Pictorial depth cues always influence reaching distance.

We report five experiments to test the influence of pictorial depth on reaching. Our core method is to project a wide-field background of linear perspective and/or texture gradient onto a tabletop, and to measure the amplitude of reaches made to targets within it. In 63 healthy participants performing immediate open-loop reaches across Experiments 1-4, we observed a clear effect of pictorial depth.

Utility of the carboxylesterase inhibitor bis-para-nitrophenylphosphate (BNPP) in the plasma unbound fraction determination for a hydrolytically unstable amide derivative and agonist of the TGR5 receptor.

The potent, functional agonist of the bile acid Takeda G-protein-coupled receptor 5 (TGR5), (S)-1-(6-fluoro-2-methyl-3,4-dihydroquinolin-1(2H)-yl)-2-(isoquinolin-5-yloxy)ethanone (3), represents a useful tool to probe in vivo TGR5 pharmacology. Rapid degradation of 3 in both rat and mouse plasma, however, hindered the conduct of in vivo pharmacokinetic/pharmacodynamic investigations (including plasma-free fraction (f(u plasma)) determination) in rodent models of pharmacology. Studies were therefore initiated to understand the biochemical basis for plasma instability so that appropriate methodology could be implemented in in vivo pharmacology studies to prevent the breakdown of 3.

Applications of the Ugi reaction with ketones.

A convenient synthesis of highly functionalized, α,α-disubstituted amino acid amide derivatives has been accomplished by using cyclic and acyclic ketones as the carbonyl inputs in the Ugi multicomponent reaction. An application of this extension of the Ugi reaction to the synthesis of α,α-divinyl amino acids that may be cyclized via ring-closing metathesis to provide highly substituted pyrrolidines is described.

Toward the total synthesis of FR901483: concise synthesis of the azatricyclic skeleton.

A concise synthesis of the azatricyclic core of FR901483 has been accomplished using a novel strategy that involves a nucleophilic addition to an N-acyl iminium ion, a ring-closing metathesis, a diastereoselective hydroboration, and a lactone-lactam rearrangement that worked well in a preliminary model study. Extension of this approach to the synthesis of a more highly functionalized intermediate that could be transformed into (-)-FR901483 first required the development of a new protecting group, the 1-ethylallyloxycarbamate group, for amines that may be removed under mild conditions. However, because the stereoselectivity in a key step in which a functionalized allyl zinc reagent was added to an intermediate hydroxy-substituted imine was low, this route to (-)-FR901483 is no longer being pursued.

Hypercalcemia and nephrocalcinosis in patients with congenital lactase deficiency.

We describe 11 infants with congenital lactase deficiency, whose age at diagnosis varied from 6 to 88 days. At the time of admission, 7 of 10 infants had hypercalcemia. Five of the seven infants for whom renal ultrasonography was performed at the time of diagnosis had medullary nephrocalcinosis.

Oral manifestations of familial hypophosphatemic rickets after phosphate supplement therapy: a review of the literature and report of case.

The patient was a seven-year-old boy with familial vitamin D-resistant hypophosphatemic rickets. His mother, and her mother, were also affected. Before phosphate treatment was introduced in the patient, an impaired incorporation of calcium, and its exchange with sodium, was thought to be the principal etiological factor in the formation of globules.

Underweight and overweight cases among the mentally retarded.

The body mass index (BMI) was calculated at the age of 20 for all the 132 survivors (83%) out of the 159 mentally retarded individuals born in 1966 in Northern Finland. Reliable information was acquired for 112 cases (84.8%).

Coexistence of celiac disease and Down syndrome.

Three patients with Down syndrome and celiac disease were described. The incidence of celiac disease among patients with Down syndrome was calculated to be 8 per 1,000 live-born cases, a figure 20 times greater than in children without Down syndrome, indicating that it should be kept in mind when examining patients suffering from recurrent diarrhea and/or delayed puberty.

Development of bowel and bladder control in the mentally retarded.

