Consequences of Decreased Brain Serotonin in the Pyridoxine Deficient Young Rat

The concentrations of serotonin in various brain areas were significantly decreased in the pyridoxine-deficient young rat. 2. There was no change in the concentration of dopamine. 3. Both Bmax and Kid of [3H]serotonin binding to membrane preparations from cerebral cortex were increased in deficiency and were restored to normal upon pyridoxine supplementation. 4. There was no change in [3H]spiroperidol binding to corpus striatal membrane preparations in pyridoxine-deficient rats.

Studies on the teredinids of cochin harbour

Teredinids (shipworms), a group of wood boring bivalves occurring in the Cochin Harbour region have been taken up for the eco-physiological studies. On the ecological part, the occurrence, abunance and seasonal intensity of the teredinids in relation to hydrographic conditions have been studied. On the physiological part, salinity tolerance and oxygen consumption of the most commonly occurring shipworms, Nausitcra hedlgyi and Teredo furcifera have been investigated. The hydrographic factors studied are temperature, salinity, dissolved oxygen, phosphate, nitrite, silicate and pH. The variation in temperature is found to be comparatively narrow. But seasonal variation in salinity, dissolved oxygen, phosphate, nitrite and silicate has been observed, with the highest values during the monsoon period. In the case of pH, the minimum value has been obtained during the low saline period and the maximum value, during the high saline period. Of the various hydrographic factors studied, salinity has been found to be the most important fluctuating environmental parameter influencing the life of organisms in the habitat.

How do domestic policies affect the integration of Ethiopian fertiliser markets with world markets?

Frequent shifts in policy on fertiliser markets have occurred in Ethiopia with the aim of facilitating both physical and economic access of farmers to fertiliser. The last shift was the introduction of a monopoly on each stage of the supply chain in 2008. Furthermore, government control of prices and margins as well as stockholding programmes are also present on the markets. This paper evaluates the effect of these policies on the integration of domestic with world markets of fertiliser, using cointegration methods. Time series data of diammonium phosphate (DAP) and urea prices on world, import and retail markets between 1971 and 2012 are used. The findings show high transmission of price signals from world markets to import prices for both DAP and urea. However, between import and retail prices there is no evidence of cointegration for urea, while for DAP full price transmission is concluded. In the retail market, domestic transaction costs associated with storing large volumes of fertiliser act as a buffer between import and retail prices, especially for urea. Therefore, economic benefits could be achieved by reducing the size of stocks and revising the demand estimation process.

El conflicto Sahara Occidental - Marruecos como obstáculo para el proceso de integración de la Unión del Magreb Árabe, UMA

Constituida en 1989, la Unión de Magreb Árabe (UMA) es la asociación económica y política que reúne a los cinco Estados del Magreb. No obstante, la organización no funciona desde 1995 debido a varios factores, siendo el principal el problema del territorio de Sahara Occidental, una zona con valiosos recursos naturales (petróleo, fosfato, gas y fuentes de pesca), que fue controlada por Marruecos luego de que España abandonara el Sahara. En la actualidad, el conflicto entre Marruecos y quienes reivindican la independencia de Sahara Occidental ha causado un profundo daño a la UMA, distanciando a los Estados que deben enfrentar nuevos retos de seguridad ante el terrorismo y la escasez de agua y alimentos. Las tentativas internacionales para llegar a un acuerdo no han surtido efecto, y la UMA se debilita con los nuevos escenarios internacionales en los que se proyectan de manera separada los Estados del Magreb.

Los horarios laborales y su influencia en la percepción del equilibro trabajo-familia

Conciliar el trabajo y la familia es una lucha cotidiana que cada persona realiza para satisfacer las exigencias de ambas dimensiones de su vida. El no tener consciencia del problema que surge en el empleado para lograr esta conciliación y la ausencia de soluciones eficaces a éste, no sólo afecta a la organización a través de la baja productividad, el absentismo, el aumento del estrés, entre otros efectos; sino también a la vida familiar, social, física y psicológica del trabajador. Es por ello, que este proyecto de grado busca a partir de la revisión de la literatura mostrar cómo la percepción que tienen los trabajadores de su equilibrio trabajo-familia, se ve influenciada por un factor organizativo, como lo son los turnos laborales; además evidenciar las soluciones que se han implementado en las diferentes empresas de manera exitósa, para finalmente plantear estrategias que se puedan aplicar en las organizaciones facilitando el equilibrio trabajo-familia de los trabajadores.

