Experim ents were conduc ted with resp ect to two classifier system mechanisms: t he bid com pet it ion and th e use of classifier specificity in biddi ng a nd paymen ts. T he experimen ts employed a sim plified classifier system and so may not accurately reflect the behavior of t he standard system. Nevertheless, the resul ts indicated t hat , in general, (1) specificity should not be fac tore...

The efflux transporter P-glycoprotein, expressed at high levels at the blood-brain barrier, exerts a profound effect on the disposition of various therapeutic compounds in the brain. A rapid and efficient modulation of this efflux transporter could enhance the distribution of its substrates and thereby improve central nervous system pharmacotherapies. This study explored the impact of the intra...

Thermoelectric materials have generated interest as a means of increasing the efficiency of power generation through the scavenging of waste heat. Materials containing nanometer-sized structural and compositional features can exhibit enhanced thermoelectric performance due to the decoupling of certain electrical and thermal properties, but the extent to which these features can be controlled is...

Catecholaminergic polymorphic ventricular tachycardia (CPVT) causes sudden cardiac death due tomutations in cardiac ryanodine receptors (RyR2), calsequestrin, or calmodulin. Flecainide, a class I antiarrhythmic drug, inhibits Na and RyR2 channels and prevents CPVT. The purpose of this study is to identify inhibitory mechanisms of flecainide on RyR2. RyR2 were isolated from sheep heart, incorpor...

Vernalization is the process by which sensing a prolonged exposure to winter cold leads to competence to flower in the spring. In winter annual Arabidopsis thaliana accessions, flowering is suppressed in the fall by expression of the potent floral repressor FLOWERING LOCUS C (FLC)1. Vernalization promotes flowering via epigenetic repression of FLC2. Repression is accompanied by a series of hist...

Oxidative stress induces the activation of liver fibrogenic cells (myofibroblasts), thus promoting the expression of fibrosis-related genes, leading to hepatic fibrogenesis. MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are a new class of small RNAs ~18-25 nucleotides in length involved in post-transcriptional regulation of gene expression. Wound-healing and remodeling processes in liver fibrosis have been associated wit...

Ice V, the high-pressure ice phase stable at pressures of about 3 to 6 kbar, density 1.23 g.cm -3, has a structure involving 28 HzO molecules in a monoclinic cell of dimensions a= 9.22, b= 7.54, c= 10.35 A, p= 109"2 °, space group A2/a. The structure is a single tetrahedral framework, rather than a 'self clathrate' as occurs in the denser forms ice VI and VII. Each oxygen atom is hydrogen bonde...