GH secretagogues are an expanding class of synthetic peptide and nonpeptide molecules that stimulate the pituitary gland to secrete GH through their own specific receptor, the GH-secretagogue receptor. The cloning of the receptor for these nonclassical GH releasing molecules, together with the more recent characterization of an endogenous ligand, named ghrelin, have unambiguously demonstrated t...

Introduction: Central pit craters occur in over 1,000 impact structures on Mars in the lowto midlatitudes and exhibit a crater-in-crater configuration [13]. Central pits also occur in impact craters on icy satellites, including Ganymede and Callisto [1], but are seldom observed on other rocky planets, so an icy origin is inferred [4]. Central pit craters thus could provide a unique window into ...

Methods to individually mark and identify free-ranging wildlife without trapping and handling would be useful for a variety of research and management purposes. The use of Passive Integrated Transponder technology could be an efficient method for collecting data for mark-recapture analysis and other strategies for assessing characteristics about populations of various wildlife species. Passive ...

Outcome-specific Pavlovian-instrumental transfer (PIT) demonstrates the way that reward-related cues influence choice between instrumental actions. The nucleus accumbens shell (NAc-S) contributes critically to this effect, particularly through its output to the rostral medial ventral pallidum (VP-m). Using rats, we investigated in two experiments the role in the PIT effect of the two major outp...

A lack of effective options in local technology poses challenges when onsite household sanitation facilities are eventually filled to capacity in unplanned settlement areas within Mzuzu City, located in northern Malawi. Vacuum trucks currently dominate the market but focus on emptying septic tanks in the more easily accessible planned settlement areas, rather than servicing the pit latrines com...

Hormonal profiles of hens in curtain side-walled high-rise deep pit and flush-waste layer houses were initiated at placement of hens in cages in August and continued through a 50 weeks long laying trial. In mid-January, a cold weather-related incident caused the rupture of water lines and flooding of the manure pits in the deep pit layer house, allowing atmospheric ammonia to rise to a high of ...

Primary intrapulmonary thymoma (PIT) is a very rare lesion of uncertain pathogenesis. PIT should be considered when the histopathological appearance of a lung tumor shows features that are uncommon but similar to those of a thymoma. In this case report, we discuss the case of a 59-year-old female with a solitary pulmonary nodule that was confirmed to be PIT on the basis of pathological tests. T...

BACKGROUND/AIMS Members of the SLC20 cotransporter family (PiT-1, PiT-2) are ubiquitously expressed in mammalian tissue and are thought to perform housekeeping functions for intracellular Pi homeostasis as well as being implicated in vascular calcification and renal Pi reabsorption. The aims of this study were to investigate the topology of a linker region in PiT-1 between the predicted 2(nd) a...

Peritoneal dissemination is the most frequent metastasis in gastric cancer and is associated with poor prognosis. The lack of particular target antigens in gastric cancer other than HER2 has hampered the development of treatments for peritoneal dissemination of gastric cancer. We hypothesized that HER2-extracellular domain (HER2-ECD) gene transduction combined with trastuzumab-based photoimmuno...

PURPOSE To describe the histopathologic findings of an eye bank specimen containing an optic nerve pit with associated serous elevation of the macula and cavernous atrophy of the optic nerve. METHODS An eye bank specimen found to have an optic nerve pit with serous elevation of the macula was grossly examined and photographed. The globe was processed for both light and scanning electron micro...