Focus of Interest

Among vertebrate species, the neuro-endocrine-immime system is responsible for many complex, inter-related physiological processes including neuronal, homeostatic, reproductive and immune functions. There are four main types of hormone polypeptides, eicosanoids, steroids and thyroid hormones. Reflecting the inter-dependency of the neiiro-endocrine and immune systems, hormones, neuropeptides and other neiirotransmitters are known to be produced by some immune cells and play a role in the regulation of the immune system, while endocrine and nervous tissues express receptors for many substances produced by the immune system. The major focus of interest in endocrine disruption has... 

The human-machine interface (usually abbreviated to interface) is a major focus of interest for the HF/E approach to the reduction of human error. A representation of the interface in a CPI context is provided in Figure 2.2. The interface is the boimdary across which information from the process is transduced by sensors and then displayed in a form that can be utilized by the... 

It appears that chromium(III) is an essential trace element in mammalian metabolism and, together with insulin, is responsible for the clearance of glucose from the blood-stream. Tungsten too has been found to have a role in some enzymes converting CO2 into formic acid but, from the point of view of biological activity, the focus of interest in this group is unquestionably on molybdenum. 

Because of the differing focus of interest in these elements their chemistries have not developed in parallel and the data on which strict comparisons might be based are not always available. Nevertheless many of the similarities and contrasts expected in the chemistry of transition elements are evident in this triad. The relative stabilities of different oxidation states in aqueous, acidic solutions are summarized in Table 24.2 and Fig. 24.1. 

Another aspect of this state of affairs is that all periods repeat once, with the exception of the first period of just two elements, to produce the sequence of 2, 8, 8, 18, 18, 32, etc. The focus of interest thus turns to whether the Madelung rule itself can be strictly deduced from theory, a theme that is taken up in later papers in this collection. 

Finally, the cerebellum has recently become a focus of interest in the context of the pathophysiology of ADHD and as a possible target for psychostimulants since it is not only important for motor coordination but also for processing cognitive situations. 

Persistent organic pollutants (POP) and heavy metals were in the focus of interest until the begiiming of the 1990s and intensive monitoring programs and ecotoxico-logical studies had been conducted. As a result, due to adoption of appropriate measures and elimination of the dominant pollution sources a drastic reduction of emission of these nonpolar hazardous compounds have been achieved and today these compounds are less relevant for the industrialized countries. 

If the focus of interest is on the carbon clusters themselves, then of course no substitute system can be used. However, for studying the convergence of properties towards bulk values one can minimize the termination effects by saturating the dangling bonds in the simplest possible way, i.e. with hydrogen. By that approach one can both avoid the problem of handling an excessive number of open shells, and obtain a series of molecules that converge towards bulk properties more smoothly than the bare carbon clusters. 

The outer crust of earth has provided the solid foundation for the evolution of human beings, who are the prime focus of interest and concern to archaeology. The main components of this crust are minerals and rocks, some consolidated and others occurring as sediments, nonconsolidated deposits, created by weathering processes from the minerals and rocks. All these minerals, rocks, and sediments, as well as everything else in the universe, are made up from just over 100 chemical elements listed in Appendix I. Most of the elements in the crust of the earth occur in extremely low relative amounts, and only a few, listed in Table 1, make up almost 99% of its total bulk (Bloom 1969). 

In contrast to the allyl system, where the reduction of an isolated double bond is investigated, the reduction of extensively delocalized aromatic systems has been in the focus of interest for some time. Reduction of the systems with alkali metals in aprotic solvents under addition of effective cation-solvation agents affords initially radical anions that have found extensive use as reducing agents in synthetic chemistry. Further reduction is possible under formation of dianions, etc. Like many of the compounds mentioned in this article, the anions are extremely reactive, and their intensive studies were made possible by the advancement of low temperature X-ray crystallographic methods (including crystal mounting techniques) and advanced synthetic capabilities. 

