We have limited ourselves to the deleterious effects of the absence of thyroid hormones on the development of the central nervous system and have not discussed the problems caused by hyperthyroidism. A short "critical period" during which thyroid hormones are essential for normal maturation of the CNS is evident at anatomical, biochemical, and neurophysiological levels. In the last decade we have made progress toward understanding the mechanism of action of thyroid hormones, due in part to numerous studies of the ontogenesis and distribution of the nuclear T3 receptor. These studies can indicate where the molecular events that control the growth and maturation of the brain are initiated. However, much further research in this area is needed to comprehend further the relation between thyroid hormones and brain development.

Estimating the incidence of CH is influenced by minimal changes in TSH screening cutoffs. Lower cutoffs identify additional cases that have predominantly functional disorders whose impact on intellectual disability, if left untreated, remains to be determined.

A lambda gt11 cDNA library was constructed from a normal human thyroid and screened with a rabbit anti‐porcine thyroperoxidase antibody. A series of thyroperoxidase (TPO) clones were obtained which allowed determination of the complete primary structure of the protein. The library was also screened with serum from a patient with Hashimoto's thyroiditis, an autoimmune disease characterized by the presence in the serum of high titers of autoantibodies directed against the ‘microsomal antigen’ (McAg). Comparison of the cDNA sequences from TPO clones and McAg clones provides definite proof that the McAg is TPO. A short segment of TPO was characterized as bearing a major epitope involved in autoimmunity. The primary structure of TPO was 42% homologous to myeloperoxidase (MPO). It contains, in addition, a C‐terminal extension with a membrane anchor region contiguous to two domains encoded by modules belonging to the EGF and C4b gene families. The existence in TPO of still another domain presenting a significant homology with a putative heme‐binding region of cytochrome C oxidase polypeptide I raises the possibility that a mitochondrial gene module has contributed a piece to the evolution of a typical nuclear mosaic gene.

High-quality streaming potential coupling coefficient measurements have been carried out using a newly designed cell with both a steady state methodology and a new pressure transient approach. The pressure transient approach has shown itself to be particularly good at providing high-quality streaming potential coefficient measurements as each transient increase or decrease allows thousands of measurements to be made at different pressures to which a good linear regression can be fitted. Nevertheless, the transient method can be up to 5 times as fast as the conventional measurement approaches because data from all flow rates are taken in the same transient measurement rather than separately. Test measurements have been made on samples of Berea and Boise sandstone as a function of salinity (approximately 18 salinities between 10 À5 mol/dm 3 and 2 mol/dm 3 ). The data have also been inverted to obtain the zeta potential. The streaming potential coefficient becomes greater (more negative) for fluids with lower salinities, which is consistent with existing measurements. Our measurements are also consistent with the high-salinity streaming potential coefficient measurements made by Vinogradov et al. (2010). Both the streaming potential coefficient and the zeta potential have also been modeled using the theoretical approach of . This modeling allows the microstructural, electrochemical, and fluid properties of the saturated rock to be taken into account in order to provide a relationship that is unique to each particular rock sample. In all cases, we found that the experimental data were a good match to the theoretical model.

Additive manufacturing is now considered as a new paradigm that is foreseen to improve progress in many fields. The field of tissue engineering has been facing the need for tissue vascularization when producing thick tissues. The use of sugar glass as a fugitive ink to produce vascular networks through rapid casting may offer the key to vascularization of thick tissues produced by tissue engineering. Here, a 3D printer head capable of producing complex structures out of sugar glass is presented. This printer head uses a motorized heated syringe fitted with a custom made nozzle. The printer head was adapted to be mounted on a commercially available 3D printer. A mathematical model was derived to predict the diameter of the filaments based on the printer head feed rate and extrusion rate. Using a 1 mm diameter nozzle, the printer accurately produced filaments ranging from 0.3 mm to 3.2 mm in diameter. One of the main advantages of this manufacturing method is the self-supporting behaviour of sugar glass that allows the production of long, horizontal, curved, as well as overhanging filaments needed to produce complex vascular networks. Finally, to establish a proof of concept, polydimethylsiloxane was used as the gel matrix during the rapid casting to produce various "vascularized" constructs that were successfully perfused, which suggests that this new fabrication method can be used in a number of tissue engineering applications, including the vascularization of thick tissues.