Genetic regulation of storaage protein content in maize endosperm

Sodium dodecylsulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis reveals that zein prepared from normal maize inbred (Zea mays L.) contains six separable components. Z1 and Z2 are the predominant species, with molecular weights of 21,800 and 19,000 daltons. Amino acid analysis of these two components shows that both are rich in glutamic acid, leucine, and proline, but low in lysine. Of the four minor bands, Z3, Z4, Z5, and Z6, the latter two exist only in trace amounts. A mutation at the opaque-2 locus severely suppresses the synthesis of Z1. The nonallelic mutant, opaque-7, strongly suppresses the synthesis of Z3 and Z4, while slightly reducing Z2. On the other hand, the floury-2 mutant appears to reduce the synthesis of these six proteins in the same relative proportion. In the double mutant combinations, opaque-2 apparently is epistatic to opaque-7 and floury-2 in the synthesis of zein components. The glutelin fraction shows a more complex banding pattern; however, qualitative differences are not apparent among the mutant lines examined.     

Gait function in spastic hemiparetic patients walking barefoot, with firm shoes, and with ankle-foot orthosis

Cortical spreading depression is a wave of electrical and biochemical changes that spreads across the cerebral cortex. It has been hypothesized to be an important underlying cause of the visual disturbances occurring during the migraine aura, but this is difficult to test in animals or humans. We created a computational model of cortical spreading depression and found that during the wave of biochemical changes the spatial pattern of neural activity broke up into irregular patterns of lines and small patches of highly activated elements. The corresponding visual disturbances that would be produced by these patterns of neural activity resemble the hallucinations reported during the migraine aura, providing strong support for the cortical spreading depression hypothesis of migraine. The model also makes the testable prediction that these hallucinations move at an exponentially increasing speed across the visual field.     

Spinal amino acid release and precipitated withdrawal in rats chronically infused with spinal morphine

Glutamate receptors are implicated in the genesis of opioid tolerance and dependence. Factors governing release of amino acids in systems chronically exposed to opiates, however, remain undefined. Using rats, each prepared with a spinal loop dialysis catheter and with a chronic lumbar intrathecal infusion catheter connected to a subcutaneous minipump, the release of amino acids before and during antagonist-precipitated withdrawal in unanesthetized rats was examined. Spinal infusion of morphine (20 nmol/micro l/hr) for 4 d had little effect on resting release of amino acids. In morphine-infused, but not saline-infused, rats naloxone (2 mg/kg, i.p.) evoked an immediate increase in the release of L-glutamate (299 +/- 143%) and taurine (306 +/- 113%) but not other amino acids. The magnitude and time course of the release of these amino acids significantly correlated with behavioral indices of withdrawal intensity. Acute intrathecal pretreatment immediately before naloxone with clonidine (20 microg; alpha2 agonist), MK-801 (3 microg; noncompetitive NMDA antagonist), or aminophosphonopentanoic acid (AP-5; 3 microg; competitive NMDA antagonist) suppressed naloxone-induced increases in spinal L-glutamate and taurine release and behavioral signs of withdrawal in spinal morphine-infused rats. Results point to a correlated increase in spinal L-glutamate release, which contributes to genesis of the opioid withdrawal syndrome. Agents such as clonidine that suppress opioid withdrawal may owe their action to an inhibition of excitatory amino acid release. The effects of MK-801 and AP-5 suggest a glutamate-evoked glutamate release.     

Synthesis and antiplatelet, antiinflammatory, and antiallergic activities of substituted 3-chloro-5,8-dimethoxy-1,4-naphthoquinone and related compounds

2-Amino (6), 2-alkylamino (7-8), 2-methoxy (9), 2-acetamido (10), and 5,8-diacetoxy (11) derivatives of the lead compound 2,3-dichloro-5,8-dimethoxy-1,4-naphthoquinone (4) were synthesized, together with 6,7-dichloro-5,8dimethoxy-1,4-naphthoquinone (5), a positional isomer of 4. Antiplatelet, antiinflammatory, and antiallergic activities were evaluated, and most compounds were quite potent in all assays. Compounds 5 and 9-11 were especially active; however, 5 was ineffective against neutrophil superoxide formation, and 10 was ineffective against mast cell degranulation.     

Brushless DC motor drives supplied by PV power system based on Z-source inverter and FL-IC MPPT controller

This paper discusses operation performance of a water pumping system consist of a brushless dc (BLDC) motor coupled a centrifugal pump and accompanying a Z-source inverter (ZSI) fed by a photovoltaic (PV) array, to be improved. Despite conventional double-stage power converters, this paper proposes utilizing a single-stage ZSI to extract the maximum power of the PV array and supply the BLDC motor simultaneously. Utilizing the ZSI provides some inherent advantages such as high efficiency and low cost, which is very promising for PV systems due to its novel voltage buck/boost capability. In addition, in order to precisely perform the maximum power point tracking (MPPT) of the PV array the fuzzy logic-incremental conductance (FL-IC) MPPT scheme is proposed. The proposed FL-IC MPPT scheme provides enough modification to the conventional IC method to enjoy an appropriate variable step size MPPT control signal for the ZSI. Moreover, direct torque control (DTC) is found more effective in comparison with hysteresis current control with current shaping to drive the BLDC motor, because it benefits from faster torque response, reduced torque ripple, less sensitivity to parameters variations, and simple implementation. In the mean time, due to the frequently variations of the PV power generation; delivered mechanical power to the centrifugal pump is variable. Thus, the BLDC motor should be driven with variable reference speed. In order to improve the speed transient response of the BLDC motor and enhance the energy saving aspect of the system, it should enjoy a high quality dynamic response characteristic. Therefore, to realize these purposes, particle swarm optimization (PSO) has been proposed to regulate the proportional-integral-derivative (PID) parameters of the BLDC motor speed controller. The system configuration, operation principle and control methods are presented in detail. Finally, the proposed system was simulated in different operation conditions of the PV array by computer simulations and the effectiveness of the proposed control strategies has been validated by comparative studies and simulation results.     

Expression of interleukin-6 in polymorphic reticulosis--immunohistochemical study of 5 cases

Peripheral T cell lymphoma encompasses lymphomas with a variety of histologic appearances and clinical patterns. Recently, it has been suggested that almost all of the histologic features described under the name of polymorphic reticulosis(PR), lethal midline granuloma, and midline malignant reticulosis can be included in those generally described for malignant lymphomas of peripheral T cell origin(PTCL). There have been few studies of pathogenesis or tissue damage mechanism in PR patients. The need for a precise mechanism for tissue damage has important therapeutic implications. Using immunohistochemical methods with polyclonal anti IL-6 antibody, the authors describe 5 cases of PR with clinically and pathologically typical PR demonstrating a high expression of IL-6. According to classification, 2 cases of grade 1 PR showed the highest expressions, and 2 cases of grade 2 PR with atypical lymphoid cells showed moderate activity, but one case progressed into frank lymphoma(grade 3) and lost IL-6 expression. This strongly implies that some cases of PR have a different mechanism of tissue damage from frank PTCL, despite the one disease spectrum. Further studies on more cases may help clarify the pathogenesis.