Depletion of a Drosophila homolog of yeast Sup35p disrupts spindle assembly, chromosome segregation, and cytokinesis during male meiosis

This paper addresses the effects of availability and anchoring-and-adjustment on people's beliefs and values concerning environmental issues. The first three studies focus on lay people's perceptions of the causes of large scale environmental risks, the second series of three studies deals with how people value environmental goods and how much they are prepared to pay to mitigate environmental risks. In studies 1-3 we investigate the effects of availability and anchoring-and-adjustment on estimating the contribution of various factors to large scale environmental risks. Highly complex risks such as acid rain and global warming tend to be associated with multiple causes, and our results show that estimating the role of these causes is clearly affected by availability and anchoring-and-adjustment. Both have sizeable effects and persist over time. Moreover, corrective procedures only seem to have a limited effect. Availability and anchoring-and-adjustment not only play a role in judging the possible causes of risks; they also play a role in research attempting to assess the public's willingness to pay (WTP) to protect our environment. The outcomes of WTP surveys are often used as a tool to help policy decision making. In the second part of this article we present three studies on this issue. Results provide further evidence of the impact of the two heuristics on the outcomes of WTP research. Implications for research and practice are briefly discussed.     

The use of the hypoglycemic preparation gliquidone in patients with digestive organ diseases combined with diabetes mellitus

A peroral sugar-reducing preparation gliquidone (glurenorm) was tried in treatment of 66 patients with digestive diseases (peptic ulcer, chronic pancreatitis, cirrhosis of the liver), presenting with diabetes mellitus. The results of the studies made showed glurenorm to be a highly effective preparation in term of both its sugar-reducing effect and its capability to improve energy processes in gastric and duodenal mucosa, pancreacytes, hepatocytes, besides which, it appear to dispel metabolic disturbances and stimulate reparative processes in body organs, improves protein-synthetic processes in the liver, pancreas, mucosa of the gastroduodenal region.     

131I dose-dependent thyroid autoimmune disorders in children living around Chernobyl

The nucleotide sequence of 35,400 bp at approximately 10 kb from the right telomere of chromosome VII was determined. The segment contains the MAL1 locus, one of the five unlinked loci sufficient for maltose utilization. Until now, each of these loci was considered to contain three genes (for regulator, permease and alpha-glucosidase), but a fourth gene, presumably an extra alpha-glucosidase gene, was found at MAL1 adjacent to the usual cluster of three genes. The two glucosidase genes are present in opposite orientation, forming an inverted repeat structure. In addition to the four genes at MAL1, there are 11 complete, non-overlapping open reading frames (ORFs) longer than 300 bp in the sequence presented here. A new ABC transporter gene (YGR281w), required for oligomycin resistance was found (YOR1; Katzman et al., 1995), and the previously sequenced BGL2 (YGR282c), ZUO1 (YGR285c) and BIO2 (YGR286c) genes were located. The sequence of BIO2, a biotin synthetase gene, required substantial correction and the size of Bio2p is 375, rather than 356, amino acids. Two ORFs show rather weak similarities to animal genes: YGR278w to an unknown ORF of Caenorhabditis elegans and YGR284c to the murine Surf-4, a member of a cluster of at least four housekeeping genes. The remaining five ORFs do not encode known functions, but three of these show weak to high similarities to other ORFs in the Saccharomyces cerevisiae genome and one (YGR280c) codes for a particularly lysine-rich protein.     

Heat shock proteins and molecular chaperones: implications for adaptive responses in the skin

Recent advances in the biology of heat-shock proteins (hsps) are reviewed. These abundant and evolutionarily highly conserved proteins (also called stress proteins) act as molecular escorts. Hsps bind to other cellular proteins, help them to fold into their correct secondary structures, and prevent misfolding and aggregation during stress. Cytoplasmic hsp70 and hsp60 participate in complicated protein-folding pathways during the synthesis of new polypeptides. Close relatives of hsp70 and hsp60 assist in the transport and assembly of proteins inside intracellular organelles. Hsp90 may have a unique role, binding to the glucocorticoid receptor in a manner essential for proper steroid hormone action. Hsps may also be essential for thermotolerance and for prevention and repair of damage caused by ultraviolet B light. A unique class of T lymphocytes, the gamma delta T cells, exhibits a restricted specificity against hsps. These T cells may constitute a general, nonspecific immune mechanism directed against the hsps within invading organisms or against very similar hsps within invading organisms or against very similar hsps expressed by infected (stressed) keratinocytes. Immunologic cross-reactivity between hsps of foreign organisms and of the host may play a role in some autoimmune diseases. Although hsps are expressed in the skin, many questions remain about their role during injury, infection, and other types of cutaneous pathophysiology.     

