Effect of blocking oestrogen synthesis with a new generation aromatase inhibitor CGS 16949A on follicular maturation induced by pregnant mare serum gonadotrophin in the immature rat

While the endocrine role of oestrogen is well established, its function in follicular maturation as an autocrine or paracrine regulator is less well understood. This study was designed to delineate the requirement of oestrogen for follicular development in immature rats. Exogenous gonadotrophin (25 IU pregnant mare serum gonadotrophin (PMSG) per rat) was administered to 21- to 23-day old female rats to induce follicular growth and development. In the experimental animals, synthesis of oestrogen was blocked by implanting an Alzet pump containing the aromatase inhibitor (AI) CGS 16949A (fadrozole hydrochloride; 50 mu g/rat per day). The treatment resulted in blockade of the PMSG induced increase in both serum and intrafollicular oestrogen (>95%), thus leading to an inhibition in uterine weight increment. Compared with the controls, ovarian weight increased markedly in both the PMSG (295%)- and PMSG+AI (216%)-primed animals. There was no significant difference in either the proliferative capabilities of the ovarian granulosa cells or their responsiveness to human chorionic gonadotrophin (hCG; 200 pg/ml) and ovine FSH (20 ng/ml) between the PMSG- and PMSG+AI-treated groups. Histological examination of the ovary, however, indicated a decrease in the number of healthy antral follicles in the Al-treated group compared with the PMSG-primed animals but both the groups showed a percentage increase over the controls (PMSG, 225; PMSG+AI, 158). The responsiveness of the animals to an ovulatory dose of hCG was drastically reduced (>80% inhibition of ovulation) in the oestrogen-deprived animals; this could be overriden by exogenous administration of oestrogen. In conclusion, although blocking oestrogen synthesis in the PMSG-primed rat does not seem to alter the functional properties of the isolated granulosa cells in vitro there appears to be an effect on the number of follicles which complete maturation and are able to ovulate in vivo.

Third harmonic generation through shaped superconductors

This paper describes a methodology of obtaining only third harmonic along with the fundamental using shaped superconductors. It also indicates how one can design a nonlinear superconducting resistor with the required current versus resistance variation.

Generation of novel materials for nonlinear optics: Analysis of hydrogen-bonded networks in haloaromatic and aliphatic amine-tartrate complexes

Five tartrate-amine complexes have been studied in terms of crystal packing and hydrogen bonding frameworks. The salts are 3-bromoanilinium-L-monohydrogen tartrate 1, 3-fluoroanilinium-D-dibenzoylmonohydrogen tartrate 2, 1-nonylium-D-dibenzoylmonohydrogen tartrate 3, 1 -decylium-D-dibenzoylmonohydrogen tartrate 4, and 1,4-diaminobutanium-D-dibenzoyl tartrate trihydrate 5. The results indicate that there are no halogen-halogen interactions in the haloaromatic-tartrate complexes. The anionic framework allows accomodation of ammonium ions that bear alkyl chain residues of variable lengths. The long chain amines in these structures remain disordered while the short chain amines form multidirectional hydrogen bonds on either side.

Influence of poling methods on the orientational dynamics of 2-methyl-4-nitro-aniline in poly(methyl methacrylate) studied by second harmonic generation

The magnitude and stability of the induced dipolar orientation of 2-methyl-4-nitroaniline (MNA)/poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) guest/host system is investigated. The chromophores are aligned using both the corona discharge and contact electrode poling techniques. The magnitude of order parameter (also an indicator for the second order nonlinear susceptibility) is measured by recording absorbances of the poled (by the two different techniques) and unpoled PMMA films at different concentrations of MNA. Under the same conditions the corona poling technique creates a higher alignment of molecules along the field direction. The time dependence of the second harmonic intensity of the MNA/PMMA film prepared by the two techniques can be described by a Kohlrausch-Williams-Watts stretched exponential. The temperature dependence of the decay time constant is found to generally follow a modified Williams-Landel-Ferry (WLF) or Vogel-Tamann-Fulcher (VTF) equation. The glass transition temperature seems to be the single most important parameter for determining the relaxation time tau(T).

Synthetic approaches to homogynolides A and B

A four step, efficient and general methodology for the conversion of a cyclic ketone into the corresponding alpha-spiro-beta-methylene-gamma-butyrolactone, the key structural feature present in tricyclic sesquiterpenes bakkanes, has been developed employing a regiospecific 5-exo dig radical cyclisation reaction as the key step. The methodology has been extended to the total synthesis of bakkanes including homogynolide-B and chiral homogynolide-A.

