As beginning neuroscience students, we are taught that behaviour is controlled via output to various types of effectors, with different types of muscles and glands being the prime examples. Later, when we discover the world of weakly electric fish, we learn that the electric organ also qualifies as an effector and that the electric organ discharge (EOD) is a form of motor output. Typically, one...

The alpha and beta subunits of human chorionic gonadotropin are secreted both as a combined, noncovalently linked dimer form as well as uncombined, free forms by human trophoblastic cells. We have utilized the cultured choriocarcinoma cell line JAR to determine what regulates the combination of the two subunits. The human chorionic gonadotropin subunits produced by JAR cells were biosynthetical...

We investigated the expression of interleukin-1 (IL-1) receptors and their involvement in the regulation of the serotonin transporter gene expression in human placenta. IL-1beta is an activator of the serotonin transporter gene expression in JAR human placental choriocarcinoma cells as demonstrated by an increase in the steady-state levels of the transporter mRNA and in serotonin transport acti...

Circulating levels of maternal erythropoietin (EPO) rise during gestation due to increased biosynthesis of the hormone. Our objective was to investigate the human placenta as a potential extrarenal site of EPO production. Using two monoclonal antibodies recognizing different antigenic determinants, we identified immunoreactive EPO associated with villous cytotrophoblast, endovascular and intrav...

We investigated the retrieval of location information, and the deployment of attention to these locations, following (described) event-related location changes. In two visual world experiments, listeners viewed arrays with containers like a bowl, jar, pan, and jug, while hearing sentences like "The boy will pour the sweetcorn from the bowl into the jar, and he will pour the gravy from the pan i...

Bio-Bag (Marion Laboratories, Kansas City, Mo.) type C is made up of a ziplock plastic bag which contains a Thayer-Martin plate and a crushable CO2-generating ampoule. This system was compared with the candle extinction jar, Gono-Pak (Nasco, Fort Atkinson, Wis.), and JEMBEC (GIBCO Diagnostics, Lawrence, Mass.) systems to determine their efficiency and reliability for the isolation of Neisseria ...

The sonar systems of bats and dolphins are in many ways superior to man-made sonar and radar systems, and considerable effort has been devoted to understanding the signal-processing strategies underlying these capabilities. A major feature determining the efficiency of sonar systems is the sensitivity to noise and jamming signals. Previous studies indicated that echolocating bats may adjust the...