77 research outputs found
Blood lead levels increase, but remain in normal range with severe weight reduction.
No full textHigh bone turnover states are known to raise blood lead levels (BPb). Caloric restriction will increase bone turnover, yet it remains unknown if weight reduction increases BPb due to mobilization of skeletal stores. We measured whole blood Pb levels (²⁰⁶Pb) by inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry in 73 women (age 24–75 years; BMI 23– 61 kg/m²) before and after 6 months of severe weight loss (S-WL), moderate weight loss (M-WL), or weight maintenance (WM). Baseline BPb levels were relatively low at 0.2–6.0 μg/dl, and directly associated with age (r=0.49, P<0.0001). After severe WL (-37.4±9.3 kg, n=17), BPb increased by 2.1±3.9 μg/dl (P<0.05), resulting in BPb levels of 1.3–12.5 μg/dl. M-WL (-5.6±2.7 kg, n=39) and WM (0.3±1.3 kg, n=17) did not result in an increase in BPb levels (0.5±3.2 and 0.0±0.7 μg/dl, M-WL and WM, respectively). BPb levels increased more with greater WL (r=0.24, P<0.05). Bone turnover markers increased only with severe WL and were directly correlated with WL. At baseline, higher calcium intake was associated with lower BPb (r=-0.273, P<0.02), however, this association was no longer present after 6 months. Severe weight reduction in obese women increases skeletal bone mobilization and BPb, but values remain well below levels defined as Pb overexposure.This research was supported by the NIEHS sponsored UMDNJ Center for Environmental Exposures and Disease, Grant number: NIEHS P30ES005022, in part by NIH-AG12161, and a Busch Biomedical Award to SA Shapses.National Institutes of Health: AG12161, to S.A. ShapsesCharles & Johanna Busch Biomedical Grant, to S.A. ShapsesThe published version of this paper is available at: http://www.nature.com/je
Sentence Comprehension Is Mediated by Content-Addressable Memory Structures
No full textformation. Such a system 111 0090-6905/00/0300-0111$18.00/0 2000 Plenum Publishing Corporation Journal of Psycholinguistic Research, Vol. 29, No. 2, 2000 This research was supported by NIMH Grant MH57458. The author thanks Lisbeth Dyer and Stephani Foraker for assistance with the generation of materials and data collection. Program in Cognition and Perception, Department of Psychology, New York University, 6 Washington Place, New York, 10003-6634. Email: [email protected]. contrasts with traditional views of WM and with recent findings that access to some forms of information in WM requires a search process. ACCESSING WM STRUCTURES The behavioral marker of a search process is that the time to access a representation depends on the amount of information held in memory or the amount of information interpolated between initial processing and retrieval. Myriad studies demonstrate that the probability of maintaining a representation in WM decreases as a function of both factors. Ho
The Weakening of Pharmaceutical Method Patents: The Federal Circuit Addresses the ‘FDA Conundrum’
No full text89-96The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA)
has strict requirements for generic drugs. These requirements may
prevent a generic manufacturer from altering a drug product to unequivocally
avoid patent infringement, and may
also require a generic manufacturer to use a patented method for quality
control purposes. These situations are called the ‘FDA conundrum.’ While
Congress and the FDA desire to have generic drugs enter the market as soon as
possible, the requirements FDA imposes raise issues of patent infringement that
often take years to resolve. The Federal Circuit addressed these issues in the
year 2012, in three separate cases: Momenta
v Amphastar, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style:
normal">AstraZeneca v Apotex, and
Bayer Schering Pharma AG v Lupin
Assessing the role of soil chemoautotrophs in carbon cycling: An investigation into isotopically labelled soil microorganisms
