Venus as a more Earth-like planet

Venus is Earth's near twin in mass and radius, and our nearest planetary neighbour, yet conditions there are very different in many respects. Its atmosphere, mostly composed of carbon dioxide, has a surface temperature and pressure far higher than those of Earth. Only traces of water are found, although it is likely that there was much more present in the past, possibly forming Earth-like oceans. Here we discuss how the first year of observations by Venus Express brings into focus the evolutionary paths by which the climates of two similar planets diverged from common beginnings to such extremes. These include a CO2-driven greenhouse effect, erosion of the atmosphere by solar particles and radiation, surface-atmosphere interactions, and atmospheric circulation regimes defined by differing planetary rotation rates.     

Interactions ofΔ 11-tetrahydrocannabinol with cannabinol and cannabidiol following oral administration in man. Assay of cannabinol and cannabidiol by mass fragmentographywith cannabinol and cannabidiol following oral administration in man. Assay of cannabinol and cannabidiol by mass fragmentography

Summary Oral administration to man of 20 mg ¹1-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) together with placebo or 40 mg cannabinol (CBN) or 40 mg cannabidiol (CBD) gave evidence of a possible limited interaction of THC with CBN but not with CBD as indicated by average plasma THC levels. Peak CBD and CBN concentrations were similar to that of THC, viz. about 5–8 ng/ml.Supported by the Swedish Medical Research Council and grant MH-00424 from the Veterans Administration.     

Enrichment of ligands with molecular dockings and subsequent characterization for human alcohol dehydrogenase 3

Alcohol dehydrogenase 3 (ADH3) has been assigned a role in nitric oxide homeostasis due to its function as an S-nitrosoglutathione reductase. As altered S-nitrosoglutathione levels are often associated with disease, compounds that modulate ADH3 activity might be of therapeutic interest. We performed a virtual screening with molecular dockings of more than 40,000 compounds into the active site of human ADH3. A novel knowledge-based scoring method was used to rank compounds, and several compounds that were not known to interact with ADH3 were tested in vitro. Two of these showed substrate activity (9-decen-1-ol and dodecyltetraglycol), where calculated binding scoring energies correlated well with the logarithm of the k _cat/K _m values for the substrates. Two compounds showed inhibition capacity (deoxycholic acid and doxorubicin), and with these data three different lines for specific inhibitors for ADH3 are suggested: fatty acids, glutathione analogs, and cholic acids.     

5-Hydroxytryptamine of the spinal cord normally and after transection

Zusammenfassung Der 5-Hydroxytryptamingehalt im Rückenmark des Kaninchens ist 0,26 µg/g. Querschnittsläsion durchs Rückenmark führt zu einer 85prozentigen Abnahme des 5-Hydroxytryptamingehaltes. Es wird darum angenommen, dass 5-Hydroxytryptamin in Nervenzellen des Zentralnervensystems lokalisiert ist.     

PGC-1alpha-responsive genes involved in oxidative phosphorylation are coordinately downregulated in human diabetes

DNA microarrays can be used to identify gene expression changes characteristic of human disease. This is challenging, however, when relevant differences are subtle at the level of individual genes. We introduce an analytical strategy, Gene Set Enrichment Analysis, designed to detect modest but coordinate changes in the expression of groups of functionally related genes. Using this approach, we identify a set of genes involved in oxidative phosphorylation whose expression is coordinately decreased in human diabetic muscle. Expression of these genes is high at sites of insulin-mediated glucose disposal, activated by PGC-1alpha and correlated with total-body aerobic capacity. Our results associate this gene set with clinically important variation in human metabolism and illustrate the value of pathway relationships in the analysis of genomic profiling experiments.     

Common nonsynonymous variants in PCSK1 confer risk of obesity

Mutations in PCSK1 cause monogenic obesity. To assess the contribution of PCSK1 to polygenic obesity risk, we genotyped tag SNPs in a total of 13,659 individuals of European ancestry from eight independent case-control or family-based cohorts. The nonsynonymous variants rs6232, encoding N221D, and rs6234-rs6235, encoding the Q665E-S690T pair, were consistently associated with obesity in adults and children (P = 7.27 x 10(-8) and P = 2.31 x 10(-12), respectively). Functional analysis showed a significant impairment of the N221D-mutant PC1/3 protein catalytic activity.     

Alfvénic waves with sufficient energy to power the quiet solar corona and fast solar wind

Energy is required to heat the outer solar atmosphere to millions of degrees (refs 1, 2) and to accelerate the solar wind to hundreds of kilometres per second (refs 2-6). Alfvén waves (travelling oscillations of ions and magnetic field) have been invoked as a possible mechanism to transport magneto-convective energy upwards along the Sun's magnetic field lines into the corona. Previous observations of Alfvénic waves in the corona revealed amplitudes far too small (0.5?km?s(-1)) to supply the energy flux (100-200?W?m(-2)) required to drive the fast solar wind or balance the radiative losses of the quiet corona. Here we report observations of the transition region (between the chromosphere and the corona) and of the corona that reveal how Alfvénic motions permeate the dynamic and finely structured outer solar atmosphere. The ubiquitous outward-propagating Alfvénic motions observed have amplitudes of the order of 20?km?s(-1) and periods of the order of 100-500?s throughout the quiescent atmosphere (compatible with recent investigations), and are energetic enough to accelerate the fast solar wind and heat the quiet corona.