The effect of traffic shaping in efficiently providing end-to-end performance guarantees

This paper reports new results concerning the capabilities of a family of service disciplines aimed at providing per-connection end-to-end delay (and throughput) guarantees in high-speed networks. This family consists of the class of rate-controlled service disciplines, in which traffic from a connection is reshaped to conform to specific traffic characteristics, at every hop on its path. When used together with a scheduling policy at each node, this reshaping enables the network to provide end-to-end delay guarantees to individual connections. The main advantages of this family of service disciplines are their implementation simplicity and flexibility. On the other hand, because the delay guarantees provided are based on summing worst case delays at each node, it has also been argued that the resulting bounds are very conservative which may more than offset the benefits. In particular, other service disciplines such as those based on Fair Queueing or Generalized Processor Sharing (GPS), have been shown to provide much tighter delay bounds. As a result, these disciplines, although more complex from an implementation point-of-view, have been considered for the purpose of providing end-to-end guarantees in high-speed networks. In this paper, we show that through ''proper'' selection of the reshaping to which we subject the traffic of a connection, the penalty incurred by computing end-to-end delay bounds based on worst cases at each node can be alleviated. Specifically, we show how rate-controlled service disciplines can be designed to outperform the Rate Proportional Processor Sharing (RPPS) service discipline. Based on these findings, we believe that rate-controlled service disciplines provide a very powerful and practical solution to the problem of providing end-to-end guarantees in high-speed networks.

Synthetic Studies Towards Prismanes - Rearrangements In Some Pentacyclic Precursors And X-Ray Crystal-Structure Of A Novel Heptacyclic Ether

In order to gain access to the heptacyclic tetraone 3, efforts were directed towards the utilisation of the major 'unwanted' [4 + 2]-adduct 11 of tetrachlorodimethoxycyclopentadiene and norbornenobenzoquinone. Epoxides derived from the diol and dimethoxy derivatives of the adduct 11 undergo facile Wagner-Meerwein rearrangement resulting in the required endo, syn, endo stereochemistry as well as methano-bridge functionalisation to deliver 18 and 24, respectively. However, intramolecular ether formation, occurring via the capture of carbocation intermediate with the transannularly poised oxygen functionality, is a more facile process. Attempts to cleave the ether linkage resulted in the formation of a novel transannularly cyclised twisted bowl shape heptacyclic compound 30 and its structure has been established through X-ray crystallography.

The generation of carbonyl compounds from acetals and ketals by iodotrichlorosilane (ITCS)

Cheap and readily available iodotrichlorosilane (SiCl4 / NaI) readily regenerates aldehydes and ketones from cyclic and acyclic acetals and ketals, in 20–60 min at ambient temperature. The reaction is highly chemoselective as phenolic ethers and esters are not cleaved. The pathway for the process is unlike any previously proposed.

Queuing strategies for qos management of traffic between lans interconnected by low-speed wan links

We provide a comparative performance evaluation of packet queuing and link admission strategies for low-speed wide area network Links (e.g. 9600 bps, 64 kbps) that interconnect relatively highspeed, connectionless local area networks (e.g. 10 Mbps). In particular, we are concerned with the problem of providing differential quality of service to interLAN remote terminal and file transfer sessions, and throughput fairness between interLAN file transfer sessions. We use analytical and simulation models to study a variety of strategies. Our work also serves to address the performance comparison of connectionless vs. connection-oriented interconnection of CLNS LANS. When provision of priority at the physical transmission level is not feasible, we show, for low-speed WAN links (e.g. 9600 bps), the superiority of connection-oriented interconnection of connectionless LANs, with segregation of traffic streams with different QoS requirements into different window flow controlled connections. Such an implementation can easily be obtained by transporting IP packets over an X.25 WAN. For 64 kbps WAN links, there is a drop in file transfer throughputs, owing to connection overheads, but the other advantages are retained, The same solution also helps to provide throughput fairness between interLAN file transfer sessions. We also provide a corroboration of some of our modelling results with results from an experimental test-bed.

Saturation throughput analysis of an input queueing ATM switch with multiclass bursty traffic

In this paper we consider an N x N non-blocking, space division ATM switch with input cell queueing. At each input, the cell arrival process comprises geometrically distributed bursts of consecutive cells for the various outputs. Motivated by the fact that some input links may be connected to metropolitan area networks, and others directly to B-ISDN terminals, we study the situation where there are two classes of inputs with different values of mean burst length. We show that when inputs contend for an output, giving priority to an input with smaller expected burst length yields a saturation throughput larger than if the reverse priority is given. Further, giving priority to less bursty traffic can give better throughput than if all the inputs were occupied by this less bursty traffic. We derive the asymptotic (as N --> infinity) saturation throughputs for each priority class.

