Prostaglandin E in peptic ulcer disease

Prostaglandin E₁ and E₂ inhibit gastric secretion in vivo and in vitro under a variety of conditions. It is not known whether these compounds may play a role in normal gastric secretory physiology or in the pathophysiology of peptic ulcer disease. Six normal adults and six patients with documented duodenal ulcer disease were studied under basal conditions and during gastric secretory stimulation with betazole. Prostaglandin E in plasma and gastric juice was measured by radioimmunoassay. Prostaglandin E was significantly higher in the plasma of normal volunteers both in the basal state and during stimulation. Gastric juice prostaglandin E was also significantly higher in normal volunteers during the basal state but the difference disappeared during stimulation. The relative deficiency of prostaglandin E in the ulcer group may indicate a role for prostaglandins in the pathophysiology of gastric hypersecretion.     

Serological Characterization of the Three Major Proteins of Vesicular Stomatitis Virus

The three major proteins of vesicular stomatitis virus-Indiana, glycoprotein (G), nucleoprotein (N), and membrane protein (M), were isolated and characterized by means of specific monocomponent antisera. G, N, and M proteins are distinct, nonrelated antigens with specific serological properties. The G protein is the only antigen inducing the formation of virus-neutralizing antibodies and was shown to confer immunity to mice. Specific complement-fixing and precipitating activity was demonstrated for each of the three antisera. The future use of isolated rhabdovirus components and of monospecific antisera is considered for therapeutic and diagnostic purposes as well as for virus strain differentiation and classification work.     

Long-term memory modules

One particular kind of structure offers possible explanations, for long-term memory, efficient consolidation of stored information from the environment, clustering of data strings and multimodal functioning. It is a possible model for pieces of neural structure and its use offers a uniform method for both studying and constructing an extensive class of mechanisms.     

Interspecific aggression in mixed ungulate species exhibits

Mixed ungulate species exhibits are often plagued with difficulties stemming from interspecific aggression. Several aspects of interspecific aggression were investigated in mixed ungulate species exhibits at the Audubon Zoolnogical Garden in New Orleans, Louisiana. Success of a mixed species exhibit was found to be correlated with the rate of male-initiated aggression, but not with the total rate of aggression. Neither taxonomic relatedness nor size difference between the species could be used to predict the success of a species pairing. The total rate of aggression in an exhibit was related to taxonomic relatedness, aggression being highest between distantly related species. Increases in aggression were triggered by births, mating activity, and introduction of an animal to an exhibit.