Investigating the role of c-Jun N-terminal kinases in the proliferation of Werner syndrome fibroblasts using diaminopyridine inhibitors

To develop more potent small molecules with enhanced free radical scavenger properties, a series of N-substituted isatin derivatives was synthesized, and the cytoprotective effect on the apoptosis of PC12 cells induced by H₂O₂ was screened. All these compounds were found to be active, and N-ethyl isatin was found with the most potent activity of 69.7% protective effect on PC12 cells. Structure-activity relationship analyses showed the bioactivity of N-alkyl isatins decline as the increasing of the chain of the alkyl group, furthermore odd-even effect was found in the activity, which is interesting for further investigation.     

Observation of events with an isolated high energy lepton and missing transverse momentum at HERA

A search for events with an imbalance in transverse momentum and with isolated high energy leptons has been carried out at the positron-proton collider HERA. One event with an and five events with a are found together with evidence for undetected particles carrying transverse momentum. Within the Standard Model the dominant origin of events with this kind of topology is the production of W bosons with subsequent leptonic decay. Three of the six events are within measurement errors found in a region of phase space likely to be populated by this process, while the remaining events show kinematic properties which are atypical of all Standard Model processes considered. Received: 9 June 1998 / Published online: 26 August 1998     

H-transfer rates in ion-neutral complexes versus those in intact aliphatic ions

The relative rates of H-transfer between partners in ion-neutral complexes were compared with those in intramolecular rearrangements using results of first differential photoionization mass spectrometry measurements. Complex-mediated H-transfers are inferred to have rates of the same order as those for intramolecular hydrogen rearrangements, suggesting a similar range of motion of the reactive sites in both types of reactions. It is also concluded that at their fastest H-transfers take place between the partners in ion-neutral complexes within at most the time of several rotations of the partners in the complexes. Copyright 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Neutron production in extended Cu-target irradiated with relativistic C-ions at Dubna, as studied with SSNTD and nuclear chemistry

An extended Cu-target was irradiated with 22 and 44 GeV carbon ions. The target was in contact with a (CH₂)_n-block for the moderation of secondary neutrons. Small holes in the moderator were filled with either lanthanium salts or uranium oxide. The reaction ¹³⁹La (n,γ) ¹⁴⁰La was studied via the decay of ¹⁴⁰La (40 h), and the reaction ²³⁸U (n, γ) ²³⁹U ²³⁹Np was studied via the decay of ²³⁹Np (2.3 d). In addition, a variety of solid state nuclear track detectors (SSNTD) were used. Results will be presented. The yields for the formation of (n, γ) products agree essentially with other experiments on extended targets carried out at the Synchrophasotron LHE, JINR (Dubna). To a first approximation, the breeding rate of (n, γ) products, as well as the specific track density, seen with several SSNTDs, doubles when the carbon energy is increased from 22 to 44 GeV. If, however, results at 44 GeV are compared in detail to those at 22 GeV, we observe an excess of (37 ± 9) % in the experimentally observed ²³⁹Np-breeding rate over theoretical estimations. Experiments using solid state nuclear track detectors are giving similar results. We also observed in the past such excess in the yield of other secondary particles in relativistic heavy ion interactions above a total energy of approximately 35–40 GeV.     

Analysis of the sequential fission observed in collisions of100Mo +100Mo and120Sn +120Sn around 20 A·MeV

Events with 2, 3 and 4 heavy fragments (A≥20) detected in the reactions¹⁰⁰Mo +¹⁰⁰Mo at 18.7, 23.7 A·MeV and¹²⁰Sn +¹²⁰Sn at 18.4 A·MeV were analyzed by means of an improved version of the kinematic coincidence method. The phase-space distributions prove that 3- (and possibly 4-) body events predominantly originate from a two-step mechanism and are compatible with the hypothesis of a binary deep-inelastic interaction followed by the further fissionlike decay of one (or both) of the primary fragments. The characteristics of the fission step — mass asymmetry, relative velocity, in-plane and out-of-plane angles — have been reconstructed for the 3-body events and indications are found that nonequilibrium effects at the end of the deep-inelastic phase may influence the fissionlike decay.     

Disentangling the effects of phonation and articulation: Hemispheric asymmetries in the auditory N1m response of the human brain

Background  

The cortical activity underlying the perception of vowel identity has typically been addressed by manipulating the first and second formant frequency (F1 & F2) of the speech stimuli. These two values, originating from articulation, are already sufficient for the phonetic characterization of vowel category. In the present study, we investigated how the spectral cues caused by articulation are reflected in cortical speech processing when combined with phonation, the other major part of speech production manifested as the fundamental frequency (F0) and its harmonic integer multiples. To study the combined effects of articulation and phonation we presented vowels with either high (/a/) or low (/u/) formant frequencies which were driven by three different types of excitation: a natural periodic pulseform reflecting the vibration of the vocal folds, an aperiodic noise excitation, or a tonal waveform. The auditory N1m response was recorded with whole-head magnetoencephalography (MEG) from ten human subjects in order to resolve whether brain events reflecting articulation and phonation are specific to the left or right hemisphere of the human brain.