This study was performed to evaluate the effects of fibroblast co-culture on in vitro maturation (IVM) of prepubertal mouse preantral follicles. The intact preantral follicles were obtained from the ovaries of 12-14 day old mice and these were cultured individually in α-minimal essential medium (α-MEM) supplemented with 5% fetal bovine serum (FBS), 100 mIU/Ml recombinant follicle stimulating ho...

In this study, the distribution of macrolide resistance mechanisms was determined for isolates of Streptococcus pneumoniae and Streptococcus pyogenes obtained from the PROTEKT 1999-2000 study (a global, longitudinal study of the antibacterial susceptibility of bacterial pathogens associated with community-acquired lower respiratory tract infections). The global macrolide resistance mechanism di...

To investigate the determinants of maximal expiratory flow (MEF) with aging, 17 younger (7 men and 10 women, 39 +/- 4 yr, mean +/- SD) and 19 older (11 men and 8 women, 69 +/- 3 yr) subjects with normal pulmonary function were studied. For further comparison, we also studied 10 middle-aged men with normal lung function (54 +/- 6 yr) and 15 middle-aged men (54 +/- 7 yr) with mild chronic airflow...

The inconsistency of efficiency in murine embryonic stem cell (ESC) production might be associated with the differences in preparation and cryopreservation of the feeder cell layer. As the cryopreservation of mouse embryonic fibroblast (MEF) declined the quality of MEF as feeder cell layer, an effective protocol should be determined to produce murine ESC on frozen-thawed feeder cell layer as ef...

Bone has a built-in electric field because of the presence of piezoelectric collagen. To date, only externally applied electric fields have been used to direct cell behavior; however, these fields are not safe or practical for in vivo use. In this work, for the first time, we use a periodic microscale electric field (MEF) built into a titanium implant to induce osteogenesis. Such a MEF is gener...

Erythromycin-resistant isolates of Streptococcus pneumoniae from blood cultures and noninvasive sites were studied over a 3-year period. The prevalence of erythromycin resistance was 11.9% (19 of 160) in blood culture isolates but 4.2% (60 of 1,435) in noninvasive-site isolates. Sixty-two of the 79 resistant isolates were available for study. The M phenotype was responsible for 76% (47 of 62) o...

Metal-enhanced fluorescence (MEF) and delayed fluorescence (alpha α-S1) studies of acriflavin have been undertaken using steady-state and time-resolved fluorescence measurements on silver island films (SiFs) supporting a thin poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA) polymer film. Nearly a 3.5-fold enhancement in the far-field fluorescence intensity of acriflavin is observed coupled with a decrease in decay ti...

This experiment was conducted to investigate the effects of microencapsulted Enterococcus faecalis (MEF) and the extract of Camellia oleifera seed (ECOS) on growth performance, immune functions, and serum biochemical parameters in broiler chickens. A total of 240 1-d-old male broilers were randomly allotted into 6 treatments with 8 replicates/ treatment and 5 broilers in each cage. The dietary ...