Types of Systemic Reactions of Human Hemodynamics and Hemostasis to Multiple Occupational Migrations to the Polar Circle Regions

Effects of meridional migrations in shuttle from middle latitudes to regions beyond the Polar Circle, where an expedition and the organization of work shifts were being conducted, were studied. Three main types of systemic reactions of human hemodynamics and hemostasis were established. The first type was characterized by a moderate increase in the arterial blood pressure (BP) at the beginning of the shift with its subsequent normalization; by hypocoagulemia; and by an increase in the total phospholipid content, with a significant increase in the content of lysolecithins (an adaptive type). The second type was characterized by hypertension throughout the whole shift, by hypercoagulemia with significant changes in the phospholipid spectrum, and with a pronounced increase in the lysolecithin and cardiolipin fractions (a hypertensive type). The third type was characterized by a decrease in BP and an increase in heart rate (HR), by hypocoagulemia and an asthenic state associated with sleep disorders, and a decreased mental capacity (an asthenic type).     

Sex Difference in Contusion of the Medial Femoral Condyle Rim-Association with MRI Occult Meniscal Tears in the ACL Deficient Knee

BackgroundMeniscal tears, specifically lateral meniscal tears, have a larger than expected un-derdiagnosis rate in the presence of an ACL tear. The purpose of our study was to search for an MRI bone contusion pattern associated with MRI occult meniscal tears in patients with an ACL tear, specifically a contusion of the rim of the medial femoral condyle (RMFC). Our hypothesis was that there would be a significant association between RMFC contusions and MRI occult meniscal tears in patients with an ACL tear. We also searched for a difference between sexes with respect to the presence of the RMFC contusion in the setting of an occult meniscal tear. We also categorized the type, size, and location of these occult meniscal tears in the setting of an ACL tear.Methods This was a retrospective study that examined characteristics of occult meniscal tears and their association with a RMFC bone contusion. IRB approval was obtained. The date range of the study was June 2009 through December 2015. 6392 consecutive knee MRI reports in patients with an ACL deficient knee were reviewed. The study group included 22 patients with MRI occult meniscal tears, the control group included 110 patients. Relevant statistical values were calculated.ResultsThe most common type of occult meniscal tears were small radial and small longitudinal tears of the lateral meniscus. Occult meniscal tears were associated with an RMFC contusion in the study group (p=0.0457), particularly in males (p = 0.0003). In males with a torn ACL, the sensitivity of an RMFC contusion for an occult meniscal tear was 80%.ConclusionIn males with an ACL tear, there was a significant association between a contusion of the RMFC and an occult meniscal tear (commonly small radial or small peripheral partial-thickness longitudinal tears). RMFC contusions were reliably identified by radiologists in this study.Level of Evidence: II     

Human Borna disease virus-infection and its therapy in affective disorders

Patients with affective disorders show an enhanced prevalence of Borna disease virus (BDV)-infection. Furthermore, BDV causes latent infection preferably in limbic central nervous structures and is suggested to be causally related to subtypes of affective disorders, especially with melancholic clinical features or bipolarity. Such a possible link was highlighted by the first report of amantadine showing an antidepressive and an antiviral efficacy against BDV in a patient with a bipolar disorder. This article summarizes clinical studies which followed this first report on the use of amantadine in BDV-infected patients with an affective disorder. A special focus is given on an open clinical study in patients with depression (n = 25), a study in remitted patients with affective disorders (n = 16), and the effect of amantadine on severe hypomanic or moderately manic patients with a bipolar disorder in an on-off-on study. In these studies amantadine reduced clinical symptoms paralleled by a reduction of BDV-infection in depressive patients, it also reduced all three BDV-parameters (BDV-Ab, -AG, and -CICs) in remitted patients, and it even reduced severe hypomania and moderate mania in bipolar patients. These data suggest the existence of an etiopathogenetic link between BDV and subtypes of affective disorders.     

