1,300 research outputs found
Commentary: Providing Versus Packaging Support for Bereaved Parents After Perinatal Loss
Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/73421/1/j.1523-536X.1992.tb00384.x.pd
Protective effects of curcumin against gamma radiation-induced ileal mucosal damage
The major objective of this study was to test curcumin as a potential radioprotectant for the ileum goblet cells of the rat. Wistar albino rats were used in the study. Group A was the control group and group B was the single dose radiation group. Group C was the two dose radiation group (4 days interval). The rats in groups D and E were given a daily dose of 100 mg/kg of curcumin for 14 and 18 days, respectively. During the curcumin administration period, the rats in group D were exposed to abdominal area gamma (γ)-ray dose of 5 Gy on the 10th day and group E was exposed to same dose radiation on the 10th and 14th day. Irradiation and treatment groups were decapitated on the 4th day after exposure to single or two-dose irradiation and ileum tissues were removed for light and electron microscopic investigation. Single or two dose 5 Gy γ-irradiation caused a marked intestinal mucosal injury in rats on the 4th day. Radiation produced increases in the number of goblet cells. Curcumin appears to have protective effects against radiation-induced damage, suggesting that clinical transfer is feasible
Laser Cooling of Optically Trapped Molecules
Calcium monofluoride (CaF) molecules are loaded into an optical dipole trap
(ODT) and subsequently laser cooled within the trap. Starting with
magneto-optical trapping, we sub-Doppler cool CaF and then load CaF
molecules into an ODT. Enhanced loading by a factor of five is obtained when
sub-Doppler cooling light and trapping light are on simultaneously. For trapped
molecules, we directly observe efficient sub-Doppler cooling to a temperature
of . The trapped molecular density of
cm is an order of magnitude greater than in the initial sub-Doppler
cooled sample. The trap lifetime of 750(40) ms is dominated by background gas
collisions.Comment: 5 pages, 5 figure
Homozygosity for a missense mutation in the 67 kDa isoform of glutamate decarboxylase in a family with autosomal recessive spastic cerebral palsy: parallels with Stiff-Person Syndrome and other movement disorders
Background
Cerebral palsy (CP) is an heterogeneous group of neurological disorders of movement and/or posture, with an estimated incidence of 1 in 1000 live births. Non-progressive forms of symmetrical, spastic CP have been identified, which show a Mendelian autosomal recessive pattern of inheritance. We recently described the mapping of a recessive spastic CP locus to a 5 cM chromosomal region located at 2q24-31.1, in rare consanguineous families.
Methods
Here we present data that refine this locus to a 0.5 cM region, flanked by the microsatellite markers D2S2345 and D2S326. The minimal region contains the candidate gene GAD1, which encodes a glutamate decarboxylase isoform (GAD67), involved in conversion of the amino acid and excitatory neurotransmitter glutamate to the inhibitory neurotransmitter γ-aminobutyric acid (GABA).
Results
A novel amino acid mis-sense mutation in GAD67 was detected, which segregated with CP in affected individuals.
Conclusions
This result is interesting because auto-antibodies to GAD67 and the more widely studied GAD65 homologue encoded by the GAD2 gene, are described in patients with Stiff-Person Syndrome (SPS), epilepsy, cerebellar ataxia and Batten disease. Further investigation seems merited of the possibility that variation in the GAD1 sequence, potentially affecting glutamate/GABA ratios, may underlie this form of spastic CP, given the presence of anti-GAD antibodies in SPS and the recognised excitotoxicity of glutamate in various contexts
Blow-up profile of rotating 2D focusing Bose gases
We consider the Gross-Pitaevskii equation describing an attractive Bose gas
trapped to a quasi 2D layer by means of a purely harmonic potential, and which
rotates at a fixed speed of rotation . First we study the behavior of
the ground state when the coupling constant approaches , the critical
strength of the cubic nonlinearity for the focusing nonlinear Schr{\"o}dinger
equation. We prove that blow-up always happens at the center of the trap, with
the blow-up profile given by the Gagliardo-Nirenberg solution. In particular,
the blow-up scenario is independent of , to leading order. This
generalizes results obtained by Guo and Seiringer (Lett. Math. Phys., 2014,
vol. 104, p. 141--156) in the non-rotating case. In a second part we consider
the many-particle Hamiltonian for bosons, interacting with a potential
rescaled in the mean-field manner w\int\_{\mathbb{R}^2} w(x) dx = 1\beta < 1/2a\_N \to a\_*N \to \infty$
Developmental Paths to Anxiety in an Autism-Enriched Infant Cohort: The Role of Temperamental Reactivity and Regulation
