The critical role of polyamines in key processes such as cell growth, differentiation and macromolecular synthesis makes the enzymes involved in their synthesis potential targets in the treatment of certain types of cancer and parasitic diseases. Here we present a study on the inhibition of human and Leishmania donovani ODC (ornithine decarboxylase), the first committed enzyme in the polyamine bio

In a previous study, we showed that diabetic patients exhibited significantly increased concentrations of total plasma homocysteine (tHcy), but not until the onset of nephropathy. It was suggested that the hyperhomocysteinaemia might contribute to the accelerated atherosclerotic process in diabetic patients. In the present study, we have analysed the main determinants of plasma homocysteine (i.e.

Prostaglandin E1 has earlier been shown to decrease pulmonary platelet trapping (PPT) following shock. This experiment was performed to evaluate a new method to study PPT in vivo, and to study the effect of prostaglandin E1 and a new antiplatelet drug (ticlopidine) on PPT in rabbits after i.v. administration of endotoxin. Following platelet labeling with In-111, the rabbits were placed under a sci

A method for measuring synovial blood flow changes using the laser Doppler technique is described. Mean blood flow and mean pulse amplitude decreased by 50-70% in relation to the reference level when the intra-articular hydrostatic pressure in effusive knee joints of patients with rheumatoid arthritis was increased. As an increase of intra-articular pressure of as little as 20 mmHg decreased synov

PURPOSE: to test whether a laparoscopically-placed external band around the infrarenal aorta could stop vessel dilatation and prevent stent-graft detachment from the aortic wall. METHODS: in 13 growing pigs Gianturco-based stent-grafts were placed in the infrarenal aorta. In eight pigs, an external PTFE band (1 cm width) was placed laparoscopically around the infrarenal aorta. The remaining five p

Background: Lack of generalized guidelines for DNA flow cytometric analysis (FCM) may be the main reason for its limited use in the clinical management of breast cancer. Methods: After an initial interlaboratory reproducibility study (Round 1), we concluded that it was the evaluation of the DNA histograms rather than the technical performance of the analysis that was the main reason for discordant

The structure of the N=Z nuclei Zn-60, Ga-62, Ge-64 and Kr-72 has been investigated at GASP spectrometer through the S-32 + Ca-40 and Ca-40 + Ca-40 reactions at 140 and 160 MeV, respectively, using reaction channel selection with the ISIS Si-ball. The high spin states of such nuclei have been investigated searching for the four quasi-particle g(9/2) alignment. TRS calculations have been performed

Cooperative communications, where parallel relays forward information to a destination node, can greatly improve the energy efficiency and latency in ad-hoc networks. However, current networks do not fully exploit its potential as they only use traditional energy-accumulation, which is often used in conjunction with repetition coding or cooperative space-time codes. In this paper, we show that the

The thesis includes five separate studies concerned mainly with psychosocial aspects of the problems that athletes afflicted with long-term sport injuries face. The first study deals with relationships between personality variables, coping strategies and mood-levels, both in athletes participating in competitive sports and in a non-athlete reference groups. The results indicate the athletes to us

This is the first comprehensive monograph on the subject of the architect Fred Forbat. He was a pioneer of functionalism who worked in four different countries. Besides being a presentation of Forbats work, interesting in itself, this investigation also aims at addressing certain questions regarding the history and concept of functionalism as a style and movement. I deal with the work in chronolog

This paper presents an application of the Hilbert-Huang transform (HHT) and ensemble correlation for detection of the transient evoked otoacoustic emissions (TEOAEs), and high resolution time-frequency mapping. The HHT provides a powerful tool for nonlinear analysis of nonstationary signals such as TEOAEs. Since the HHT itself does not distinguish between signal and noise it was used with ensemble

Endothelin, a peptide produced in endothelial cells, was found to be a potent constrictor of human pial arteries through a direct, slow action on the smooth muscle cell, with a pD2 value of 8.54. It was less potent as a constrictor in pial veins (pD2 7.80) and in branches of the middle meningeal artery and superficial temporal artery (pD2 7.61 and 7.77). The major component of the contractile resp

We performed, in a cross-sectional study, dual energy X-ray absorptiometry (DXA) among 15-16-year-old boys (n 58) and girls (n 44) living in an urban area and among boys (n 82) and girls (n 66) of the same age from a rural area. We measured bone mineral density (BMD) of the total body, the lumbar spine and the hip. In the rural population, we found significantly higher BMD levels in the lumbar spi

Elongation factor G (EF-G) is a G protein factor that catalyzes the translocation step in protein synthesis on the ribosome. Its GTP conformation in the absence of the ribosome is currently unknown. We present the structure of a mutant EF-G (T84A) in complex with the non-hydrolysable GTP analogue GDPNP. The crystal structure provides a first insight into conformational changes induced in EF-G by G

Photophysical studies of pseudo-p-distyryl[2.2]paracyclophane, a model molecule of a stilbene dimer arranged in a brick-wall geometry, in tetrahydrofurane solution indicate the existence of at least two conformers in the ground state. The conformer A with the smallest optical gap of 3 eV has a short radiative lifetime of 3.3 ns, while the conformer B with an optical gap about 0.3 eV larger is much

Popular Abstract in Swedish Att packa ryggsäcken och resa till tropikerna, till vad man ofta kallar ‘tredje världen’ för en längre tids vistelse anses ofta vara av avsevärd betydelse för en individs identitet och framtida liv. För många resenärer upplevs resan som ett sätt att ta kontroll över den egna tiden och rörelsen, en kontroll som betraktas som en bristvara i de miljöer resenärerna kommer fThis work addresses the phenomenon of long-term, so-called ‘independent’ travelling, or backpacking, often to destinations described as the ‘third world’. It regards backpacker journeys as arenas for identity work, for expressing individuality and a ‘strong character’. Rather than merely being a parenthetic detour in time and space a backpacker’s trip to the tropics can be understood as a creative