collective vows), usually done because Allah protects the village of Kuntu from the disaster that has struck. So this article examines the Debt of Naghohgi's tongue in terms of Islamic law. And there are two problems in this research, namely how the practice of Naghohgi tongue debt in Kuntu village and how Islam sees it. The type of research is field research with a qualitative approach. The primary data sources are traditional leaders (link mamak), community leaders, religious scholars, and the community, while secondary data is from books, journal articles, and documents deemed necessary. Data collection techniques used interviews and documentation, while data analysis techniques used descriptive analytical techniques. The results of this study show that the implementation of the vows (Naghoghi Tongue Debt) carried out by the Kuntu Village community is a vow that is carried out jointly or collectively by the entire Kuntu community. This vow has been carried out since the ancestral times of the people of Kuntu Village and is very thick with a combination of cultural and religious values. Until now, it is still being carried out and developing. The vows were paid after an evaluation of the vows and an agreement between the Kuntu Village leadership, Ninik Mamak, and Alim Ulama. The vows were carried out for two days and two nights and were solemn and solemn. In terms of Islamic law, the vows (Naghoghi Tongue Debt) carried out by the people of Kuntu Village are not in accordance with the share, because one of the pillars of the vows, namely the subject or person making the vow, is not fulfilled. In worship, it is only considered valid if the pillars and conditions are met.

Guilt by Association: Inflammation and Shared Genetic Risk Between Stress-Related and Immune Disorders

Guilt by Association: Inflammation and Shared Genetic Risk Between Stress-Related and Immune Disorders

Indian Time: Temporality, Gender, Mobility

Indian Time: Temporality, Gender, Mobility

Conservation Biological Control as an Important Tool in the Neotropical Region.

The history and recent developments of conservation biological control (CBC) in the context of industrialized and small-scale agriculture are discussed from theoretical framework available in the Neotropical region. A historical perspective is presented in terms of the transition of the way pests have been controlled since ancestral times, while some of these techniques persist in some areas cultivated on a small-scale agriculture. The context of industrialized agriculture sets the stage for the transition from chemical pesticides promoted in the green revolution to the more modern concept of IPM and finds in conservation biological an important strategy in relation to more sustainable pest management options meeting new consumer demands for cleaner products and services. However, it also noted that conservation, considered within a more integrative approach, establishes its foundations on an overall increase in floral biodiversity, that is, transversal to both small-scale and industrialized areas. In the latter case, we present examples where industrialized agriculture is implementing valuable efforts in the direction of conservation and new technologies are envisioned within more sustainable plant production systems and organizational commitment having that conservation biological control has become instrumental to environmental management plans. In addition, a metanalysis on the principal organisms associated with conservation efforts is presented. Here, we found that hymenopteran parasitoids resulted in the most studied group, followed by predators, where arachnids constitute a well-represented group, while predatory vertebrates are neglected in terms of reports on CBC. Our final remarks describe new avenues of research needed and highlight the need of cooperation networks to propose research, public outreach, and adoption as strategic to educate costumers and participants on the importance of conservation as main tool in sustainable pest management.

Diversity of cultivable microorganisms associated with Quinoa (Chenopodium quinoa) and their potential for plant growth-promotion

Quinoa (Chenopodium quinoa) has grown since ancestral times in the Andean mountains and Altiplano, which are the center of origin of this pseudo-cereal. The interaction of Quinoa with native microorganisms may have contributed to the success of this plant in very adverse climatic and soil conditions. This study addressed the microbial diversity associated with Quinoa plants growing in traditional lands. We employed a cultivable-dependent approach to characterize the communities and identify bacterial strains with potential application in agriculture. We identified bacterial isolates belonging to phyla Firmicutes, Actinobacteria, Bacteroidetes, and Proteobacteria. The genera Bacillus and Rhizobium/Agrobacterium were the predominant groups in the Quinoa bacterial communities, while various Trichoderma species were also found in the fungi group. The plant growth-promoting ability of selected bacterial strains was assessed by culturing them on media and the in planta test. We used different assays to test the capabilities of the isolates for nitrogen fixation, phosphorus solubilization, and production of the phytohormone indole-3-acetic acid. We inoculated Quinoa seeds with some Bacillus strains and then evaluated plant growth and grain production. Plants inoculated with bacterial strains usually show increased growth parameters and grain yield. Altogether, this work reveals that Quinoa harbors many diverse cultivable bacteria and fungi, which could be used as biological amendments to promote plant growth in a chemical-free way. Avoiding chemical fertilizers helps reduce environmental pollution and maintains the organic character of Quinoa production. International Quinoa markets highly appreciate the organic quality of Quinoa. Keywords. Plant growth-promoting bacteria, Microbial diversity, Rhizosphere bacteria, Andean Altiplano, Trichoderma

Clinical Studies of Silymarin as a Protective Agent Against Liver Damage Caused by Anti-TB Drugs, Methotrexate, and in Cases of Chronic Hepatitis C and Diabetes Mellitus