An evaluation of the use of Cottonseed cake in the diet of growing pigs

An experiment was conducted to determine the effects of including cottonseed cake in rations for weaned growing pigs. Thirty-two Landrace x Large White pigs, weighing 20-24 kg, were included in four blocks formed on the basis of initial weight within sex in an otherwise completely randomized block design. The pigs were killed when they reached a live weight of 75.0 +/- 2.0 kg and the half careases were analysed into cuts and the weights of the organs were recorded. An estimate of the productivity of the pigs on each diet was calculated. Cottonseed cake reduced the voluntary feed intake (p < 0.001) and live weight gains (p < 0.001) and increased the heart, kidney and liver weights (p < 0.01). The pigs on the soya bean-based control diet took the shortest time to reach slaughter weight. The result was probably in part due to lysine deficiency and in part to the effect of free gossypol. It was found that it is at present cost-effective to include cottonseed cake in pig weaner grower diets up to 300 g/kg in Cameroon.

An adaptive approach to implementing bivariate group sequential clinical trial designs

In clinical trials, situations often arise where more than one response from each patient is of interest; and it is required that any decision to stop the study be based upon some or all of these measures simultaneously. Theory for the design of sequential experiments with simultaneous bivariate responses is described by Jennison and Turnbull (Jennison, C., Turnbull, B. W. (1993). Group sequential tests for bivariate response: interim analyses of clinical trials with both efficacy and safety endpoints. Biometrics 49:741-752) and Cook and Farewell (Cook, R. J., Farewell, V. T. (1994). Guidelines for monitoring efficacy and toxicity responses in clinical trials. Biometrics 50:1146-1152) in the context of one efficacy and one safety response. These expositions are in terms of normally distributed data with known covariance. The methods proposed require specification of the correlation, ρ between test statistics monitored as part of the sequential test. It can be difficult to quantify ρ and previous authors have suggested simply taking the lowest plausible value, as this will guarantee power. This paper begins with an illustration of the effect that inappropriate specification of ρ can have on the preservation of trial error rates. It is shown that both the type I error and the power can be adversely affected. As a possible solution to this problem, formulas are provided for the calculation of correlation from data collected as part of the trial. An adaptive approach is proposed and evaluated that makes use of these formulas and an example is provided to illustrate the method. Attention is restricted to the bivariate case for ease of computation, although the formulas derived are applicable in the general multivariate case.

Antiviral effects of antisense morpholino oligomers in murine coronavirus infection models

The recent emergence of novel pathogenic human and animal coronaviruses has highlighted the need for antiviral therapies that are effective against a spectrum of these viruses. We have used several strains of murine hepatitis virus (MHV) in cell culture and in vivo in mouse models to investigate the antiviral characteristics of peptide-conjugated antisense phosphorodiamidate morpholino oligomers (P-PMOs). Ten P-PMOs directed against various target sites in the viral genome were tested in cell culture, and one of these (5TERM), which was complementary to the 5' terminus of the genomic RNA, was effective against six strains of MHV. Further studies were carried out with various arginine-rich peptides conjugated to the 5TERM PMO sequence in order to evaluate efficacy and toxicity and thereby select candidates for in vivo testing. In uninfected mice, prolonged P-PMO treatment did not result in weight loss or detectable histopathologic changes. 5TERM P-PMO treatment reduced viral titers in target organs and protected mice against virus-induced tissue damage. Prophylactic 5TERM P-PMO treatment decreased the amount of weight loss associated with infection under most experimental conditions. Treatment also prolonged survival in two lethal challenge models. In some cases of high-dose viral inoculation followed by delayed treatment, 5TERM P-PMO treatment was not protective and increased morbidity in the treated group, suggesting that P-PMO may cause toxic effects in diseased mice that were not apparent in the uninfected animals. However, the strong antiviral effect observed suggests that with further development, P-PMO may provide an effective therapeutic approach against a broad range of coronavirus infections.