Laser therapy in renal tuberculosis: mechanism of action

Etiotropic therapy in urinary tuberculosis fails to provide adequate repair. Normalization of renal function requires additional pathogenetic measures, laser treatment, in particular. Experience with laser treatment is now available for respiratory tuberculosis only. Mechanism of action of low-intensity laser radiation in nephrotuberculosis and rationale for its use are described.     

Expression of the brain creatine kinase gene in rat RT4 peripheral neurotumor cell lines and its modulation by cell confluence

Creatine kinases (CK) catalyze the reversible transfer of a high energy phosphate group between creatine phosphate and ADP to regenerate ATP in cell types where the requirements for ATP are extensive and/or sudden. Previously, we have shown in primary rat brain cell cultures that brain CK (CKB) mRNA levels are highest in astrocytes and oligodendrocytes and much lower in neuronal cells. However, little is known of the factors which regulate CKB expression in the central nervous system and peripheral nervous system. To begin to investigate these factors, we asked in this report (1) if this pattern of CKB expression was also characteristic of some established glial and neuronal cell lines derived from the PNS; (2) whether CKB expression could be rapidly modulated by culture conditions, and (3) if CKB is expressed in cells with characteristics of glial cell progenitors. In subconfluent cells, CKB mRNA and enzyme activity were found to be high in both the rat RT4 peripheral neurotumor stem cell RT4-AC36A and its glial cell derivative RT4-D6. Conversely, CKB mRNA and activity were 5- and 8-fold lower, respectively, in the neuronal derivative RT4-E5 and, more dramatically, CKB was undetectable in neuronal RT4-B8 cells. Maintaining RT4-D6 glial cells at confluence rapidly increased CKB enzyme activity by 7-fold, such that D6 cells contained about 25% of the CKB level in lysates prepared from either whole adult rat brain or primary cultures of rat brain astrocytes. The levels of CKB mRNA and immunoreactive protein were also correspondingly increased in confluent D6 cells. These confluence-mediated increases in CKB appeared to be due to cell-cell contact and not the depletion of serum growth factors or an increase in intracellular cAMP. This study indicates that CKB expression is highest in cells displaying glial properties and can be rapidly modulated by appropriate culture conditions. The results are discussed in relation to the factors which may regulate CKB expression in vivo.     

Prediction of Migration of Radionuclides in the Iput River Basin

Based on the multichamber model, prediction evaluations of the transfer of ¹³⁷Cs and ⁹⁰Sr in the Iput river for 100 years after the Chernobyl accident have been performed. In the course of investigation, the indicated time range was subdivided into three periods: the first period covered April–December of 1986 (retrospective evaluation), the second period embraced the years 1987–2000, and the third period covered the years 2000–2080 (long-term prediction). The prediction evaluations of migration of radioactive contaminants in the Iput river have shown that over the course of a century the concentrations of ¹³⁷Cs in the Iput river network will decrease nearly 3000 times and the concentrations of ⁹⁰Sr will decrease 10,000 times. However the levels of contamination of the river systems by these radionuclides will remain rather high.     

Effects of emoxipine and histochrome on lipid peroxidation and activity of serum MB-creatine phosphokinase in patients with ischemic heart disease during aortocoronary shunting]

Comparative study of the cardioprotective effect of antioxidants emoxipin and hystochrom was conducted in patients with chronic ICD during and after operation for aorto-coronary shunting. Both drugs effectively inhibited LPO activation and reduced the reperfusion damage to the myocardium recorded according to the release of MB-PCK into the blood. The new antioxidant hystochrom proved to be more effective. Its prevalent effect is associated with its higher antioxidant activity.