Of late, new insight into the study of random k-SAT formulae has been gained from the introduction of a concept inspired by models of physics, the ‘backbone’ of a SAT formula which corresponds to the variables having a fixed truth value in all assignments satisfying the maximum number of clauses. In the present paper, we show that this concept, already invaluable from a theoretical viewpoint in...

The aim of this study was to evaluate adverse effects of multiwalled carbon nanotubes (MWCNT), produced for industrial purposes, on the human epithelial cell line A549. MWCNT were dispersed in dipalmitoyl lecithin (DPL), a component of pulmonary surfactant, and the effects of dispersion in DPL were compared to those in two other media: ethanol (EtOH) and phosphate-buffered saline (PBS). Effects...

Several lines of prion protein gene (Prnp)-knockout mice such as ZrchI, ZrchII, Npu, Ngsk and Rcm0 have been generated. Of these, ZrchII, Ngsk and Rcm0 exhibit late-onset ataxia due to ectopic expression of Doppel (Dpl); a result of damage to the splicing acceptor of Prnp exon 3. Recently, we developed another line of Prnp-/- mice (Rikn), which was generated by gene targeting with more nucleoti...

We examined the influence of ecological (diet, swamp use, and rainfall) and social (intergroup interaction rate) factors on ranging behavior in one group of western gorillas (Gorilla gorilla gorilla) during a 16-month study. Relative to mountain gorillas, western gorillas live in habitats with reduced herb densities, more readily available fruit (from seasonal and rare fruit trees), and, at som...

Following a CNS lesion many glial cell types proliferate and/or migrate to the lesion site, forming the glial scar. The majority of these cells express chondroitin sulphate proteoglycans (CS-PGs), previously shown to inhibit axonal growth. In this study, in an attempt to diminish glial scar formation and improve axonal regeneration, proliferating cells were eliminated from the lesion site. Adul...

Neurons which lose part of their input respond with a compensatory increase in excitatory synaptic strength. This observation is of particular interest in the context of neurological diseases, which are accompanied by the loss of neurons and subsequent denervation of connected brain regions. However, while the cellular and molecular mechanisms of pharmacologically induced homeostatic synaptic p...

Antioxidant activity was evaluated in six Indian cultivars of lentil (Lens culanaris L.) viz. L-4076, L-4594, L-4147, DPL 15, DPL 62, and IPL 406. Three solvents, 70% ethanol, 100% methanol and 80% acetone, were used for preparation of seed extract. The seed extract was tested for total phenolic content, total flavonoid content and antioxidant activity by FRAP assay. The results showed that val...

Discriminative dictionary learning (DL) has been widely studied in various pattern classification problems. Most of the existing DL methods aim to learn a synthesis dictionary to represent the input signal while enforcing the representation coefficients and/or representation residual to be discriminative. However, the `0 or `1-norm sparsity constraint on the representation coefficients adopted ...

Diffuse pulmonary lymphangiomatosis (DPL) is a rare lymphatic disorder characterized by uncontrolled proliferation of lymphatic vessels. Histologically benign, however, it can lead to death because of its progression. In this paper, we would like to present an unusual case of diffuse pulmonary lymphangiomatosis involving a 28-year-old young female who was suffered chest pain and polypnea for on...

OBJECTIVES To evaluate the Sonosite 180 handheld ultrasound in the diagnosis of haemoperitoneum in blunt abdominal trauma. METHODS Trauma ultrasound using the Focused Assessment with Sonar for Trauma (FAST) technique was performed using the Sonosite 180 handheld ultrasound during the primary survey of adult patients triaged to the resuscitation room with multiple trauma or suspected abdominal...