Effect of 2-mercaptopropionylglycine (MPG) on thyroid function in sub-lethally irradiated mice

Summary External irradiation resulted in an increase in thyroid¹³¹I uptake and plasma PB¹³¹I conversion ratio, whereas pretreatment with MPG reduced both the values significantly. Metabolic inhibition is suggested as a possible mechanism of action by the drug.Acknowledgment. The financial support from the CSIR, India, in the form of a research grant is gratefully acknowledged. Our thanks are also due to Prof. P. Navalkha, Radiotherapy Unit, SMS Hospital, Jaipur, for providing irradiation facilities.     

Modification of radiation-induced spleen weight changes in mice by 2-mercaptopropionylglycine

Summary It was found that the MPG partially protects the spleen against weight loss due to radiation, and exaggerates the compensatory reaction in the tissue during recovery. It is also concluded that MPG protects the stem cells in the spleen, which helps to restore the peripheral blood by extramedullary erythropoiesis.     

Effect of low dose of 70 kVp X-rays on the intrauterine development of mice

Summary Pregnant Swiss albino mice were exposed to low doses of X-rays (9 mGy) in the range used for diagnostic exposure, on day 3.5 of gestation (preimplantation period), day 6.5 (early organogenesis period) or day 11.5 (late organogenesis period). The fetuses were examined on the 18th day of gestation. Exposure at 3.5 days post coitus (d.p.c.) resulted in a significant increase in prenatal mortality, and an increased incidence of retarded fetuses was observed after exposure at 3.5 and 6.5 d.p.c. The major effect of exposure at 11.5 d.p.c. was a significant decrease in the fetal head size and brain weight.     

Fuzzy-Expert Diagnostics for Detecting and Locating Internal Faults in Three Phase Induction Motors

Internal faults in three phase induction motors can result in serious performance degradation and eventual system failures if not properly detected and treated in time. Artificial intelligence techniques, the core of soft-computing, have numerous advantages over conventional fault diagnostic approaches; therefore, a soft-computing system was developed to detect and diagnose electric motor faults. The fault diagnostic system for three-phase induction motors samples the fault symptoms and then uses a fuzzy-expert forward inference model to identify the fault. This paper describes how to define the membership functions and fuzzy sets based on the fault symptoms and how to construct the hierarchical fuzzy inference nets with the propagation of probabilities concerning the uncertainty of faults. The designed hierarchical fuzzy inference nets efficiently detect and diagnose the fault type and exact location in a three phase induction motor. The validity and effectiveness of this approach is clearly shown from obtained testing results.     

Acid phosphatase activity of small intestine of mice after exposure to different doses of gamma rays

Summary Effect of whole-body radiation at 3 different dose levels on the activity of acid phosphatase was studied in the small intestine of Swiss albino mice. In all the 3 exposure groups the enzyme activity increased significantly at 24 h after irradiation; the time at which the maximum histological damage was seen. With the beginning of recovery the enzyme tended to decrease and gradually approached control values.     

Chemical protection of mouse spermatocytes against gamma-rays with 2-mercaptopropionylglycine

Summary The radiosensitivity of primary spermatocytes in pachytene stage was estimated by counting the number of spermatids in the testes of control and MPG-treated mouse after exposure to 500, 1000 and 1500 R of Co⁶⁰ gammarays. For this purpose, control and MPG-treated mice were killed 5 days after irradiation and countings of spermatids was made in stages I and II of the tubules. It has been observed that, although there was a death of primary spermatocytes in irradiated MPG-protected groups, quantitatively significant protection was afforded by this drug at all the 3 dose-levels studied.     

Synthesis and breakdown of proteins and ribonucleic acid inTribolium confusum,Duval

Résumé Dans notre étude, l'incorporation de la leucine-C¹⁴ dans les protéines et de l'uridine-C¹⁴ dans le RNA chez leTribolium confusum s'est révélée maximale durant la phase la plus active de croissance, et minimale durant la phase de pupe, pendant laquelle l'animal ne mange pas. La synthèse du RNA précède celle des protéines, tel que prévu. Nos résultats montrent aussi une continuelle dégradation des protéines par des protéases intra-cellulaires et du RNA par des RNases.