BACKGROUND Pavlovian processes are thought to play an important role in the development, maintenance and relapse of alcohol dependence, possibly by influencing and usurping ongoing thought and behavior. The influence of pavlovian stimuli on ongoing behavior is paradigmatically measured by pavlovian-to-instrumental transfer (PIT) tasks. These involve multiple stages and are complex. Whether incr...

In osteoblasts only the type III Na(+)-dependent phosphate (NaPi) transporter isoforms Pit-1 and Pit-2 have been identified. We tested the effects of extracellular Pi, Ca(2+) and IGF-I on Na(d)Pi transport and Pit-1 or Pit-2 mRNA expression in rat osteoblastic (PyMS) cells. The v(max) of Na(d)Pi transport was higher in cells kept in Pi-free, serum-free medium for 24 h than in controls at 1 mM P...

River bed sand and gravel are utilized more than mountain materials due to their availability and closeness to the transit roads and sites of usage. Excessive and non-technical extraction of gravel and sand bring a kind of interference in them, leading to many negative consequences. Therefore, presenting solutions to reduce these impacts and infilling mining pits are essential. In this researc...

Theoretical review of ‘mining pit lakes’ indicates that like natural lakes such lakes display a huge diversity. They are typically in a non-equilibrium state with respect to their surroundings. Hence, at the decommissioning phase of mining operation a detailed technical study are required on different aspects of such created water bodies considering its morphometry, geology, hydrology, water qu...

Pit Latrines and Groundwater Contamination Negative Impacts of a Popular Sanitation Method Worldwide an estimated 1.77 billion people use pit latrines as their primary mode of sanitation. With the prevalence of pit latrine use growing in developing countries, there is heightened concern about the negative impacts on drinking water. A new review assesses the known and measured environmental heal...

WHILE THE FUNCTIONS AND PURPOSES of a protein are invariant in biology, the view adopted by biologists often evolves with time sculpted by prevailing database and interpretations. PiT-2 along with its cousin PiT-1 (Na -coupled phosphate transporters of the SLC20 family) have been assigned varying roles and christened different aliases since their discovery. Although mammalian cells do not purpo...

Noise produced by blast waves can be a problem, especially when an explosion occurs near populated areas. As one means of reducing the blast noise, the explosive is detonated in a pit, a space closed at the bottom and sides, open at the top. A two-dimentional finite difference model was used to simulate such an explosion in a pit and to determine to what extent the blast wave was attenuated. Th...

TRPA1 is a calcium ion channel protein recently identified as the infrared receptor in pit organ-containing snakes. Therefore, understanding the molecular evolution of TRPA1 may help to illuminate the origin of "heat vision" in snakes and reveal the molecular mechanism of infrared sensitivity for TRPA1. To this end, we sequenced the infrared sensory gene TRPA1 in 24 snake species, representing ...