Characteristics of Central Hemodynamics in Females with Different Body Mass Living in the European North

Hemodynamic indices were analyzed in 424 females aged 18–60 years with an insufficient, normal, or excessive body mass (BM). In females with an insufficient BM, the hemodynamic indices were indicative of a more intense myocardial function. In females with an excessive BM, a decrease in the contractile function of the myocardium was associated with an increase in peripheral vascular resistance, which might be responsible for elevated blood pressure.     

The effect of ferrous sulphate on the yield and manganese uptake of oats on sandy soil fertilized with natural pyrolusite

Summary The effects of soil treatments with ferrous sulphate and an equivalent amount of hydroquinone on the yield of dry matter and the manganese uptake of oats were investigated in pot experiments using a sandy soil deficient in manganese, with and without additions of finely ground, natural pyrolusite containing some manganite.In soil not fertilized with pyrolusite an application of hydroquinone gave a higher yield of dry matter and a considerably higher manganese uptake than an application of the equivalent quantity of ferrous sulphate.In soil fertilized with hydroquinone an increase of 23 per cent in the yield of dry matter and an increase of 50 per cent in the manganese uptake per pot were found when the soil was fertilized with 100 g of natural pyrolusite <50µ per pot. In soil fertilized with a quantity of ferrous sulphate equivalent to hydroquinone, an increase of 21 percent in the yield of dry matter and an increase of about 200 per cent in the manganese uptake per pot were found when the 100 g of pyrolusite was applied.     

Structure and expression of a cyanobacterial ilvC gene encoding acetohydroxyacid isomeroreductase.

Acetohydroxyacid isomeroreductase (AHAIR) is the shared second enzyme in the biosynthetic pathways leading to isoleucine and valine. AHAIR is encoded by the ilvC gene in bacteria. A 1,544-bp fragment of genomic DNA containing the ilvC gene was cloned from the cyanobacterium Synechocystis sp. strain PCC 6803, and the complete nucleotide sequence was determined. The identity of the gene was established by comparison of the nucleotide and derived peptide sequences with those of other ilvC genes. The highest degree of sequence similarity was found with the ilvC gene from Rhizobium meliloti. The isolated Synechocystis ilvC gene complemented an Escherichia coli ilvC mutant lacking AHAIR activity. The expressed Synechocystis gene encodes a protein that has a molecular mass of 35.7 kDa and that has AHAIR activity in an in vitro assay. Polyclonal antibodies raised against purified Synechocystis AHAIR produced a single band on a Western blot (immunoblot) of a Synechocystis cell extract and detected the protein in an extract of an E. coli ilvC mutant strain that was transformed with a plasmid containing the Synechocystis ilvC gene. The antibody did not react with an extract of an E. coli ilvC mutant strain that was transformed with a control plasmid lacking the Synechocystis ilvC gene or with an extract of an E. coli IlvC+ control strain.     

Exact solution of the Boltzmann kinetic equation for a Lorentzian gas

The classical methods of mathematical physics are applied to construct an integral solution to the Chapman-Cowling-Davydov equation, which is derived from the kinetic Boltzmann equation with a collision term in the Lorentzian-gas approximation. For a particular initial distribution, the solution is obtained in an explicit form in terms of a Whittaker function. It is shown that, on long (macroscopic) time scales, the evolving distribution function with an arbitrary initial shape approaches a Maxwellian distribution. This result agrees with the accepted views regarding the overall temporal evolution of an arbitrary unsteady isolated system.     

Development of a testicular tumour during cisclomiphene therapy

Enlargement of an atrophic testis occurred in an oligospermic patient during long-term therapy with a low dosage of cisclomiphene. Orchidectomy revealed an adult teratoma combined with an atypical seminoma. The development of a germinal-cell neoplasm during pituitary-gonadal stimulation therapy raises the question of a possible cause-effect relationship. Available evidence does not support this possibility. However, it is less clear whether hormonal influences may promote the growth of a germ-cell tumour focus. Therefore, prolonged treatment with such agents demands close supervision, particularly in patients with a predisposition to gonadal carcinogenesis.     

