A simple technique for obtaining carbon replicas from small organisms

Résumé Exposé d'une méthode permettant de faire des répliques au carbone de petits organismes tel que les aphides. L'utilisation d'un substrat de technovit^® pour fixer les organismes est la partie importante de cette méthode. Le technovit a la propriété de coller la pellicule de carbonne; ainsi lorsque l'on détache celle-ci à l'aide de collodion, on obtient seulement la réplique se trouvant sur l'organisme.     

Triiodothyronine and thyroxine: Induction of mitosis in adult forgs

Zusammenfassung Nachweis, dass bei adulten, reifen Fröschen Thyroxin und Triiodothyronin die mitotische Aktivität und die DNS-Synthese in verschiedenen Organen (Augenlinse, mit Epithel, Niere Darm, Leber, Milz, Haut, Horn-und Nickhaut) zu stimulieren vermag.

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This work was supported by USPHS Grant No. EY 00281-09 from the National Eye Institute, and Fight for Sight Grant-in-Aid No. G-496.     

Isotope assessment of Holocene human diets in the southwestern Cape, South Africa

Models of seasonal mobility to exploit seasonally abundant food sources have been proposed for prehistoric hunter-gatherers in many parts of the world. Some such hypotheses involve fundamental and insufficiently tested assumptions about the nature of both hunter-gatherer societies and the archaeological evidence that they leave. The present study is an independent test of such a hypothesis proposed for the southwestern Cape of South Africa. In this strongly ecologically differentiated area there are four distinct ecological zones that would have offered four different sets of resources to prehistoric people. Obvious modern seasonal fluctuations in these resources, plus a considerable amount of archaeological evidence, led to the suggestion that prehistoric hunter-gatherers moved in a regular seasonal cycle across the zones; this would have allowed them to make maximum use of temporarily plentiful plant and animal foods in some areas, while avoiding lean periods in others. However, as reported here, direct measurements of food intake, as reflected in the stable carbon isotope ratios of archaeological human skeletons, reveal that this was not the case. The implications of this study extend beyond the relevance to local archaeology to more general questioning of the ways in which archaeological data should be used to generate hypotheses.     

性别角色对大学生自我价值感的影响

从性别角色类型与性别角色维度2个视角探讨性别角色对大学生自我价值感的影响.以性别角色量表和自我价值感量表为工具对812名大学生进行了测试,方差分析的结果显示:在自我价值感上存在显著性别角色类型差异,双性化大学生的自我价值感得分最高;在总体、一般以及部分特殊自我价值感因子上,双性化与男性化大学生无显著差异;在5个特殊自我价值感因子上,双性化显著高于男性化;双性化和男性化大学生的自我价值感均显著高于女性化和未分化大学生.相对重要性分析的结果则表明:男性度比女性度更能预测自我价值感.由结果可知:双性化是最有利于大学生自我价值感的性别角色类型,男性度比女性度对自我价值感的贡献更大.     

Deficits in social behavior in autism and their modification by a synthetic adrenocorticotrophic hormone (4-9) analog.

When charting the structure of the social behavior of autistic children by means of an ethologically analyzed playroom session, deficits appeared in the reciprocity of eye-contact and in the location of verbal initiatives. These deficits in social behavior were beneficially influenced by treatment with the adrenocorticotrophic hormone (4-9) analog ORG 2766.     

Mechanical agitation of very dilute antiserum against IgE has no effect on basophil staining properties.

A previously reported effect of mechanically agitated dilutions of antiserum raised against IgE was investigated using the loss of metachromatic staining properties of human basophil leukocytes as a model. A series of 24 blind experiments was performed in which we determined the number of toluidine blue-stainable basophils after incubating with vortexed or non-vortexed dilutions of anti-IgE. Tenfold serial dilutions were used, in the range 10(21) to 10(30) (6.6 x 10(-26) to 6.6 x 10(-35) M anti-IgE). We found no evidence for a different effect of strongly agitated dilutions, compared to dilutions made with minimal physical agitation. In fact, in our hands no effect of extreme dilutions was shown at all. We conclude that the effect of extreme dilutions of anti-IgE, reported by Davenas et al., needs further clarification and that in this process the reproducibility of results between experimenters should be carefully determined.     

Recombinant anti-P protein autoantibodies isolated from a human autoimmune library: reactivity,specificity and epitope recognition

The ribosomal P proteins are specific and important autoantigens in patients affected by systemic lupus erythematosus. In this study, we describe for the first time the selection and characterization of recombinant human monoclonal anti-P protein (auto)-antibody fragments from an autoimmune patient-derived phage display antibody library. The selected recombinant anti-P antibodies specifically recognize the P proteins in immunofluorescence assays on HEp-2 cells and in immunoblotting assays, and they immunoprecipitate the P proteins under native conditions. Using both anti-P-positive patient sera and the selected recombinant anti-P antibodies, the immunodominant epitope was determined and shown to be located at the C-terminal end of the P proteins (amino acids 111-115). Inhibition of in vitro protein translation demonstrated that interaction of the monoclonal patient-derived anti-P antibodies with their native epitope functionally inhibits the activity of the P proteins on the ribosome, confirming the notion that patient autoantibodies are often directed to the functional centre of their autoantigenic target.