Studies on seminal prostaglandins

The lipid fraction of human semen has been separated by LH 20 Sephadex chromatography and TLC and the resulting fractions analysed by GCMS. Evidence is presented for the existence in semen of several prostaglandins, including 19 -OH PG F₁α, 19-OH PG F₂α, 8-iso 19-OH PG El, 8 -iso 19-OH PG E₂, 8 -iso PG F10, 8 -iso PG F20 , 8 -iso PG E₁ and 8-iso PG E₂. None of these compounds have previously been described in semen, and the first five have not been described from any source. Evidence is also presented for the existence of a group of prostaglandins isomeric with the dinor prostaglandins El₁, E₂, F₁α and F₂α. A method for the preparation of crystalline 19-OH PG E₁ from macaque semen is described. Evidence is presented for the existence of a pair of dihydroxy E prostaglandins, tentatively identified as 18,19 dihydroxy PG E₁ and an isomeric compound in the semen of the stump-tailed macaque. The effects of 19-OH PG E₁ on non-pregnant and pregnant human isolated myometrial strips have been studied. 19-OH PG E₁, like PG E₁, was found to relax non-pregnant strips, the equipotent molar ratio being E₁:19-OH E₁ = 1:4. 19-OH PG E₁ was also found to relax pregnant strips, unlike PG E₁, and a significant effect was demonstrated at 50 ng /ml. Examination of homogenates of the seminal vesicle of the stump tailed macaque by GCMS showed them to contain large amounts of 19-OH E prostaglandins, and these levels increased on incubation, an effect which was inhibited by indomethacin. Incubation of homogenates with radioactively-labelled eicosa-8,11,14-trienoic acid, arachidonic acid, PG E₁, PG E₂, PG F₂α or PG F₃α produced no significant incorporation of radioactivity into the 19-hydroxy prostaglandin fractions. It is concluded that the biosynthesis of 19-OH PGs takes place via a separate pathway from that leading to the classical prostaglandins. Some observations on dynamic aspects of seminal prostaglandin production in man are presented, along with the results of a study on the species distribution of the 19-hydroxy E prostaglandins

REVIEW: Vital exposé, but it would have been better with more context

Hit & Run, by Nicky Hager and Jon Stephenson. Nelson: Potter and Burton. 2017, 159 pages. ISBN ISBN 978-0-947-50339-0.HIT & RUN tells what happened when a small group of New Zealand SAS soldiers in Afghanistan decided to mount a revenge raid on two Afghan villages where they thought Taliban they believed had been responsible for the death of one of their own were staying. With Ministerial approval, relying on faulty intelligence and backed by American firepower, the SAS raided the villages of Naik and Khak Kuday Dad on the night of 22 August 2010. Their Taliban targets were nowhere to be found: They had slipped away into the mountains and were resting peacefully when the SAS arrived by helicopter in the middle of the night

The hydrodynamics of countercurrent chromatography in J-type centrifuges

This thesis was submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy and awarded by Brunel University.Countercurrent chromatography (CCC) is an advanced liquid-liquid extraction technique that purifies chemical components from complex mixtures. The Brunel CCC' is a J-type centrifuge based upon this technique. This machine can process 5g quantities of sample every 5 hours [Sutherland 1998]. To process 1 tonne of sample per year would require 200 Brunel CCCs, which is not practical as an industrial process. A practical alternative is to use one machine with 200 times the processing capability. To construct such a machine requires a greater understanding of the stationary phase retention inside a coil (column) and the column efficiency (mass transfer between the mobile and stationary phases). This thesis contains research into stationary phase retention. A hypothesis that all J-type centrifuges act as constant pressure drop pumps is proposed. This hypothesis combined with the Hagan-Poiseuille equation for laminar flow produces a theoretical basis for plotting the stationary phase retention against the square root of the mobile phase flow rate as proposed by Du et al [1999]. Supporting experimental evidence is presented showing that the mobile phase flows in a laminar manner and that the pressure drop across a coil is constant for a given set of operating conditions. It is shown that the pressure drop is the same in both normal and reverse phase modes if specific conditions are met. The pressure drop is shown to be independent of tubing bore for helical coils provided that the same helical pitch is used. The experimental results also show how the pressure drop varies with the phase system and rotational speed. Hopefully this is a significant advance in predicting the stationary phase retention of industrial scale J-type centrifuges