Thiamine is synthesized by a salvage pathway in Rhizobium leguminosarum bv. viciae strain 3841

In the absence of added thiamine, Rhizobium leguminosarum bv. viciae strain 3841 does not grow in liquid medium and forms only "pin" colonies on agar plates, which contrasts with the good growth of Sinorhizobium meliloti 1021, Mesorhizobium loti 303099, and Rhizobium etli CFN42. These last three organisms have thiCOGE genes, which are essential for de novo thiamine synthesis. While R. leguminosarum bv. viciae 3841 lacks thiCOGE, it does have thiMED. Mutation of thiM prevented formation of pin colonies on agar plates lacking added thiamine, suggesting thiamine intermediates are normally present. The putative functions of ThiM, ThiE, and ThiD are 4-methyl-5-(beta-hydroxyethyl) thiazole (THZ) kinase, thiamine phosphate pyrophosphorylase, and 4-amino-5-hydroxymethyl-2-methyl pyrimidine (HMP) kinase, respectively. This suggests that a salvage pathway operates in R. leguminosarum, and addition of HMP and THZ enabled growth at the same rate as that enabled by thiamine in strain 3841 but elicited no growth in the thiM mutant (RU2459). There is a putative thi box sequence immediately upstream of the thiM, and a gfp-mut3.1 fusion to it revealed the presence of a promoter that is strongly repressed by thiamine. Using fluorescent microscopy and quantitative reverse transcription-PCR, it was shown that thiM is expressed in the rhizosphere of vetch and pea plants, indicating limitation for thiamine. Pea plants infected by RU2459 were not impaired in nodulation or nitrogen fixation. However, colonization of the pea rhizosphere by the thiM mutant was impaired relative to that of the wild type. Overall, the results show that a thiamine salvage pathway operates to enable growth of Rhizobium leguminosarum in the rhizosphere, allowing its survival when thiamine is limiting.

Crystal structure of the complementary quadruplex formed by d(GCATGCT) at atomic resolution

Here we report the crystal structure of the DNA heptanucleotide sequence d(GCATGCT) determined to a resolution of 1.1 Angstrom. The sequence folds into a complementary loop structure generating several unusual base pairings and is stabilised through cobalt hexammine and highly defined water sites. The single stranded loop is bound together through the G(N2)-C(O2) intra-strand H-bonds for the available G/C residues, which form further Watson-Crick pairings to a complementary sequence, through 2-fold symmetry, generating a pair of non-planar quadruplexes at the heart of the structure. Further, four adenine residues stack in pairs at one end, H-bonding through their N7-N6 positions, and are additionally stabilised through two highly conserved water positions at the structural terminus. This conformation is achieved through the rotation of the central thymine base at the pinnacle of the loop structure, where it stacks with an adjacent thymine residue within the lattice. The crystal packing yields two halved biological units, each related across a 2-fold symmetry axis spanning a cobalt hexammine residue between them, which stabilises the quadruplex structure through H-bonds to the phosphate oxygens and localised hydration.

Genetic association analysis of vitamin D pathway with obesity traits

Objective:Observational studies have examined the link between vitamin D deficiency and obesity traits. Some studies have reported associations between vitamin D pathway genes such as VDR, GC and CYP27B1 with body mass index (BMI) and waist circumference (WC); however, the findings have been inconsistent. Therefore, we investigated the involvement of vitamin D metabolic pathway genes in obesity-related traits in a large population-based study.Methods:We undertook a comprehensive analysis between 100 tagging single nucleotide polymorphisms (tagSNPs) in genes encoding for DHCR7, CYP2R1, VDBP, CYP27B1, CYP27A1, CYP24A1, VDR and RXRG, and obesity traits in 5224 participants (aged 45 years) in the 1958 British birth cohort (1958BC). We further extended our analyses to investigate the associations between SNPs and obesity traits using the summary statistics from the GIANT (Genetic Investigation of Anthropometric Traits) consortium (n=123 865).Results:In the 1958BC (n=5224), after Bonferroni correction, none of the tagSNPs were associated with obesity traits except for one tagSNP from CYP24A1 that was associated with waist-hip ratio (WHR) (rs2296239, P=0.001). However, the CYP24A1 SNP was not associated with BMI-adjusted WHR (WHRadj) in the 1958BC (rs2296239, P=1.00) and GIANT results (n=123 865, P=0.18). There was also no evidence for an interaction between the tagSNPs and obesity on BMI, WC, WHR and WHRadj in the 1958BC. In the GIANT consortium, none of the tagSNPs were associated with obesity traits.Conclusions:Despite a very large study, our findings suggest that the vitamin D pathway genes are unlikely to have a major role in obesity-related traits in the general population.

Tripodal molecules for the promotion of phosphoester hydrolysis

A series of low molecular weight tripodal amide/histidine-containing compounds (1–2) have been synthesised and shown to increase the rate of bis-(p-nitrophenyl) phosphate (BNPP) and soman (GD) breakdown in buffered aqueous solution.