The liver is the organ in charge of homeostasis and metabolism of sundry substances (endogenous and exogenous, including drugs); but when these are metabolized, they generate more toxic and/or reactive metabolites, that can damage the liver causing cirrhosis, steatosis and/or hepatocarcinoma. Human have been used several medicinal plants (MP) since ancestral times to treat their ailments, diseases and liver disorders, including Sylibum marianum. This MP is used in the treatment of jaundice and other biliary diseases, as well as in support therapy for edible mushrooms poisoning and in the treatment of some hepatic diseases. From this medicinal plant, silymarin (SLM, mixture of flavonoids) is obtained, it has an important antioxidant, anti-inflammatory and hepatoprotector effect. The last activity has been demonstrated through several preclinical and in some clinical studies. To date, a few clinical studies describe the hepatoprotective and/or nephroprotective effect of SLM against the damage caused by anti- TB drugs, methotrexate and in cases of type II diabetes mellitus or chronic hepatitis C. Nevertheless, this type of research is more frequent in preclinical trials (using rats or mice) or in vitro assay.

Edible mycorrhizal fungi of the world: What is their role in forest sustainability, food security, biocultural conservation and climate change?

Societal Impact StatementEdible mycorrhizal fungi (EMF) have been consumed since ancestral times by humans either as food, medicine or for ceremonial use. Nowadays, they are a non‐timber forest product and a diverse genetic resource with great ecological, sociocultural, economic, medicinal and biotechnological relevance around the world. Therefore, they have a paramount role to play in meeting the United Nations global sustainable development goals 2030. EMF may promote forest sustainability, biodiversity conservation, mitigation of greenhouse gas emissions through the maintenance of forest masses, human nutrition and health, economic development, conservation of biocultural heritages, women empowerment and hunger mitigation. We provide a worldwide review of the knowledge, biodiversity, novel approaches, future challenges and perspectives in the post‐COVID era of this important genetic resource whose relevance has usually received marginal attention despite its strategic global significance.SummaryEctomycorrhizal fungi play a key role in the structure and functioning of forest ecosystems. They have a paramount importance in nutrient cycling, plant protection against pathogens and abiotic stress, and establishment of underground networks that connect trees and other plants in nature, therefore being the wood wide web, the ‘internet’ of the forests. According to our literature review, globally 970 mycorrhizal fungal species (including both mushrooms and truffles) are edible, and they have enormous relevance either as a source of subsistence in low‐income human groups around the world or as an important economic component whose international commerce is worth billions of American dollars annually. Since edible mycorrhizal fungi (EMF) are a non‐timber forest product, their sustainable use and management is crucial in order to maintain forest stands and to provide well‐being to the human communities surrounding the forested areas where they grow. In different parts of the world, different cultures have developed a traditional knowledge of EMF over millennia. Their knowledge might play an important role in food supply and food security in the future, hence contributing towards the “zero hunger” global goal. The biotechnological development of EMF has also been crucial in the establishment of plantations, or successful reforestation and ecosystem restoration, which contribute to climate change mitigation by reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Here, a worldwide review of how EMF might contribute to forest sustainability, food supply, biocultural conservation, and hunger and climate change mitigation is addressed by analysing the similarities, contrasts and challenges in all five continents.

Star canoes, voyaging worlds

ABSTRACT This paper explores the realities of voyaging as understood by early Polynesian navigators. The voyaging world of Kaveia, a contemporary navigator from Outlier Polynesia, as recorded by the anthropologist sailor Mimi George, is juxtaposed with those of Tupaia and Puhoro, eighteenth century navigators from the Society Islands, to examine Polynesian understandings of the sea, canoes and islands, and how long-distance voyaging was accomplished in ancestral times. The renaissance in Polynesian voyaging is also examined, in the context of human harm to the oceanic realm, and modernist understandings of relations between people and the sea are interrogated.

18-month-olds use different cues to categorize plants and artifacts

One key adaptive problem that humans had to solve was to identify safe plants while avoiding dangerous ones. The ability to reliably categorize plants was likely critical to accomplishing this task and avoid confusing non-toxic plants with similar-looking toxic ones. Here, we investigated which cues 18-month-old infants (Study 1, N = 40) from Germany, and adults (Study 2, N = 145) recruited online use to categorize plants and manmade artifacts. To this end, in Study 1, we presented infants with plants with different leaf shapes in brightly colored pots and feature-matched artifacts that had the same variation in shape and color as the plants. The results of the categorization task indicate that infants relied on variation in leaf shape to categorize plants more than they relied on similar variation in shape to categorize artifacts. In Study 2, using a modified version of the task from Study 1, we found that adults were less willing to categorize plants using features other than leaf shape, while they were more willing to do so for artifacts. We conclude that infants use different features to categorize plants and artifacts and that aspects of this categorization strategy persist into adulthood. The features infants use to categorize plants would have reliably differentiated between plant types over ancestral time and thus reliance on these features may be based on their conceptual relevance to plants.

