Effects of dietary oils and methyl ethyl ketone peroxide onin vivo lipid peroxidation and antioxidants in rat heart and liver

Weanling male Sprague-Dawley rats were fed diets for four weeks which differed in their content of n−6 (corn oil; CO) and n−3 fatty acids (fish oil; FO), but were similar in their content of saturated and monounsaturated fatty acids and vitamin E. At the end of the four-week feeding period, each dietary group was subdivided into two groups. One group received a single placebo injection of α-tocopherol-stripped corn oil (TSCO); the other group received a single injection of the free radical generator, methyl ethyl ketone peroxide (MEKP), in TSCO. Twenty-four hours after injection, the effect of dietary oil and MEKP treatment on endogenous lipid peroxide (LPO) production (measured as methylene blue formed by the “Determiner LPO” assay), glutathione (GSH) and vitamin E content, and fatty acid composition of phosphatidylcholine and phosphatidylethanolamine in heart and liver from unfasted animals were measured. FO-fed rats had significantly heavier hearts and livers, increased levels of n−3 fatty acids in membrane phospholipids, and higher liver LPO levels than CO-fed rats. MEKP treatment resulted in significantly lower body weights and liver GSH levels. The data indicate that dietary n−3 fatty acids increase lipid peroxidation in liver somewhat more than in heart. The study also demonstrates that the effect of induced oxidative stress due to a single dose of MEKP on lipid peroxide formation and antioxidant status in tissues from unfasted animals was independent of the dietary oils.     

Gamma-ray remote sensing of aeolian salt sources in the Murray-Darling Basin, Australia

This paper presents a new technique for mapping regional salt sources that has major implications for salinity management in southeastern Australia. This was achieved by analyzing a regional mosaic of airborne gamma-ray emission derivatives and verified by existing airborne electromagnetic and drilling data. A significant correlation was found between aeolian (windblown) materials, upland salts and gamma-ray signatures. This is consistent with the conceptual model that much of the salt in the upland areas of the Murray-Darling Basin is sourced from deposited aeolian materials that have been derived from deflationary events in salt-bearing landscapes in the western arid part of the basin. From gamma-ray emissions, and based on an observed relationship with borehole salinity, concentrated aeolian salt source deposits contained about 0.7% potassium and 10 ppm thorium. Using this signature on normalized data, an Euclidean distance algorithm provided mapping and information relating to salt-mobility pathways over a wide region. The resulting gamma-ray salt source model (GSM) facilitates focussed management of salinity infiltration zones in catchments across the basin.     

Adaptive diagnosis in distributed systems

Real-time problem diagnosis in large distributed computer systems and networks is a challenging task that requires fast and accurate inferences from potentially huge data volumes. In this paper, we propose a cost-efficient, adaptive diagnostic technique called active probing . Probes are end-to-end test transactions that collect information about the performance of a distributed system. Active probing uses probabilistic reasoning techniques combined with information-theoretic approach, and allows a fast online inference about the current system state via active selection of only a small number of most-informative tests. We demonstrate empirically that the active probing scheme greatly reduces both the number of probes (from 60% to 75% in most of our real-life applications), and the time needed for localizing the problem when compared with nonadaptive (preplanned) probing schemes. We also provide some theoretical results on the complexity of probe selection, and the effect of "noisy" probes on the accuracy of diagnosis. Finally, we discuss how to model the system's dynamics using dynamic Bayesian networks (DBNs), and an efficient approximate approach called sequential multifault; empirical results demonstrate clear advantage of such approaches over "static" techniques that do not handle system's changes.     

Iterated Phantom Induction: A Knowledge-Based Approach to Learning Control

We advance a knowledge-based learning method that allows prior domain knowledge to be effectively utilized by machine learning systems. The domain knowledge is incorporated not into the learning algorithm itself but instead affects only the training data. The domain knowledge is used to explain and then transform the actual training examples into a more informative set of imaginary, or phantom examples. These phantom examples are added to the training set; the experienced examples are discarded. A new control policy is induced from the phantom training set. This policy is then exercised, yielding additional training points, and the process repeats.We investigate the performance of this method in a stylized air-hockey domain which demands a difficult nonlinear control policy. Our experiments show that, surprisingly, an accurate policy can be learned even if the domain theory is only imprecise and approximate. We advance an interpretation which indicates that the information available from a plausible qualitative domain theory is sufficient for robust successful learning. This interpretation is used to make a number of predictions which are tested in subsequent experiments. The outcomes confirm the interpretation and the robustness of the approach.     

