The octapeptide NAP has been shown to exert neuroprotective properties and reduce neuro-inflammatory responses. The aim of the present study was to investigate if NAP provides anti-inflammatory effects in acute murine colitis. To address this, C57BL/6 j mice were challenged with 3.5% dextran sulfate sodium from day 0 until day 6 to induce colitis, either treated intraperitoneally with NAP or pl...

The effects of a 20-min nap before post-lunch dip were studied. The subjects participated in nap and no-nap conditions at intervals of 1 week. Their electroencephalogram (EEG) recordings of relaxed wakefulness, mood, performance, and self-rating of performance level were measured every 20 min from 10.00 to 18.00 h. For nap condition, the subjects went to bed at 12.20 h and were awakened after t...

Pure bacterial cultures were isolated from a highly enriched denitrifying consortium previously shown to anaerobically biodegrade naphthalene. The isolates were screened for the ability to grow anaerobically in liquid culture with naphthalene as the sole source of carbon and energy in the presence of nitrate. Three naphthalene-degrading pure cultures were obtained, designated NAP-3-1, NAP-3-2, ...

OBJECTIVES The study investigated the utility of unmetabolised naphthalene (Nap) and phenanthrene (Phe) in urine as surrogates for exposures to mixtures of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs). METHODS The report included workers exposed to diesel exhausts (low PAH exposure level, n = 39) as well as those exposed to emissions from asphalt (medium PAH exposure level, n = 26) and coke ovens ...

Males often fight with rival males for access to females. However, some males display nonfighting tactics such as sneaking, satellite behavior, or female mimicking. When these mating tactics comprise a conditional strategy, they are often thought to be explained by resource holding potential (RHP), that is, nonfighting tactics are displayed by less competitive males who are more likely to lose ...

We measured persistent Na(+) current and membrane properties of bursting-pacemaker and nonbursting inspiratory neurons of the neonatal rat pre-Bötzinger complex (pre-BötC) in brain stem slice preparations with a rhythmically active respiratory network in vitro. In whole-cell recordings, slow voltage ramps (</=100 mV/s) inactivated the fast, spike-generating Na(+) current and yielded N-shaped cu...

Delta homeostatic regulation can be challenged by reducing delta need with daytime naps and measuring delta in post-nap sleep. We previously demonstrated that, after a late afternoon nap, young adults reduce the amount of delta in post-nap sleep by the amount in the nap. We compared homeostatic responses of 19 young adults (mean age 22.4 years) and 19 normal elderly subjects (mean age 71.4 year...

STUDY OBJECTIVES Overnight polysomnography (ONP) is the "gold standard" for the diagnosis of sleep-disordered breathing, but it is expensive and time-consuming. Thus, daytime nap studies have been used as screening tests. If the findings of a nap study are normal or mildly abnormal, should ONP be performed? Do specific abnormalities in nap studies predict abnormal findings in ONP? To answer the...

The development of methods to assemble nucleosomes from recombinant histones decades ago has transformed chromatin research. Nevertheless, nucleosome reconstitution remains time consuming to this day, not least because the four individual histones must be purified first. Here, we present a streamlined purification protocol of recombinant histones from bacteria. We termed this method "rapid hist...

To clarify the underlying mechanism of low neutrophil alkaline phosphatase (NAP) activity in chronic myelogenous leukemia (CML), CML neutrophils were cultured in liquid medium with different numbers of monocytes. Alkaline phosphatase activity in CML neutrophils, assessed cytochemically, increased with the numbers of monocytes. NAP activity was not induced by the interaction between neutrophils ...