All-trans beta-carotene is absorbed preferentially to 9-cis beta-carotene, but the latter accumulates in the tissues of domestic ferrets (Mustela putorius puro)

The algae Dunaliella bardawil and Dunaliella salina naturally contain large concentrations of all-trans and 9-cis beta-carotene (betaC). The purpose of this study was to compare the relative serum and tissue accumulation of all-trans and 9-cis betaC in ferrets fed different ratios of all-trans/9-cis betaC derived from two commercial sources, D. bardawil or D. salina (Betatene). Male ferrets (7 wk old) were fed carotene-free, pelleted diets for 27 d. Beginning on d 18, groups of ferrets (n = 6 or 7) received daily, one of six oral supplements varying in ratios of 9-cis and all-trans betaC mixed with approximately 1.0mL of Ensure. Four supplements containing 5.2-8.3 micromol total betaC were prepared from a 20% Betatene preparation, D. bardawil, a high-cis Betatene preparation, and Betatene further enriched in 9-cis betaC with all-trans betaC/9-cis betaC ratios of 2.2, 1.5, 0.6 and 0.4, respectively. Two control supplements, high and low betaC, were prepared from commercial betaC beadlets. The high control supplement had an all-trans/9-cis ratio of 19.0, whereas 9-cis betaC was not detected in the low supplement. On d 27, serum and tissues were obtained for HPLC analysis of betaC and its isomers. Analysis of livers showed that all-trans betaC was the primary isomer present, but 9-cis and other isomers were also detected in all groups. The hepatic all-trans/9-cis ratios were 5.9, 4.9, 2.5, 1.4, 52.2 and47.5, respectively, for the groups listed above. Lower amounts of all-trans and 9-cis betaC were found in kidneys compared with the liver, but ratios of all-trans/9-cis were not different among groups. Only trace amounts of 9-cis betaC were found in serum. These results demonstrate that the algae D. bardawil and D. salina provide a bioavailable source of betaC isomers, but, as in humans, absorption of 9-cis betaC is poor and any 9-cis betaC absorbed is apparently cleared by the liver.     

便宜有好货 九款百元级游戏鼠标横评

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Non-insulin-dependent diabetes: from physiopathology to treatment

Non-insulin-dependent (or type 2) diabetes mellitus is a common, underdiagnosed and growing disease in our society. It is responsible for increased morbidity and mortality and represents an important public health problem. This polygenic disease is often expressed late in life and its evolution is accelerated by environmental factors leading to obesity. It combines defects in both insulin secretion and insulin action, and such defects are present in various proportions according to the type of patient and the stage of the disease. Diet and physical activity recommendations are the basis of the treatment. Current pharmacological approaches aim at improving insulin secretion and/or insulin cellular action. After secondary failure to oral drugs, insulin therapy should be initiated, the patient becoming "insulin-requiring". A synergy should be searched in the combination of various therapeutic modalities in order to improve the glycaemic control.     

A variety of epistatic interactions can occur between partially homologous transgene loci brought together by sexual crossing

Epistatic interactions between unlinked transgene loci in tobacco plants were studied following sexual crosses between different transgenic lines. Three potential "modifier" transgene loci, which were structurally similar but integrated at different chromosomal locations, were tested for their ability to influence the expression of a partially homologous "target" transgene locus. After introduction of an individual modifier locus, the target locus could be either unaffected, completely inactivated and methylated or differentially sensitive, showing more complete inactivation and methylation when homozygous than when hemizygous. The implications of these results for inbreeding depression in plants are discussed.     

Extracranial to intracranial vascular anastomosis for occlusive cerebrovascular disease: experience in 110 patients

In an attempt to ascertain the value of extra- to intracranial arterial bypass for cerebrovascular disease, the general topic of bypass surgery is reviewed and the results of this procedure in 110 patients are analyzed. The feasibility of high patency rates of the anastomosis with acceptably low permanent morbidity and operative mortality rates is demonstrated. Lesions producing transient ischemic attacks which previously were considered to be inoperable or inaccessible can be bypassed by this procedure, and there appears to be a dramatic improvement in the symptomotology of virtually all patients. Patients with a mild stroke or "progressive stroke" also appear to benefit from bypass, but the erratic natural history of these entities precludes irrefutable substantiation of this conclusion. Patients with moderate-to-serve neurological deficits do not appear to be improved by this procedure. In our group of 20 patients presenting with transient ischemic attacks who have had more than 3 years of follow-up, only one patient has suffered a stroke and that was located in the opposite hemisphere.     

Exploiting spatial correlation features for SAR image analysis

Spatial information is of great importance in Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) image analysis and recently, many methods have been developed that take this feature into account. This paper deals with a supervised approach to SAR image classification that exploits spatial features within a hierarchical classification framework. In contrast to the classical approach, which makes the hypothesis about sample data independence, in the proposed method, the spatial dependence of neighboring pixels is taken into account to estimate relatively simple statistical features such as sample spatial mean and sample spatial variance, thus allowing contextual information to be easily handled. The Bhattacharyya distribution distance is used during the training phase, and the generated tree is applied during the test phase. After this, both phases are based on the proposed features. As a result, second-order statistics play a major role in the present classification problem. Experimental results on different SAR data sets are reported. It is shown that the accuracy of the proposed method is better than that of the hit classifier and that the new method is also computationally more convenient     

Gate-bias assisted charge injection in organic field-effect transistors

The charge injection barriers in organic field-effect transistors (OFETs) seem to be far less critical as compared to organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs). Counter intuitively, we show that the origin is image-force lowering of the barrier due to the gate bias at the source contact, although the corresponding gate field is perpendicular to the channel current. In coplanar OFETs, injection barriers up to 1 eV can be surmounted by increasing the gate bias, enabling extraction of bulk transport parameters in this regime. For staggered transistors, however, the injection is gate-assisted only until the gate bias is screened by the accumulation channel opposite to the source contact. The gate-assisted injection is supported by two-dimensional numerical charge transport simulations that reproduce the gate-bias dependence of the contact resistance and the typical S-shaped output curves as observed for OFETs with high injection barriers.     

Formalin treatment for intractable hemorrhagic cystitis: a review of the literature with 16 additional cases

Acute, exsanguinating hemorrhagic cystitis secondary to cyclophosphamide therapy, radiation therapy, or an infiltrating bladder tumor may be managed successfully with intravesical Formalin therapy. The indications for its use, the technique, success rates, and complications are discussed. This treatment was effective in 14 of 16 patients in the present series and 79 of 90 cases reported in the literature. Dilutions of 4% or less were as effective as a 10% dilution and were associated with far fewer complications. The early use of Formalin in the treatment of intractable hemorrhagic cystitis is recommended.