Reports that AA is released primarily by G-protein-mediated PLA2 activation remain to be confirmed [84, 85]. In addition, modulation of PLA2 by Ca2+ and protein kinase needs to be better defined. It is clear that NMDA receptor activation promotes the release of AA [86], and that a variety of eicosanoids are then generated (Fig 33-2,33-3). The modulatory events that channel AA towards specific eicosanoids are not understood. The endocannabinoid family of lipid messengers will remain an active focus of interest because of the growing evidence of their actions in synaptic function, learning, memory, and other forms of behavior [56,87]. 

While great attention has been paid to conformational380 and, more recently, geometric isomerism, structural isomerism has strangely remained out of the focus of interest. Here, we shall show that structural isomerism may be the type of isomerism which is easiest to understand and will formulate simple predictive rules. 

As the enzyme itself is usually the focus of interest, information on the behavior of that enzyme can be obtained by incubating the enzyme with a suitable substrate under appropriate conditions. A suitable substrate in this context is one which can be quantified by an available detection system (often absorbance or fluorescence spectroscopy, radiometry or electrochemistry), or one which yields a product that is similarly detectable. In addition, if separation of substrate from product is necessary before quantification (for example, in radioisotopic assays), this should be readily achievable. It is preferable, although not always possible, to measure the appearance of product, rather than the disappearance of substrate, because a zero baseline is theoretically possible in the former case, improving sensitivity and resolution. Even if a product (or substrate) is not directly amenable to an available detection method, it maybe possible to derivatize the product with a chemical species to form a detectable adduct, or to subject a product to a second enzymatic step (known as a coupled assay, discussed further later) to yield a detectable product. But, regardless of whether substrate, product, or an adduct of either is measured, the parameter we are interested in determining is the initial rate of change of concentration, which is determined from the initial slope of a concentration versus time plot. 

Lloyd Matter had placed remotely controllable cameras in the clinical area. He also mounted one on a tall, specially constructed TV tower just outside. It provided excellent telephoto views of the guard gate, foxhole, approaching helicopter or smoke grenade, depending on the focus of interest. Two monitors in the second MUST unit provided audio and video coverage of both indoor and outdoor activities for the observers. 

Transformations of molecules containing strained moieties like cyclopropyl and cyclobutyl rings have been the focus of interest not only from a synthetic point of view but also because of mechanistic considerations [49-52],... 

The magnitude of the effect expected on the primary efficacy endpoint - for between-group studies, the focus of interest is the level of difference that constitutes a clinically significant effect note that this may not be the same as a statistically significant effect. 

All this is true both for low molecular weight compounds and for polymers. However, relevant differences are found not only in specific structural features, but also in the different intent with which the analysis is carried out. In common otganic stereochemistry, attention is essentially on reactivity Many aspects of regio- or stereoselectivity, as weU as reaction rate, can be explained or predicted in terms of conformation. In contrast, in polymers, the focus of interest is almost always on the physical (or mechanical) properties. It should not be forgotten that polymers are principally used as materials (plastics, fibers, elastomers, etc.) and that their properties are sometimes modified during fabrication. The fabri-cation process may induce the formation of particular structures at the molecular and supetmolecular level, which can often be traced back to conformational factors. 

MCRs of Hantzsch and Biginelli-types with participation of aldehydes, aminoa-zoles, and cyclic CH-acids, first of all 1,3-diketones and Meldrum acid, as well as the treatments discussed in the previous sub-chapter, are in the focus of interest due to high biological activity of their products. However, on the other hand, in many cases these processes can give several final heterocycles with different position or regiodirection. Moreover, sometimes for the same reactions carried out under similar conditions contradictory facts were published with high level of credibility. 

Selectivity for the methylene group has been mostly the focus of interest and was determined by a host of investigators. Data obtained by Karger et al. (148) we shown in Fig. 26. It is seen that the selectivity is a linear ftinction of the solvent composition, when water-methanol mixtures are used as the mobile phase, and decreases with the water content of the eluent. The linearity characteristic of methanol mixtures is absent in the data for water-acetonitrile and water-acetone mixtures but again... 

Another major focus of interest for the investigation of anxiety disorders is the monoamine neurotransmitter serotonin (5-HT see also chapter by Mohler et al., this volume) because of reduced levels of 5-HT receptors found in patients... 

---