Plasma arginine vasopressin concentrations in epileptics under monotherapy

Plasma arginine vasopressin concentrations were determined by radio-immunoassay in 112 adult epileptics who were taking carbamazepine, phenytoin, primidone, or sodium valproate in long-term monotherapy, and in 19 controls. No significant difference was found between the groups, but some epileptics taking carbamazepine and primidone showed low values. Serum concentrations of carbamazepine did not correlate with the concentrations of plasma arginine vasopressin. In conclusion, there was no evidence of a stimulating effect of chronic carbamazepine medication or a special inhibiting effect of phenytoin on the release of vasopressin arginine from the posterior pituitary

The Montagu - Stephens dispute, 1842 Index: Royal Society Collection

Correspondence relating to the dispute between John Montagu and Alfred Stephens, 1842. Royal Society RS 92

Determining Atlantic Ocean province contrasts and variations

The Atlantic Meridional Transect (AMT) series of twenty-five cruises over the past twenty years has produced a rich depth-resolved biogeochemical in situ data resource consisting of a wealth of core variables. These multiple core datasets, key to the operation of AMT, such as temperature, salinity, oxygen and inorganic nutrients, are often only used as ancillary measurements for contextualising hypothesis-driven process studies. In this paper these core in situ variables, alongside data drawn from satellite Earth Observation (EO) and modelling, have been analysed to determine characteristic oceanic province variations encountered over the last twenty years on the AMT through the Atlantic Ocean. The EO and modelling analysis shows the variations of key environmental variables in each province, such as surface currents, the net heat flux and subsequent large scale biological responses, such as primary production. The in situ core dataset analysis allows the variation in features such as the tropical oxygen minimum zone to be quantified as well as showing clear contrasts between the provinces in nutrient stoichiometry. Such observations and relationships can be used within basin scale biogeochemical models to set realistic variation ranges

Mining and analysis of audiology data to find significant factors associated with tinnitus masker

Objectives: The objective of this research is to find the factors associated with tinnitus masker from the literature, and by using the large amount of audiology data available from a large NHS (National Health Services, UK) hearing aid clinic. The factors evaluated were hearing impairment, age, gender, hearing aid type, mould and clinical comments. Design: The research includes literature survey for factors associated with tinnitus masker, and performs the analysis of audiology data using statistical and data mining techniques. Setting: This research uses a large audiology data but it also faced the problem of limited data for tinnitus. Participants: It uses 1,316 records for tinnitus and other diagnoses, and 10,437 records of clinical comments from a hearing aid clinic. Primary and secondary outcome measures: The research is looking for variables associated with tinnitus masker, and in future, these variables can be combined into a single model to develop a decision support system to predict about tinnitus masker for a patient. Results: The results demonstrated that tinnitus maskers are more likely to be fit to individuals with milder forms of hearing loss, and the factors age, gender, type of hearing aid and mould were all found significantly associated with tinnitus masker. In particular, those patients having Age<=55 years were more likely to wear a tinnitus masker, as well as those with milder forms of hearing loss. ITE (in the ear) hearing aids were also found associated with tinnitus masker. A feedback on the results of association of mould with tinnitus masker from a professional audiologist of a large NHS (National Health Services, UK) was also taken to better understand them. The results were obtained with different accuracy for different techniques. For example, the chi-squared test results were obtained with 95% accuracy, for Support and Confidence only those results were retained which had more than 1% Support and 80% Confidence. Conclusions: The variables audiograms, age, gender, hearing aid type and mould were found associated with the choice of tinnitus masker in the literature and by using statistical and data mining techniques. The further work in this research would lead to the development of a decision support system for tinnitus masker with an explanation that how that decision was obtained

Approximating Mexican highways with slime mould

Plasmodium of Physarum polycephalum is a single cell visible by unaided eye. During its foraging behavior the cell spans spatially distributed sources of nutrients with a protoplasmic network. Geometrical structure of the protoplasmic networks allows the plasmodium to optimize transport of nutrients between remote parts of its body. Assuming major Mexican cities are sources of nutrients how much structure of Physarum protoplasmic network correspond to structure of Mexican Federal highway network? To find an answer undertook a series of laboratory experiments with living Physarum polycephalum. We represent geographical locations of major cities by oat flakes, place a piece of plasmodium in Mexico city area, record the plasmodium's foraging behavior and extract topology of nutrient transport networks. Results of our experiments show that the protoplasmic network formed by Physarum is isomorphic, subject to limitations imposed, to a network of principle highways. Ideas and results of the paper may contribute towards future developments in bio-inspired road planning

Strong signature of natural selection within an FHIT intron implicated in prostate cancer risk

Previously, a candidate gene linkage approach on brother pairs affected with prostate cancer identified a locus of prostate cancer susceptibility at D3S1234 within the fragile histidine triad gene (FHIT), a tumor suppressor that induces apoptosis. Subsequent association tests on 16 SNPs spanning approximately 381 kb surrounding D3S1234 in Americans of European descent revealed significant evidence of association for a single SNP within intron 5 of FHIT. In the current study, resequencing and genotyping within a 28.5 kb region surrounding this SNP further delineated the association with prostate cancer risk to a 15 kb region. Multiple SNPs in sequences under evolutionary constraint within intron 5 of FHIT defined several related haplotypes with an increased risk of prostate cancer in European-Americans. Strong associations were detected for a risk haplotype defined by SNPs 138543, 142413, and 152494 in all cases (Pearson's χ2 = 12.34, df 1, P = 0.00045) and for the homozygous risk haplotype defined by SNPs 144716, 142413, and 148444 in cases that shared 2 alleles identical by descent with their affected brothers (Pearson's χ2 = 11.50, df 1, P = 0.00070). In addition to highly conserved sequences encompassing SNPs 148444 and 152413, population studies revealed strong signatures of natural selection for a 1 kb window covering the SNP 144716 in two human populations, the European American (π = 0.0072, Tajima's D= 3.31, 14 SNPs) and the Japanese (π = 0.0049, Fay & Wu's H = 8.05, 14 SNPs), as well as in chimpanzees (Fay & Wu's H = 8.62, 12 SNPs). These results strongly support the involvement of the FHIT intronic region in an increased risk of prostate cancer. © 2008 Ding et al

Recovery from Posttraumatic Stress Symptoms: A Qualitative Study of Attributions in Survivors of War

This study was funded by a grant from the European Commission, contract number INCO-CT-2004-50917

Drift as a Force of Evolution: A Manipulationist Account

Can evolutionary theory be properly characterised as a “theory of forces”, like Newtonian mechanics? One common criticism to this claim concerns the possibility to conceive genetic drift as a causal process endowed by a specific magnitude and direction. In this article, we aim to offer an original response to this criticism by pointing out a connection between the notion of force and the notion of explanatory depth, as depicted in Hitchcock and Woodward’s manipulationist account of causal explanation. In a nutshell, our argument is that, since force-explanations can be consistently reframed as deep explanations and vice versa, and the notion of drift can be characterised in manipulationist terms as constitutively intervening in evolutionary deep explanations, then drift-explanations can be consistently reframed as force-explanations, and drift can be properly considered as a force of evolution. Insofar as similar considerations may be extended also to other evolutionary factors – chiefly selection –, our analysis offers an important support to the claim that evolutionary theory is a theory of forces.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio