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The female reproductive tract (female-RT) must decipher the repertoire of molecular cues received from the male during copulation in order to activate and coordinate tract functionality necessary for high fertility. In Drosophila, this modulation is partially driven by spermathecal secretory cells (SSC). The SSC are a layer of cuboidal secretory glandular cells surrounding the spermatheca capsule where sperm is stored. It is unclear, however, how the SSC regulate the system's activity. Here we show that mating activates the secretory machinery of the SSC. The SSC release a heterogeneous population of extracellular vesicles (EVs) which is involved in initiating and managing the increase in egg-laying, and possibly sperm storage. Moreover, sperm and male accessory gland proteins are essential for such mating-mediated SSC activity. Thus, mating regulates secretory/endocytic pathways required for trafficking of vesicles to SSC-female-RT target sites, which modulate and coordinate reproductive tract activity to achieve high fertility., (© 2022. The Author(s).)

Purpose: To determine if the timing of mitomycin C (MMC) application during pterygium surgery affects endothelial cell loss., Methods: A retrospective, nonrandomized, case-series design was used. The study group included 40 patients who underwent pterygium surgery with the bare sclera technique. MMC 0.02% was applied intraoperatively for 5 minutes, either before (16 patients) or after (24 patients) excision of the head of the pterygium. Endothelial images were acquired at the center of the cornea with a specular microscope before surgery and at 3 intervals during follow-up (average of 3 measurements each). Differences in cell loss from baseline were analyzed by paired t test., Results: In the group in which MMC was applied post excision, mean preoperative endothelial cell count was 2254 +/- 128 cells per square millimeter. Mean postoperative values were 1775 +/- 63 cells per square millimeter at 1 week (percentage cell loss, 21.25% +/- 2.8%), 1707 +/- 41 cells per square millimeter at 1 month (24.26% +/- 1.8%), and 1780 +/- 72 cells per square millimeter at 3 months (21.05% +/- 3.2%). The difference in cell count from the preoperative value was significant at all time points (P < 0.02). In the group in which MMC was applied before excision, mean preoperative endothelial cell count was 2352 +/- 118 cells per square millimeter, and mean postoperative values were 2345 +/- 120 cell per square millimeter at 1 week, 2260 +/- 162 cells per square millimeter at 1 month, and 2230 +/- 144 cells per square millimeter at 3 months. No endothelial cell loss was documented in this group., Conclusion: The endothelial cell loss associated with the use of MMC during pterygium surgery might be avoided by applying MMC before excision of the pterygium head, so that it does not come into contact with the corneal surface.

Objective: To investigate the coordination among hand movement, ground forces, and muscle activity in standing stroke patients reaching forward and lifting an object from a table., Design: Survey., Setting: Research laboratory., Patients: Eight stroke patients and 8 persons serving as controls., Main Outcome Measure: Symmetry of percentage of body weight (BW) during initial standing, velocity and hand path trajectory, ankle muscle electromyography. Temporal and spatial parameters in percentage of movement time were recorded by using 2 forceplates, 3-dimensional kinematics, and surface electromyography. Motor function, sensory function, and functional performance were also assessed., Results: Weight distribution during initial standing was significantly higher (57.4% +/- 8.1% BW) on the nonparetic leg. All subjects had preserved the preparatory loading phase, and after onset of hand movement loading shifted to the contralateral leg. Ankle muscle activity onset (lateral gastrocnemius [LG]) occurred after loading. In stroke subjects, LG was consistently activated first in the nonparetic leg, regardless of which arm performed the task. During paretic hand task, the reaching phase was significantly longer and the lifting phase significantly shorter compared with that of the nonparetic hand task and with that of the controls. In the paretic task, the hand path velocity was not bell-shaped; the object lifting was., Conclusions: Stroke subjects preserve the coordination between ground forces and hand movement. The lack of spontaneous use of the paretic hand is primarily caused by difficulties of planning the hand trajectory in space, as reflected by temporal and spatial parameters during task performance.

