Home About us Contact | |||
Corresponding Number (corresponding + number)
Selected AbstractsGlycerol and Glycerol Glycol GlycodendrimersEUROPEAN JOURNAL OF ORGANIC CHEMISTRY, Issue 22 2003Mike M. K. Boysen Abstract Non-covalent interactions between structural parts of complex oligosaccharides and saccharide-recognising proteins are of crucial importance for many cell communication phenomena. Specificity of such interactions and stability of these ligand-receptor complexes are achieved through multivalent interactions between multiple copies of a saccharide ligand and a corresponding number of protein receptors. Substances presenting multiple copies of the saccharide ligand on easily accessible scaffold molecules therefore appear to be promising tools for study of multivalent interactions and their possible inhibition. Such multivalent glycomimetics can be prepared by attachment of saccharide residues to the surface functional groups of dendrimers. In the course of our work, we have prepared novel glycodendrimers with glycerol and glycerol glycol polyether scaffolds. Isopropylidene-protected hydroxyethyl mannoside was chosen as the carbohydrate component, with the construction of the dendritic structures proceeding by a convergent approach featuring iterative Williamson etherification and ozonolysis/hydride reduction steps. Deprotected representatives of such structures are potential inhibitors of mannose-binding lectins of E. coli. Three representative compounds were deprotected and their anti-adhesive properties were examined. The route to these glycodendrimers was also evaluated in terms of synthetic chemistry. (© Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, 69451 Weinheim, Germany, 2003) [source] Comparison of testes structure, spermatogenesis, and spermatocytogenesis in young, aging, and hybrid cichlid fish (Cichlidae, Teleostei)JOURNAL OF MORPHOLOGY, Issue 3 2003Lev Fishelson Abstract Testis structure, spermatogenesis, and spermatocytogenesis were compared in 13 species of cichlid fishes, belonging to the subfamilies Haplochrominae and Tilapinae. The species studied were either mouth brooders, in which fertilization occurs mostly inside the mouth of the brooding fish, or substrate brooders, whose eggs adhere to a substrate over which the sperm is ejaculated. In this study, the embryogenesis of testes anlagen and sperm production was followed in embryos and in fish up to 15 years old, as well as in hybrids of the two subfamilies. In cichlids, the testes are of the unrestricted type and primary spermatogonia develop along the entire length of the developing sperm tubule. The first primary spermatogonia are observed in the testes anlagen 2,5 days after fertilization and they continue to develop in cysts formed by the enveloping Sertoli cells and the intertubular elements. The dimensions of such primary and secondary spermatocysts are correlated with the number of spermatogonia they contain and the corresponding number of mitotic multiplications. The largest mature cysts attained 300 ,m, and contained 2,200,2,400 spermatids in the mouth-brooding species and 2,600,3,200 in the substrate-brooding species. Despite the fact that in such cysts cytoplasmic bridges connect only the isogamete spermatids, the maturation of all cells and consequent spermiation is synchronized. Meristic characters distinguish the sperm of mouth brooders from those of substrate brooders, especially in the number of mitochondria and length of the flagellum. In older fish and hybrids, various changes can be seen in the gametogenic epithelium and intertubular cells. These include thickening of the connective tissue, formation of "yellow" groups of Leydig cells, cell apoptosis and degeneration, and, especially, formation of large spermatogonia, with large, electron-dense nucleoli, that have the cytological characteristics of oocytes. The intra- and interspecific variability of sperm dimensions in the studied cichlids poses an interesting question in the context of sperm competition. J. Morphol. 256:285,300, 2003. © 2003 Wiley-Liss, Inc. [source] Implementation of three-dimensional wavelet encoding spectroscopic imaging: In vivo application and method comparisonMAGNETIC RESONANCE IN MEDICINE, Issue 1 2009Richard Young Abstract We have recently proposed a two-dimensional Wavelet Encoding-Spectroscopic Imaging (WE-SI) technique as an alternative to Chemical Shift Imaging (CSI), to reduce acquisition time and crossvoxel contamination in magnetic resonance spectroscopic imaging (MRSI). In this article we describe the extension of the WE-SI technique to three dimensions and its implementation on a clinical 1.5 T General Electric (GE) scanner. Phantom and in vivo studies are carried out to demonstrate the usefulness of this technique for further acquisition time reduction with low voxel contamination. In wavelet encoding, a set of dilated and translated prototype functions called wavelets are used to span a localized space by dividing it into a set of subspaces with predetermined sizes and locations. In spectroscopic imaging, this process is achieved using radiofrequency (RF) pulses with profiles resembling the wavelet shapes. Slice selective excitation and refocusing RF pulses, with single-band and dual-band profiles similar to Haar wavelets, are used in a modified PRESS sequence to acquire 3D WE-SI data. Wavelet dilation and translation are achieved by changing the strength of the localization gradients and frequency shift of the RF pulses, respectively. The desired spatial resolution in each direction sets the corresponding number of dilations (increases in the localization gradients), and consequently, the number of translations (frequency shift) of the Haar wavelets (RF pulses), which are used to collect magnetic resonance (MR) signals from the corresponding subspaces. Data acquisition time is reduced by using the minimum recovery time (TRmin), also called effective time, when successive MR signals from adjacent subspaces are collected. Inverse wavelet transform is performed on the acquired data to produce metabolite maps. The proposed WE-SI method is compared in terms of acquisition time, pixel bleed, and signal-to-noise ratio to the CSI technique. The study outcome shows that 3D WE-SI provides accurate results while reducing both acquisition time and voxel contamination. Magn Reson Med 61:6,15, 2009. © 2008 Wiley-Liss, Inc. [source] Evaluation of factors affecting individual assignment precision using microsatellite data from horse breeds and simulated breed crossesANIMAL GENETICS, Issue 4 2002G. Bjørnstad Assignment tests have been utilized to investigate population classification, measure genetic diversity and to solve forensic questions. Using microsatellite data from 26 loci genotyped in eight horse breeds we examined how population differentiation, number of scored loci, number of scored animals per breed and loci variability affected individual assignment precision applying log likelihood methods. We found that both genetic differentiation and number of scored loci were highly important for recognizing the breed of origin. When comparing two and two breeds, a proportion of 95% of the most differentiated breeds (0.200 , FST , 0.259) could be identified scoring only three loci, while the corresponding number was six for the least differentiated breeds (0.080 , FST , 0.139). An identical proportion of simulated breed crosses, differentiated from their parental breeds by FST estimates in the range 0.050,0.069, was identified when scoring 12 loci. This level of source identification was not obtained for the less differentiated breed crosses. The current data further suggested that population sample size and locus variability were not critical for the assignment precision as long as moderately large sample sizes (, 20 animals per population) and fairly variable loci were used. [source] |