Delivery of valproic acid (VPA) to the human brain is relatively inefficient as reflected by a low brain-to-unbound plasma concentration ratio (< or =0.5) at steady state. Previous pharmacokinetic studies suggested that the unfavorable brain-to-plasma gradient is maintained by coupled efflux transport processes at both the brain parenchymal cells and blood-brain barrier (BBB); one or both of th...

Pseudomonas syringae pv. syringae B728a, a bacterial pathogen of bean, utilizes large surface populations and extracellular signaling to initiate a fundamental change from an epiphytic to a pathogenic lifestyle. Extracytoplasmic function (ECF) sigma (σ) factors serve as important regulatory factors in responding to various environmental signals. Bioinformatic analysis of the B728a genome reveal...

Introduction: Enterocutaneous fistula (ECF) represents a challenging clinical condition in surgery. Two cases of ECF are presented that were successfully treated with MatriStem, a porcine urinary bladder matrix xenograft application. Case Series: The cases were treated with a procedure involving curettage of the tract, followed by injection of a MatriStem slurry, and insertion of a rolled Matri...

Energy coupling factor (ECF) proteins are ATP-binding cassette transporters involved in the import of micronutrients in prokaryotes. They consist of two nucleotide-binding subunits and the integral membrane subunit EcfT, which together form the ECF module and a second integral membrane subunit that captures the substrate (the S component). Different S components, unrelated in sequence and speci...

After injection, heroin is rapidly metabolized to 6-monoacetylmorphine (6-MAM) and further to morphine. As morphine has been shown to increase striatal dopamine, whereas 6-MAM has not been studied in this respect, we gave i.v. injections of 3 μmol 6-MAM, morphine or heroin to rats. Opioids were measured in blood, and dopamine and opioids in microdialysate from brain striatal extracellular fluid...

Study on electrodes, which are inserted into electro-conjugate fluid (ECF) and generate ECF jet, is still in progress. A sort of so-called triangular-prism-slit (TPS) electrode structure was proposed and it is often thought as a promising candidate for future ECF effect applications thanks to its relatively high performance and easy fabrication. Besides considering power density characteristic ...

Since the empirical characteristic function (ECF) is the Fourier transform of the empirical distribution function, it retains all the information in the sample but can overcome difficulties arising from the likelihood. This paper discusses an estimation method via the ECF for strictly stationary processes. Under some regularity conditions, the resulting estimators are shown to be consistent and...

Changes in extracellular fluid (ECF) volume of Carcinus maenas (L.) were studied in vivo during acclimation to low and high environmental salinities. Initial investigations showed that there was a rapid equilibration into this compartment of the ECF markers used ([H]inulin and pKJjhydroxymethyl inulin). Earlier reports of a relatively slow marker distribution, indicated from clearance curves, c...