A crucial stage in the interaction between pollinators and plants is the moment of physical contact between them, known as flower inspection, or handling. Floral guides - conspicuous colour markings, or structural features of flower corollas - have been shown to be important in the inspecting behaviour of many insects, particularly in diurnal species. For the nocturnal hawkmoth Manduca sexta tacti

The rate of spontaneous pregnancies in women with Turner syndrome (TS) is low (2% to 5%). Oocyte donation is an option for these women and enables many to become pregnant. Some investigators question the use of pregnancy induction in TS because of the high risk for aortic dissection or other serious cardiac events. A cardiac evaluation is recommended before pregnancy is planned in TS. Among patien

Chlorophyll meters such as the SPAD-502 offer a simple, inexpensive and rapid method to estimate foliar chlorophyll content. However, values provided by SPAD-502 are unitless and require empirical calibrations between SPAD units and extracted chlorophyll values. Leaves of 13 tree species from the tropical rain forest in French Guiana were sampled to select the most appropriate calibration model am

Background: The high prevalence of physical inactivity in Saudi Arabia is a growing challenge to public health. This study aimed to examine the prevalence of physical activity (PA) and associated factors among female university students. Methods: This cross-sectional study involved 663 randomly selected female university students who completed the Arab Teens Life Style questionnaire. Data included

The WHO European Healthy Cities Network has from its inception aimed at tackling inequalities in health. In carrying out an evaluation of Phase V of the project (2009-13), an attempt was made to examine how far the concept of equity in health is understood and accepted; whether cities had moved further from a disease/medical model to looking at the social determinants of inequalities in health; ho

Considerable attention has been paid in recent years to the fundamental changes in the global tourism system related to the emergence of information technologies (IT), and, specifically, the rise of social media. Opportunities to search travel-related information, to reserve and book, evaluate and judge; to receive travel advice and to communicate one's mobility patterns have all profoundly change

The mean time in target range for each centre, cTTR, has previously been shown to correlate to the rate of complications in poorly managed warfarin treatment. However less is known about the correlation when warfarin treatment is well managed.

In vitro mutagen binding ability of human Lactobacillus rhamnosus 231 (Lr 231) was evaluated against acridine orange (AO), N-methyl-N'-nitro-N-nitrosoguanidine (MNNG), 2-amino-3, 8-dimethylimidazo[4,5-f]-quinoxaline (MeIQx) and 4-nitro-o-phenylenediamine (NPD). Binding of AO by Lr 231 is due to adsorption, thereby leading to removal of mutagen in solution and is instantaneous, pH- and concentratio

Tumor cells often evade killing by the complement system by overexpressing membrane-bound complement inhibitors. However, production of soluble complement inhibitors in cells other than hepatocytes was rarely reported. We screened several breast cancer cell lines for expression of soluble complement inhibitor, complement factor I (FI). We also analyzed local production of FI in tissue microarrays

Chondroadherin (CHAD) is a leucine-rich protein promoting cell attachment through binding to integrin alpha(2)beta(1) and syndecans. We observed that CHAD mRNA and protein were lower in bone biopsies of 50-year-old to 65-year-old osteoporotic women and in bone samples of ovariectomized mice versus gender/age-matched controls, suggesting a role in bone metabolism. By the means of an internal cyclic

Neuroblastoma is a highly malignant neoplasm found in young children. Although children with high-risk neuroblastoma respond to chemotherapy, relapses are common. On account of poor treatment outcome, new treatment strategies are constantly sought for neuroblastoma. Polyamine analogues are potentially novel substances for treatment of neuroblastoma. In this study, we have treated two neuroblastoma

Background Patients with severe hemophilia A and factor VIII inhibitors are at increased risk for serious bleeding complications and progression to end-stage joint disease. Effective strategies to prevent bleeding in such patients have not yet been established. Methods We enrolled patients with hemophilia A who were older than 2 years of age, had high-titer inhibitors, and used concentrates known

Preeclampsia remains a major problem worldwide for mothers and babies. Despite intensive study, we have not been able to improve the management or early recognition of preeclampsia. At least part of this is because of failure to standardize the approach to studying this complex syndrome. It is possible that within the syndrome there may be different phenotypes with pathogenic pathways that differ

The European Male Ageing Study (EMAS) was designed to examine the hypothesis that inter-individual and regional variability in symptomatic dysfunctions, alterations in body composition and health outcomes in ageing men can be explained by different rates of decline in anabolic hormones, the most important of which being testosterone. Between 2003 and 2005, 3369 community-dwelling men, aged between

We have studied the homolytic dissociation of a methyl radical from a model of methyl cobalamin. For this reaction, density functional theory with an atom-pairwise dispersion correction (DFT-D) gives a dispersion contribution to the bond dissociation energy (BDE) of 22-51 kJ mol(-1) depending on the functional, i.e. much more than common estimates for the total dispersion interaction energy of the

We have studied the transverse-momentum (p(T)) dependence of the inclusive J/psi production in p-Pb collisions at root s(NN) = 5.02 TeV, in three center-of-mass rapidity (y(cms)) regions, down to zero p(T). Results in the forward and backward rapidity ranges (2.03 < y(cms) < 3.53 and -4.46 < y(cms) < -2.96) are obtained by studying the J/psi decay to mu(+)mu(-), while the mid-rapidity region (-1.3

OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to evaluate fetal hemoglobin (HbF) and alpha(1)-microglobulin (A1M) in maternal serum as first-trimester biomarkers for preeclampsia (PE). STUDY DESIGN: The design was a case-control study. We included 96 patients in the first trimester of pregnancy (60 with PE and 36 controls). Venous serum samples were analyzed for HbF and total hemoglobin (Hb) by enzyme-link

To compare causes of death and mortality among subjects with and without mood disorder in the Lundby Cohort and to analyse additional mental disorders as risk factors for mortality in subjects with mood disorders.

The identification of the regions where vector-borne diseases are transmitted is essential to study transmission patterns and to recognize future changes in environmental conditions that may potentially influence the transmission areas. SGS1, one of the lineages of Plasmodium relictum, is known to have active transmission in tropical Africa and temperate regions of Europe. Nuclear sequence data fr

OBJECTIVE: To study the effect of paracetamol (acetaminophen) on maternal and fetal temperatures in labour. STUDY DESIGN: From a cohort of 185 women with continuous maternal axillary and fetal scalp temperature recordings in labour, 18 women treated with 1000mg paracetamol orally for pyrexia and 36 untreated controls matched for parity, cervical dilatation, and epidural analgesia were selected. El