The aim of this study was to explore the associations between temperamental reactivity and regulation and the emergence of anxiety traits in a longitudinal sample of infants enriched for later ASD. Parents of 143 infants who were at high- and low-risk for ASD rated their child’s temperament traits when they were 9, 15 and 24 months old; they rated anxiety and ASD traits when they were 36 months old. The findings suggest that behavioural inhibition may be an early predictor of later anxiety in children with and without ASD and that lower levels of effortful control in children who later develop ASD may contribute to the higher expression of anxiety within this population
Structural change and foreign direct investment : globalization and regional economic integration
This paper investigates flows of inward and outward foreign direct investment (FDI) and FDI-to-GDP ratios in a sample of 62 countries over a 30 year time span. Using several endogenous structural break procedures (allowing for one and two break points), we find that: (1) the great majority of the series have structural breaks in the last 15 years, (2) post-break FDI and FDI/GDP ratios are substantially higher than the pre-break values, and (3) most breaks seem to be related to globalization, regional economic integration, economic growth, or political instability. Static and dynamic panel-data analy- ses accounting for and/or addressing endogeneity, simultaneity, nonstationar- ity, heterogeneity and cross-sectional dependence show that FDI is negatively related to exchange rate volatility and GDP per capita, but positively related to some regional integration agreements, trade openness, GDP, and GDP growth. Most notably, the European Union is the only regional economic integration unit found to consistently have significant and positive effects on FDI.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio
Multi-dimensional super-resolution imaging enables surface hydrophobicity mapping
We have developed a multi-dimensional super-resolution (md-SR) imaging technique to determine both the localization and the environmental properties of single-molecule fluorescent emitters. The method, termed sPAINT, exploits the solvatochromic and fluorogenic properties of nile red to extract both the emission spectrum and the position of each dye molecule to enable the mapping of hydrophobicity of biological structures. We first validated the sPAINT method by studying synthetic lipid vesicles of known composition, then applied it to measure the hydrophobicity of amyloid fibrils and oligomers implicated in neurodegenerative diseases, and of the plasma membrane of mammalian cells. sPAINT is easily implemented by inserting a transmission diffraction grating into the optical path of a localization-based super-resolution microscope, which enables all the necessary information to be extracted simultaneously from a single image plane. sPAINT enables the hydrophobicity of surfaces to be mapped at the nanoscale in a dynamic fashion.Medical Research Council (Grant ID: MR/K015850/1), Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council, Royal Society (University Research Fellowship, Grant ID: UF120277), Augustus Newman Foundation, Cambridge Advanced Imaging Centre, Christ’s Colleg
Polymorphism in NEDD4L Is Associated with Increased Salt Sensitivity, Reduced Levels of P-renin and Increased Levels of Nt-proANP
OBJECTIVE: Neuronal precursor cell expressed developmentally down-regulated 4-like (NEDD4L) is a regulator of the amiloride-sensitive epithelial sodium channel (ENaC), thus a candidate gene for salt sensitivity. Carriers of an intact NEDD4L C2-domain, encoded by the NEDD4L rs4149601 (G/A) GG genotype, together with the C-allele of the NEDD4L rs2288774 (C/T) polymorphism have previously been shown to have increased blood pressure. Our aim was to test if genetic variation in NEDD4L is associated with increased salt sensitivity. METHODS: 39 normotensive subjects were studied. The difference in 24-hour systolic blood pressure after four weeks on 150 mmol/day NaCl intake and four weeks on 50 mmol/day NaCl was defined as salt sensitivity. The rs4149601 and rs2288774 polymorphisms were genotyped using PCR-based techniques. RESULTS: Carriers of the rs4149601 GG-genotype together with the rs2288774 CC-genotype had significantly higher salt sensitivity (median, IQR) (18.0, 7.5–20.0 mmHg vs 6.0, 0.0–10.0 mmHg, P = 0.007) and lower plasma renin concentration (P-renin) (6.0, 2.0–9.5 mU/L vs 15.0, 9.0–24.0 mU/L, P = 0.005) as compared to non-carriers of these genotypes. In carriers of the rs4149601 GG-genotype together with the rs2288774 CC- or CT-genotype, as compared to non-carriers, salt sensitivity was (8.0, 6.0–18.0 mmHg vs 5.0, 0.0–10.0 mmHg, P = 0.07) and P-renin (9.0, 6.0–16.0 mU/L vs 15.0, 9.0–28.0 mU/L, P = 0.03). CONCLUSION: Genetic NEDD4L variation seems to affect salt sensitivity and P-renin in normotensive subjects, suggesting that genotyping of NEDD4L may be clinically useful in order to identify subjects who benefit from dietary salt restriction in the prevention of hypertension
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