Galactosylceramide containing omega-amino-fatty acids: preparation, characterization, and sulfotransferase acceptor.

For preparation of an affinity ligand, an N-fatty acyl moiety of galactosylceramide (GalCer) was chemically replaced with omega-amino-fatty acid including amino-n-hexanoic acid or amino-n-dodecanoic acid to obtain omega-aminoGalCer. For the synthesis of the compound, galactosylsphingosine (GalSph) was coupled with N-trifluoroacetyl omega-amino-fatty acid which was prepared by a reaction with S-ethyltrifluorothioacetate. After removal of the N-trifluoroacetyl group in a mild alkaline solution, in which an N-fatty acyl group was retained, aminoGalCer composed of an N-hexanoyl or an N-dodecanoyl group was obtained with an overall yield of 90%. Their chemical structures were confirmed by proton nuclear magnetic resonance and fast atom bombardment-mass spectrometries. These aminoGalCers and GalSph as well as immobilized aminoGalCer were sulfated by a glycolipid sulfotransferase from rat kidney. Furthermore, immobilized aminoGalCer on gel matrix was used for affinity chromatography of the sulfotransferase, resulting in an excellent increase in the purification (14,000-fold) with a recovery rate of 40%.     

Reproductive Outcomes Following Ectopic Pregnancy: Register-Based Retrospective Cohort Study

Background

We aimed to compare reproductive outcomes following ectopic pregnancy (EP) versus livebirth, miscarriage, or termination in a first pregnancy.

Methods And Findings

A retrospective cohort study design was used. Scottish national data on all women whose first pregnancy occurred between 1981 and 2000 were linked to records of a subsequent pregnancy. The exposed cohort comprised women with an EP in their first pregnancy. There were three unexposed cohorts: women with livebirth, miscarriage, and termination of their first pregnancies. Any differences in rates of second pregnancy, livebirth, EP, miscarriage, or terminations and complications of a second ongoing pregnancy and delivery were assessed among the different exposure groups. A total of 2,969 women had an initial EP; 667,299 had a livebirth, 39,705 women miscarried, and 78,697 terminated their first pregnancies. Women with an initial EP had an increased chance of another pregnancy within 2 years (adjusted hazard ratio (AHR) 2.76 [95% CI 2.58–2.95]) or after 6 years (AHR 1.57 [95% CI 1.29–1.91]) compared to women with a livebirth. In comparison with women with an initial miscarriage, women who had an EP had a lower chance of a second pregnancy (AHR 0.53 [95% CI 0.50–0.56]). Compared to women with an initial termination, women with an EP had an increased chance of a second pregnancy (AHR 2.38 [95% CI 2.23–2.55]) within 2 years. Women with an initial EP suffered an increased risk of another EP compared to women with a livebirth (AHR 13.0 [95% CI 11.63–16.86]), miscarriage (AHR 6.07 [95% CI 4.83–7.62]), or termination (AHR 12.84 [95% CI 10.07–16.37]). Perinatal complications in a pregnancy following EP were not significantly higher than those in primigravidae or in women with a previous miscarriage or termination.

Conclusion

Women with an initial EP have a lower chance of conception than those who miscarry but an increased risk of a repeat EP in comparison with all three comparison groups. A major limitation of this study was the inability to separate women using contraception from those who were intending to conceive. Please see later in the article for the Editors'' Summary     

Unpinning of a rotating wave in cardiac muscle by an electric field.

The possibility of terminating cardiac arrhythmias with electric fields of moderate intensity is a challenging problem from a fundamental point of view and an important issue for clinical applications. In an effort to understand how anatomical re-entries are affected by electric fields, we found that a weak shock, with an amplitude of an order of magnitude less than the defibrillating shock, may unpin the vortices rotating around the defects (obstacles). The unpinning results from a depolarization of the tissue near the obstacle, induced by an external electric field within a distance of order lambda approximately 1 mm. Unpinning was observed both in the FitzHugh model of excitable tissue, and in a specific Beeler-Reuter model of cardiac tissue. This theoretical observation suggests that anatomical re-entries can be transformed into functional re-entries, an effect that can be tested in experiments with cardiac muscle.     

