Cortical circuitry mediating interareal touch signal amplification.

Sensory cortical areas are organized into topographic maps representing the sensory epithelium. Interareal projections typically connect topographically matched subregions across areas. Because matched subregions process the same stimulus, their interaction is central to many computations.

Sparse and distributed cortical populations mediate sensorimotor integration.

Touch information is central to sensorimotor integration, yet little is known about how cortical touch and movement representations interact. Touch- and movement-related activity is present in both somatosensory and motor cortices, making both candidate sites for touch-motor interactions. We studied touch-motor interactions in layer 2/3 of the primary vibrissal somatosensory and motor cortices of behaving mice.

Cortical circuitry mediating inter-areal touch signal amplification.

Sensory cortical areas are often organized into topographic maps which represent the sensory epithelium. Individual areas are richly interconnected, in many cases via reciprocal projections that respect the topography of the underlying map. Because topographically matched cortical patches process the same stimulus, their interaction is likely central to many neural computations.

Columnar Lesions in Barrel Cortex Persistently Degrade Object Location Discrimination Performance.

Primary sensory cortices display functional topography, suggesting that even small cortical volumes may underpin perception of specific stimuli. Traditional loss-of-function approaches have a relatively large radius of effect (>1 mm), and few studies track recovery following loss-of-function perturbations. Consequently, the behavioral necessity of smaller cortical volumes remains unclear.

Assessing changes in knowledge, attitudes, and intentions to use family planning after watching documentary and drama health education films: a qualitative study.

Background: There is a paucity of literature on the effectiveness of drama or documentary films in changing knowledge, beliefs, attitudes, and behavior of people towards family planning. This study aimed to compare and assess the acceptability of health promotion films based on documentary or drama, and their effect on knowledge, attitudes, and intention to use family planning.

Methods: We developed short documentary and drama films about contraceptive implants, using the person-based approach.

Couples' decision-making on post-partum family planning and antenatal counselling in Uganda: A qualitative study.

Background: Although health workers have been trained to provide post-partum family planning (PPFP), uptake remains low in Uganda. An important reason is that women want the agreement of their partner, who is often absent at the time of delivery. In order to address this, we aimed to understand the views of couples and explore barriers and facilitators to implementation of antenatal couples' counselling on PPFP in Uganda.

Inhibition of mammalian 5-lipoxygenase and cyclo-oxygenase by flavonoids and phenolic dietary additives. Relationship to antioxidant activity and to iron ion-reducing ability.

We investigated the ability of various plant flavonoids (a) to inhibit 5-lipoxygenase and cyclooxygenase activities in rat peritoneal leukocytes, (b) to inhibit lipid peroxidation in rat liver microsomes, and (c) to stimulate DNA degradation caused by the antibiotic bleomycin in the presence of ferric ions. These compounds were compared with a range of synthetic phenolic substances including carnosol, vanillin, vitamin E and its analogue trolox c. The flavonoids were potent inhibitors of non-enzymatic peroxidation in membranes but this was not significantly correlated with their ability to inhibit either pathway of eicosanoid synthesis, suggesting that their mode of inhibition of 5-lipoxygenase/cyclooxygenase is not simply due to interception of peroxyl radicals generated at the active site of the enzymes.

The antioxidant action of tamoxifen and its metabolites. Inhibition of lipid peroxidation.

The anti-oestrogen drug tamoxifen is an inhibitor of lipid peroxidation in rat liver microsomes and in phospholipid liposomes. Its cis isomer and N-desmethyl form are weaker inhibitors, but 4-hydroxytamoxifen is much more powerful. It is possible that the antioxidant property of tamoxifen might contribute to its biological actions.

Carnosine, homocarnosine and anserine: could they act as antioxidants in vivo?

Carnosine, homocarnosine and anserine have been proposed to act as antioxidants in vivo. Our studies show that all three compounds are good scavengers of the hydroxyl radical (.OH) but that none of them can react with superoxide radical, hydrogen peroxide or hypochlorous acid at biologically significant rates.

Antioxidant and pro-oxidant actions of the plant phenolics quercetin, gossypol and myricetin. Effects on lipid peroxidation, hydroxyl radical generation and bleomycin-dependent damage to DNA.

The plant-derived phenolic compounds gossypol, quercetin and myricetin are powerful inhibitors of iron-induced lipid peroxidation in rat liver microsomes, under all five experimental conditions tested and at low micromolar concentrations (IC50 less than or equal to 1.5 microM). However, they greatly accelerate the generation of hydroxyl radicals (.

The mechanism of initiation of lipid peroxidation. Evidence against a requirement for an iron(II)-iron(III) complex.

When Fe2+ ions are added to rat-liver microsomes, lipid peroxidation begins after a short lag period. Fe2+-dependent peroxidation in the first few minutes of the incubation can be increased by adding Fe3+, ascorbic acid or Pb2+ ions; these stimulations are not additive. By contrast, Pb2+ ions inhibit peroxidation of microsomes in the presence of Fe3+/ascorbate or Fe3+-ADP/NADPH.

Effects of desferrioxamine on eicosanoid production in two intact cell systems.

Desferrioxamine is an iron-chelating agent used in the treatment of iron overload. It is a powerful inhibitor of iron-dependent radical reactions and has been used to test for the involvement of such reactions in animal models of human disease. Recent proposals that desferrioxamine inhibits lipoxygenase and stimulates cyclo-oxygenase were examined by testing its action upon eicosanoid production in rat caecal fragments and elicited rat peritoneal leukocytes.