Hepatitis B virus (HBV) replication is initiated by HBV RT binding to the highly conserved encapsidation signal, epsilon, at the 5' end of the RNA pregenome. Epsilon contains an apical stem-loop, whose residues are either totally conserved or show rare non-disruptive mutations. Here we present the structure of the apical stem-loop based on NOE, RDC and H-1 chemical shift NMR data. The H-1 chemical

Monte Carlo simulations and density functional calculations have been performed for charged macromolecules confined to planar slits. The force between the confining walls has been evaluated as a function of separation, while keeping the chemical potential of the macromolecules constant. Highly charged spherical particles and flexible polyelectrolyte chains in confinement give rise to depletion and

We investigate the light emission from dipolar emitters located within nanoparticle antennas. It is found that the enormous emission enhancement can reach nearly a million fold. For multinanoparticle antennas, the polarization of the emissions strongly depends on the geometry of the antennas, the emitted wavelengths, and the dielectric functions of surrounding media. It is shown that a polarizatio

The adsorption of a series of charged bottle-brush polymers with side chains of constant length on mica and silica surfaces is modeled using a lattice mean-field theory, and the predicted results are compared to corresponding experimental data. The bottle-brush polymers are modeled as being composed of two types of main-chain segments: charged segments and uncharged segments with an attached side

A fossil meteorite, c. 1 cm in diameter, has been found in a loose limestone block in the Gullhogen quarry at Billingen, southern Sweden. The meteorite, named Gullhogen 001, is almost completely pseudomorphosed by clay minerals and calcite, but contains abundant relict chromite grains and high platinum group element concentrations. Chromite element chemistry indicates that Gullhogen 001 most likel

In order to assess the non-evaporative components of the reduced thermal insulation of wet clothing, experiments were performed with a manikin and with human subjects in which two layers of underwear separated by an impermeable barrier were worn under an impermeable overgarment at 20 °C, 80% RH and 0.5 ms-1 air velocity. By comparing manikin measurements with dry and wetted mid underwear layer, th

Fourteen adult Fischer 344 rats were inoculated in vivo unilaterally in the caudate nucleus in the brain with malignant RG 2 glioma cells. By 3 weeks a tumor with a diameter of 3-6 mm normally develops. Ten animals which survived the repeated periods of anesthesia and thallium (Tl) injections (intratumorally three times of 201Tl, 15-23 days after inoculation) showed a prolonged retention of radioa

A composite material produced from a poly(vinyl alcohol) cryogel with entrapped particles of the strong anion-exchange resin Amberlite is presented. The properties of the composite material depended strongly on whether the resin was used in OH- form or Cl- form. The ion-exchange filler in OH- form caused both a significant reinforcement of the composite material and an increase in the gel fusion t

Pyrene chromophores carrying different rigid rod spacer groups (ethynylene, ethynylene-phenylene-ethynylene, and ethynylene-bicyclo[2.2.2]octylene-ethynylene) and bound to TiO2 nanostructured materials via an isophthalic acid (Ipa) anchor group have been investigated using quantum chemical calculations in order to elucidate structural and electronic properties of dye-sensitized semiconductor struc

Multiconfigurational second-order perturbation theory, both in its single-state multiconfigurational second-order perturbation theory (CASPT2) and multistate (MS-CASPT2) formulations, is used to search for minima on the crossing seams between different potential energy hypersurfaces of electronic states in several molecular systems. The performance of the procedures is tested and discussed, focusi

Chemiluminescent (CL) enzyme-based flow-through microchip biosensors (mu-biosensors) for detection of glucose and ethanol were developed for the purpose of monitoring real-time production and release of glucose and ethanol from microchip immobilised yeast cells. Part I of this study focuses on the development and optimisation of the mu-biosensors in a microfluidic sequential injection analysis (mu

Introduction Aggrecanase cleavage at the (392)Glu-(393)Ala bond in the interglobular domain (IGD) of aggrecan, releasing N-terminal (393)ARGS fragments, is an early key event in arthritis and joint injuries. Here, we use a quantitative immunoassay of aggrecan ARGS neoepitope fragments in human synovial fluid to determine if this cleavage-site specific method better identifies joint pathology than

Purpose. To examine whether the Sollerman hand function test is reliable in a test-retest situation in patients with chronic stroke. Method. Three independent examiners observed each patient at three experimental sessions; two days in week I (short-term test-retest) and one day in week 4 (long-term test-retest). A total of 24 patients with chronic stroke (mean age; 59.7 years, mean time since stro

In this work we report the coating of a biological template with a polar, but uncharged,luminescent conjugated polymer, soluble in organic solvents but not in water, to produce a nanowire. Amyloid fibrils from bovine insulin were decorated with an alternating polyfluorene derivative. Decorated fibrils were partially aligned on hydrophobic surfaces as separate and bundled fibrils, by means of molec

Previous research suggests that body dissatisfied women are particularly susceptible to negative affect following exposure to thin media images, whereas body satisfied women may even respond positively to such images. It was thus hypothesised that negative self-referent information would be more accessible in body dissatisfied women than in women satisfied with their bodies after viewing thin idea

Malondialdehyde, reduced glutathione, glutathione peroxidase, glutathione reductase and cysteine protease cathepsins at postnatal (PN) days 2, 7, 14, 21 and 28 in controls (wt) and the retinal degeneration 1 (rd1) mouse model for retinitis pigmentosa retinas were measured to determine oxidative stress. In PN28 wt and PN2 rd1 retinas, elevated malondialdehyde and low glutathione peroxidase activity

The human melanocortin 4 receptor (MC4r) was successfully expressed in Sf9 cells using the baculovirus infection system. N- and C-terminally His-tagged receptors generated B-max values of 14 and 23 pmol receptor/mg membrane protein, respectively. The highest expression level obtained with the C-terminally His-tagged MC4r corresponded to 0.25 mg active receptor/litre culture volume. Addition of a v