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Ontario students in grades 7–13 responded to open‐ended and multiple‐choice questions about future concerns, particularly unemployment, job/career plans, and the nuclear threat. Although worries about nuclear war were more frequent than those in other areas, their expression was associated with a sense of social efficacy rather than with feelings of helplessness.

Two inhibitors of platelet aggregation have been identified in saline extracts of Glossina morsitans (tsetse) salivary glands. A protein fraction (MW > 30 000) inhibited primary and secondary aggregation to ADP, secondary I aggregation to adrenalin, and aggregation to collagen. It also caused disaggregation of platelets stimulated by ADP and adrenalin. These properties could be explained by ADP hydrolytic activity. A previously identified antithrombin fraction (MW 11 000-13 000) abolished thrombin-induced aggregation. It did not affect platelet aggregation to ADP, adrenalin or collagen, as compared to aggregation in citrate, when used as sole anticoagulant for platelet rich plasma or when added to citrated platelet rich plasma. These results fail to support hypotheses (i) that thrombin plays an important role in platelet aggregation by other agonists and (ii) that secondary platelet aggregation is an artefact induced by citrate. It is proposed that these inhibitors may be important in maintaining mouthpart and crop patency during feeding. Their discovery suggests that other arthropods may also have antiplatelet agents in their saliva which might be entomologically important, provide useful tools for platelet studies, and be of potential therapeutic interest.

SummaryThe saliva of the tsetse, Glossina morsitans morsitans Westwood, has antithrombin anticoagulant activity and inhibits thrombin’s esterolytic activity. It has no other detectable anticoagulant properties. The anticoagulant elutes in a single peak on Sephadex fraction, is immediately acting, heat and storage stable, and has a molecular weight of 11-13,000. Unlike heparin it is not neutralized by protamine sulphate or toluidine blue and does not require the co-factor, antithrombin III, for optimal anticoagulant activity. It has similar properties to hirudin, but does not elute with a protein peak upon Sephadex fractionation and has a slightly different molecular weight. Salivary gland homogenates contained neither a plasminogen activator nor fibrinolytic activity. The sera of rabbits used to maintain tsetses, which contained precipitating antibodies against saliva, did not neutralize the salivary anticoagulant in vitro. The properties of this anticoagulant suggest that it might be a potentially useful antithrombotic agent in man.

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