The saltatory effect in vision.

Events in vision triggered by brief flashes in train prove to be strictly analogous to those generated in the skin by a succession of taps. A requisite condition for their appearance in vision is projection of the flashes into the peripheral retinal field. Experiments are described that establish the general relation between extent of saltatory leaping and degree of retinal eccentricity and between leaping and retinal subtense of stimulus patches. Additionally, a curious "dip" phenomenon and several qualitative experiments in which color has been used to "tag" the saltatory image are reported.     

The Matthew effect in health development.

A study was conducted examining the paradox that populations with a poor standard of health seem to achieve only meagre improvements over time, whereas those with a good standard of health seem to show continual, substantial improvement. The health states of 122 nations were measured by reference to their infant mortality in 1965 and the changes that occurred over the next 20 years. Countries with low infant mortality in 1965 (for example, Japan and East Germany) achieved substantial, further declines over the 20 years, whereas in countries such as Rwanda and Ethiopia infant mortality hardly declined at all or even increased (Ethiopia 165/1000 to 168/1000). In 48 countries for which data were available there was a close link between the change in health state of a people and the ratio of government expenditure on health and defence. As the ratio increased in favour of defence, so the improvement in health state of a people declined; the reverse was also true. At the primary care level disparity in uptake of care both among and within communities was associated with literacy and socioeconomic state, services inadvertently being aimed at those sections most likely to benefit. The forces that act to produce this setting of unequal care must be checked at both national and primary levels if we are to have "Health for All by the Year 2000."     

The hapten-carrier effect in teleost fish.

The sea robin (Prionotus evolans), a representative teleost fish, was found to undergo the hapten-carrier effect, suggestive of T-B cell cooperativity, in vivo with dinitrophenyl as the hapten and bovine gamma-globulin or bovine serum albumin as carriers. In contrast to mammalian systems, the secondary anti-hapten response in the sea robin was found to involve exclusively high molecular weight antibody.     

Antinociceptive effect of sumatriptan in mice.

Antinociceptive effect of the antimigraine drug sumatriptan (5-HT1A agonist) was studied against acetic acid-induced writhing in mice. Sumatriptan produced the effect in a dose-dependent manner (1, 5, 10 and 20 mg/kg, s.c.). Naloxone (1 mg/kg i.p.) an opiate antagonist failed to reverse sumatriptan-induced antinociception. Cholinomimetic physostigmine (0.05 mg/kg, i.p.) potentiated and the muscarinic antagonist atropine (5 mg/kg, i.p.) blocked the antinociceptive effect of sumatriptan, respectively. The antinociceptive effect of sumatriptan was compared with an another 5-HT agonist (5-HT1A) buspirone which also produced antinociception. Like sumatriptan-analgesia, the buspirone response was also potentiated by physostigmine in atropine sensitive way. Further, buspirone potentiated the analgesic effect of sumatriptan. These observations suggest that 5-HT1A agonists produce antinociception possibly by modulating central cholinergic activity.     

Glucose effect and mitochondriogenesis in yeast.

The effect of addition of glucose to derepressing yeast cells on the electron transport chain components has been studied. Both the concentration and the time of addition were varied. The results show that the components made by mitochondria are extremely sensitive to glucose repression, whereas the cytoplasmically made counterparts (mitochondrially located proteins) are not.     

Lymphopoiesis in the rat. II. The effect of thymectomy

Lymphopoiesis with respect to recirculating and non-recirculating small lymphocytes was measured simultaneously in rats thymectomized as adults. Removal of the thymus at four to five weeks of age had a profound inhibitory effect upon the production of recirculating cells, whereas the formation of non-recirculating lymphocytes was only slightly depressed. Thymectomy had approximately the same impact of lymphopoiesis as thymectomy and exposure of the animal to a large dose of whole body X- and γ-irradiation. The latter finding, and the failure of a thoracic duct cell transfusion to augment lymphocyte production, accord with the view that the thymus is the principle intermediate source of recirculating small lymphocytes in the normal, unstimulated animal.     

Antithrombotic effect of L-arginine in hypertensive rats.

The aim of the study was to evaluate the effect of L-arginine (L-Arg) on haemostasis in stasis model of venous thrombosis in renal hypertensive rats. The effect of the single dose (i.v. 300 mg/kg bolus+300 mg/kg/h) and of the 10-day application (p.o. 1 g/kg, once daily) of L-Arg was determined. L-Arg reduced the blood pressure both in the acute and long-term application. The single dose of L-Arg decreased the occurrence rate of the thrombus whereas long-term administration reduced significantly the thrombus weight. There were no differences in prothrombin time and activated partial thromboplastin time while the fibrinogen concentration decreased both in the acute and the long-term experiment. L-Arg shortened euglobulin clot lysis time and bleeding time in the long-term application. The chronic L-Arg treatment also inhibited significantly collagen-induced platelet aggregation. The overall haemostasis and coagulation potentials were inhibited and the fibrinolysis potential was higher in the group receiving this amino-acid. The results show that L-Arg, in a complex way, evokes the antithrombotic effect in the model of venous thrombosis in hypertensive rats.     

