Differential inhibition of postnatal brain,spinal cord and body growth by a growth hormone antagonist

Background  

Growth hormone (GH) plays an incompletely understood role in the development of the central nervous system (CNS). In this study, we use transgenic mice expressing a growth hormone antagonist (GHA) to explore the role of GH in regulating postnatal brain, spinal cord and body growth into adulthood. The GHA transgene encodes a protein that inhibits the binding of GH to its receptor, specifically antagonizing the trophic effects of endogenous GH.     

On Travelling Waves for the Stochastic Fisher–Kolmogorov–Petrovsky–Piscunov Equation

This paper is concerned with properties of the wave speed for the stochastically perturbed Fisher–Kolmogorov–Petrovsky–Piscunov (FKPP) equation. It was shown in the classical 1937 paper by Kolmogorov, Petrovsky and Piscunov that the large time behavior of the solution to the FKPP equation with Heaviside initial data is a travelling wave. In a seminal 1995 paper Mueller and Sowers proved that this also holds for a stochastically perturbed FKPP equation. The wave speed depends on the strength σ of the noise. In this paper bounds on the asymptotic behavior of the wave speed c(σ) as σ→0 and σ→∞ are obtained.     

Intermittency and Regularity Issues in 3<Emphasis Type="Italic">D</Emphasis> Navier-Stokes Turbulence

Two related open problems in the theory of 3D Navier-Stokes turbulence are discussed in this paper. The first is the phenomenon of intermittency in the dissipation field. Dissipation-range intermittency was first discovered experimentally by Batchelor and Townsend over fifty years ago. It is characterized by spatio-temporal binary behaviour in which long, quiescent periods in the velocity signal are interrupted by short, active ‘events’ during which there are violent fluctuations away from the average. The second and related problem is whether solutions of the 3D Navier-Stokes equations develop finite time singularities during these events. This paper shows that Leray’s weak solutions of the three-dimensional incompressible Navier-Stokes equations can have a binary character in time. The time-axis is split into ‘good’ and ‘bad’ intervals: on the ‘good’ intervals solutions are bounded and regular, whereas singularities are still possible within the ‘bad’ intervals. An estimate for the width of the latter is very small and decreases with increasing Reynolds number. It also decreases relative to the lengths of the good intervals as the Reynolds number increases. Within these ‘bad’ intervals, lower bounds on the local energy dissipation rate and other quantities, such as ||u(·, t)||_∞ and ||∇u(·, t)||_∞, are very large, resulting in strong dynamics at sub-Kolmogorov scales. Intersections of bad intervals for n≧1 are related to the potentially singular set in time. It is also proved that the Navier-Stokes equations are conditionally regular provided, in a given ‘bad’ interval, the energy has a lower bound that is decaying exponentially in time.Final version 17 March 05. Original version November 03.     

External noise and its interaction with spatial degrees of freedom in nonlinear dissipative systems

A brief introduction to the field is given together with an overview of the lectures given at the workshop on External Noise and its Interaction with Spatial Degrees of Freedom in Nonlinear Dissipative Systems organized by the Center for Nonlinear Studies at Los Alamos, March 28–31, 1988. It is hoped that the publication of papers presented at the workshop in a single issue of theJournal of Statistical Physics will help draw attention to the recent developments in this rapidly area of nonequilibrium phenomena.     

Stereochemistry of the methylenecyclopropane rearrangement—II: Exclusion of the concerted 45° pivot mechanisms

Mechanistic options for the thermal rearrangement of methylenecyclopropane are narrowed further by experiments with the four racemic diastereoisomeric 2-cyano-3-methyl-ethylidenecyclopropanes. The explicit assumption being made that these structural perturbations have neither weakened nor invalidated the mechanistic restrictions imposed by previously published work, it has been concluded that concerted birotational mechanisms involving transition states such as the 45° parallel twisted allylic (Woodward-Hoffmann, Möbius controlled) or the 45° perpendicularly twisted allylic (Berson-Salem subjacent orbital controlled) can be excluded from the presently acceptable set of structurally compatible, chirality-retaining, configuration-inverting mechanisms. A competitive rearrangement of the corresponding carboxylic esters to 1-methyl-2-ethyl-4-methoxyfuran makes these molecules unsuitable for study of the methylenecyclopropane rearrangement. Assignment of stereochemistry to the cyano compounds has been accomplished by application of base-catalyzed equilibration of the cyano center and photochemical iodine-catalyzed equilibration between geometrical isomers.     