In differential diagnosis of a delir also adverse effects of medicaments have to be taken into account beside other causes. We report a case of an agitated delir with nocturnal disturbance of consciousness, confusion, restlessness and sleeplessness. This delir existed exclusively during the therapy of a cutaneous herpes zoster with zovirax-pills which can only be explained by a causal connection--after exclusion of other causes. As a so far undescribed predisposition for neurotoxicity of oral therapy with acyclovir signs of vascular encephalopathy were found in the patient's cranial magnetic resonance imaging. The central nervous side effects of acyclovir were summarized shortly.

When an object held by a precision gripis subjected to an abrupt vertical load perturbation, somatosensory input from the digits triggers an increase in grip force to restore an adequate safety margin, preventing frictional slips. In adults the response occurs after a latency of 60-80 ms. In the present study, children from 2 years old upward and adults grasped and lifted an object using a precision grip. Sudden, unpredicted increases in load force (tangential to the grip surfaces) were induced by the experimenter by dropping a small disc on to a receptacle attached to the object. The impact elicited a grip force response which in young children had a longer latency and a smaller amplitude than was seen in adults. The grip response latency gradually become shorter and its amplitude increased with increasing age, reaching adult values at 6-10 years. The muscle activity underlying the response could have several bursts. The adults showed one brisk response, appearing 40-50 ms after impact, in extrinsic and intrinsic hand muscles, while younger children also exhibited a short-latency burst, appearing about 20 ms after impact. It is suggested that the short-latency response was mediated via spinal pathways, and that these pathways are disengaged by supraspinal centers during development. In a predictable loading situation, when subjects dropped the disc themselves into the receptable using the contralateral hand, they changed strategy. Adults induced a well-timed anticipatory grip force increase prior to the impact that was scaled to the weight of the object. The youngest children did not time the force increase properly in relation to the impact. Yet, they could scale their anticipatory grip force increase with respect to the weight of the dropped disc. This suggests a well-developed capacity to use information about the weight of objects held by one hand to parameterize a programmed force output to the other hand.

The proteins encoded by cellular and viral src genes are believed to be involved in the transmission of mitogenic signals, the nuclear recipients of which are largely unknown. In this work, we report that four different v-src-transformed cell lines from three different species possess elevated levels of junB transcripts. Transient expression of junB promoter-chloramphenicol acetyltransferase constructs in NIH 3T3 cells was used to demonstrate that the increase in junB transcripts was specifically associated with v-src expression and could not be recapitulated with a c-src, v-H-ras, or v-raf expression vector. Deletion mutants were used to localize the v-src-responsive region in the junB promoter to a 121-nucleotide region encompassing the CCAAT and TATAA elements. This region is distinct from one in the 5' untranslated region of the junB gene which is required to maintain its high-level basal expression. Point mutagenesis of the junB TATAA box completely abolished v-src responsiveness, suggesting that proteins which bind to this element are modified by src transformation. Several v-src and c-src mutants were used to demonstrate that elevated tyrosine kinase activity of src proteins is required for the observed effects on junB expression. Finally, homology between the TATAA box regions of junB and the unrelated but src-responsive gene 9E3/CEF-4 suggests that modulation of gene activity through proteins which bind to this region may be a recurrent, although not exclusive, theme in src transforming action. Our results suggest that src proteins may modulate some nuclear effectors through pathways not involving cellular ras or raf gene products.

"Hooliganism" is a phenomenon born in the motherland of football: England. But nowadays we all are the non-volunteer spectators of this subculture form of violence and vandalism across the European continent, e.g. in Belgium, the Netherlands, the Federal Republic of Germany and so on. This article is an introduction into the West German Hooligan Scene to learn more about the social, sociological, psychological, criminal backgrounds, characters and causes for a better understanding to solve this multifunctional problem: by police, society and policy.

Campylobacter pylori strains were isolated and serum samples were obtained from 63 patients. Immunoblots of 52 patients sera using their own isolates as antigen showed a 120 kDa band, which was missing in the other 11 isolates and the respective sera. This band was not detected in other Campylobacter species. Effects of trypsin treatment of bacteria and absorption of sera by live organisms suggest a C. pylori-specific surface protein.