Regenerating functional heart tissue for myocardial repair

Heart disease is one of the leading causes of death worldwide and the number of patients with the disease is likely to grow with the continual decline in health for most of the developed world. Heart transplantation is one of the only treatment options for heart failure due to an acute myocardial infarction, but limited donor supply and organ rejection limit its widespread use. Cellular cardiomyoplasty, or cellular implantation, combined with various tissue-engineering methods aims to regenerate functional heart tissue. This review highlights the numerous cell sources that have been used to regenerate the heart as well as cover the wide range of tissue-engineering strategies that have been devised to optimize the delivery of these cells. It will probably be a long time before an effective regenerative therapy can make a serious impact at the bedside.     

Recognition of very low concentrations of ATP byGlossina tachinoides Westwood

Summary Like many other blood feeders,Glossina tachinoides is stimulated to gorge by the presence of ATP in its diet. A concentration of 1.3×10^–8 M ATP induces 50% feeding. The ability ofG. tachinoides to detect ATP is the highest recorded so far among insects.     

Hierarchy and adaptivity in segmenting visual scenes

Finding salient, coherent regions in images is the basis for many visual tasks, and is especially important for object recognition. Human observers perform this task with ease, relying on a system in which hierarchical processing seems to have a critical role. Despite many attempts, computerized algorithms have so far not demonstrated robust segmentation capabilities under general viewing conditions. Here we describe a new, highly efficient approach that determines all salient regions of an image and builds them into a hierarchical structure. Our algorithm, segmentation by weighted aggregation, is derived from algebraic multigrid solvers for physical systems, and consists of fine-to-coarse pixel aggregation. Aggregates of various sizes, which may or may not overlap, are revealed as salient, without predetermining their number or scale. Results using this algorithm are markedly more accurate and significantly faster (linear in data size) than previous approaches.     

Sex attractants for maleHeliothis armigera (Hbn.)

Summary (Z)-11-Hexadecenal and (Z)-11-tetradecenal were found to be sex attractants of maleHeliothis armigera (Hbn.).This research was supported by a grant from the United States-Israel Binational Science Foundation (BSF), Jerusalem, Israel.     

The legs ofMusca domestica andGlossina morsitans females as the site of sex pheromone release

Summary The site of sex pheromone release inMusca domestica andGlossina morsitans is the legs. Unicellular glands restricted to the tarsi and to the tibia are proposed as the source of the pheromone. The structure of the glands is described.Acknowledgments. TheMusca domestica stock, obtained from Dr H. Penner at the Department of Health, Jerusalem, was the insecticide-susceptible strain of the WHO Centre, The Zoological Institute, University of Pavia, Italy. Dr A.M. Jordan of the Tsetse Research Laboratory at Bristol suppliedGlossina morsitans pupae.     

Regulation of feeding in leeches

Résumé Des essais de nutrition ont montré que la sangsueHirudo medicinalis qui boit le sang absorbe aussi des solutions de l'arginine-l, ou de glucose dans 0.15M de NaCl. La durée de nutrition avec l'arginine-l dépend de la quantité bue, tandis qu'avec la glucose la nutrition se termine plutôt, probablement à cause d'une adaptation des chémo-récepteurs.     

Effect of methyl phenyldiazenecarboxylate (azoester) on the germination of the fungusTrichoderma viride

Résumé Le traitement des spores deTrichoderma viride avec le nouveau oxydant intracellulaire des thiols, le composé azoester, nous a conduit à conclure qu'il y a une exigence absolue pour le glutathion pendant le processus de germination. Avec le même composé, azoester, on a demontré que GSH est nécessaire pour la croissance et la sporulation du champignon.

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Career Development Awardee of the National Institutes of Health.

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National Science Foundation Senior Postdoctoral Fellow 1968–69.

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This research was supported in part by a U.S.D.A. grant under U.S. Public Law No. 480.