1,726 research outputs found
Significance of the Adrenals and the Testes for the Production of Testosterone (T) and Androstenedione (A) during Male Infancy
Estrone and estradiol concentrations in human ovaries, testes, and adrenals during the first two years of life
To determine the origin of estrogens in infant blood, we measured estrone (E1) and estradiol (E2) in the gonads of 50 girls and 64 boys who died suddenly between birth and 2 yr of age as well as in the adrenals of 18 of these infant girls and 16 of the boys. In the adrenals, E1 [median, 2.8 ng/g (10.4 pmol/g); range, 1.1-4.8 ng/g (4.1- 17.8 pmol/g)] and E2 [median, 3.0 ng/g (10.9 pmol/g); range, 1.2-5.3 ng/g (4.4-19.5 pmol/g)] were found in similar concentrations and were independent of age and sex. In the gonads, E2 was the major estrogen, but the concentrations differed markedly between the sexes; E2 exceeded E1 almost 10-fold in the ovaries and 2-fold in the testes. On the average, the gonads of the infant girls had 5 times more E2 and 2 times more E1 than those of the boys. As in plasma, E2 concentrations were highest in the ovaries of 1- to 6-month-old girls [median, 10.5 ng/g (38.5 pmol/g); range, 1.1-55.1 ng/g (4.0-202.0 pmol/g)] and in testes of 1- to 3-month-old boys [median, 1.8 ng/g (6.6 pmol/g); range, 0.6- 6.4 ng/g (2.3-23.5 pmol/g)]. Ovarian E2 concentrations declined to less than 3.0 ng/g (11.0 pmol/g) by the end of the first year of life, and testicular E2 declined to less than 1.0 ng/g (3.7 pmol/g) after only 6 months of age. Gonadal estrogen concentrations paralleled changes in gonadal morphology. Ovarian weights varied in a pattern of rise and fall similar to that of ovarian E2 concentrations; the biggest ovaries contained multiple macroscopic cysts. Testicular E2 closely correlated with Leydig cell development and testicular testosterone concentrations. We infer, therefore, that the surge of plasma E2 in infant girls originates from ovarian follicles and that of boys from testicular Leydig cells, and that these both occur as a result of the postnatal surge in gonadotropin secretion. The basal plasma E1 and E2 pool, however, is derived from the adrenals and remains at a comparatively constant level in both sexe
A 'p-n' diode with hole and electron-doped lanthanum manganite
The hole-doped manganite La0.7Ca0.3MnO3 and the electron-doped manganite
La0.7Ce0.3MnO3 undergo an insulator to metal transition at around 250 K, above
which both behave as a polaronic semiconductor. We have successfully fabricated
an epitaxial trilayer (La0.7Ca0.3MnO3/SrTiO3/La0.7Ce0.3MnO3), where SrTiO3 is
an insulator. At room temperature, i.e. in the semiconducting regime, it
exhibits asymmetric current-voltage (I-V) characteristics akin to a p-n diode.
The observed asymmetry in the I-V characteristics disappears at low
temperatures where both the manganite layers are metallic. To the best of our
knowledge, this is the first report of such a p-n diode, using the polaronic
semiconducting regime of doped manganites.Comment: PostScript text and 2 figures, to be published in Appl. Phys. Lett
Deposition of aerially applied spray to a stream within a vegetative barrier
Drift of aerially applied forest herbicides can result in chemical deposition to streams. Riparian vegetation is expected to attenuate drift, but there is little corresponding data. A field study was conducted in the Coast Range west of Corvallis, Oregon, to evaluate the effectiveness of forested riparian buffers. The buffers studied are typical of those used for small and medium fish-bearing streams in western Oregon as mandated by the Oregon Forest Practices Act. A helicopter sprayed two tracers over four transects. Twenty trials were conducted, resulting in over 1400 tracer samples. Results confirm that these vegetative barriers are effective at reducing deposition into streams. Reduction of deposition on artificial foliage samplers placed immediately above the stream surface ranged from 37% to 99% and averaged 92%. Reductions were less clear in stable atmospheric conditions due to low wind speed and highly variable wind directions. Low wind speed conditions are not generally high-drift scenarios, but there is evidence that drift of suspended droplets beyond the barrier, comprising a small fraction of the total mass, increases in stable conditions
AToM3: A Tool for Multi-formalism and Meta-modelling
The final publication is available at Springer via http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/3-540-45923-5_12Proceedings of 5th International Conference, FASE 2002 Held as Part of the Joint European Conferences on Theory and Practice of Software, ETAPS 2002 Grenoble, France, April 8–12, 2002This article introduces the combined use of multi-formalism modelling and meta-modelling to facilitate computer assisted modelling of complex systems. The approach allows one to model different parts of a system using different formalisms. Models can be automatically converted between formalisms thanks to information found in a Formalism Transformation Graph (FTG), proposed by the authors. To aid in the automatic generation of multi-formalism modelling tools, formalisms are modelled in their own right (at a meta-level) within an appropriate formalism. This has been implemented in the interactive tool AToM3. This tool is used to describe formalisms commonly used in the simulation of dynamical systems, as well as to generate custom tools to process (create, edit, transform, simulate, optimise, ...) models expressed in the corresponding formalism. AToM3 relies on graph rewriting techniques and graph grammars to perform the transformations between formalisms as well as for other tasks, such as code generation and operational semantics specification.This paper has been partially sponsored by the Spanish Interdepartmental Commission
of Science and Technology (CICYT), project number TEL1999-0181.
Prof.Vangheluwe gratefully acknowledges partial support for this work by a
National Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) Individual
Research Grant
THEORETICAL STUDIES OF BILIPROTEIN CHROMOPHORES AND RELATED BILE PIGMENTS BY MOLECULAR ORBITAL AND RAMACHANDRAN TYPE CALCULATIONS
Ramachandran calculations have been used to gain insight into steric hindrance in bile
pigments related to biliprotein chromophores. The high optical activity of denatured phycocyanin, as
compared to phycoerythrin, has been related to the asymmetric substitution at ring A, which shifts the
equilibrium towards the P-helical form of the chromophore. Geometric effects on the electronic structures
and transitions have then been studied by molecular orbital calculations for several conjugation
systems including the chromophores of phycocyanin. phytochrome P,, cations, cation radicals and
tautomeric forms. For these different chromophores some general trends can be deduced. For instance,
for a given change in the gross shape (e.g. either unfolding of the molecule from a cyclic-helical to a fully
extended geometry, or upon out-of-plane twists of the pyrrole ring A) of the molecules under study, the
predicted absorption spectra all change in a simikar way. Nonetheless, there are characteristic distinctions
between the different n-systems, both in the transition energies and the charge distribution, which
can be related to their known differences in spectroscopic properties and their reactivity
Mothers Rosary of Love
Each mother’s life is a Rosary, That she counts o’er and o’er, Each pearl a recollection She’ll love forever more. She:
CHORUS She counted the first bead the day you were born, The second when you tried to walk, The third bead she counted, filled her with delight, ‘Twas when she first heard you talk. And so for each deed she would count a new bead, And that’s what her dreams were made of; Smiles, sighs and tears, Joys, hopes and fears, Are a mother’s Rosary of love.
So day by day, ever willingly, She does all she can do, Each task a deed of gladness, Her work is never through Such
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