Get PDFRecently observed increases in atmospheric CO2 have created great interest in carbon capture technologies and natural sinks of this major component of the carbon cycle. Humic substances are a large, operationally defined fraction of soil organic matter. It was thought that humic substances consist of cross-linked macromolecular structures forming a distinct class of compounds. However, it was recently concluded by members of my research group that the vast majority of humic material in soils, are a complex mixture of microbial/plant biopolymers and degradation products, and not a distinct chemical category. The postulation that microbial inputs to soil carbon are greatly underestimated was put forward by my research group in 2007. Therefore, I have attempted to demonstrate the inputs made by soil chemoautotrophic bacteria. A method was developed where soil samples were measured for chemoautotrophic activity by subjecting them to a suite of scientific techniques. A growth chamber was used to propagate extant soil chemoautotrophic bacteria from different soils and subjected to an array of chemical and biological analyses. The growth chamber was used to measure CO2 concentrations and introduce stable isotopic 13CO2. Estimations of CO2 sequestration were made using direct measurements for Irish soils and one Eurasian soil. Isotope labelled DNA was isolated using cesium chloride gradient ultracentrifugation. The dominant chemoautotrophic bacteria uncovered were Thiobacillus denitrificans and Thiobacillus thioparus. Labelled biomass was isolated and described using GCMS-IRMS and NMR, where an array of PLFAs, protein/peptide, carbohydrates and aliphatics were observed. Finally, an attempt to mimic common agricultural practice was performed to measure soil chemoautotrophic activity. This demonstrated the capability of this approach to benefit carbon flux estimations and hopefully in the future help to elucidate carbon flow into soils for the greater environment
Fluorescence enhancement of curcumin upon inclusion into parent and modified cyclodextrins
No full textThe effect of alpha-, beta-, and gamma-cyclodextrin (CD) and their hydroxygropylated (HP) derivatives on the solubility and fluorescence of the compound curcumin has been studied. Curcumin, the main constituent of the Indian spice turmeric, is of growing interest due to its wide-ranging pharmaceutical properties. All of these six cyclodextrins significantly increase the aqueous solubility of curcumin, with the greatest solubility observed in HP-gamma-CD. Curcumin forms 2:1 host-guest inclusion complexes with these cyclodextrins, with the strongest complexes formed in the case of HP-beta-CD. These 2:1 complexes are postulated to form when a cyclodextrin host encapsulates each of the two phenyl rings at the ends of the curcumin molecule. The equilibrium constant for encapsulation by the second cyclodextrin host is significantly smaller than that for the first in each case, probably a result of steric bulk of the first cyclodextrin, with deep inclusion of the curcumin molecule, hindering encapsulation by the second cyclodextrin host. In fact, in the case of beta-CD, a 1: 1 host:guest model fit the data just as well, or better than, the 2:1 model. In the case of gamma-CD and HP-gamma-CD, the initial 1:1 complex formed was found to be less fluorescent than the free curcumin; this is postulated to be a result of inclusion of a folded curcumin molecule, which breaks the conjugation along the length of the molecule and hence greatly reduces its fluorescence quantum yield. (c) 2005 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.PT: J; CR: BONG PH, 2000, B KOR CHEM SOC, V21, P81 CHIGNELL CF, 1994, PHOTOCHEM PHOTOBIOL, V59, P295 COX GS, 1984, J AM CHEM SOC, V106, P422 DAHL TA, 1994, PHOTOCHEM PHOTOBIOL, V59, P290 DALTON L, 2003, CHEM ENG NEWS SEPT, V1, P8 DELAPENA AM, 1993, J INCLUS PHENOM MOL, V15, P131 DODZIUK H, 2004, SUPRAMOL CHEM, V16, P287 HAMAI S, 1988, J PHYS CHEM-US, V92, P6140 HEREDIA A, 1985, J CHEM SOC CHEM COMM, P1814 JOB P, 1928, ANN CHIM FRANCE, V9, P113 JOVANOVIC SV, 2001, J AM CHEM SOC, V123, P3064 KHOPDE SM, 2000, PHOTOCHEM PHOTOBIOL, V72, P625 LOUKAS YL, 1997, J PHYS CHEM B, V101, P4863 MARQUEZ C, 2001, ANGEW CHEM INT EDIT, V40, P4387 MOCK WL, 1995, TOP