BACKGROUND The heme precursors porphobilinogen (PBG) and 5-aminolevulinic acid (ALA) accumulate during overt crises of acute intermittent porphyria (AIP), and high excretion of these metabolites often continues in the asymptomatic phase. METHODS We measured concentrations of PBG and ALA and investigated the correlation between these metabolites in plasma and urine in 10 asymptomatic AIP carri...

The parabigeminal nucleus (Pbg) is a subcortical visual center that besides reciprocal connections with the superior colliculus (SC), also projects to the amygdala (Am). The Pbg-Am connection is part of a multineuronal pathway that conveys extrageniculostriate inputs of the retina to the Am, and it rapidly responds to the sources of threat before conscious detection. The present study demonstra...

In previous work we have proposed utilizing Photonic Band Gap (PBG) structures as a new class of high-energy, high-intensity accelerator cavities. We have completed extensive MAFIA numerical calculations of multicell PBG structures, with each cell consisting of a square array of metal cylinders terminated by conducting sheets and surrounded by microwave absorber on the periphery. We find that o...

This paper presents a novel photonic bandgap (PBG) structure for microwave integrated circuits. This new PBG structure is a two-dimensional square lattice with each element consisting of a metal pad and four connecting branches. Experimental results of a microstrip on a substrate with the PBG ground plane displays a broad stopband, as predicted by finite-difference time-domain simulations. Due ...

Variegate porphyria (VP) is characterized by photocutaneous lesions and acute neuropsychiatric attacks. Decreased protoporphyrinogen oxidase activity results in accumulation of protoporphyrin (ogen) IX and coproporphyrin (ogen) III. During acute attacks delta-aminolevulinic acid and porphobilinogen also increase, suggesting that porphobilinogen deaminase (PBG-D) may be rate limiting. We have ex...

In this screening method for urinary porphobilinogen (PBG), urine is added to Dowex 2 resin under alkaline conditions in a test tube and mixed. The supernate is removed and the adsorbed PBG is eluted with acid and reacted with Ehrlich's reagent. We compared results with those by the Watson-Schwartz screening method, using urine samples from normal people with and without added PBG. At a PBG con...

We present an architecture for three-dimensional photonic band-gap (PBG) material synthesis by oblique angle photoelectrochemical pore etching. This technique provides high aspect ratio pores, in which the pore diameter can be modulated by changing light intensity during the etch process. The naturally occurring "Kielovite" structure is a stretched version of the face-centered-cubic lattice of ...

We propose a frequency selective duplexer using microwave photonic band gap ~PBG! structures. It uses two different PBGs to control the propagation of electromagnetic waves in the microwave region. In this structure, an additional narrow reflection band appears in the transmission spectrum when the PBG structure is not properly located relative to the T junction. By considering multiple reflect...

Garlic (Allium sativum L., Alliaceae), Persian shallot (Allium ascalonicum L., Alliaceae ) and Sage (Salvia officinalis L., Lamiaceae) are believed to have hypoglycemic properties and have been used traditionally as antidiabetic herbal medicines in Iran. In this study, diabetes was induced by subcutaneous injection of alloxan monohydrate (100 mg kg−1) to male Wistar rats. Antidiabetic effects of...

We report the testing of a high gradient electron accelerator with a photonic-band-gap (PBG) structure. The photonic-band-gap structure confines a fundamental TM(01)-like accelerating mode, but does not support higher-order modes (HOM). The absence of HOM is a major advantage of the PBG accelerator, since it suppresses dangerous beam instabilities caused by wakefields. The PBG structure was des...