Evidence for molecular reorientations on a surface: Coadsorption of CO and Na on Ru(001)

Evidence is presented for a local interaction between CO and Na adsorbed on Ru(001). For low coverages of Na (θ_Na ? 0.15 ML) and saturation coverages of CO at 80 K. a fraction of the CO molecules undergo a substantial change in bonding configuration: molecular CO bound perpendicular to the Ru(001) surface changes to an “inclined” configuration in the presence of low coverages of Na.     

N2 rotational energy distributions in cold,supersonic beams from electron excited fluorescence measurements of N+2

Ground-state rotational energy distributions of N₂ molecules produced in pure and He-seeded supersonic expansions have been determined by measurements of the N⁺₂ first negative band rotational line intensities produced by 800 eV electron impact on cooled pure and He-seeded N₂ supersonic beams. Sufficient spectral resolution was employed to resolve completely both P and R branches of the first negative bands. Rotational state distributions were obtained to much higher values of J than in previous investigations. The data show that at 800 eV, the electric dipole selection rule, |ΔJ| = 1, is consistent with the observed N⁺₂ emission bands and that the rotational energy distributions produced in the cooled, supersonic beam are non-Boltzmann with a large population in the first few rotational states followed by a long, high-energy fail to quite high J values.     

Pressure independence of stereomutation and fragmentation in the bis-spirocyclobutanes, anti- and syn-2,9-dicyanodispiro[5.0.5.2]tetradeca-1,8-dienes

Pressure dependent rate constants and volumes of activation for stereomutational interconversions of the cyclobutanes, anti- and syn-2,9-dicyanodispiro[5.0.5.2]tetradeca-1,8-dienes (anti-6 and syn-6), and for their fragmentation to 1-cyano-3-methylenecyclohexene (5) have been determined. Although fragmentations might have been expected to have larger and thus more positive volumes of activation than stereomutation, both processes have essentially identical volumes of activation within experimental uncertainties at 50.1 degrees C over the pressure range, 1-3000 bar: DeltaV(not equal) = (+7.4 to +9.9) +/- 2.0 cm3 mol(-1). While these positive values are consistent with the rate of entry into the hypothetical caldera being determined by breaking the weakest bond in the cyclobutanes, the insensitivity of the product-determining exit channels argues against the obligatory second bond-breaking being a significant factor in fragmentation.     

Effect on kinetics by deuterium in the 1,5-hydrogen shift of a cisoid-locked 1,3(Z)-pentadiene, 2-methyl-10-methylenebicyclo[4.4.0]dec-1-ene: evidence for tunneling?

Prompted by extensive theoretical interest in the role of tunneling in the intramolecular 1,5-hydrogen shift in 1,3(Z)-pentadienes and the large uncertainty in the published values of the theoretically relevant kinetic deuterium-isotope effect and its dependence on temperature, we have examined a degenerate bicyclic version, 2-methyl-10-methylenebicyclo[4.4.0]dec-1-ene, which is locked into the rearrangement-competent cisoid conformation, in the hope of obtaining more precise and accurate values. From rate constants determined over a range of 33 degrees C from 167.7 to 201.6 degrees C, Arrhenius parameters, Ea = 32.8 +/- 0.4 kcal mol(-1) and log A = 11.1 +/- 0.2, were obtained. An average kinetic isotope effect of 4.2 +/- 0.5 obtained from all values for kH/kD and k-H/k-D may be compared with a value of 5.0 +/- 0.3, recalculated from data in the pioneering publication of Roth and K?nig. From a highly problematic extrapolation of the temperature dependence, a value of kH/kD of 16.6 (standard error between 6.5 and 43) is calculated for the kinetic isotope effect at 25 degrees C (Roth and K?nig: 12.2). With curvature in Arrhenius plots being one of the three types of experimental evidence considered indicative of tunneling, the kinetic study of the previously published rearrangement of 1-phenyl-5-p-tolyl-1,3(Z)-pentadiene has been extended over a period of 339 days to a range of 108 degrees C (77-185 degrees C) without discerning any deviation from a straight-line Arrhenius plot: Ea = 28.7 +/- 0.5 (kcal mol(-1)) and log A = 9.41 +/- 0.30.