The risks of exposure to, and severe disease from RSV, should be carefully assessed when administering Palivizumab. Down’s syndrome itself has been shown to be a risk factor for severe RSV infection, even in the absence of congenital

heart disease. For infants and children with Down’s syndrome ≤24 months of age at the beginning of the RSV season, Doxorubicin ic50 the prevention of severe RSV disease using Palivizumab may be considered when the patient suffered any of following past or present complications, or has abnormal laboratory test results: • Anatomical, physiological or functional abnormalities of the respiratory system: Airway obstruction and/or associated apnea due to marked megaloglossia, Bioactive Compound Library glossoptosis, respiratory tract malacia, or other airway abnormalities, pulmonary hypertension,

pulmonary hypoplasia/dysplasia, or emphysematous lung. * Although the normal values vary depending on the months of age, one suggestion would be 2000/mm3 or lower and 1000/mm3 or lower for lymphocyte counts and T-lymphocytes, respectively. (1) If patients have a tendency to bleed due to thrombocytopenia (such as because of Wiskott–Aldrich syndrome and myeloablation) or other coagulopathy, or they are receiving anticoagulants and/or antiplatelet drugs, bleeding resulting from an intramuscular injection of Palivizumab may be serious. It is recommended that Palivizumab be carefully given to such patients, for example, with application of pressure to

the injection site for an appropriate length of time to ensure hemostasis. It is important to employ strict infection control measures even when using Palivizumab. It is particularly important to educate guardians, since their cooperation is essential in managing high-risk children. It is also important to provide instructions not only for RSV infection, but also for other pathogens causing respiratory tract infections. In addition, guardians should understand that adhering to the administration schedule is critical to maximize the effectiveness. Recent medical advances have improved the lives of immunocompromised patients, but as a result, the chance of exposure to and infection by RSV among these high risk patients has increased. Severe RSV infections in immunodeficiency disorders such as SCID have long been recognized, at least since GNAT2 the 1980s 2, 4 and 5. Hall et al. examined the immunological status of 608 infants under the age of five who were hospitalized with an RSV infection over a ten year period [2]. They identified 47 patients with immunologic abnormalities, including those receiving chemotherapy (20 cases) or steroids (22 cases) and those with primary immunodeficiency syndrome (5 cases). The frequency of nosocomial infections, as well as the rates of infection in the lower respiratory tract, admissions to the ICU and mortality was compared with immunologically normal children.

, 1995). After incubation, cells were washed twice with FACS buffer and were either used for intracellular staining or fixed with a solution of 2% paraformaldehyde in PBS. Incubation with primary antibodies to MHC I (Salomonsen et al., 1987) and MHC II (Kaufman et al., 1990) was followed by Alexa-647 conjugated goat anti-mouse antibody (Life Technologies). Secondary antibody alone or unconjugated goat anti-mouse antibody (Life Technologies) was used as an unstained control for surface MHC staining. Intracellular staining JQ1 chemical structure was carried out as described previously (Ariaans et al., 2008). Briefly, splenocytes from challenged birds or non-infected controls were seeded in a 96-well round-bottom plates (Nunc)

at 106 cells/well in a final volume of 200 μl of culture media or culture media supplemented with the different stimuli at the concentration described in the ELISpot technique (except PMA which was used at 50 ng/ml). Cells

were cultured using the conditions described above for ELISpot assays (24 h culture). Selleckchem Epacadostat For intracellular staining, during the last 2 h of culture, cells were treated with Brefeldin A according to the manufacturer’s instructions (Cytofix/Cytoperm™ Plus Fixation/Permeabilization kit, BD Biosciences). To avoid non-specific binding signal, we preincubated cells with Cytofix/Cytoperm™ buffer containing 2% normal mouse serum and further staining steps involved Cytofix/Cytoperm™ washing buffer containing 1% normal mouse serum (Biosource). To confirm the specificity of the anti-IFNγ antibody EH9 we also employed a validated anti-IFNγ [mAb80 (Ariaans et al., 2008)]. Purified fractions of both antibodies were conjugated using Alexa Fluor® 647 monoclonal antibody labeling kit (Molecular Probes) according to the manufacturer’s selleck screening library instructions. A mouse isotype matched control antibody IgG1 Alexa Fluor® 647 (Life Technologies) was employed at the same concentration as EH9 and Mab80. For analysis, a gate on the FSC/SSC region of lymphocytes was selected and a minimum of 10,000 events were acquired on a FACSCalibur instrument using Cell Quest software (BD Becton Dickinson). Flow cytometry

