Introduction of early amniocentesis to routine prenatal diagnosis

With growing awareness of the problems associated with prenatal cytogenetic diagnoses after CVS, attempts have been made to provide early amniocentesis as an alternative to CVS. Since 1990, at our clinic the gestational age limit for routine diagnostic amniocentesis has been successively lowered, first to 14 and then to 13 weeks of gestation. Thus, 811 prenatal diagnoses were performed after early amniocentesis at 13 weeks (n = 217) and at 14 weeks of gestation (n = 594). No problems were encountered. Culture failure was never observed in the early samples. Using the criteria ‘number of colonies’ and ‘culture duration until harvest’, early samples taken at 14 weeks did not differ significantly from the controls after standard amniocentesis performed at 15 and 16 weeks, respectively, whereas a minority of samples taken at 13 weeks experienced some delay in culturing. However, in each group at least 85 per cent of samples led to a diagnosis fulfilling our standard criteria of a safe diagnosis (at least 20 metaphases of at least five colonies from at least one primary culture after trypsinization) within 15 days. Some differences between the different groups can be recognized: culture duration of less than 11 days tends to be increasing after standard amniocentesis, whereas long culture duration (more than 20 days) is more often associated with early amniocentesis. However, this trend is only minimal and did not result in an increased risk of missing a diagnosis.     

林丹(γ-六六六)在土壤中的吸附性与其在土壤和小麦中残留量的关系

本文利用~(14)C—林丹研究了γ-六六六在不同土壤中的吸附性及其在土壤和小麦中残留量的关系。试验表明,γ-六六六在土壤中的吸附率与土壤中的有机质含量、可萃取铝含量和酸性等均有密切关系。同时,环境温度对吸附率也有一定影响。通过~(14)C—林丹在不同土壤和小麦植株中残留量的测定,证明土壤中γ-六六六的吸附率、小麦对土壤中r-六六六的吸收率以及γ-六六六在土壤和小麦中的残留量相互之间均有明显的相关性。为此,本研究不仅摸清了某些影响土壤吸附γ-六六六和小麦吸收γ-六六六的理化因子,同时,对用土壤某些理化性质的测定值来预测栽培试验时土壤和小麦中六六六的残留水平提供了一个途径。     

characteristics of PM2.5 in rural areas of southern Jiangsu Province, China

Introduction Anumberofstudiesabroadhavedemonstratedthat atmosphericfineparticulatematter(PM2.5,dp<2.5μm)is notonlyassociatedwithatmosphericvisibilityreductionbut alsohasaclearcorrelationwiththenumberofdailydeathsandhospitalizationsasaconsequenceofpulmonarydisease(Chan,1997;Christoforous,2000;Schwartz,1996;Wilson,1997).On18July,1997,theU.S.EnvironmentalProtectionAgency(USEPA)promulgatednewandsevere standardsforfineparticulates(PM2.5)withthesizebelow2.5μm(15μg m3asannualaverage,65μg m…     

Optical Imaging of Odor-Evoked Glomerular Activity Patterns in the Antennal Lobes of the Ant Camponotus rufipes

 Ants have a well developed olfactory sense, which they need both for the perception of environmental chemicals, and for a highly sophisticated intraspecific communication system based on pheromones. The question arises therefore as to how different odors are coded in the antennal lobe, the first central neuropil to process olfactory information. We measured odor-evoked activity patterns using in vivo neuropil calcium recording in the antennal lobe of the ant Camponotus rufipes. We found that (a) odors elicit focal activity spots (diameter ca. 20 μm) which most probably represent the olfactory glomeruli; (b) different odors are coded in odor specific patterns of such activated spots, and a particular spot can participate in the pattern for different odors; (c) calcium increased in the activated spots within the 2-s stimulation period and slowly declined thereafter. Received: 10 March 1999 / Accepted in revised form: 5 July 1999     

Metamorphic evolution of eclogite and associated garnet-mica schist in the high-pressure metamorphic Maksyutov complex, Ural, Russia

Metasedimentary garnet-mica schists are interlayered with metabasic garnet–omphacite schists and enclose eclogite boudins in the high-pressure metamorphic Maksyutov complex in the Southern Urals, Russia. These three rock types were investigated in one outcrop and compared chemographically and thermobarometrically. The Fe/Mg distributions between garnet rim–omphacite and garnet rim–phengite pairs indicate different equilibration temperatures for the three samples, with the lowest temperature (500°C, >1.5 GPa) for the eclogite boudin, an intermediate temperature (630°C, >1.7 GPa) for the foliated eclogite and the highest temperature (650°C, >1.7 GPa) for the garnet-mica schist. The garnets in garnet-mica schist enclose abundant chloritoid relics and the Fe/Mg distribution between chloritoid and garnet records an earlier high-temperature stage (650°C, >2.0 GPa) before the garnet rim–phengite temperatures were reached. Together with some minimum- and maximum-pressure estimates three different prograde pressure–temperature paths and a common retrograde metamorphic evolution are interpreted from the chemographic and thermobarometric data. The different early metamorphic evolutions and conditions confirm the variability of protoliths, which are also indicated by different U/Pb zircon and rutile ages.     

The effect of octopamine on behavioral responses of free-foraging bumblebees to a change in food source profitability

The invertebrate neuromodulator octopamine is known to be involved in bees' associative learning, enhancing the responsiveness of a bee to a conditioned stimulus. In this study, we tested the effect of octopamine on the choice behavior of free-flying bumblebees using a two-phase experiment in an array of artificial flowers. During the first phase of the experiment, the bee was allowed to collect octopamine-laden sugar water from two types of equally rewarding flowers (yellow versus blue). In the second phase, one type of flower was set to be unrewarding. The behavior of the bee (proportion of visits to the unrewarding flowers) over the two phases was fitted to a sigmoid regression model. Our results show that octopamine had no significant effect on the bees' equilibrium choice or on the overall rate of the behavioral change in response to the change in reward. Rather, octopamine significantly affected the time interval between the change in reward status and the initiation of behavioral change in the bee.     

Quantification of human amniotic fluid constituents by high resolution proton nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy

We have investigated the ability of high-resolution proton NMR spectroscopy to provide a biochemical constituent screening of human amniotic fluid (AF). Proton NMR spectra were obtained at 300 MHz on AF from patients undergoing amniocentesis in the mid-trimester. Only AF from normal pregnancies (normal fetal karyotype, normal a-fetoprotein levels, normal birth outcome) was used in this study. The AF supernatant was lyophilized and resuspended in deuterated water containing 0.1 mm phosphate buffer and 6.02 mm disodium maleate. Identification of low molecular weight compounds was confirmed by two-dimensional NMR spectra (primarily correlated spectroscopy, or COSY) and standard addition techniques. A broad profile of compounds were ‘NMR visible’ in a single proton spectrum, including creatinine, glucose, organic acids (acetate, citrate, and lactate) and several amino acids (alanine, histidine, leucine, phenylalanine, tyrosine and valine). The proton spectrum was unaffected by prior freezing/thawing of AF samples. We were able to quantify compounds by comparison with an added concentration standard (maleate) at concentrations as low as 30 μm. Good agreement with literature values based on other analytical techniques was obtained.