Nōn and Tīd: Computus Calculations and Ancestral Time in Beowulf

The early medieval English computus—or science of the calendar—and its impact on early English perceptions of time offer a new context for the study of Beowulf. This context brings new ideas to bear on the epic poem, which, though it concerns Scandinavians from the Migration Age, is presented by a Christian narrator to an early medieval, English, Christianized audience. The vocabulary of hours and timekeeping in the poem communicates an antiquarian perception of time for an early medieval English audience. The nouns for small units of time, such as the flexible hours of tīd and the monastic hours of nōn (nones) and ūhta (matins, dawn), are in a dialectic relationship that does not contradict the paganism of the characters but provides the poem with a liturgical backdrop. Outside of Beowulf, nōn can only be found in liturgical texts and ūhta occurs only once in nonreligious poetry. Both nouns give a hagiographical resonance to the monster-fighting. Tīd, however, is attached to meaningful moments rather than hours of a fixed arithmetical duration. This is symptomatic of the complementarity in early medieval England between mathematical and observational time perceptions. In Beowulf, both time perceptions are tied to ideological and theological overtones. Nōn represents learned time reckoning, embodied by the Church computus, and tīd represents experiential time, based on Germanic empirical observation. While the narrator announces a Germanic, empirical sense of time in the opening of the poem, there are subtextual allusions to the perception of time as mathematical and bound to the disciplines of the quadrivium.

Crianças pequenas terena: reencontros ancestrais em tempos de pandemia

A pandemia, provocada pela Covid-19, tem provocado complexas e contraditórias reações, gestadas pelo cerceamento das liberdades. Os tempos e os espaços urbanos se mostram apartados de significados e, ao mesmo tempo, são absolutizados. E nas aldeias indígenas? Como esse momento está sendo vivido? Como as crianças estão passando por esses tempos? Seus cotidianos mudaram? Este texto tem como objetivo registrar as narrativas vividas e construídas com crianças pequenas indígenas residentes em quatro aldeias Terena de Miranda (MS): Cachoeirinha, Babaçu, Lalima e Passarinho. A pesquisa tem inspiração na antropologia da infância e se fundamenta em observações, conversas e registros, com o apoio e a mediação de mães, pais, avós, professoras, professores e lideranças indígenas. Parte do pressuposto de que há tempos, espaços e sabedorias ancestrais, presentes no cotidiano das aldeias, que trazem questionamentos e jeitos outros de viver essa inquietante e exigente experiência. Há riscos. Há ensinamentos.

A Queering-to-Come

This introduction outlines the idea of the queer customary and how various African articulations of it engage, contest, and nuance central concerns of queer theory produced in the global North, particularly around ideas of normativity—hetero and homo. It speculates on the customary’s reworking of temporality and what that reworking does to historical time and the problems and possibilities in reading the colonial archive in the search for a useable past for both lived African sexual and gendered experience and the academic study of it. The customary is seen as an iterative containment of ancestral time, a powerful form of self-fashioning in the present, and as an invitation to futurity. Brief framings of how the various essays in the special issue elaborate what we are calling the queer customary follow.

Pediculosis capitis in schoolchildren and the marginality rate of the Metropolitan area of Guadalajara, Mexico.

Pediculosis capitis (PC) is a plague in schoolchildren around the world, there is a sub-record of cases of this infestation. It is important to expose the lack of studies on the problem, whose presence dates back ancestral times. Methodology: The marginality index in four schools is explored, together with the presence of PC in them. Public schools of the municipalities of Zapopan, Tonalá, Tlaquepaque, and Guadalajara, Mexico are studied. It is a descriptive, transversal and comparative research. Objective: To identify according to the marginality index if there are differences in the prevalence of PC in schoolchildren of four schools in the metropolitan area of Guadalajara, Jalisco, Mexico. Results: The sample consisted of 720 
 schoolchildren. A highest frequency of pediculosis in the female sex was determined, representing 82.35% of the infested students; a global prevalence of 4.72% and a cumulative prevalence of 51.94% was demonstrated, that is, more than half of the students have ever had lice. The presence of these parasites is more common in girls and in long hair. The schools that presented more PC cases are in the medium marginality index.

Fathers high in psychopathy invest more in offspring who resemble them

Over ancestral time, men had more paternity uncertainty than women. If the father and his offspring have similar facial features, the former is more confident of his paternity and he, therefore, tends to invest more resources in the child. In 158 dyads of adolescents (i.e., teenagers) and their fathers, we tested—using actor-partner interdependence modeling (APIM)—the relationship between facial resemblance and personality similarity on the one hand and paternal investment (i.e., emotional and financial) on the other hand. We also examined how important personality (i.e., emotionality, psychopathy, narcissism, and Machiavellianism) similarity is in predicting paternal investment controlling for facial resemblance. Both facial and personality resemblance were associated with paternal investment. We also found that personality similarity accounts for incrementally more variance in paternal investment over facial resemblance. Additionally, we found that psychopathy moderated the relationship between facial resemblance and paternal investment.