REVIEW: The revolution still isn’t here

Journalism as Activism, by Adrienne Russell. Cambridge: Polity Press, 2016, 200 pages. ISBN 978-0-745-6712-6-0IN 1845 Marx wrote:The class which has the means of material production has control at the same time over the means of mental production so that… generally speaking, the ideas of those who lack the means of mental production are subject to it… as they rule as a class and determine the extent and compass of an epoch, it is self-evident that they…regulate the production and distribution of the ideas of their age; Thus their ideas are the ruling ideas of the epoch

The Case Work Notebook : An Analysis of Its Content

Although the contemporary trend of the unionization of both professional and non-professional social service workers merits careful examination of both socio-structural and ideological dimensions, the following study is confined to a historical analysis of the professional, more specifically, casework interests of a group of professional social work unionists in the late 1930s, early 1940s. The method of content analysis is used to examine several major themes within a regular section, The Case Work Notebook, of the journal, Social Work Today, which was the major theoretical organ of the social work union movement

The Avatars of Orable-Guibourc from French 'chanson de geste' to Italian 'romanzo cavalleresco'. A Persistent Multiple Alterity

Orable-Guibourc, a Saracen princess in the Guillaume d'Orange (or Monglane) cycle of chansons de geste epitomizes the «Saracen princess» story, in which a Muslim princess abandons her community for love of a Christian fighter. Yet Guibourc's character never becomes truly a part of her new community: linked to her previous religion and family, fears of treachery distance her from the Christians. Similarly, her having renounced her upbringing keeps her forever from her home, though her husband and family there still claim her as property. Writers from the first Old French texts where she appears through Renaissance Italians play upon this double jeopardy, interpreting and depicting her role and acts in different ways, emphasizing varying aspects of her personality, family and background, keeping her forever different, forever Other. This article outlines some of the historical contexts and forms in which authors worked to produce these avatars of Orable/Guibourc

Role of HLA Adaptation in HIV Evolution

Killing of HIV-infected cells by CD8(+) T-cells imposes strong selection pressure on the virus toward escape. The HLA class I molecules that are successful in mediating some degree of control over the virus are those that tend to present epitopes in conserved regions of the proteome, such as in p24 Gag, in which escape also comes at a significant cost to viral replicative capacity (VRC). In some instances, compensatory mutations can fully correct for the fitness cost of such an escape variant; in others, correction is only partial. The consequences of these events within the HIV-infected host, and at the population level following transmission of escape variants, are discussed. The accumulation of escape mutants in populations over the course of the epidemic already shows instances of protective HLA molecules losing their impact, and in certain cases, a modest decline in HIV virulence in association with population-level increase in mutants that reduce VRC

Effects of a temperature-dependent rheology on large scale continental extension

The effects of a temperature-dependent rheology on large-scale continental extension are investigated using a thin viscous sheet model. A vertically-averaged rheology is used that is consistent with laboratory experiments on power-law creep of olivine and that depends exponentially on temperature. Results of the calculations depend principally on two parameters: the Peclet number, which describes the relative rates of advection and diffusion of heat, and a dimensionless activation energy, which controls the temperature dependence of the rheology. At short times following the beginning of extension, deformation occurs with negligible change in temperature, so that only small changes in lithospheric strength occur due to attenuation of the lithosphere. However, after a certain critical time interval, thermal diffusion lowers temperatures in the lithosphere, strongly increasing lithospheric strength and slowing the rate of extension. This critical time depends principally on the Peclet number and is short compared with the thermal time constant of the lithosphere. The strength changes cause the locus of high extensional strain rates to shift with time from regions of high strain to regions of low strain. Results of the calculations are compared with observations from the Aegean, where maximum extensional strains are found in the south, near Crete, but maximum present-day strain rates are largest about 300 km further north