Peristaltic waves of the ureteric smooth muscles move urine down from the kidney, a process that is commonly defective in congenital diseases. To study the mechanisms that control the initiation and direction of contractions, we used video microscopy and optical mapping techniques and found that electrical and contractile waves began in a region where the renal pelvis joined the connective tiss...

Considerable evidence indicates a critical role for dopamine in the reinforcing effects of cocaine. Because dopamine has been shown to be a critical modulator of gap junction communication in both eye and brain, we sought to examine whether extended intravenous cocaine self-administration would affect the expression of gap junction channel-forming proteins (connexins). Using ELISA, Western anal...

RNA-seq is a reference technology for determining alternative splicing at genome-wide level. Exon arrays remain widely used for the analysis of gene expression, but show poor validation rate with regard to splicing events. Commercial arrays that include probes within exon junctions have been developed in order to overcome this problem. We compare the performance of RNA-seq (Illumina HiSeq) and ...

The commercialization of GE crops requires a rigorous safety assessment, which includes precise DNA level characterization inserted T-DNA. In the past, several strategies have been developed for identifying T-DNA insertion sites including, Southern blot and different PCR-based methods. However, these methods are often challenging to scale up screening dozens transgenic events with complex genom...

Gauge invariant extended configurations are considered for 3 fundamental (quarks) or adjoint (gluons) particles. For 3 quarks it is proved that the only possible gauge-invariant configuration is the Y-shaped one, proposed long ago, while the triangular one proposed recently is ruled out. For adjoint sources both configurations are possible. Static potential is computed in all cases. For baryons...

Five women and 3 men (29.8 +/- 1.4 yr) performed dynamic knee-extension exercise inside a magnetic resonance system (means +/- SE). Two trials were performed 7-14 days apart, consisting of a 4- to 5-min exhaustive exercise bout. To determine quadriceps cost of contraction, brief static and dynamic contractions were performed pre- and postexercise. (31)P spectra were used to determine pH and rel...

Surface passivation is critical for effective PCR using silicon-glass chips. We tested a dynamic polymer-based surface passivation method. Polyethylene glycol 8000 (PEG 8000) or polyvinylpyrrolidone 40 (PVP-40) applied at 0.75% (w/v) in the reaction mixture produced significant surface passivation effects using either native or SiO2-precoated silicon-glass chips. PCR amplification was achieved ...

In the current letter, we study isotropic static spherically symmetric gravastars without charge under framework of braneworld gravity (dimensionally reduced RS-II with positive brane tension) using metric potential Kuchowicz type (which is physically acceptable, non-singular and stable) in Mazur-Motolla conjuncture. We derived free parameters from junction conditions assuming Schwarzschild vac...