The synthesis of unsaturated unnatural amino acids according to the Heck-Jeffery protocol using a ball-milling procedure is presented. NOE data recorded on the products confirm that the Z-isomer is formed. This type of mechano-chemistry provides an efficient, "solvent free" and reliable method for the synthesis of substituted dehydroalanines. These conditions provide patterns of reactivity complem

Viscum album subsp. creticum, known from two mountain areas of E. Crete, is described as new to science. It combines features of the two presently accepted conifer mistletoes, resembling the fir parasite, subsp. abietis, in gross morphology but genetically (by nrDNA ITS sequence data) close to the pine parasite, subsp. austriacum, while differing from either in hypocotyl shape and nucleotide seque

Background: The variation in retinal nerve fibre layer thickness (RNFLT) as measured by Stratus optical coherence tomography (OCT) in healthy subjects may be reduced when the effect on RNFLT measurements of factors other than disease is corrected for, and this may improve the diagnostic accuracy in glaucoma. With this perspective we evaluated the isolated and combined effects of factors potentiall

This study investigated behaviour of male European pine sawflies, Neodiprion sertifer Geoffr. (Hym., Diprionidae), that were released downwind from pheromone traps. Releases were done at three distances; either at 5 m from one trap, or at 50 m or 200 m from five traps, placed in a line perpendicular to the current wind direction. As a control, males were released identically but without any pherom

It has been shown that the generally accepted assumption that hydrophobic molecules and ions repel each other in polar solvents is only valid for moderately polar solvents. When the dipole moment of the medium molecules is increased, then ions and hydrophobic particles start to attract each other. For particles with the size and dipole moment of a water molecule one can expect that the effective p

Wilms tumor (WT) is characterized by a nonrandom pattern of chromosome aberrations, but the clinical significance of different cytogenetic patterns is unknown. The present study describes the cytogenetic findings and the clinical course in a cohort of 39 children with WT. Samples for short-term culturing and cytogenetic analysis were obtained during a 15-year period. Clonal chromosome aberrations

Alanine aminotransferase (ALT) levels decline during pregnancy in women chronically infected with hepatitis C virus (HCV). In order to understand further the underlying mechanisms, we prospectively followed 10 chronically infected women before, during and after pregnancy. ALT levels were analysed together with quantification of serum HCV-RNA using the branched DNA technology. As anticipated, the A

Chloride currents were activated by a low concentration of GABA (0.5 microM) in neonatal rat hippocampal neurons cultured for up to 14 days. Currents elicited by 0.5 microM GABA in neurons, voltage-clamped using the whole-cell technique with pipettes containing 149 mM Cl-, reversed close to 0 mV whether pipettes contained 144 mM Na+ or 140 mM Cs+, and were blocked by 100 microM bicuculline. Curren

Impaired interatrial conduction or interatrial block is well documented but is not described as an individual electrocardiographic (ECG) pattern in most of ECG books, although the term atrial abnormalities to encompass both concepts, left atrial enlargement (LAE) and interatrial block, has been coined. In fact, LAE and interatrial block are often associated, similarly to what happens with ventricu

Variation in transcription factor 7-like 2 (TCF7L2), the strongest genetic risk factor for type 2 diabetes (T2D), may play a role in prostate cancer (PCa) depending on lifestyle factors. The aims of this study were to determine if TCF7L2 rs7903146 is associated with risk of PCa and if the association is modified by lifestyle factors independently of T2D status.

Recent publications have shown that the combination of α-calcium sulfate hemihydrate, the densest form of hydrates and hydroxyapatite (HA) particles gives good clinical outcome in various applications. It has large potential as bone substitute since the material transforms to bone throughout the entire volume and not only by creeping substitution, from the surface toward the inside. Release of imp

To investigate, within the first 2 years of diagnosis with rheumatoid arthritis (RA), associations between disease-related measures and cardiovascular disease (CVD) and mortality in patients with RA onset before and after 65 years of age.

Intracellular parasitism results in extreme adaptations, whose evolutionary history is difficult to understand, because the parasites and their known free-living relatives are so divergent from one another. Microsporidia are intracellular parasites of humans and other animals, which evolved highly specialized morphological structures, but also extreme physiologic and genomic simplification. They a

This work proves the feasibility of a novel concept of differential absorption lidar based on the Scheimpflug principle. The range-resolved atmospheric backscattering signal of a laser beam is retrieved by employing a tilted linear sensor with a Newtonian telescope, satisfying the Scheimpflug condition. Infinite focus depth is achieved despite employing a large optical aperture. The concept is dem