It is claimed that frequency of individual words may not be sufficient to predict the likelihood of a particular word being affected by a phonetic process: Given two environments that can equally trigger phonetic change, the same lexical item may be more likely to undergo change in one environment than in another, depending on how frequently the environment is associated with that item. An ongo...

AIMS Functional tests have demonstrated minimal loss of vaginal closure force with age. So we tested the null hypotheses that age neither affects the maximum cross-sectional area (CSA) nor the volume of the levator muscle. Corresponding hypotheses were also tested in the adjacent obturator internus muscle, which served as a control for the effect of age on appendicular muscle in these women. ...

PURPOSE It is still unclear whether the longitudinal anal muscles or conjoint longitudinal coats (CLCs) are attached to the vagina, although such an attachment, if present, would appear to make an important contribution to the integrated supportive system of the female pelvic floor. MATERIALS AND METHODS Using immunohistochemistry for smooth muscle actin, we examined semiserial frontal sectio...

PURPOSE We recently demonstrated the morphology of the anococcygeal ligament. As the anococcygeal ligament and raphe are often confused, the concept of the anococcygeal raphe needs to be re-examined from the perspective of fetal development, as well as in terms of adult morphology. MATERIALS AND METHODS We examined the horizontal sections of 15 fetuses as well as adult histology. From cadaver...

Bromoperoxidases from the brown alga Ascophyllum nodosum, abbreviated as V(Br)PO(AnI) and V(Br)PO(AnII), show 41% sequence homology and differ by a factor of two in the percentage of α-helical secondary structures. Protein monomers organize into homodimers for V(Br)PO(AnI) and hexamers for V(Br)PO(AnII). Bromoperoxidase II binds hydrogen peroxide and bromide by approximately one order of magnit...