Search for extraterrestrial point sources of neutrinos with AMANDA-II.

We present the results of a search for point sources of high-energy neutrinos in the northern hemisphere using AMANDA-II data collected in the year 2000. Included are flux limits on several active-galactic-nuclei blazars, microquasars, magnetars, and other candidate neutrino sources. A search for excesses above a random background of cosmic-ray-induced atmospheric neutrinos and misreconstructed downgoing cosmic-ray muons reveals no statistically significant neutrino point sources. We show that AMANDA-II has achieved the sensitivity required to probe known TeV gamma-ray sources such as the blazar Markarian 501 in its 1997 flaring state at a level where neutrino and gamma-ray fluxes are equal.

Oxetorone-induced hyperprogesteronemia and the development of uterine decidual lesions in rats.

Application of the deciduoma formation test showed that 3-benzofurol[3,2-c][1] benzoxepin-6(12H)-ylidene-N,N-dimethyl-l-propanamin-(E )-2-butenedioate (1:1) (oxetorone, L-6257, Nocertone) stimulated secretion of progesterone by the ovaries in rats and that this hyperprogesteronemia resulted from an increased secretion of prolactin. The studies carried out also showed that the apparition of uterine decidual lesions observed in certain animals undergoing chronic oxetorone treatment was linked to this hyperprogesteronemia. In view of the specific physiology of prolactin in rodents, such uterine lesions can only develop in these animals and cannot occur in man.

[Pseudotumoral uterine reaction in the rat treated with a benzofuro-benzoxepin]. / Réaction utérine pseudo-tumorale chez le rat soumis à l'action d'une benzofuro-benzoxepine.

When orally administered, 5-(3-diméthylamino propyliden)-benzofuro [2,3-c] benzoxepin-1, which antagonizes several biogenic amines, is slightly sedative and has also endocrinological properties in the Rat, induces the appearance of localized lesions of uterine stroma in 2 to 16% of the animals. The cytological picture could suggest a tumorogenesis. In fact, these lesions represent a non-tumoral reactional hyperplasia with nuclear abnormalities due to a hormonal stimulation.