A case of demand ischemia from phendimetrazine

© 2008 Landau et al; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Licens

Investment of Both Essential Fatty and Amino Acids to Immunity Varies Depending on Reproductive Stage.

Trade‐offs among the key life‐history traits of reproduction and immunity have been widely documented. However, the currency in use is not well‐understood. We investigated how reproducing female side‐blotched lizards, Uta stansburiana, allocate lipids versus proteins when given an immune challenge. We tested whether lizards would invest more in reproduction or immunity depending on reproductive stage. Females were given stable isotopes (15N‐leucine and 13C‐1‐palmitic acid), maintained on a regular diet and given either a cutaneous biopsy or a sham biopsy (control). Stable isotopes were monitored and analyzed in feces and uric acid, skin biopsies, eggs, and toe clips. We found that lizards deposited both proteins and lipids into their healing wounds (immune‐challenged), skin (control), and eggs (all) and that catabolism of proteins exceeded incorporation into tissue during wound‐healing. Specifically, we found that healed biopsies of wounded animals had more leucine and palmitic acid than the nonregrown skin biopsies taken from unwounded control animals. Earlier in reproduction, lizards invested relatively more labeled proteins into healing their wound tissue, but not into unwounded skin of control animals. Thus, reproduction is sometimes favored over self‐maintenance, but only in later reproductive stages. Finally, we documented positive relationships among the amount of palmitic acid deposited in the eggs, the amount of food eaten, and the amount of palmitic acid excreted, suggesting higher turnover rates of lipids in lizards investing highly in their eggs

Cholesterol nucleation time in gallbladder bile of patients with solitary or multiple cholesterol gallstones

Patients with multiple cholesterol gallbladder stones have been found to be at a higher risk for the recurrence of gallstones after successful nonsurgical treatment than those with a solitary stone. Cholesterol gallstone recurrence, like primary gallstone formation, probably involves a triple defect with supersaturation, abnormally rapid nucleation of cholesterol in bile and altered gallbladder motor function. We investigated whether the increased recurrence rate of patients with multiple stones might be caused by more rapid nucleation. Therefore the time required for cholesterol monohydrate crystals to appear in ultracentrifuged bile of patients with solitary (n = 71) or multiple (n = 42) cholesterol gallstones was determined. The cholesterol nucleation time was significantly (p 4 days) nucleation time. However, no difference in the cholesterol saturation index was found between the bile samples from patients with solitary stones and the bile samples from patients with multiple stones (1.55 ± 0.65 vs. 1.54 ± 0.59, mean ± S.D., respectively). The more rapid cholesterol nucleation in gallbladder bile may, therefore, be the major risk factor causing the higher percentage of stone recurrence in patients with multiple cholesterol stones as compared with patients with solitary cholesterol stones

Role of High total protein in gallbladder bile in the formation of cholesterol gallstones.

While it is generally accepted that cholesterol supersaturation of bile is of key importance in the rapid formation of cholesterol crystals, the role of total biliary protein and pH in the pathogenesis of cholesterol gallstones is less well understood. The relation of cholesterol saturation, total protein, and pH was studied in 73 gallbladder bile samples with and 35 gallbladder bile samples without cholesterol crystals. In samples containing crystals, a trend to higher values of cholesterol and to a higher cholesterol saturation index was observed. However, significantly (P = 0.02) higher concentrations of total protein were found in samples with crystals [0.80 +/- 0.40 g/dL (8.0 +/- 4.0 g/L)] than in samples without crystals [0.63 +/- 0.26 g/dL (6.3 +/- 2.6 g/L)]. Moreover, of 22 bile samples with total protein concentrations greater than 10.0 g/L, cholesterol crystals were detected in all but 2. Total lipids, bile acids, phospholipids, and pH values were not significantly different in the two groups of bile samples. It was concluded that high biliary protein concentrations are frequently associated with cholesterol crystals and may, therefore, be a possible risk factor in the pathogenesis of cholesterol gallstones

Radiative decays of heavy and light mesons in a quark triangle approach

The radiative meson decays $V\to P\gamma$ and $P\to \gamma\gamma$ are analyzed using the quark triangle diagram. Experimental data yield well determined estimates of the universal quark-antiquark-meson couplings $g_{Vq\bar{q}'}$ and $g_{Pq\bar{q}'}$ for the light meson sector. Also predictions for the ratios of neutral to charged heavy meson decay coupling constants are given and await experimental confirmation.Comment: 31 pages of RevTex, 5 figures, Postscript version available at http://info.utas.edu.au/docs/physics/theory/Publications/9548.html, scheduled to appear in Phys. Rev. D, vol 53, issue 11, 199

A lattice study of the exclusive B→K∗γB \to K^* \gamma decay amplitude, using the Clover action at β=6.0\beta=6.0

We present the results of a numerical calculation of the $B\to K^* \gamma$ form factors. The results have been obtained by studying the relevant correlation functions at $\beta=6.0$, on an $18^3 \times 64$ lattice, using the ${\rm O(a)}$-improved fermion action, in the quenched approximation. From the study of the matrix element $$ we have obtained the form factor $T_1(0)$ which controls the exclusive decay rate. The results are compared with the recent results from CLEO. We also discuss the compatibility between the scaling laws predicted by the Heavy Quark Effective Theory (HQET) and pole dominance, by studying the mass- and $q^2$-dependence of the form factors. From our analysis, it appears that the form factors follow a mass behaviour compatible with the predictions of the HQET and that the $q^2$-dependence of $T_2$ is weaker than would be predicted by pole dominance.Comment: 17 pages, LaTeX + epsf.sty. Uuencoded, compressed, tar archive including the text and one postscript figur

Couplings of heavy mesons with soft pions in QCD

QCD sum rules are used to calculate the couplings of heavy-light quark pseudoscalar and vector mesons ($D, D^*$ and $B, B^*$) with soft pions, both for finite and infinitely heavy quark mass. The couplings are also computed in the framework of a QCD relativistic potential model; in this approach the relativistic corrections due to the light quark are relevant.Comment: LaTex, 3 pages, requires the file espcrc2.sty, appended at the end. Talk given at the workshop "QCD-94", Montpellier, France, July 7 -13, 1994. BARI-TH/94-18