Immunogenic protein MPB57 from Mycobacterium bovis BCG: molecular cloning, nucleotide sequence and expression

Using a single-probe method, we have cloned the gene for an immunogenic MPB57 protein of Mycobacterium bovis BCG. The nucleotide sequence includes an ORF of 300 base pairs encoding a protein of 99 amino acids with an Mr of 10,818. This cloned gene was expressed in an Escherichia coli expression vector to give a mature protein which reacted with a polyclonal antibody raised against MPB57.     

Odor learning byLeptopilina boulardi,a specialist parasitoid (Hymenoptera: Eucoilidae)

We studied odor learning in Leptopilina boulardi,a specialist larval parasitoid of Drosophila melanogaster.The behavioral responses of differently experienced females to an artificial odor (Must de Cartier, Paris) were analyzed using a fourarmed airflow olfactometer. The responses of females with an oviposition experience in the presence of the perfume were compared with those of four control groups. As controls we used naive females, females with an oviposition experience in the absence of odor, females which had been previously exposed to perfume but without an oviposition experience, and females with an oviposition experience which also had been exposed to perfume but not at the same time. The results demonstrate that a specialist such as L. boulardican learn very well to respond to an artificial odor by associating this odor with a reward, i.e., an oviposition. The four control groups responded more or less in a similar way.     

Two familial cases of dissociation of saliva Lea levels and erythrocyte Lewis types

Two familial cases in which the saliva Lea levels were seen to dissociate with the donors' red blood cell (RBC) Lewis types are reported. In case 1, the saliva from a donor with an RBC type of Le(a+b-) contained a low level of Lea antigen. A low Lea level was also observed in the saliva from this proband's father who has an RBC type of Le(a+b-). In case 2, the saliva from a donor with an RBC type of Le(a-b+) contained a high level of Lea antigen. High Lea levels were also present in the saliva of this proband's father and brothers with an RBC type of Le(a-b+).     

A mathematical analysis of the force-stiffness characteristics of muscles in control of a single joint system

Feldman (1966) has proposed that a muscle endowed with its spinal reflex system behaves as a non-linear spring with an adjustable resting length. In contrast, because of the length-tension properties of muscles, many researchers have modeled them as non-linear springs with adjustable stiffness. Here we test the merits of each approach: Initially, it is proven that the adjustable stiffness model predicts that isometric muscle force and stiffness are linearly related. We show that this prediction is not supported by data on the static stiffness-force characteristics of reflexive muscles, where stiffness grows non-linearly with force. Therefore, an intact muscle-reflex system does not behave as a non-linear spring with an adjustable stiffness. However, when the same muscle is devoid of its reflexes, the data shows that stiffness grows linearly with force. We aim to understand the functional advantage of the non-linear stiffness-force relationship present in the reflexive muscle. Control of an inverted pendulum with a pair of antagonist muscles is considered. Using an active-state muscle model we describe force development in an areflexive muscle. From the data on the relationship of stiffness and force in the intact muscle we derive the length-tension properties of a reflexive muscle. It is shown that a muscle under the control of its spinal reflexes resembles a non-linear spring with an adjustable resting length. This provides independent evidence in support of the Feldman hypothesis of an adjustable resting length as the control parameter of a reflexive muscle, but it disagrees with his particular formulation. In order to maintain stability of the single joint system, we prove that a necessary condition is that muscle stiffness must grow at least linearly with force at isometric conditions. This shows that co-contraction of antagonist muscles may actually destabilize the limb if the slope of this stiffness-force relationship is less than an amount specified by the change in the moment arm of the muscle as a function of joint configuration. In a reflexive muscle where stiffness grows faster than linearly with force, co-contraction will always lead to an increase in stiffness. Furthermore, with the reflexive muscles, the same level of joint stiffness can be produced by much smaller muscle forces because of the non-linear stiffness-force relationship. This allows the joint to remain stable at a fraction of the metabolic energy cost associated with maintaining stability with areflexive muscles.This work was supported in part by grant no. 1R01 NS 24926 from the NIH (Michael Arbib, PI). R.S. was supported by an IBM Graduate Fellowship in Computer Science     