Human versus animal: contrasting decomposition dynamics of mammalian analogues in experimental taphonomy

Taphonomic studies regularly employ animal analogues for human decomposition due to ethical restrictions relating to the use of human tissue. However, the validity of using animal analogues in soil decomposition studies is still questioned. This study compared the decomposition of skeletal muscle tissues (SMTs) from human (Homo sapiens), pork (Sus scrofa), beef (Bos taurus), and lamb (Ovis aries) interred in soil microcosms. Fixed interval samples were collected from the SMT for microbial activity and mass tissue loss determination; samples were also taken from the underlying soil for pH, electrical conductivity, and nutrient (potassium, phosphate, ammonium, and nitrate) analysis. The overall patterns of nutrient fluxes and chemical changes in nonhuman SMT and the underlying soil followed that of human SMT. Ovine tissue was the most similar to human tissue in many of the measured parameters. Although no single analogue was a precise predictor of human decomposition in soil, all models offered close approximations in decomposition dynamics.

Impaired Vasodilator Activity in Deoxycorticosterone Acetate-Salt Hypertension Is Associated With Increased Protein O-GlcNAcylation

Hyperglycemia, which increases O-linked beta-N-acetylglucosamine (O-GlcNAc) proteins, leads to changes in vascular reactivity. Because vascular dysfunction is a key feature of arterial hypertension, we hypothesized that vessels from deoxycorticosterone acetate and salt (DOCA-salt) rats exhibit increased O-GlcNAc proteins, which is associated with increased reactivity to constrictor stimuli. Aortas from DOCA rats exhibited increased contraction to phenylephrine (E(max) [mN] = 17.6 +/- 4 versus 10.7 +/- 2 control; n = 6) and decreased relaxation to acetylcholine (47.6 +/- 6% versus 73.2 +/- 10% control; n = 8) versus arteries from uninephrectomized rats. O- GlcNAc protein content was increased in aortas from DOCA rats (arbitrary units = 3.8 +/- 0.3 versus 2.3 +/- 0.3 control; n = 5). PugNAc (O- GlcNAcase inhibitor; 100 mu mol/L; 24 hours) increased vascular O- GlcNAc proteins, augmented phenylephrine vascular reactivity (18.2 +/- 2 versus 10.7 +/- 3 vehicle; n = 6), and decreased acetylcholine dilation in uninephrectomized (41.4 +/- 6 versus 73.2 +/- 3 vehicle; n = 6) but not in DOCA rats (phenylephrine, 16.5 +/- 3 versus 18.6 +/- 3 vehicle, n = 6; acetylcholine, 44.7 +/- 8 versus 47.6 +/- 7 vehicle, n = 6). PugNAc did not change total vascular endothelial nitric oxide synthase levels, but reduced endothelial nitric oxide synthase(Ser-1177) and Akt(Ser-473) phosphorylation (P < 0.05). Aortas from DOCA rats also exhibited decreased levels of endothelial nitric oxide synthase(Ser-1177) and Akt(Ser-473) (P < 0.05) but no changes in total endothelial nitric oxide synthase or Akt. Vascular O-GlcNAc-modified endothelial nitric oxide synthase was increased in DOCA rats. Blood glucose was similar in DOCA and uninephrectomized rats. Expression of O- GlcNAc transferase, glutamine: fructose-6-phosphate amidotransferase, and O- GlcNAcase, enzymes that directly modulate O-GlcNAcylation, was decreased in arteries from DOCA rats (P < 0.05). This is the first study showing that O-GlcNAcylation modulates vascular reactivity in normoglycemic conditions and that vascular O- GlcNAc proteins are increased in DOCA-salt hypertension. Modulation of increased vascular O-GlcNAcylation may represent a novel therapeutic approach in mineralocorticoid hypertension. (Hypertension. 2009; 53: 166-174.)

Alternative promoters in the pst operon of Escherichia coli

The pst operon of Escherichia coli is composed of five genes pstS, pstC, pstA, pstB and phoU, that encode a high-affinity phosphate transport system and a negative regulator of the PHO regulon. Transcription of pst is induced under phosphate shortage and is initiated at the promoter located upstream of the first gene of the operon, pstS. Here, we show by four different technical approaches the existence of additional internal promoters upstream of pstC, pstB and phoU. These promoters are not induced by Pi-limitation and do not possess PHO-box sequences. Plasmids carrying the pst internal genes partially complement chromosomal mutations in their corresponding genes, indicating that they are translated into functional proteins.