To the Editor: We read with great interest the study by Majid et al describing pulmonary function tests (PFTs) and flow-volume loops in patients with tracheobronchomalacia.1 A central question is whether abnormalities in the PFT results and flow-volume loops are attributable to tracheobronchomalacia or concomitant lungdisease (eg,COPDorasthma). A secondary question that remains unaddressed is w...

Protein geranylgeranyltransferase type I (PGGT-I) and protein farnesyltransferase (PFT) occur in many eukaryotic cells. Both consist of two subunits, the common alpha subunit and a distinct beta subunit. In the gene database of protozoa Trypanosoma cruzi, the causative agent of Chagas' disease, a putative protein that consists of 401 amino acids with approximately 20% amino acid sequence identi...

A Cu(2+) ensemble polyfluorene derivative, poly[5,5'-(((9H-fluorene-9,9-diyl)bis(hexane-6,1-diyl))bis(oxy))diisophthalate] sodium salt (PFT), displays unprecedented selectivity for PPi (LOD = 2.26 ppb) in aqueous solution as well as in random urine samples at physiological pH vis-a-vis monitoring ALP activity. Furthermore, intracellular imaging of Cu(2+) and PPi in mouse macrophage (J774A.1) an...

Tipifarnib (R115777), an inhibitor of human protein farnesyltransferase (PFT), is shown to be a highly potent inhibitor of Trypanosoma cruzi growth (ED(50) = 4 nM). Surprisingly, this is due to the inhibition of cytochrome P450 sterol 14-demethylase (CYP51, EC 1.14.13.70). Homology models of the T. cruzi CYP51 were used for the prediction of the binding modes of the substrate lanosterol and of ...

An environmental-cum-epidemiological study was carried out by NIOH to assess the health effects in miners exposed to manganese based on clinical observations, pulmonary function tests (PFT) and neuroendocrine functions. The results of the environmental monitoring of manganese dust in manganese mines were reported last year. During the current year the results of medical examination, PFT and neu...

Puff field theory (PFT) is a low energy decoupling regime of string theory that still retains the nonlocal attributes of the parent theory—while preserving isotropy for its nonlocal degrees of freedom. It realizes an extended holographic dictionary at strong coupling and dynamical nonlocal states akin to defects or the surface operators of local gauge theories. In this work, we probe the nonloc...

We demonstrate the use of pulse-front tilt (PFT) in cross-correlation frequency-resolved optical gating (XFROG) implemented in polarization-gate geometry to measure arbitrary complex ultrashort pulses tens of picoseconds long on a single-camera frame with the potential for a single-shot measurement. The PFT is generated by a diffraction grating. We measured chirped double pulses separated by 4....

The objective. was to investigate L-Carnitine level and the effects of its supplementation in children with moderate persistent Asthma. Methods. Free and total serum carnitine levels were measured in 50 children having moderate persistent asthma and 50 healthy control children. The patients group was randomly divided into two subgroups. Subgroup A was supplemented with L-carnitine for 6 months ...

Iraq has used extensively chemical warfare agents in recent Iran-Iraq conflict (1980-1988) and it is believed about 450,000 people were exposed to this agents. Long-term effects of chemical warfare agents, particularly mustard gas, on pulmonary function tests (PFT) (VC, FEV1 , FVC, FEV/FVC, PEF, MEF50%, MEF25%, MEF25-75% , ERC and IC) are estimated during 7.7 [standard deviation (SD)=l.2] years...