CURR CHEM, V175, P1 NAU WM, 1999, J AM CHEM SOC, V121, P8022 NIGAM S, 1996, J PHYS CHEM-US, V100, P7135 RANKIN MA, 2004, SUPRAMOL CHEM, V16, P513 ROBERTS EL, 1996, J PHYS CHEM-US, V100, P19681 ROBINSON TP, 2003, BIOORG MED CHEM LETT, V13, P115 SANRAME CN, 1996, J PHYS CHEM-US, V100, P8151 SHIM JS, 2003, CHEM BIOL, V10, P695 SUN YM, 2002, ORG LETT, V4, P2909 SZEJTLI J, 1998, CHEM REV, V98, P1743 TANG B, 2002, J AGR FOOD CHEM, V50, P1355 TONNESEN HH, 2002, INT J PHARM, V244, P127 WAGNER BD, 1998, J PHOTOCH PHOTOBIO A, V114, P151 WAGNER BD, 2000, J INCL PHENOM MACRO, V38, P467 WAGNER BD, 2003, J INCL PHENOM MACRO, V45, P275 WRIGHT JS, 2002, J MOL STRUC-THEOCHEM, V591, P207; NR: 30; TC: 4; J9: J PHOTOCHEM PHOTOBIOL A-CHEM; PG: 8; GA: 946ZDSource type: Electronic(1
A genetic variation map for chicken with 2.8 million single-nucleotide polymorphisms
Get PDFWe describe a genetic variation map for the chicken genome containing 2.8 million single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs). This map is based on a comparison of the sequences of three domestic chicken breeds (a broiler, a layer and a Chinese silkie) with that of their wild ancestor, red jungle fowl. Subsequent experiments indicate that at least 90% of the variant sites are true SNPs, and at least 70% are common SNPs that segregate in many domestic breeds. Mean nucleotide diversity is about five SNPs per kilobase for almost every possible comparison between red jungle fowl and domestic lines, between two different domestic lines, and within domestic lines--in contrast to the notion that domestic animals are highly inbred relative to their wild ancestors. In fact, most of the SNPs originated before domestication, and there is little evidence of selective sweeps for adaptive alleles on length scales greater than 100 kilobases
The Weakening of Pharmaceutical Method Patents: The Federal Circuit Addresses the ‘FDA Conundrum’
Get PDFThe U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has strict requirements for generic drugs. These requirements may prevent a generic manufacturer from altering a drug product to unequivocally avoid patent infringement, and may also require a generic manufacturer to use a patented method for quality control purposes. We call these situations the “FDA conundrum.” While Congress and the FDA desire to have generic drugs enter the market as soon as possible, the requirements it imposes raise issues of patent infringement that often take years to resolve. The Federal Circuit addressed these issues in the last year, in three separate cases: Momenta v. Amphastar, AstraZeneca v. Apotex, and Bayer Schering Pharma AG v. Lupin
Whole-genome analysis of diverse Chlamydia trachomatis strains identifies phylogenetic relationships masked by current clinical typing
Get PDFChlamydia trachomatis is responsible for both trachoma and sexually transmitted infections, causing substantial morbidity and economic cost globally. Despite this, our knowledge of its population and evolutionary genetics is limited. Here we present a detailed phylogeny based on whole-genome sequencing of representative strains of C. trachomatis from both trachoma and lymphogranuloma venereum (LGV) biovars from temporally and geographically diverse sources. Our analysis shows that predicting phylogenetic structure using ompA, which is traditionally used to classify Chlamydia, is misleading because extensive recombination in this region masks any true relationships present. We show that in many instances, ompA is a chimera that can be exchanged in part or as a whole both within and between biovars. We also provide evidence for exchange of, and recombination within, the cryptic plasmid, which is another key diagnostic target. We used our phylogenetic framework to show how genetic exchange has manifested itself in ocular, urogenital and LGV C. trachomatis strains, including the epidemic LGV serotype L2b
Near-surface ocean temperature
Get PDFAuthor Posting. © American Geophysical Union, 2006. This article is posted here by permission of American Geophysical Union for personal use, not for redistribution.
