Water transport in conifers occurs through single-celled tracheids that are connected to one another via intertracheid pit membranes. These membranes have two components: the porous margo, which allows water to pass through the membrane, and the impermeable torus, which functions to isolate gas-filled tracheids. During drought, tracheids can become air filled and thus hydraulically dysfunctiona...

1alpha,25-Dihydroxyvitamin D(3) [1,25-(OH)(2)D(3)], the most active metabolite of vitamin D, exerts its biological effects by binding to a specific intracellular receptor (the vitamin D receptor, VDR) present in target cells. 1,25-(OH)(2)D(3) is involved in a host of cell processes, including calcium homeostasis, cell growth and differentiation, and secretion of hormones. Several studies have e...

We associate to each Boolean language complexity class C the algebraic class a·C consisting of families of polynomials {fn} for which the evaluation problem over Z is in C. We prove the following lower bound and randomness-to-hardness results: 1. If polynomial identity testing (PIT) is in NSUBEXP then a·NEXP does not have poly size constant-free arithmetic circuits. 2. a·NEXP does not have poly...

Background: Sacral pit is a shallow or deep dimple in the lower sacral region, with a reported prevalence of 3-5% among newborns. The aim of the present study was to investigate spinal cord abnormalities in newborns with sacral pit via ultrasound examinations. Methods: In this descriptive study, 3071 infants born at 34-42 weeks of gestation were studied in hospitals affiliated to Islamic Azad U...

M.D.; Gabriel Zubillaga, M.D.; and Ruy V. Louren#{231}o, M.D. W e have evaluated the relationship between respiratory nerve and muscle electrical activity and airway occlusion pressure in both anesthetized animals and conscious humans. This relationship which reflects the coupling of the neuromuscular components of the respiratory control system was studied under conditions of unloaded and load...

Clinically effective antigen-based immunotherapy must silence antigen-experienced effector T cells (Teff) driving ongoing immune pathology. Using CD4(+) autoimmune Teff cells, we demonstrate that peptide immunotherapy (PIT) is strictly dependent upon sustained T cell expression of the co-inhibitory molecule PD-1. We found high levels of 5-hydroxymethylcytosine (5hmC) at the PD-1 (Pdcd1) promote...

We have previously reported a set of Moloney murine leukemia virus derived envelopes retargeted to the Pit-2 phosphate transporter molecule, by insertion of the Pit-2 binding domain (BD) at the N terminus of the ecotropic retroviral envelope glycoproteins (S. Valsesia-Wittmann et al., J. Virol. 70:2059-2064, 1996). The resulting chimeric envelopes share two BDs: an additional N-terminal BD (Pit...

We have previously analyzed shape processing dynamics in macaque monkey posterior inferotemporal cortex (PIT). We described how early PIT responses to individual contour fragments evolve into tuning for multifragment shape configurations. Here, we analyzed curvature processing dynamics in area V4, which provides feedforward inputs to PIT. We contrasted 2 hypotheses: 1) that V4 curvature tuning ...

The pituitary-specific transcription factor, Pit-1, is necessary to mediate protein kinase A (PKA) regulation of the GH, PRL, and TSH-beta subunit genes in the pituitary. Since these target genes lack classical cAMP DNA response elements (CREs), the mechanism of this regulation was previously unknown. We show that CREB binding protein (CBP), through two cysteine-histidine rich domains (C/H1 and...

The Sungun copper deposit is located in about 40km north west of Ahar city in the east Azarbaigan province of Iran. The total geological ore deposit is estimated to be 740 million tons. In this study using all information from exploration and geotechnical studies of the area, final pit limits of Sungun copper deposit is designed by the 2-D Lerchs & Grossmann Algorithm. By this method, from 740 ...