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.     

Non-isothermal kinetics of a moving phase boundary

In this paper we derive an explicit formula for a kinetic relation governing the motion of a phase boundary in a bilinear thermoelastic material capable of undergoing solid-solid phase transitions. To obtain the relation, we study traveling wave solutions of a regularized problem that includes viscosity, heat conduction and convective heat exchange with an ambient medium. Both inertia and latent heat of transformation are taken into account. We investigate the effect of material parameters on the kinetic relation and show that in a certain range of parameters the driving force becomes a non-monotone function of the interface velocity. The model also predicts a nonzero resistance to phase boundary motion, part of which is caused by the thermal trapping. Received: November 15, 2001 / Published online September 4, 2002 RID="*" ID="*" e-mail: annav@math.pitt.edu Communicated by Lev Truskinovsky, Minneapolis     

Dynamics of Phase Transitions and Hysteresis in a Viscoelastic Ericksen's Bar on an Elastic Foundation

This work is a follow-up on the study [32] of interface dynamics and hysteresis in materials undergoing solid-solid phase transitions. We consider the dynamics of a viscoelastic bar with a nonmonotone stress-strain relation and viscous stress linearly proportional to the strain rate. The bar is placed on an elastic foundation with stiffness β mimicking the interaction of phases in higher dimensions. Time-dependent displacement-controlled loading of the bar results in a tilted and serrated hysteresis loop, in qualitative agreement with some experimental observations in shape-memory alloys. The model exhibits three phase transition processes: phase nucleation, interface slip and phase annihilation. Between these dynamic processes the system gets stuck in local minimizers of the potential energy. As β increases from zero, a slip-dominated solution behavior transforms to the one where slip and annihilation events are preceded by a step-by-step nucleation process. We show that this transition is caused by an interplay between the slip-favoring inertia term and the nucleation-favoring elastic foundation terms. This revised version was published online in August 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Transfer measurements for the Ti+Ni systems at near barrier energies

Large enhancements have been observed in the sub-barrier fusion cross sections for Ti+Ni systems in our previous studies. Coupled channel calculations incorporating couplings to 2⁺ and 3⁻ states failed to explain these enhancements completely. A possibilty of transfer channels contributing to the residual enhancements had been suggested. In order to investigate the role of relevant transfer channels, measurements of one- and two-nucleon transfer were carried out for ^46,48Ti+⁶¹Ni systems. The present paper gives the results of these studies.     

A simple and sensitive assay for the quantitative analysis of paclitaxel and metabolites in human plasma using liquid chromatography/tandem mass spectrometry

A sensitive and specific LC-MS/MS assay for the determination of paclitaxel and its 3'p- and 6-alpha-hydroxy metabolites is presented. A 200 microL plasma aliquot was spiked with a 13C6-labeled paclitaxel internal standard and extracted with 1.0 mL tert-butylmethylether. Dried extracts were reconstituted in 0.1 M ammonium acetate-acetonitrile (1:1, v/v) and 25 microL volumes were injected onto the HPLC system. Separation was performed on a 150 x 2.1 mm C18 column using an alkaline eluent (10 mm ammonium hydroxide-methanol, 30:70, v/v). Detection was performed by positive ion electrospray followed by tandem mass spectrometry. The assay quantifies a range for paclitaxel from 0.25 to 1000 ng/mL and metabolites from 0.25 to 100 ng/mL using 200 microL human plasma samples. Validation results demonstrate that paclitaxel and metabolite concentrations can be accurately and precisely quantified in human plasma. This assay is now used to support clinical pharmacologic studies with paclitaxel.     

Using FTIR spectroscopy to detect sericin on historic silk

Silks represent some of the most precious ancient and historic textile artefacts in collections worldwide.Their optimum preservation demands an appreciation of their characteristics.One important concern,especially with regard to ancient Chinese silks,is whether the fabrics have been degummed.Silks with remnant sericin gum coating the fibroin fibres would require different conservation protocol.In previous research on aged silks,the presence of sericin has been inferred from amino acid analysis of hydrolysa...     

Hysteresis and Stick-Slip Motion of Phase Boundaries in Dynamic Models of Phase Transitions

Summary. We investigate hysteretic behavior in two dynamic models for solid-solid phase transitions. An elastic bar with a nonconvex double-well elastic energy density is subjected to time-dependent displacement boundary conditions. Both models include inertia and a viscous stress term that provides energy dissipation. The first model involves a strain-gradient term that models interfacial energy. In the second model this term is omitted. Numerical simulations combined with analytical results predict hysteretic behavior in the overall end-load versus end-displacement diagram for both models. The hysteresis is largely due to metastability and nucleation; it persists even for very slow loading when viscous dissipation is quite small. In the model with interfacial energy, phase interfaces move smoothly. When this term is omitted, hysteresis is much more pronounced. In addition, phase boundaries move in an irregular, stick-slip fashion. The corresponding load-elongation curve exhibits serrations, in qualitative agreement with certain experimental observations in shape-memory alloys. Received August 4, 1998; revised December 11, 1998     

Quasicontinuum Models of Dynamic Phase Transitions

We propose a series of quasicontinuum approximations for the simplest lattice model of a fully dynamic martensitic phase transition in one dimension. The approximations are dispersive and include various non-classical corrections to both kinetic and potential energies. We show that the well-posed quasicontinuum theory can be constructed in such a way that the associated closed-form kinetic relation is in an excellent agreement with the predictions of the discrete theory.     

Iron-catalyzed Doyle-Kirmse reaction of allyl sulfides with (trimethylsilyl)diazomethane

[formula: see text] Iron salts efficiently catalyze the Doyle-Kirmse reaction of allyl sulfides with (trimethylsilyl)diazomethane and ethyl diazoacetate in dichloroethane at 83 degrees C. Competitive dimerization is less of a problem with (trimethylsilyl)diazomethane than with ethyl diazoacetate. Good results are obtained using only 1.5 equiv of (trimethylsilyl)diazomethane, even without slow addition. Phosphine ligands affect the kinetics, but not the diastereoselectivity. Dppe and BINAP lead to higher yields than dppp, but no enantioselection was detected with R-(+)-BINAP.