Propylisopropylacetic acid (PIA) is a constitutional isomer of valproic acid (VPA). It has previously been found to be a weak antiepileptic, but in common with mood stabilizers, causes inositol depletion and growth cone spreading, suggesting the basis of a new series of mood stabilizers. To assess this possibility, we have compared the effects of racemic (R,S)-PIA and its individual enantiomers...

OBJECTIVES Postictal agitation (PIA) represents one of the most common complications during a modified electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) course. Its clinical management can be challenging especially in cases with poor response to benzodiazepines. Dexmedetomidine, a highly selective alpha-2 adrenoceptor agonist acting predominantly in the locus coeruleus, exerts sedative effects without causing re...

A series of 5 experiments examined the effects of the adenosine agonist, N6-(L-phenylisopropyl) adenosine (L-PIA) and its isomer, D-PIA, on the acquisition of conditioned responses in the rabbit. Extension of the nictitating membrane was classically conditioned to a tone and light stimulus presented for 800 msec before delivery of a 100 msec shock--the unconditioned stimulus--to the skin over t...

PURPOSE To test the hypothesis that in healthy human eyes the lamina cribrosa (LC) insertion into the pia mater increases with age. METHODS The optic nerve heads (ONHs) of donor eyes fixed at either 5 or 50 mm Hg of IOP were sectioned, stained, and imaged under bright- and dark-field conditions. A 3-dimensional (3D) model of each ONH was reconstructed. From the 3D models we measured the area ...

Inflammatory processes are important components in the pathogenesis of many human cancers. According to the 'injury and regeneration' model for prostate carcinogenesis, injury caused by pathogens or pro-inflammatory cytotoxic agents would trigger proliferation of prostatic glandular cells, leading to the appearance of epithelial lesions named 'Pro...

We hypothesized that cessation of brainstem monoaminergic systems and an activation of brainstem inhibitory systems are both involved in pontine inhibitory area (PIA) stimulation-induced muscle atonia. In our previous study (Lai et al., 2001), we found a decrease in norepinephrine and serotonin release in motoneuron pools during PIA stimulation-induced muscle tone suppression. We now demonstrat...

We develop a general approach to the Policy Improvement Algorithm (PIA) for stochastic control problems for continuous-time processes. The main results assume only that the controls lie in a compact metric space and give general sufficient conditions for the PIA to be well-defined and converge in continuous time (i.e. without time discretisation). It emerges that the natural context for the PIA...

Biofilm production is thought to be a crucial factor in the ability of Staphylococcus epidermidis to produce a biomaterial-based infection. A rat central venous catheter (CVC)-associated infection model was used to assess the importance of biofilm production, mediated by polysaccharide intercellular adhesin/hemagglutinin (PIA/HA), in the pathogenesis of intravascular catheter-associated infecti...

The Dictyostelium mutant HSB1 is temperature-sensitive for development, undergoing aggregation and fruiting body formation at temperatures below 18 degrees C but not above. In vivo G protein-linked adenylyl cyclase activation is defective in HSB1, and the enzyme is not stimulated in vitro by GTPgammaS; stimulation is restored upon addition of wild-type cytosol. Transfection with the gene encodi...

Europe’s proposed Data Protection Regulation is expected to make data protection impact assessment (DPIA) mandatory, a development that could impact hundreds of thousands of organizations (both governmental and private sector) in Europe, as well as non-European entities offering their wares and services there. This article reviews the DPIA provisions outlined in the new regulation. For the nuts...