The former syllabary was aimed at remaining native speakers of Sauk; the more recent orthography was developed for native English speakers, as many Sauk grow up with English as their first languageSauk has so few speakers that it is considered an endangered language, as are numerous others native to North America. In 2005, A Concise Dictionary of the Sauk Language was published using the Algonquianist Standard Roman Orthography.In 2012, Shawnee High School in Shawnee, Oklahoma, began to offer a Sauk language course. Sauk language loss
Use of Sauk as the official tribal language in everyday communication declined rapidly between 1935 and 1945. The chances of coming across a tribal member who can understand basic phrases of Sauk is small, due to the fact that the main language spoken by the Sac and Fox today is English. The loss of Sauk, as with many other Native American languages, lies in context with American history. Speaking in the native language was actively discouraged and often punished in Indian boarding schools during the late 19th and early 20th century, when the U.S. was attempting to assimilate Native Americans into European-American culture. Another conflict for the preservation of the language, is that the original syllabary created was intended for the use of native Sauk speakers, and its clarification was designed from the Sauk language. This is a problem because this is no longer as helpful for the majority of the Sac and Fox nation, as the official tribe language today is English.
Pharmacology
Pharmacodynamics
Bremelanotide is a non-selective agonist of the melanocortin receptors, MC1 through MC5 (with the exception of MC2, the receptor of ACTH), but acting primarily as an MC3 and MC4 receptor agonist. Pharmacokinetics
The bioavailability of bremelanotide with subcutaneous injection is about 100%. Following a subcutaneous injection of bremelanotide, maximal levels occur after about one hour, with a range of 0.5 to 1.0 hours. The plasma protein binding of bremelanotide is 21%. Bremelanotide is metabolized via hydrolysis of its peptide bonds. The elimination half-life of bremelanotide is 2.7 hours, with a range of 1.9 to 4.0 hours. Bremelanotide is excreted 64.8% in urine and 22.8% in feces. Chemistry
Bremelanotide is a cyclic heptapeptide lactam analogue of α-melanocyte-stimulating hormone (α-MSH). It has the amino acid sequence Ac-Nle-cyclo[Asp-His-D-Phe-Arg-Trp-Lys]-OH, and is also known as cyclo-[Nle4,Asp5,D-Phe7,Lys10]α-MSH-(4-10). Bremelanotide is an active metabolite of melanotan II that lacks the C-terminal amide group.Aside from melanotan II and endogenous melanocyte-stimulating hormones like α-MSH, other peptide analogues of the same family as bremelanotide include afamelanotide (NDP-α-MSH), modimelanotide, and setmelanotide. History
Studies in the early 1960s showed that administration of α-MSH caused sexual arousal in rats, sparking interest in α-MSH. In the 1980s, scientists at University of Arizona began developing α-MSH and analogs as potential sunless tanning agents.