All subjects were tested for serum levels of cortisol, prolactin, testosterone, and thyroid hormones. Patients were medication-free. Patients had elevated prolactin and cortisol and reduced serum testosterone relative to control subjects. Depressed patients had higher cortisol levels than nondepressed. Data suggest
that the effects of epilepsy and depression on cortisol, but not other hormones, may be additive. (The Journal of Neuropsychiatry and Clinical Neurosciences 2011; 23: selleck screening library 163-167)”
“The rheology of crude and purified barley (BBG) and oat (OBG) beta glucan samples were characterized Sample content and major impurities was characterized by Fourier-transform near infrared Raman and infrared (FT-IR) spectroscopy revealing substantial differences between the beta glucan samples The purification procedure increased the beta-glucan content from 667 to 82 4% and from 30 1 to 684% for BBG and OBG respectively Proton nuclear magnetic resonance ((1)H NMR) analysis was applied to estimate the beta-(1 -> 3) to beta (1 -> 4) linkage ratio of the beta-glucans
The molar mass of BBC and OBG was determined by high performance size-exclusion chromatography (HPSEC) using beta glucan standards and was found to be 126 and 355 kDa respectively The viscosity of crude and purified beta-glucans was studied at various Dibutyryl-cAMP purchase concentrations (2 5 5% w/v) temperatures (10-80 C) and shear selleck kinase inhibitor rates (1-100 s(-1)) BBG was characterized as
a low viscosity p-glucan with Newtonian flow behavior while OBG was characterized as a high viscosity beta-glucan with shear thinning flow behavior At equivalent beta-glucan concentration in solutions the viscosity for OBG was found to be similar to 100 fold higher than for BBG A direct viscosity dependence on exact beta-glucan content regardless of amount and composition of et glucan impurities was found for both OBG and BBG This study suggests that the structural characteristics of the beta-glucan polymers such as molar mass are of greater functional importance than the presence of lager amounts of starch/alpha-dextrins as long as the beta-glucan samples are compared at equivalent beta glucan doses (C) 2010 Elsevier Ltd All rights reserved”
“We analyzed age-related changes in motor response in a visuomotor compensatory tracking task. Subjects used a manipulandum to attempt to keep a displayed cursor at the center of a screen despite random perturbations to its location. Cross-correlation analysis of the perturbation and the subject response showed no age-related increase in latency until the onset of response to the perturbation, but substantial slowing of the response itself. Results are consistent with age-related deterioration in the ratio of signal to noise in visuomotor response. The task is such that it is tractable to use Bayesian and quadratic optimality assumptions to construct a model for behavior.