Using Volume Delivery Time to Identify Independent Partial Series Events

In practice, the annual series of streamflow peaks is generally preferred than the partial series for flood frequency analysis. Flood selection criteria for the partial series tend to be arbitrary and are limited in making allowances for catchment scale. This aspect appears to be a constraint to greater acceptance of the partial series approach. The aim of this paper is to define a scalable selection criterion that reduces ambiguity in flood selection by defining floods that exceed the daily average. An approach based on the volume delivery time (VDT), analogous to the tip interval time in tipping bucket raingauges, is described and tested for three rural catchments of various sizes in South East Queensland, Australia. The VDT approach produced discharge quantile estimates similar to the partial series based on the commonly-used monthly maxima except for minor, high frequency discharges at the small, more perennial catchment. A simplified approach based on average daily volume gave similar results to the VDT method.     

Antiepileptic drug therapy and sexual function in men with epilepsy

PURPOSE: To study the effects of antiepileptic drugs (AEDs) on sex hormone levels and sexual activity in a group of men attending a hospital-based epilepsy clinic. METHODS: One hundred eighteen men being treated with AED therapy, 32 with epilepsy but not receiving AEDs, and 34 controls were recruited. All subjects were aged 18-65 years. Blood (20 ml) was removed for hormone assays, after which each subject completed a validated questionnaire [Sexuality Experience Scores (Frenken and Vennix, 1981)] aimed at exploring the individuals' sexual activity and attitudes to sexual morality. RESULTS: Men taking carbamazepine (CBZ) only had significantly higher mean sex hormone-binding globulin (SHBG) levels than the control group. The CBZ group also had a significantly lower mean DHEAS concentration than the control, untreated, and sodium valproate (VPA) monotherapy groups. The phenytoin monotherapy group (PHT) had a significantly higher mean SHBG than both the control and untreated groups, and had a significantly higher mean total testosterone (TT) value than the control untreated, CBZ, and VPA groups, and a significantly lower mean DHEAS than the controls, untreated, and VPA groups. Men receiving more than one AED had significantly higher mean SHBG concentrations compared with control, untreated, and VPA groups. In addition, the polytherapy group's mean TT was significantly higher than the control and VPA groups, although its mean DHEAS concentration was lower than the control, untreated, and VPA groups. There were no significant differences between the study groups in mean FT, Budrostenedione (AND), or estradiol levels. But the CBZ, PHT, and polytherapy groups had significantly lower mean free and rogen index (FAI) than the controls. The CBZ group had a lower mean FAI than the VPA group. The polytherapy group had a lower FAI than the untreated group. Sexuality Experience Scores (SES) showed that those men receiving AEDs embraced a stricter sexual morality than the controls and untreated, and expressed greater satisfaction with their marriages than the control and untreated groups. CONCLUSIONS: Seizure type did not affect SES scores. Multiple regression showed men who had received further education were less accepting of strict sexual morality.     

Variation in incidence of indinavir-associated nephrolithiasis among HIV-positive patients

BACKGROUND: Nephrolithiasis may be an important consequence of indinavir therapy; however little has been published on the variation in incidence between different populations of patients or the possible mechanisms of calculus formation. OBJECTIVE: To examine variation in the incidence of indinavir-associated nephrolithiasis (IAN) in HIV-positive patients in relation to hemophilia and hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection. METHODS: Clinical data were abstracted retrospectively from the medical records of all adult patients treated with indinavir from September 1995 to September 1997. Occurrence of first IAN, defined as flank pain and hematuria after initiation of therapy, was analyzed in relation to hemophilia status and HCV infection. RESULTS: There were 17 episodes of IAN (22%) among 79 patients treated with indinavir. Of 10 patients with hemophilia, 50% developed IAN as compared with 17% of patients without hemophilia (P = 0.03). Median days to first IAN was 22 (range 7-110 days) for hemophiliacs and 156 (range 5-611 days) for those without hemophilia. Data for HCV status were available for 74 out of 79 patients: 10 out of 27 (37%) patients with HCV developed IAN compared with six out of 42 (14%) without HCV (P = 0.02). CONCLUSION: Overall incidence of IAN was higher than that previously reported and was significantly greater in hemophiliacs than in non-hemophiliacs. HCV may be a contributing factor.