analysis indicates that non-adherent CKC were not present at significant levels (data not shown). FlowJo software (TreeStar) was used to analyze flow cytometry data. A paired or unpaired t-student test or one-way ANOVA was performed using GraphPad Prism (version 6.0 for Windows, GraphPad Software, San Diego, California, USA). Screening identified two anti-chicken IFNγ antibodies (clones EH9 and AF10) which were shown by ELISA to bind recombinant chicken IFNγ and to work effectively as an antibody pair in capture ELISA (Supplementary Fig. 2A–C). We subsequently compared this antibody pair with commercially available antibodies [from Life Technologies (Ariaans et al., 2008 and Reemers et al., 2012)] in ELISpot assays.

Two samples (B475 and B22) were highly active, as active as the standard haemorrhagic

venom (B. jararaca). Venom samples from B208, B33, B67 and B5 were moderately active (compared to B. jararaca), while those from B8, B469 and A229 were of low haemorrhagic activity. Myotoxic activity was rare and usually mild. Only T224, T221 and T61 (fraction 20) were clearly myotoxic although B526 and T208 were mildly myotoxic. Oedema was common, but non-specific ( Table 1). Clear evidence of neurotoxicity was seen only with T61 (fraction 20) ( Table 1, Fig. S1). The total dataset contained 253 non-redundant protein sequences (Fig. 1). The alignment is available in the Dryad data depository (doi:10.5061/dryad.16pg7). The click here first four factors describing amino acid composition were retained. These PS-341 purchase principal components, referred to as PC1-4(comp) hereafter, summarised 16.7, 14.0, 10.1, and 9.5% of variation respectively. Ninety-five proteins had known functions that could be assigned to one of six major functions. However, anticoagulant and antiplatelet functions were subsequently combined into a “haemotoxic” category after preliminary analyses showed that no physico-chemical property or PC(comp) could distinguish between these groups (Tamhane’s post-hoc test). Final sample sizes were: Myotoxic: 30; Haemotoxic: 19; Neurotoxic: 26; Hypotensive: 7; Oedematous: 15. Neurotoxic PLA2s frequently also show myotoxicity

(Montecucco et al., 2008), but were classed as neurotoxic rather than myotoxic for the purpose of this analysis. Robust tests (Brown-Forsythe) for the equality of means showed all variables apart from PC2(comp) showed significant differences among groups. The four resulting discriminant functions (Table 2) contained 69.1, 13.5, 11.1, and 6.3% of variation respectively. Another 158 proteins which had no known function were plotted on the resulting axes (Fig. 2) and colour-coded by their posterior probabilities of belonging to one of the functional

groups (Table S2). All groups, except for haemotoxic and hypotensive proteins, were successfully discriminated on two axes (Fig. 2A). DF1 largely reflects the difference in pI, with haemotoxic/hypotensive proteins being acidic, myotoxic, neurotoxic and most oedematous proteins being basic. However, notably some oedematous BCKDHA proteins can be distinguished from myotoxic ones by being more neutrally charged at pH7. DF2 (Table 2, Fig. 2A) largely distinguishes a smaller group of oedematous proteins on the basis of PC3(comp), with oedematous toxins having lower amounts of phenylalanine, arginine and tyrosine, and higher amounts of methionine and valine. DF3 (not shown) is influenced by a contrast between net charge and pI, and further distinguishes myotoxins proteins from oedematous proteins and neurotoxins, with myotoxins displaying a lower net charge for a given pI than the other types.

The specimens were fixed with 99% methanol Navitoclax mouse and kept at room temperature until fluorescence staining. For staining, slides were incubated with 20 μg/ml Alexa Fluor-488-PNA (peanut agglutinin) at 37 °C for 30 min, washed with PBS, and analyzed by using epifluorescent microscopy with an appropriate filter. The images of stained sperm samples were classified into two groups: Sperm displaying intensive and moderate bright fluorescence in the acrosomal region were considered to be intact, whereas sperm displaying weak, patchy, or no fluorescence in the acrosomal region were considered to be damaged

