Seasonal dynamics of planktonic food chain in the Oyashio region, western subarctic Pacific

In order to clarify the importance of the microbial food chainin relation to the grazing food chain in the Oyashio region,western subarctic Pacific, the biomass of component organismsin the two food chains was investigated during July and Octoberin 1997, and January, March and May in 1998. Carbon flows withinthe plankton food chains, as established from biomass data combinedwith published experimental data (Shinada et al., 2000), suggestthat primary production is largely channelled through the microbialfood chain throughout the year. The grazing food chain is functionalalong with the microbial food chain only during the spring phytoplanktonbloom.     

Clinical assay of serum SCC-Ag in urothelial cancers

Serum squamous cell carcinoma related antigen (SCC-Ag) values were determined in 86 patients with urothelial cancers. Mean +/- standard deviation for serum SCC-Ag, was 3.4 +/- 0.98 ng/ml and positive values (greater than 2.0 ng/ml) were found in 27%. Neither pathological stage nor cell grade of the urothelial cancer showed any relation to serum SCC-Ag. Serum SCC-Ag. changed parallel to the clinical course. These results suggest that, as there is no specific tumor marker in urothelial cancer, serum SCC-Ag. may be a useful aid in diagnosing cancer and monitoring these patients. Used together with another non-specific marker, an increase in the accuracy of diagnosis of these malignancies can be expected.     

内蒙古脑木根地区渐新世啮齿类及相关地层问题

描述了脑木根敖包顶部岩层中所产的啮齿类化石：阿尔泰查干鼠(Tsaganomys altaicus)和中间圆柱鼠(Cyclomylus intermedius)。脑木根敖包顶部地层最初被归人巴润索组。研究表明该层共含5种哺乳动物化石(Tsaganomys altaicus、Cyclomylus intermedius、Paracerotherium tran-souralicum、Ardynia kaxachstanensis和Etelodn gobiensis），其时代为早渐新世晚期。巴润索组的层型是巴润索平台顶部的砂砾岩，其时代为晚始新世。脑木根敖包顶部岩层不应归人巴润索组，而与额尔登敖包顶部的上脑岗代组在岩性上接近，时代相同，因此应归人上脑岗代组。     

Conditioning and the classification of the chronic schizophrenic patient

An attempt to construct a psychophysiological (conditioning) classification of chronic schizophrenia has been reported and the relationship of this new classification with the prevailing clinical (psychopathological) classification has been examined. Our findings suggest that our chronic schizophrenic population may be described in terms of a hypothetical continuum, based on the combination of the 11 experimental variables tested. This is supported by the result that our experimental population was distributed over 97 of the possible 117 categories. Furthermore, in a Pavlovian frame of reference our population disperses into three groups: a high performance group, in which both, excitatory and inhibitory processes are relatively maintained, a moderate performance group with some impairment of the inhibitory process, and a low performance group in which both the excitatory and the inhibitory processes are relatively impaired. Heuristically even more important is the finding that these schizophrenic categories are characterized by dissociation, either within the individual functional system or between this functional systems. In most of the categories of the experimental population a characteristic dissociation of functioning appears. It is characterized by a relatively well maintained functional ability of the autonomic functional system in contrast to an impaired skeletomuscular system. This dissociation resembles the phenomenon of schizokinesis. Since the morphological substrates of our experimental variables are those which are also affected by a variety of psychoactive drugs with well defined neurophysiological action, the categories delineated in this study would be verified by differential psychopharmacological responsiveness.     

Nicotinic Acid as Adjuvant Therapy in Newly Admitted Schizophrenic Patients

A placebo-controlled, comparative clinical study was conducted to test the hypothesis that nicotinic acid as an adjuvant medication has a beneficial therapeutic effect over and above the effect which can be achieved by the administration of phenothiazine drugs alone, over a six-month period, in newly (recently) admitted schizophrenic patients.The most important single finding was that no statistically significant therapeutic difference was seen between the active treatment and the placebo groups; i.e., the addition of nicotinic acid or nicotinamide to the regular phenothiazine treatment regimen did not have any measurable therapeutic effect in this sample of patients. It was shown that patients in the placebo group received a lower total daily amount of phenothiazine drugs than those on either of the active substances. Furthermore, it was noted that the addition of the active substances did not reduce the number of days of hospitalization.     

Phenotypic and molecular analysis of dominant occurring antibiotic active-producing Streptomyces soil flora in Northern Jordan

This investigation aimed to determine the relatedness of dominant occurring soil Streptomyces spp. in Northern Jordan based on their RAPD-PCR fingerprints, and to compare RAPD technique with the conventional phenotypic characterization of Streptomyces isolates. Fifty-eight white and gray color-bearing aerial mycelia antibiotic active-producing Streptomyces soil isolates along with three reference strains were genetically analyzed by RAPD-PCR. Polymorphisms between the isolates showed 1 to 10 bands per isolate and ranged from 200 to 3200 bp in size. Results revealed one common band of ~600 bp shared by ~85% of the isolates, and the observation of bands specific to some reference strains and some soil isolates. When RAPD patterns were analyzed with the UPGMA, results revealed clustering the tested isolates into two equal main super clusters (50% each). Super cluster I appeared to be homogenous and include the three reference strains. However, super cluster II was heterogeneous and but not including any of the reference strains. The association of the antibiotic activity of the dominant white and gray aerial mycelium-bearing Streptomyces isolates to RAPD clustering is reported for the first time, and the RAPD-PCR fingerprints generated here deserve to be cloned, characterized and sequenced in future as Streptomyces species-specific DNA markers. The more random primers used in the analysis may add to RAPD technique a cost-effective, fast, precise result, and less labor work solution for analyzing the similarities and differences among the Streptomyces isolates.     

Elevation of gene expression for salmon gonadotropin‐releasing hormone in discrete brain loci of prespawning chum salmon during upstream migration

Our previous studies suggested that salmon gonadotropin‐releasing hormone (sGnRH) neurons regulate both final maturation and migratory behavior in homing salmonids. Activation of sGnRH neurons can occur during upstream migration. We therefore examined expression of genes encoding the precursors of sGnRH, sGnRH‐I, and sGnRH‐II, in discrete forebrain loci of prespawning chum salmon, Oncorhynchus keta. Fish were captured from 1997 through 1999 along their homing pathway: coastal areas, a midway of the river, 4 km downstream of the natal hatchery, and the hatchery. Amounts of sGnRH mRNAs in fresh frozen sections including the olfactory bulb (OB), terminal nerve (TN), ventral telencephalon (VT), nucleus preopticus parvocellularis anterioris (PPa), and nucleus preopticus magnocellularis (PM) were determined by quantitative real‐time polymerase chain reactions. The amounts of sGnRH‐II mRNA were higher than those of sGnRH‐I mRNA, while they showed similar changes during upstream migration. In the OB and TN, the amounts of sGnRH mRNAs elevated from the coast to the natal hatchery. In the VT and PPa, they elevated along with the progress of final maturation. Such elevation was also observed in the rostroventral, middle, and dorsocaudal parts of the PM. The amounts of gonadotropin IIβ and somatolactin mRNAs in the pituitary also increased consistently with the elevation of gene expression for sGnRH. These results, in combination with lines of previous evidence, indicate that sGnRH neurons are activated in almost all the forebrain loci during the last phases of spawning migration, resulting in coordination of final gonadal maturation and migratory behavior to the spawning ground. © 2005 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Neurobiol, 2005