For the mentally retarded, bowel and bladder control are important prerequisites for an independent life. A study of these functions was made in a cohort of children born in Northern Finland in 1966. Relevant data up to the age of 20 years were obtained for 105 of the 132 children with mental retardation (IQ less than 70) who were alive at that age.

Coping with a coeliac diet after adolescence.

42 out of 45 adults aged 18-26 years (93%) diagnosed in childhood as having coeliac disease (CD) returned a questionnaire reviewing how they coped with the diet. 27 (64%) still continued to take a strict gluten elimination diet, five had failed completely and ten partly keep it up. Those adhering to the diet more often demonstrated a good knowledge of both CD and the diet.

Sternal abscess as a complication of BCG-revaccination.

A sternal abscess appeared 14 months after BCG revaccination of a 14-year-old girl. Culture taken from the abscess was positive for Mycobacterium bovis, which was identified as a BCG strain.

Neuropathology of Salla disease.

A neuropathological study was performed on two patients with Salla disease, one male and one female, from different families. They both died at the age of 41 years. Both patients showed increased excretion of free sialic acid in the urine, psychomotor retardation starting in the 1st year of life, ataxia and spasticity.

Mortality of mentally retarded children to 17 years of age assessed in a prospective one-year birth cohort.

Mortality among children with mental retardation (IQ less than 71) and mental subnormality (IQ: 71-85) up to the age of 17 years was studied in the 1966 one-year birth cohort of Northern Finland. The 12,058 liveborn children included 97 children, 8.0 per thousand, with severe mental retardation (IQ less than 50) and 68 children or 5.

Finnish type of sialic acid storage disease with sialuria (Salla disease): the occurrence and diagnostic significance of cytoplasmic vacuoles in blood lymphocytes.

In this study peripheral blood smears from 29 patients (17 males and 12 females; mean age 28 years, range 3-65 years) with a confirmed diagnosis of the Finnish type of sialic acid storage disease (FSASD) and 200 controls with mental retardation without any evidence of metabolic disease were examined for the presence of vacuolated lymphocytes. Urine samples were analysed by thin-layer chromatography for free sialic acid. Only 62% of the patients with FSASD had a clearly increased percentage of vacuolated lymphocytes (greater than normal mean + 2 s.

Antipyretic effect of tenoxicam and paracetamol in febrile children.

The antipyretic activity of tenoxicam was compared with that of paracetamol. Thirty-eight inpatients aged between 6 months and 16 years, with a rectal temperature of above 38.5 degrees C, were divided into four groups.

Deoxycholic and sulpholithocholic acid concentrations in serum during infancy and childhood.

The concentrations of the two secondary bile acids (deoxycholic (DCA) and sulpholithocholic (SLCA) acid) were determined by radioimmunoassays in the serum of infants and children at ages ranging from 1 hour to 15 years. The same bile acids were measured also in the umbilical cord serum. The concentrations of the secondary bile acids in the serum of 1-hour old infants corresponded to those in the umbilical cord serum.

Propionic acidaemia. First case in the Finnish population.

Propionic acidaemia is a defect of propionyl-CoA-carboxylase activity characterized by urinary excretion of propionic acid, its metabolites and hyperglycinaemia. The clinical picture of this autosomally, recessively inherited disorder, which has been reported in the literature in 63 patients varies from overwhelming metabolic crisis in the neonate to an almost asymptomatic disease responding to protein restriction and biotin supplementation. The first Finnish patient with propionic acidaemia had a severe type of disease with neonatal onset simulating nonketotic hyperglycinaemia.

Problems of prenatal diagnosis of non-ketotic hyperglycinaemia.

Non-ketotic hyperglycinaemia (NKH) is a rare disorder of amino acid metabolism, causing severe, frequently lethal neurological symptoms in the neonatal period. There is no curative therapy, and attempts at prenatal diagnosis have been unsuccessful. In the present study the usefulness of the determination of the glycine/serine ratio in the prenatal diagnosis of NKH was studied.