[52]. 100 sperm on each slide were evaluated to determine the proportion of sperm with intact acrosomes. The sperm MMP was evaluated using the JC-1 fluorescent dye (M34152, Molecular Probes Inc.) by the modified method that was previously described by Guthrie and Welch [18]. The JC-1 fluorescent dye was used to distinguish spermatozoa with poorly and highly functional mitochondria. In poorly functional mitochondria, JC-1 remains in the monomeric state and fluoresces green. However, in highly functional mitochondria, JC-1 forms aggregates that fluoresce orange. For evaluation of MMP in spermatozoa, 300 μl the washed (prepared before acrosomal integrity

analysis) sperm suspensions (1–2 × 106 spermatozoa/ml) were mixed with 10 μl Cobimetinib order JC-1 (0.75 μg final concentration). The mixture was incubated at 37 °C for 30 min and then 100 sperm per sample were analyzed by using epifluorescent microscope with a dual fluorescence filter (Nikon Eclipse 600). Statistical analyses were performed using SPSS software (version 11.5 for Windows; SPSS Inc., Chicago, IL). The data were analyzed to determine the effects of extenders and freezing rate on motility, membrane and acrosome plasma integrity and MMP. Parametric data were analyzed by analysis Avelestat (AZD9668) of variance (Two-Way ANOVA) and if there were significant differences, Tukey test for multiple comparisons was used for post hoc analysis. The non-parametric data were

analyzed Kruskal–Wallis and if there were significant differences between groups, Mann–Whitney test was used to determine the differences in groups. Statistical significance was set at P < 0.05. Values were presented as the mean ± standard error of the mean (SEM). Most of the extenders tested were effective in maintaining motility after equilibration. Motility of diluted, equilibrated and frozen-thawed SD rat sperm for different extenders and cooling rates are given in Table 1, Table 2 and Table 3. Fresh and diluted sperm motility before equilibration was between 60.0% and 76.7% for SD rats. Equilibration caused less than 10% motility loss in sperm samples diluted in extenders with the exception of m-KRB in 40 °C/min group. After freezing, sperm motility ranged between 3.7% and 32.5% (p < 0.05). Sperm samples that were frozen in TES-S extender retained the highest motility (32.

In conclusion, plants defend themselves from insect or pathogen attack through a wide variety of mechanisms and stimulated by many different biotic inducers [40]. Our results showed that SBPH feeding induced biochemical defense responses in the rice varieties Kasalath and Wuyujing 3. The activities of PAL, PPO and POD in Kasalath were almost identical to those in Wuyujing 3 when not infested by SBPH. These three enzymes were induced distinctly by SBPH challenge and their activities increased significantly. The combined action PD0332991 supplier of these defense enzymes may account for increased rice resistance to SBPH. PAL is the first enzyme of the phenylpropanoid pathway and is involved in the biosynthesis of phenolics, phytoalexins

and lignins [17]. Our results indicated the increase

in PAL enzyme activity was consistent with the induction of PAL gene expression after SBPH feeding. The resulting phenolics could be oxidized by the action of PPO and POD to produce differently colored phenolic complexes or compounds such as quinines and even tannins [41]. PPO usually accumulates upon wounding in plants [20]. POD, meanwhile, is involved in lignin-forming plant defense responses and its activity is associated with disease resistance in plants, and increases in host plants following pathogen infection [42]. Overall, our results revealed that the expression levels of the SA synthesis-related genes PAL, NPR1, EDS1 and PAD4 and PLX3397 mw the activities of defense-related enzymes such as PAL, POD, and PPO were highly induced in the resistant Kasalath rice in response to SBPH feeding, suggesting that the biosynthesis of salicylic acid, lignin, phenolic compounds and phytoalexins may contribute greatly to rice resistance mechanisms in the poorly studied rice–SBHP interaction system. This study was sponsored by the National

Nature Science Foundation of China (30971746) and the Major Project for Breeding Genetically Modified Organisms (2009ZX08009-046B). The authors are grateful to the comments of anonymous reviewers and editing from M. Blair. “
“Global mean air temperature has increased by about 0.74 °C during the past 100 years, and is predicted to increase by 2.0–5.4 °C by the end of 2100 [1]. The elevation in the daily minimum temperature has been and will remain greater than that of the daily maximum temperature [2]. An average annual increase in grain production of 44 million Orotic acid metric tons is required to meet worldwide food demands by 2050 [3] and [4]. Given that temperature is a key factor determining crop yield and quality, the anticipated warming may strongly affect future food security [5] and [6]. Rice is one of the most important crops and a primary food source for more than half of the world’s population, and more than 90% of the world’s rice is produced and consumed in Asia [7]. Thus, quantifying the impact of daily minimum temperature elevation on rice growth in Asia may assist in developing strategies for cropping adaptation to future climatic warming.

