Effect of fructose administration on serum urate levels in the uricase inhibited rat

Summary Fructose administration to the uricase inhibited rat produces a very marked elevation in serum urate levels.     

Allotransplantation of rat parathyroid glands: effects of organ culture and transplantation into the adrenal gland.

Allotransplantation of fresh, 1 or 2 week cultured parathyroid glands from Wistar rats (AgB2) to Fischer rats (AgB1) resulted in prompt rejection of the transplant in the muscle site; whereas transplantation into the adrenal site offered slightly prolonged survival, suggesting that the latter is a privileged transplantation site.     

Measurement of urinary steroid production rates using stable-isotopes and GC-MS.

The urinary production rate of pregnenolone has been determined for a male subject using 7,7-d2-pregnenolone as an isotopic tracer.     

Human behaviour: Egalitarian motive and altruistic punishment

Altruistic punishment is a behaviour in which individuals punish others at a cost to themselves in order to provide a public good. Fehr and G?chter present experimental evidence in humans indicating that negative emotions towards non-cooperators motivate punishment, which, in turn, provokes a high degree of cooperation. Using Fehr and G?chter's original data, we provide an alternative analysis of their experiment that suggests that egalitarian motives are more important than motives for punishing non-cooperative behaviour. This finding is consistent with evidence that humans may have an evolutionary incentive to punish the highest earners in order to promote equality, rather than cooperation.     

Mutations of the catalytic subunit of RAB3GAP cause Warburg Micro syndrome

Warburg Micro syndrome (WARBM1) is a severe autosomal recessive disorder characterized by developmental abnormalities of the eye and central nervous system and by microgenitalia. We identified homozygous inactivating mutations in RAB3GAP, encoding RAB3 GTPase activating protein, a key regulator of the Rab3 pathway implicated in exocytic release of neurotransmitters and hormones, in 12 families with Micro syndrome. We hypothesize that the underlying pathogenesis of Micro syndrome is a failure of exocytic release of ocular and neurodevelopmental trophic factors.     

Modern stalagmite oxygen isotopic composition and its implications of climatic change from a high-elevation cave in the eastern Qinghai-Tibet Plateau over the past 50 years

An oxygen isotope record of a stalagmite from Huanglong Cave in the eastern Qinghai-Tibet Plateau dated with 230Th and 210Pb methods provides variations of the Asian monsoon with an average resolu-tion of 1 year over the past 50 years. This study shows that the δ18O of dripwater in the cave represents the annual mean δ18O of local meteoric precipitation and the stalagmites were deposited in isotopic equilibrium. A comparison of the stalagmite δ18O record with instrumentally meteorological data indi-cates that shifts of the δ18O are largely controlled by the amount effect of meteoric precipitation con-veyed through the southwest monsoon(the Indian monsoon) and less affected by temperature. Therefore,the variations of δ18O record reflect the changes in monsoon precipitation on inter-annual time scales under the influence of the southwest monsoon. Like many other stalagmite δ18O records in the Asian monsoon regions,the δ18O record of the stalagmite from Huanglong Cave also reveals a gradually enriched trend during the past 50 years,i.e. relatively enriched in 18O. This trend may indicate the decline of the Asian monsoon intensity which is consistent with the decrease of monsoon indices. The weakening of the modern Asian monsoon well matched with the temperature changes in strato-sphere,which may illustrate that the weakening of the monsoon mainly results from the lowering of solar radiation.