Chemotaxis of porcine spirochetes towards a variety of mucins was measured quantitatively by a capillary method. A chemotaxis buffer consisting of 0.01 M potassium phosphate buffer (pH 7.0) and 0.2 mM L-cysteine hydrochloride was necessary for chemotaxis of spirochetes. The optimum incubation time and incubation temperature were 1 h and 40 degrees C, respectively. The mucin concentration also a...

We previously identified 18 stimulatory Chlamydia trachomatis major outer membrane protein (MOMP) peptides containing at least 23 epitopes presented with various HLA class II allotypes. Only one peptide contained an epitope localized in a variable segment (VS2). Continued studies reported here identified a total of five VS peptides containing T-cell epitopes that are distributed among MOMPs VS1...

Neurons in the visual system of the blowfly have large receptive fields that are selective for specific optic flow fields. Here, we studied the neural mechanisms underlying flow-field selectivity in proximal Vertical System (VS)-cells, a particular subset of tangential cells in the fly. These cells have local preferred directions that are distributed such as to match the flow field occurring du...

The aims of the present study were to assess the effects of cysteamine as an anti-oxidant on the rate of in vitro maturation (IVM) of buffalo oocytes (experiment 1), and their viability and nuclear status following vitrification (experiment 2). Immature oocytes with compact cumulus cells obtained from the ovaries of slaughtered animals were harvested and then cultured in the maturation medium w...

1. The structure of one class of giant tangential neurons in the lobula plate of Calliphora, the `Vertical System (VS)' has been investigated by light microscopy. Different staining and reconstruction procedures were employed to ensure that all existing VS-neurons are revealed. 2. There are 11 VS-cells in a characteristic, and constant arrangement (Fig. 2). Each cell covers a particular area of...

or, in vector notation, Cs = Xsβ1 + Zsβ s 2 + Vs, where Cs = [Cs1, . . . , CsT ] ′ is T × 1, Xs = [xs1, . . . , xsT ] ′ is T ×k1, Zs = [zs1, . . . , zsT ]′ is T ×k2, and Vs = [vs1, . . . , vsT ]′ is T ×1. Also, let xsth be the h th element of xst so that x ′ st = [xst1, . . . , xstk1 ], and define zsth similarly. Define v̈st = vst − z′ st(Z ′ sZs)Z ′ sVs, ẍst = xst − z′ st(Z ′ sZs)Z ′ sXs, V̈s = ...