3 The tight control of heme synthesis vs heme degradation is essential because free heme is a pro-oxidant and toxic molecule.4 and 5 Both heme synthesis and heme degradation are tunely regulated by heme itself. Heme controls Alas1 transcription, the stability of Alas1 messenger RNA (mRNA) and the accumulation of the mature protein in the mitochondrion. 6, 7 and 8 On the opposite side, heme controls Ho-1 gene expression by removing the transcriptional repressor BACH1 from its promoter. 9 The pool of heme that exerts

this control, selleck products the so-called “free” or “regulatory” heme pool, is determined by a balance between heme synthesis and degradation and because of its small size, dynamic GSK1120212 cell line properties, and ability to readily exchange with heme-containing proteins, reflects the overall status of cellular heme content. 10 Recently, heme export through the cell-surface transporter feline leukemia virus subgroup C cellular receptor 1a (Flvcr1a) was proposed as an additional control step to prevent the intracellular accumulation of heme.11 and 12Flvcr1 gene is essential for erythropoiesis

and systemic iron homeostasis. 12 It encodes for 2 proteins, FLVCR1a and FLVCR1b, expressed at the plasma membrane and on the mitochondrion, respectively. FLVCR1a belongs to the SLC49 family of the major facilitator superfamily of transporters with 12 hydrophobic transmembrane domains. 12 and 13 FLVCR1b is a shorter protein with only 6 transmembrane domains, supposed to homodimerize to form a functional transporter. 13 We recently demonstrated a crucial role for FLVCR1b in the last step of heme biosynthetic pathway, ie, heme export from mitochondria. 13 On the other hand, FLVCR1a exerts its heme export activity at the plasma membrane and avoids intracellular heme loading. Previous studies showed that FLVCR1a-mediated heme export in macrophages prevents heme-derived iron accumulation

after erythrophagocytosis. 14 Consistently, silencing of Flvcr1a in HeLa cells results in cytosolic heme loading, HO-1 induction, and oxidative stress. Finally, Flvcr1a C59 deletion in mice causes embryo lethality due to extended hemorrhages. 13 The liver is one of the body compartments with the highest heme rate synthesis. More than 50% of the heme synthesized in the liver is committed to the synthesis of cytochromes P450 (CYPs),15 the major enzymes involved in drug metabolism.16 As the prosthetic moiety of all CYPs, heme is responsible for the catalytic activity of these enzymes. In addition, the free heme pool also regulates CYP protein synthesis and disposal.10 Here we show that Flvcr1a function in hepatocytes is critical for the maintenance of a heme pool that controls CYP expression and activity.

2 (SAS Institute Inc, Cary, NC). In this study, 418 neonates (198 males and 220 females) and their mothers were included. Characteristics of the neonates and their parents are

described in Table 1. Almost all neonates (97.61%) were term infants. Most newborns (97.4%) got 10 scores in the Apgar test at 5 minutes after birth. Average age of the mothers was 27.13 ± 3.19 years. All women ate fish at least once a week throughout pregnancy, and most fish consumed was oceanic (95.22%). None of mothers consumed alcohol or smoked during pregnancy. About 2.15% mothers and 3.11% fathers have history of occupational mercury exposure, and 58.37% and 55.02% fathers were smokers and drinkers, respectively. About 4.07% fathers had a family history of hereditary

disease. Monthly household income per capita was >2000 renminbi in www.selleckchem.com/products/ly2157299.html most participants (56.22%). Table 2 presents total mercury levels in maternal urine, hair, and blood and cord learn more blood. Cord blood mercury was significantly higher than maternal blood mercury (t = −14.60; P < 0.0001). Significant correlations were found among the four biomakers of mercury exposure ( Table 3). There was a strong correlation between maternal blood mercury and cord blood mercury (r = 0.7431; P < 0.0001). Other biomakers had relatively small correlation coefficients, and there was a statistically significant difference (all P < 0.05). Frequency of maternal fish intake during pregnancy was correlated with total mercury in maternal urinary (r = 0.3452; P < 0.0001), maternal hair (r = 0.1146; P = 0.0191), maternal blood (r = 0.4960; P < 0.0001), and umbilical cord blood (r = 0.6501; P < 0.0001) ( Table 4). Trend analysis revealed