A new formulation for the project scheduling problem under limited resources

In this paper we propose a new formulation for the Resource Constrained Project Scheduling Problem (RCPSP) and minimum makespan objective. The new formulation exploits three variables, one associated with the start time of an activity, one associated with the finish time of an activity, and the last one associated with the amount of an activity in progress at a given time. We provide an extensive experimentation, and a comparison with known mathematical formulations for the RCPSP in the literature.     

Sex-Specific Audience Effect in the Context of Mate Choice in Zebra Finches

Animals observing conspecifics during mate choice can gain additional information about potential mates. However, the presence of an observer, if detected by the observed individuals, can influence the nature of the behavior of the observed individuals, called audience effect. In zebra finches (Taeniopygia guttata castanotis), domesticated males show an audience effect during mate choice. However, whether male and female descendants of the wild form show an audience effect during mate choice is unknown. Therefore, we conducted an experiment where male and female focal birds could choose between two distinctive phenotypes of the opposite sex, an artificially adorned stimulus bird with a red feather on the forehead and an unadorned stimulus bird, two times consecutively, once without an audience and once with an audience bird (same sex as test bird). Males showed an audience effect when an audience male was present and spent more time with adorned and less time with unadorned females compared to when there was no audience present. The change in time spent with the respective stimulus females was positively correlated with the time that the audience male spent in front of its cage close to the focal male. Females showed no change in mate choice when an audience female was present, but their motivation to associate with both stimulus males decreased. In a control for mate-choice consistency there was no audience in either test. Here, both focal females and focal males chose consistently without a change in choosing motivation. Our results showed that there is an audience effect on mate choice in zebra finches and that the response to a same-sex audience was sex-specific.     

Effect of secretin on pancreatic juice proteins in caerulein-induced acute pancreatitis in the rat

Nine hours after the start of treatment with caerulein in rats, an increase in the weight of the pancreas and an increase in serum amylase levels were observed. Likewise, a significant increase in endogenous secretin occurred in rats with acute pancreatitis. A dramatic reduction in the secretion of total protein and amylase was also observed. A partial recovery of this latter effect was achieved after an infusion of high doses of secretin. Under our experimental conditions, the volume of secretion did not vary in caerulein-treated rats wtih respect to controls, either in resting conditions or under secretin stimulation, which indicates that the ductular cells were not significantly affected. Isoelectrofocusing (IEF) and crossed-immunoelectrophoresis (CIE) studies revealed important alterations in the proteins of the pancreatic juice of rats with caerulein-induced acute pancreatitis. Trypsinogen appeared to be particularly affected, showing an increase in the T2 acidic form with an IEP of 4.4 and a decrease in the basic form T3 with an IEP of 8.0, which splits in other forms with a clear antigenic community. A hydrolase was also observed with an IEP of 6.2. In this sense, secretin administration may also be said to induce a significant improvement in established acute pancreatitis, since it tended to normalize the structure and proportion of the proteins secreted.     

Ionic and energetic changes at competence in the naturally transformable bacterium Streptococcus pneumoniae

Addition of competence factor extracts to trigger competence in a culture of Streptococcus pneumoniae induced an increase in the intracellular pH and the Na+ content of the bacteria without any change in the K+ pool or in the membrane potential. These ionic shifts were concomitant with a stimulation of glycolysis that resulted in an enhanced ATP pool. Thus, in transforming conditions, at extracellular pH 7.8, competent bacteria presented a particularly high energetic state resulting from an increase in delta pH and in the ATP pool, associated with an enhanced Na+ content. These features are discussed in the context of homeostasis regulation in response to an environmental stimulus.