Estradiol- and Progesterone-Associated Changes in microRNA-Induced Silencing and Reduced Antiseizure Efficacy of an Antagomir in Female Mice.

About one-third of individuals living with epilepsy have treatment-resistant seizures. Alternative therapeutic strategies are thus urgently needed. One potential novel treatment target is miRNA-induced silencing, which is differentially regulated in epilepsy.

Reaction-diffusion and reaction-subdiffusion equations on arbitrarily evolving domains.

Reaction-diffusion equations are widely used as the governing evolution equations for modeling many physical, chemical, and biological processes. Here we derive reaction-diffusion equations to model transport with reactions on a one-dimensional domain that is evolving. The model equations, which have been derived from generalized continuous time random walks, can incorporate complexities such as subdiffusive transport and inhomogeneous domain stretching and shrinking.

Transcriptional profile of spinal dynorphin-lineage interneurons in the developing mouse.

Mounting evidence suggests that the spinal dorsal horn (SDH) contains multiple subpopulations of inhibitory interneurons that play distinct roles in somatosensory processing, as exemplified by the importance of spinal dynorphin-expressing neurons for the suppression of mechanical pain and chemical itch. Although it is clear that GABAergic transmission in the SDH undergoes significant alterations during early postnatal development, little is known about the maturation of discrete inhibitory "microcircuits" within the region. As a result, the goal of this study was to elucidate the gene expression profile of spinal dynorphin (pDyn)-lineage neurons throughout life.

Generalized fractional diffusion equations for subdiffusion in arbitrarily growing domains.

The ubiquity of subdiffusive transport in physical and biological systems has led to intensive efforts to provide robust theoretical models for this phenomena. These models often involve fractional derivatives. The important physical extension of this work to processes occurring in growing materials has proven highly nontrivial.

A Fractional Order Recovery SIR Model from a Stochastic Process.

Over the past several decades, there has been a proliferation of epidemiological models with ordinary derivatives replaced by fractional derivatives in an ad hoc manner. These models may be mathematically interesting, but their relevance is uncertain. Here we develop an SIR model for an epidemic, including vital dynamics, from an underlying stochastic process.

Mercury exposure in terrestrial birds far downstream of an historical point source.

Mercury (Hg) is a persistent environmental contaminant found in many freshwater and marine ecosystems. Historical Hg contamination in rivers can impact the surrounding terrestrial ecosystem, but there is little known about how far downstream this contamination persists. In 2009, we sampled terrestrial forest songbirds at five floodplain sites up to 137 km downstream of an historical source of Hg along the South and South Fork Shenandoah Rivers (Virginia, USA).

Fear of falling in older fallers presenting at emergency departments.

Aim: This paper is a report of an investigation of fear of falling in older people presenting to emergency departments after a fall.

Background: Falls are a common and disabling cause of attendance at emergency departments. Fear of falling is an often unrecognized consequence of falls that affects older people's function.

Transcriptional profiling of depolarization-dependent phenotypic alterations in primary cultures of developing granule neurons.

Rat cerebellar granule neurons cultured in medium supplemented with elevated KCl are extensively used as a model to examine the coupling between neural activity and Ca(2+)-dependent gene expression. Elevated (25 mM) KCl is believed to mimic endogenous neural activity because it promotes depolarization and Ca(+2)-dependent survival and some aspects of maturation. By comparison, at least half of the granule neurons grown in standard medium containing 5 mM KCl undergo apoptosis beginning approximately 4 days in vitro.

Evaluation of beta-lactoglobulin as a stationary phase in high-performance liquid chromatography and as a buffer additive in capillary electrophoresis: observation of a surprising lack of stereoselectivity.

Previous studies have reported that alpha1-acid glycoprotein is quite similar in amino acid sequence and disulfide bond arrangements to members of a group of proteins which include beta-lactoglobulin (BLG). Since generally homologous proteins retain some similarity in function at the molecular level, we decided to evaluate the enantioselective properties of BLG as an high-performance liquid chromatographic chiral stationary phase (HPLC-CSP), and as an additive in capillary electrophoresis (CE). Two columns with differences in internal diameter and method of immobilisation on epoxide silica were prepared.

Comparison of drug binding interactions on human, rat and rabbit serum albumin using high-performance displacement chromatography.

The binding of warfarin, a series of non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs and a series of benzodiazepines to rat serum albumin (RatSA) and rabbit serum albumin (RabSA) was compared with their binding to human serum albumin (HSA) using high-performance liquid chromatography on stationary phases based on immobilized albumins. The effect of the addition to the mobile phase of compounds known to bind to HSA at site I (phenylbutazone) or at site II (R- and S-ibuprofen) or at both sites (2,3,5-triiodobenzoic acid) was investigated on all three proteins. The results indicated that for the chiral compounds studied, the stereoselectivity of drug binding was much lower on RatSA than on HSA.

Determination of the magnitude and enantioselectivity of ligand binding to rat and rabbit serum albumins using immobilized-protein high performance liquid chromatography stationary phases.

Rat, rabbit and human serum albumins were immobilized on an HPLC stationary phase, and the resulting phases were tested for their abilities to determine the extent and enantioselectivity of ligand binding to the respective albumins. A series of achiral and chiral compounds were chromatographed on the phases including benzodiazepinones, non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, amino acids, warfarin and leucovorin. The chromatographic retentions of the benzodiazepinones and one series of nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory agents were compared with protein binding data from ultrafiltration studies.

A practical method of serial bedside measurement of cerebral blood flow and metabolism during neurointensive care.

Acute encephalopathy is a major cause of death and neurological handicap in children. The principle aims of treatment are to provide adequate cerebral blood flow for the brain's metabolic needs and to prevent intracranial pressure rising above the level at which brain herniation occurs. Rational management requires an understanding of the pathophysiological changes in cerebral blood flow and metabolism which occur.

Abnormalities of carbohydrate metabolism and of OCT gene function in the Rett syndrome.

The pathogenetic basis of the Rett syndrome (RS) is unknown: an X-linked dominant, male-lethal gene defect is thought likely. We present a girl with RS who has defects both of the urea cycle and of carbohydrate metabolism resulting in fasting hypoglycaemia, post-prandial hyperlactataemia and excess urinary orotic acid excretion after alanine load. Her sister has a similar clinical picture, but less marked metabolic anomalies.