哈尔滨市街道绿化的生态效应

研究街道绿地组成与结构对城市环境和小气候的影响,对城市街道绿地的绿化设计具有重要的理论与实践意义.分别在2006年春、夏、秋不同季节,调查了哈尔滨市南直路、长江路、上坞路3条新建宽域街道与绿化相关的生态指标,并运用灰色关联度分析法,分析了新建街道的绿化生态效应.结果表明:在日变化规律和季节变化规律中,街道绿化树种的生态效应在不同街道、不同季节、一天中不同时段分别达到各自的极值;长江路夏季12:00-14:00达到降温极值、春季16:00-18:00出现遮光度极值、7:00-8:00出现负离子增加极值、11:00-13:00达到增湿极值,秋季16:00-18:00出现CO2吸收量极值、11:00-13:00达到噪音衰减量极值,南直路秋季11:00-13:00出现滞尘量极值;在不同季节生态效应的关联规律中,3条街道都在夏季表现出最佳总体绿化生态效应.灰色关联度分析表明,不同街道的总体绿化生态效应不同,以上坞路的总体绿化生态效应最为显著.街道绿化形式与模式不同,其生态效应也显著不同,街道绿地组成与结构对街道生态效应的发挥有较大影响.     

Oxygen-organophosphate linkage in hemoglobin A. The double hump effect.

At low concentrations of chloride ions, and in the presence of nonsaturating concentrations of organophosphates, the oxygen equilibrium curves (OEC) for solutions of human adult hemoglobin exhibit a biphasic shape conveniently revealed by graphical analysis of the first derivative of the Hill equation with a characteristic form that we call "the double hump effect." This shape, observed for sub-saturating concentrations of organophosphates, stands in marked contrast to the simple lateral shifts of the OEC represented largely by scaling factors when pH or chloride are varied. In the case of protons or chloride, there is a self-buffering effect due to the presence of a large reservoir of proton or chloride binding sites not necessarily linked to oxygen, whereas such sites do not exist in the case of organophosphates. In addition, in the former case, we are dealing with curves measured at constant activity of the effector, while in the latter, at constant concentration. In the presence of saturating concentrations of inositol hexaphosphate (IHP), at low chloride concentration, the entire OEC is shifted to the right, including both its upper and lower asymptotes, indicating a decrease in the intrinsic oxygen affinities of both the T and R states. Theoretical considerations leading to a successful modeling of OEC obtained under nonsaturating and saturating concentrations of IHP required an expanded two-state allosteric model in which IHP-dependent variations in oxygen association constants for both the T and R conformations are taken into account.     

Nonclassical hydrophobic effect in membrane binding equilibria.

The enthalpy of transfer of four different amphiphilic molecules from the aqueous phase to the lipid membrane was determined by titration calorimetry. The four molecules investigated were the potential-sensitive dye 2-(p-toluidinyl)naphthalene-6-sulfonate (TNS), the membrane conductivity inducing anion tetraphenylborate (TPB), the Ca2+ channel blocker amlodipine [B?uerle, H. D., & Seelig, J. (1991) Biochemistry 30, 7203-7211], and the positively charged local anesthetic dibucaine. All four amphiphiles penetrate into the hydrophobic part of the membrane, and their binding constants, after correcting for electrostatic effects, range between 600 M-1 for dibucaine and 60,000 M-1 for tetraphenylborate. The corresponding changes in free energy were about -6 to -9 kcal/mol. Binding of the amphiphiles to membrane vesicles composed of 1-palmitoyl-2-oleoyl-sn-glycero-3-phosphocholine was accompanied by exothermic heats of reaction for all four molecules. For TNS, TPB, and amlodipine, the enthalpies of transfer were almost identical and corresponded to delta H approximately -9 kcal/mol, essentially accounting for the total free energy change. Thus, the binding of these charged amphiphiles to the hydrophobic membrane was driven by enthalpy. This is in contrast to the classical hydrophobic effect, where the transfer is considered to be entropy driven. For dibucaine, the enthalpy of transfer was smaller with delta H approximately -2 kcal/mol but was still about one-third of the total free energy change. All enthalpies of transfer exhibited a distinct temperature dependence with molar heat capacities delta Cp of -30 to -100 cal mol-1K-1 for the transfer from water to the membrane.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)