Synthetic, spectroscopic and structural studies on uranium and thorium complexes of diphosphazane dioxides

Co-ordination complexes of the diphosphazane dioxides Ph(2)P(O)N(Pr-i)P(O)Ph(2) L(1). Ph(2)P(O)N(Pr-i)P(O)Ph(OC(6)H(4)Me-4) L(2) and Ph(2)P(O)N(Pr-i)P(O)(O2C12H8) L(3) with UO22+ or Th4+ ions have been synthesised and characterised by IR and NMR spectroscopy. The structures of [UO2(NO3)(2)L(1)] and [Th(NO3)(2)L(3)(1)][Th(NO3)(6)] are established by X-ray crystallography. In the former, the uranyl ion is bonded to two bidentate nitrate groups and the two phosphoryl groups of the ligand L(1); the co-ordination polyhedron around the metal is a hexagonal bipyramid. The cationic moiety in the thorium complex contains three bidentate diphosphazane dioxide ligands and two bidentate nitrate groups around the ten-co-ordinated metal.

Generation of an eight node brick element using Papcovitch-Neuber functions

Some conventional finite elements suffer from drawbacks, such as shear locking, membrane locking, etc. To overcome them researchers have developed various techniques, termed as tricks by some and variational crimes by others. Many attempts have been made, but satisfactory explanations for why some of these techniques work have not been obtained, especially in the case of solid elements. This paper attempts a simple non-conforming solid element using assumed displacement fields which satisfy the Navier equation exactly. Its behaviour under simple loadings like bending, torsion and tension is examined and comparisons are made with existing elements.

Hydrogen-Bond-Directed Nonlinear-Optical Organic Materials - Evidence For The Control Of 2nd-Harmonic Generation Activities From The X-Ray Crystal-Structures Of The Complexes Of L-Tartaric Acid With M-Anisidine and P-Toluidine

Several substituted anilines were converted to binary salts with L-tartaric acid. Second harmonic generation (SHG) activities of these salts were determined. The crystal packing in two structures, (i) m-anisidinium-L-tartrate monohydrate (i) and (ii) p-toluidinium-L-tartrate (2), studied using X-ray diffraction demonstrates that extensive hydrogen bonding steers the components into a framework which has a direct bearing on the SHG activity

Japanese encephalitis virus infection of mouse cell lines: ability to prime mice for generation of virus specific cytotoxic T lymphocytes and differences in CTL recognisable viral determinants

Ten different mouse cell lines were examined for Japanese encephalitis virus (JEV) infection in vitro and then tested for their ability to generate virus specific cytotoxic T lymphocytes (CTL). Among all cell lines examined, Neuro La (a neuroblastoma) was readily infected with JEV as examined by immunofluorescence and viral replication. Among other cells, P388D1, RAW 264.7 (Macrophage origin), Sp2/0 (B-cell Hybridoma), YAC-1 (T-cell lymphoma), and L929 (Fibroblast) were semipermissive to JEV infection. The cytopathic effects caused by progressive JEV infection varied from cell line to cell line. In the case of YAC-1 cells long-term viral antigen expression was observed without significant alterations in cell viability. Intermediate degrees of cytopathicity are seen in RAW 264.7 and L929 cells while infection of PS, Neuro 2a, P388D1 and Sp2/0 caused major viability losses. All infected cell lines were able to prime adult BALB/c (H-2(d)) mice for the generation of secondary JEV specific CTL. In contrast to YAC-1, the permissive neuroblastoma cell line Neuro 2a (H-2K(k)D(d)) was found to be least efficient in its ability to stimulate anti-viral CTL generation. Cold target competition studies demonstrated that both Neuro 2a and YAC-1 (H-2K(k)D(d)) cells expressed similar viral determinants that are recognised by CTL, suggesting that the reason for the lower ability of Neuro 2a to stimulate anti-viral CTL was not due to lack of viral CTL determinants. These findings demonstrate that a variety of mouse cell lines can be infected with Japanese encephalitis virus, and that these infected cells could be utilised to generate virus specific CTL in BALB/c mice.

Reinforcement Learning With Function Approximation for Traffic Signal Control

We propose, for the first time, a reinforcement learning (RL) algorithm with function approximation for traffic signal control. Our algorithm incorporates state-action features and is easily implementable in high-dimensional settings. Prior work, e. g., the work of Abdulhai et al., on the application of RL to traffic signal control requires full-state representations and cannot be implemented, even in moderate-sized road networks, because the computational complexity exponentially grows in the numbers of lanes and junctions. We tackle this problem of the curse of dimensionality by effectively using feature-based state representations that use a broad characterization of the level of congestion as low, medium, or high. One advantage of our algorithm is that, unlike prior work based on RL, it does not require precise information on queue lengths and elapsed times at each lane but instead works with the aforementioned described features. The number of features that our algorithm requires is linear to the number of signaled lanes, thereby leading to several orders of magnitude reduction in the computational complexity. We perform implementations of our algorithm on various settings and show performance comparisons with other algorithms in the literature, including the works of Abdulhai et al. and Cools et al., as well as the fixed-timing and the longest queue algorithms. For comparison, we also develop an RL algorithm that uses full-state representation and incorporates prioritization of traffic, unlike the work of Abdulhai et al. We observe that our algorithm outperforms all the other algorithms on all the road network settings that we consider.