The definitive version was published in Journal of Geophysical Research 111 (2006): C02004, doi:10.1029/2004JC002689.The first open ocean deployment of the Skin Depth Experimental
Profiler (SkinDeEP) was from the R/V Melville in the Gulf of California during
the Marine Optical Characterization Experiment (MOCE–5). SkinDeEP is
an autonomous, vertical profiler for the upper few meters of the ocean. During
MOCE–5, SkinDeEP was deployed on 10 separate occasions, and profiles were
made at intervals of approximately one minute each. A total of 976 profiles were
acquired during the cruise. The ocean skin temperatures were measured by the
Marine Atmosphere Emitted Radiance Interferometer (M–AERI), an infrared spectroradiometer.
Typical meteorological conditions were of low winds and high
insolation. The dataset provided captures the near-surface temperature structure
that decouples the skin layer from the conventional in–situ bulk sea surface temperature
measurements made at a depth of a few meters. Data from SkinDeEP
showed strong diurnal warming within the upper few meters, with one extreme
case of 4.6 K. There were large discrepancies when computing the skin–bulk
temperature difference with bulk temperatures at different depths. Results also
show the strong dependency of estimating air–sea heat flux based on SST, with
warm–layer errors of almost 60 Wm-2 associated with intense stratification. This
indicates the importance of the inclusion of the skin temperature for accurate
calculation of latent, sensible, and net longwave heat fluxes.The development of SkinDeEP was funded
through the Research Council of Norway (Prosjektnr. 127872/720). Support was provided by the
European Commission under the Marie Curie Fellowship contract ERBFMBICT983162. Further
supportwas provided by NSF grant OCE–0241834 and National Oceanographic Partnership
Program Award No. NNG04GM56G
Fides ex auditu: dogmatic theology and the ecclesial practice of music
No full textAny consideration of the aural reception of Christian faith must take the ecclesial practice of music and its relation to the divine logos into account. Specifically, the logos provides normativity for such music, as the latter endeavours to proclaim that divine Word. Contemporary theological reflections on music are made difficult by the modern development of the concept of taste, which has culminated in a radicalized subjectivity that eschews normative criteria. A reclamation of the normative role of the logos is thus required in the dogmatic theology of music.
Karl Barth’s theology is examined in order to establish the critical relation between proclamation and dogmatics. Barth’s praise of Mozart is reviewed to demonstrate how his detachment from a broader historical tradition confines him to a strictly formalist aesthetic that is unable to hear musical meaning. Further examination of
his early writings reveal how his critical revelatory dialectic, vis-à-vis his reading of the Auftrag, prohibits a proclamatory role for the ecclesial practice of music.
Pope Benedict XVI’s theology provides a fitting alternative, as his dogmatic
reflections assume a necessarily kerygmatic role for music that Barth denies. In this
Benedict is more in tune with the ancient Church Fathers. His dogmatic reflections on the “musified” logos are in dialectical tension with modern philosophies of music, as he espouses a Christian rationality over against modern secular/subjective reason. This dialectic is augmented with a comparison of Augustine and Kant on the practice of
counting. Finally, contrary to some readings, the normativity of Benedict’s musical logos
is not an oppressive force, hampering the freedom of musical performance.
A “descriptive” method of dogmatic reflection is finally recommended, in which the theology of music approximates a kind of journalistic “music criticism,” albeit one that listens for the Word of Christ, the hearing of which brings faith (Romans 10:17)
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