Effects of oestradiol and progesterone on FSH and LH contents of the pituitaries and blood of ovariectomized ewes

Zusammenfassung Zufuhr von 20 µg Östradiolbenzoat an zwei sich folgenden Tagen verursachte bei ovariektomierten Mutterschafen keine Veränderung im FSH- und LH-Gehalt von Hypophyse und Serum. Nach cinmaliger Verabreichung von 10 mg Progesteron (nach östradiolbehandlung) stieg das FSH im Blut an. Ebenso ergab Zufuhr von 20 mg Progesteron bei mit Östrogen behandelten Mutterschafen Anstieg des LH-Gehaltes im Blut.     

The influence of oestrogen and progesterone on pituitary function

Résumé 24 rats mâles castrés furent divisés en 4 groupes de 6. Ils furent traités à des doses physiologiques de benzoate d'stradiol, de progestérone ou d'une combinaison des deux hormones. On constata que l'administration d'strogène augmente la concentration de l'hormone thyréotrope dans le sang des rats, tandis que la concentration de l'hormone gonadotrope en est diminuée. D'autre part l'administration de 0,4 mg de progestérone augmente la concentration des hormones gonadotropes et adrénocorticotropes dans le sang des rats. Le progestérone augmente aussi la quantité d'hormone thyréotrope dans l'hypophyse.     

Myelin architecture: zippering membranes tightly together

Rapid nerve conduction requires the coating of axons by a tightly packed multilayered myelin membrane. In the central nervous system, myelin is formed from cellular processes that extend from oligodendrocytes and wrap in a spiral fashion around an axon, resulting in the close apposition of adjacent myelin membrane bilayers. In this review, we discuss the physical principles underlying the zippering of the plasma membrane of oligodendrocytes at the cytoplasmic and extracellular leaflet. We propose that the interaction of the myelin basic protein with the cytoplasmic leaflet of the myelin bilayer triggers its polymerization into a fibrous network that drives membrane zippering and protein extrusion. In contrast, the adhesion of the extracellular surfaces of myelin requires the down-regulation of repulsive components of the glycocalyx, in order to uncover weak and unspecific attractive forces that bring the extracellular surfaces into close contact. Unveiling the mechanisms of myelin membrane assembly at the cytoplasmic and extracelluar sites may help to understand how the myelin bilayers are disrupted and destabilized in the different demyelinating diseases.     

ALKALINE PULP OF CORN STALKS

Pulping of corn stalks was studied in soda,soda-anthraquinone (AQ), kraft and kraft-AQ processes. The time, temperature and alkali concentration were varied in soda process. In respect to kappa number and pulp yield, 1 hour cooking at 1400C in 14% alkali were best conditions for corn stalks pulping. Pulp yield was increased by 5.5% and kappa number was reduced by 4.4 points with an addition of 0.05% AQ in the soda liquor. Breaking length was better in soda-AQ process than soda process but tear strength was inferior. In the kraft process, pulp yield was increased with increasing sulphidity and decreasing active alkali. The effectiveness of AQ in the low and high sulphidity kraft process was studied. Results showed that AQ was more effective in low sulphidity than high sulphidity. Strength properties in kraft processes were better than the soda and soda-AQ processes.     

ATM mutations that cause ataxia-telangiectasia are breast cancer susceptibility alleles

We screened individuals from 443 familial breast cancer pedigrees and 521 controls for ATM sequence variants and identified 12 mutations in affected individuals and two in controls (P = 0.0047). The results demonstrate that ATM mutations that cause ataxia-telangiectasia in biallelic carriers are breast cancer susceptibility alleles in monoallelic carriers, with an estimated relative risk of 2.37 (95% confidence interval (c.i.) = 1.51-3.78, P = 0.0003). There was no evidence that other classes of ATM variant confer a risk of breast cancer.     

Different marrow cell number requirements for the haemopoietic colony formation and the cure of the W/Wv anemia

Summary The lowest cell number in the normal marrow transplant, which allows the cure of W/W^v anemia was found to be between 10⁴ and 10⁵. This exceeds by several times the lowest cell number necessary for the haemopoietic colony formation. Therefore, either the colony forming cell is not the haemopoietic stem cell but rather its progeny, or this cell requires an aid from some other cells to exert its activity.Acknowledgments. We are indebted to Doc. Dr Maksymilian Siekierzynski for his help and advice and to Miss Elzbieta Szewczyk for expert technical assistance.     

Neural Network Based Model for Predicting Housing Market Performance

The United States real estate market is currently facing its worst hit in two decades due to the slowdown of housing sales. The most affected by this decline are real estate investors and home developers who are currently struggling to break-even financially on their investments. For these investors, it is of utmost importance to evaluate the current status of the market and predict its performance over the shortterm in order to make appropriate financial decisions. This paper presents the development of artificial neural network based models to support real estate investors and home developers in this critical task. The paper describes the decision variables, design methodology, and the implementation of these models. The models utilize historical market performance data sets to train the artificial neural networks in order to predict unforeseen future performances. An application example is analyzed to demonstrate the model capabili-ties in analyzing and predicting the market performance. The model testing and validation showed that the error in prediction is in the range between -2% and +2%.