Human land use changes perturb biogeochemical silica (Si) cycling in terrestrial ecosystems. This directly affects Si mobilisation and Si storage and influences Si export from the continents, although the magnitude of the impact is unknown. A major reason for our lack of understanding is that very little information exists on how land use affects amorphous silica (ASi) storage in soils. We have qu

Combining pheromone trapping and genetic analyses can be useful whentrying to resolve complexes of closely related insect taxa that are difficult to distinguishbased on morphological characters. Nearctic and Palearctic populations of the spruceseed moth, Cydia strobilella L., have been considered taxonomically synonymoussince 1983, but more recent work revealing distinct sex pheromones for Canadia

The forest, savanna, and grassland biomes, and the transitions between them, are expected to undergo major changes in the future due to global climate change. Dynamic global vegetation models (DGVMs) are very useful for understanding vegetation dynamics under the present climate, and for predicting its changes under future conditions. However, several DGVMs display high uncertainty in predicting v

Aromatic ring flips of Phe and Tyr residues are a hallmark of protein dynamics with a long history in molecular biophysics. Ring flips lead to symmetric exchange of nuclei between sites with distinct magnetic environments, which can be probed by NMR spectroscopy. Current knowledge of ring-flip rates originates from rare cases in which the chemical shift difference between the two sites is sufficie

AIM:The aim was to describe the frequency of lower urinary tract symptoms (LUTS) in children with anorectal malformations with rectoperineal fistulas (ARM-P), as compared with healthy controls based on gender.METHOD:LUTS were defined using the 2014 definitions of the International Children's Continence Society. Data were collected at 2 tertiary pediatric surgery centers in 2 countries from all chi

Abstract Malignancies of the hepato-pancreatico-biliary (HPB) system are relatively common and generally characterized by a dismal prognosis. Positron emission tomography (PET) is a functional imaging technique that has emerged as an important modality in oncological decision-making. The principal radiopharmaceutical in PET imaging is the glucose analog (18)F-fluorodeoxyglucose, which is able to d

Advances in laboratory techniques have led to a rapidly increasing use of biomarkers in epidemiological studies. Biomarkers of internal dose, early biological change susceptibility and clinical outcomes are used as proxies for investigating the interactions between external and/or endogenous agents and body components or processes. The need for improved reporting of scientific research led to infl

The studies in higher education have its natural focus on the subject matters of study. This also holds for the master program Technology Management (TM). In addition it is important to complement the students’ academic knowledge with insights about metacognition, i.e. knowledge and understanding of themselves and their own behaviour. The introduction of so-called Learning Journals has proved to b

Protein dynamics play a crucial role in function, catalytic activity, and pathogenesis. Consequently, there is great interest in computational methods that probe the conformational fluctuations of a protein. However, molecular dynamics simulations are computationally costly and therefore are often limited to comparatively short timescales. TYPHON is a probabilistic method to explore the conformati

The sensorimotor synchronization paradigm is used when studying the coordination of rhythmic motor responses with a pacing stimulus and is an important paradigm in the study of human timing and time perception. Two measures of performance frequently calculated using sensorimotor synchronization data are the average offset and variability of the stimulus-to-response asynchronies-the offsets between

Although methylenetetrahydrofolate reductase, a folate enzyme gene, has been associated with idiopathic male infertility, few studies have examined other folate-related metabolites and genes. We investigated whether idiopathic male infertility is associated with variants in folate, vitamin B-12 (B12) and total homocysteine (tHcy)-related genes and measured these metabolites in blood. We conducted

Understanding the drivers of speciation is critical to interpreting patterns of biodiversity. The identification of the genetic changes underlying adaptation and reproductive isolation is necessary to link barriers to gene flow to the causal origins of divergence. Here, we present a novel approach to the genetics of speciation, which should complement the commonly used approaches of quantitative t

Stimulation of CD40 on dendritic cells to expand and activate tumor-specific T cells and generate anticancer immunity is an attractive therapeutic approach. Since CD40 agonists exert their effects upstream of checkpoint inhibitors, including PD-1 or PD-L1 antagonists, they are ideal candidates for combination regimens.

A two-step process using liquid crystalline phases combined with controlled postcrystallization for the preparation of bone-like apatite has been developed. First, amorphous calcium phosphate (ACP) spherules with a diameter of 10.8 +/- 1.4 nm and specific surface area (SSA) in the range of 150-170 m(2)/g were synthesized within a reverse hexagonal liquid crystalline (LC) phase. Second, the ACP sph

Water-dispersible silicon nanoparticles (Si-NPs) are desirable for applications in biological techniques. A simplified method to synthesize such particles is reported here. The resulting Si-NPs are water-dispersible and luminescent. Under the excitation of UV light, the Si-NPs emit strong red light with a peak maximum at 606 nm and a quantum yield of 6%. They are highly stable, and remain so over

Background: Periodontal research has traditionally focused on the site level, regarding etiology, pathogenesis, and treatment outcome. Recently, some studies have indicated that the presence of periodontal disease is associated with reduced quality of life. The aim of this study is to investigate the impact of periodontal disease experience on the quality of life. Methods: This cross-sectional stu

Recent studies suggest that meat intake is associated with diabetes-related phenotypes. However, whether the associations of meat intake and glucose and insulin homeostasis are modified by genes related to glucose and insulin is unknown.

Abstract in UndeterminedA family of iterative receivers is evaluated in terms of complexity and performance for the case of an uplink multi-user (MU) multiple-input multiple-output orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (MIMO-OFDM) system. The transmission over block fading channels is considered. The analyzed class of receivers is performing channel estimation inside the iterative detection l

The essential Cdc13 protein is part of the trimeric CST complex that confers genome stability by binding to and protecting yeast telomeres. In this issue of Structure, Mason and colleagues characterize an OB fold domain of Cdc13 (named OB2) and propose that homo-dimerization of OB2 is required for proper assembly of the CST complex and telomere maintenance.