that mothers who consumed more fish had higher blood and cord blood mercury levels ( Fig 1). Significant differences were found between male (F = 84.18; P < 0.0001) and female (F = 62.74; P < 0.0001) cord blood mercury levels among groups with different fish consumption frequencies ( Fig 2). Of the 418 neonates, 106 (25.36%) had a maximum Cytidine deaminase NBNA score of 40 at 3 days of age. The maximum score rates of primary reflexes and general assessment were 94.98% and 96.89%, respectively. Maximum score rates for passive muscle tone and active muscle tone were 74.64% and 65.55%, respectively. Only 49.04% of infants had a maximum behavior score. Median total NBNA scores were 38 for both male and female infants. Linear regression analysis revealed that total NBNA scores were significantly related to cord blood mercury level (β = 0.03; SE = 0.01) after adjustment (Table 5). Cord blood mercury level was significantly associated with passive muscle tone (odds ratio = 1.07; 95% confidence interval = 1.12-1.13; P = 0.0071) and active muscle tone (odds ratio = 1.06; 95% confidence interval = 1.01-1.11; P = 0.0170) scores after adjustment, respectively ( Table 5).

À l’automne 1885 il

entre à la faculté de médecine de l’université de Vienne, où il suivra l’enseignement de maîtres souvent prestigieux : Carl Toldt en anatomie, Otto Kahler en médecine interne, Theodor Billroth en chirurgie, Gustav Braun en obstétrique et gynécologie, Hermann Widerhofer en pédiatrie, Hanns Kundrat en histologie et anatomopathologie, Theodor Meynert en psychiatrie. Il est docteur en médecine (Doktor der gesamten Heilkunde) le 21 février 1891. Sa formation postdoctorale est originale, déjà caractéristique de sa carrière future, car elle comporte peu de stages cliniques mais de longs séjours dans des laboratoires de chimie renommés, à Würzburg, Munich et Zurich. À l’évidence, Landsteiner se détourne de la médecine clinique, qu’il n’exercera jamais, et affirme son intérêt pour la recherche en biologie humaine, qu’il Sirolimus entend pratiquer en chimiste. Landsteiner Pirfenidone solubility dmso reste à l’institut d’anatomopathologie jusqu’en 1907. Il y poursuit ses recherches sur l’agglutination des hématies humaines, dont il analyse les variations en fonction de divers facteurs tels que la température, la concentration en hématies, l’âge des individus. Il observe que les agglutinines « immunes » du groupe ABO sont plus résistantes à la chaleur que les agglutinines « normales », première avancée vers

la distinction maintenant classique entre anticorps antiérythrocytaires immuns et naturels. Par une analyse comparative du pouvoir agglutinant du sérum des mères et de leurs enfants nouveau-nés, il suggère

clairement la notion d’immaturité immunologique néonatale (« …l’organisme du nouveau-né, comparé à celui de l’adulte, doit être considéré comme incomplètement développé. ») [6]. Enfin, grâce au travail d’Adriano Sturli (1873–1966) et Alfred Decastello-Rechtwehr Sunitinib (1872–1960), deux jeunes collaborateurs de Landsteiner à l’institut d’anatomopathologie, s’impose progressivement l’existence du groupe AB [7]. En décembre 1907, Landsteiner quitte l’institut d’anatomopathologie. Il prend la direction, avec le titre de prosecteur, du service d’anatomopathologie du Wilhelminenspital, à Ottakring, dans l’ouest de Vienne. Il perd sa mère, tendrement aimée, en 1908. Il est nommé professeur adjoint d’anatomopathologie en 1911. En 1916, il épouse Léopoldine Hélène Wlasto (1880–1943), actrice de théâtre, d’origine grecque par son père, gestionnaire laïc de la paroisse orthodoxe grecque de Vienne. Leur fils Ernst, qui sera leur seul enfant, naît en 1917. En janvier 1920, chassé par la misère qui écrase l’Autriche après l’effondrement de l’Empire, Landsteiner quitte Vienne, avec sa famille, pour La Haye où il prend le poste de prosecteur à l’hôpital de la Croix Rouge (Rode Kruis Ziekenhuis).

The large catch increase of the 1960s and 1970s was largely due the seaward and southward expansion of industrial (notably trawl) fisheries from waters along the coasts of developed countries

of the Northern Hemisphere. When this expansion ended – in Antarctic waters – catches could increase only by fishing in deeper waters [8] and [9]. Scientists with expertise on fishes, fisheries and Navitoclax research buy deep-sea biology question whether deep-sea fisheries can be sustainable [9], [10], [11], [12], [13], [14], [15], [16], [17], [18] and [19]. A sound answer depends on but transcends ecology, taking ocean policy makers into the realms of economics and law. Despite sharing an Ancient Greek root (oikos, meaning household), ecology and economics have diverged in their world views, often leading their practitioners to differing strategies for managing our collective household, the biosphere, including the Z-VAD-FMK clinical trial 99% of its volume that is ocean. But there are fundamental similarities between ecology and economics. In fisheries it is commonplace to call populations “stocks,” alluding to their similarity to capital stocks in economics. Central to this paper is the analogy

between (a) the biomass of fish stocks and the productivity they generate, with (b) capital stocks (principal) and the dividends (or interest) they generate. With deep-sea fisheries as our focus, this paper examines what the authors are calling Clark’s Law, the seminal connection between Exoribonuclease the ecological and economic determinants of sustainability as first explained in Clark [20] and [21]. Using comparable metrics and combining insights and the evidence from fisheries, ecology, economics and international ocean governance, this

paper examines whether deep-sea fisheries can be sustainable. Governments and international governing organizations need to know this because maintaining biodiversity in the deep sea is crucial to biogeochemistry on a global scale, and hence to humankind [22] and [23]. Commercial fishing is occurring at increasing depths around the globe. Based on readily available catch data series and fish life history parameters, Morato et al. [24] showed that marine fisheries worldwide have operated at increased depths since the 1970s. In the high seas (i.e. beyond countries’ exclusive economic zones, EEZs), the increasing depth of fishing was more dramatic, some 250 m. They based this inference on the relative increase in the global catch of species (or higher taxa) known to occur in deeper waters, which have increased 7-fold since the mid-1960s [25]. As fisheries operated farther offshore and deeper, exploiting increasing portions of the ranges of marine species [26] and [27], they also exploited the deeper part of these species’ ranges.

The proximal hair segment was chosen as it best correlates with the one month time frame of the diet data. Models Etoposide in the candidate set included all combinations of the variables (e.g. Modelfish; Modelshellfish; Modelfish+shellfish; Modelfish*shellfish). [THg] was log transformed to improve normality. We examined the relationship between [THg] and δ15N and δ13C values using two separate simple linear regressions to test whether diet, as determined by δ15N and δ13C, affects mean [THg] (across segments; Proc REG; n = 73). Seventy three women had hair [THg], δ15N, and δ13C values determined. We log-transformed the data to

meet the assumption of homoscedasticity and examined for influential outliers. As we did not account for the negative sign associated with δ13C, a negative β-value indicates that [THg] decreased as δ13C is enriched (i.e. becomes less negative). Additionally, we ranked δ13C from 1 − 73 (from values of -18.52 to -12.19) and ran a regression on the ranks, selleck chemicals reducing the influence of an outlying individual (δ13C = -12.19). Lastly, we used general linear models (GLM) to evaluate the relationship

between the frequency of consumption of fish and shellfish as reported by the individual and δ13C and δ15N stable isotopes values (n = 61), using 2 separate a priori candidate model sets, each with 3 models. Cepharanthine Sixty one women had δ13C and δ15N measured and completed diet recalls. Models in the two candidate sets included all additive combinations of the variables (e.g. δ15N fish; δ15N fish+shellfish; δ13C fish; δ13C fish+shellfish). We added a constant (20) and square root-transformed δ13C to improve normality. Values are reported as

means ± SE unless otherwise indicated. Analyses were conducted using SAS (SAS Institute, Cary, NC). We considered results significant at α < 0.05. All statistical analyses were conducted with and without an individual with exceptionally high [THg] to ensure that this individual was not overly influential in our assessment. We used Akaike’s information criterion adjusted for small sample size (AICc) to select the best approximating models as it allowed us to evaluate a number of competing nested models without violating the rules of multiple comparisons and error rates (Burnham and Anderson, 2002). We used Tukey’s multiple comparison test to compare means. We measured [THg] in the proximal hair segments of 97 women. [THg] averaged 3.26 ± 0.97 μg g−1, ranging from 0.12 to 90.0 μg g−1 (750-fold range). When the individual with [THg] of 90.0 μg g−1 was excluded as an outlier, [THg] averaged 2.35 ± 0.38 μg g−1 and ranged from 0.12 to 24.20 μg g−1 (202-fold range).