Most group A streptococcal strains bind immunoglobulins (Ig) and fibrinogen to their cell walls. It is shown in this paper that the Ig-binding of three different strains was much weaker at 37 degrees C than at room temperature (20 degrees C), whereas the fibrinogen binding was unaffected by temperature. The binding properties and molecular sizes of two purified group A streptococcal cell surface p

alpha 1-Microglobulin is an immunosuppressive plasma protein synthesized by the liver. The isolated protein is yellow-brown, but the hypothetical chromophore has not yet been identified. In this work, it is shown that a human liver cell line, HepG2, grown in a completely synthetic and serum-free medium, secretes alpha 1-microglobulin which is also yellow-brown, suggesting a de novo synthesis of th

Two nitrifying MBBR reactors were operated in parallel, one with PAC dosing and one without, to determine the effects of PAC dosing on nitrification and micropollutant adsorption in municipal wastewater. The removal of micropollutants was evaluated for several doses of PAC and batch experiments were performed to measure adsorption kinetics and nitrification rates. The influence of PAC on the nitri

A measurement of the production of prompt Λ c + baryons in Pb–Pb collisions at s NN =5.02 TeV with the ALICE detector at the LHC is reported. The Λ c + and Λ‾ c − were reconstructed at midrapidity (|y|

A F77 package of adaptive artificial neural network algorithms, JETNET 2.0, is presented. Its primary target is the high energy physics community, but it is general enough to be used in any pattern-recognition application area. The basic ingredients are the multilayer perceptron back-propagation algorithm and the topological self-organizing map. The package consists of a set of subroutines, which

The present work constitutes a detailed study of neutral-current (NC) supernova-neutrino scattering off the stable even-even lead isotopes Pb204,206,208. This is a continuation of our previous work [Almosly et al., Phys. Rev. C. 94, 044614 (2016)10.1103/PhysRevC.94.044614] where we investigated charged-current processes on the same nuclei. As in the previous work, we have adopted the quasiparticle

It has been suggested that the new (and controversial) endoscopic techniques are more successful than standard operation for the preservation of the ligamentous pulley function across the carpal tunnel and for the separation of the gliding structures from the subcutaneous tissues after release of the carpal ligament in carpal tunnel syndrome. We therefore decided to study the possible importance o

One of the primary objectives in forensic psychiatry, distinguishing it from other psychiatric disciplines, is risk management. Assessments of the risk of criminal recidivism are performed on a routine basis, as a baseline for risk management for populations involved in the criminal justice system. However, the risk assessment tools available to clinical practice are limited in their ability to pr

Gambling disorder is an addiction that can cause major suffering, and some populations seem to be more vulnerable than others. Offender populations have a remarkably high prevalence of gambling problems and they are also over-represented in a number of diagnoses related to gambling disorder, like substance use disorders and antisocial personality disorder. Yet, there are few studies investigating

Cognitive linguistic and semiotic accounts of metaphors have often discussed the complex phenomenon of metaphor in various ways, often addressing factors such as universality and conventionality, context-sensitivity, cross-cultural variation and creativity, deliberateness and “multimodality”. However, in most cases, such factors are investigated in isolation (cf. Gibbs 2017). Therefore, we propose

OBJECTIVE: Decision-making concerning the extent of the repair of acute type A aortic dissection (ATAAD) includes functional and anatomical assessment of the aortic valve. We hypothesized that bicuspid aortic valve (BAV) does not impact outcome after surgery for ATAAD. We therefore evaluated the outcome after ATAAD surgery in relation to the presence of BAV, acute aortic regurgitation (AR), and su

Molecules containing the 33-kDa plasma protein alpha1-microglobulin were isolated from human plasma by anti-(alpha1-microglobulin) affinity chromatography. Five major bands could be seen after electrophoretic separation of the alpha1-microglobulin-containing proteins under native conditions. Immunoblotting demonstrated alpha1-microglobulin in all five bands. Two of these have been described previo

Background: Apolipoprotein M (apoM) is a 25-kDa apolipoprotein present in 5% of high-density lipoprotein (HDL) particles. It is suggested to be anti-atherogenic and to play a key role in sustaining endothelial barrier integrity. SLE patients have increased cardiovascular disease risk, and we aimed to investigate if apoM levels reflect endothelial function in SLE. Since apoM plasma levels decrease

Women with established preeclampsia (PE) have increased plasma concentration of free fetal hemoglobin. We measured two hemoglobin scavenger system proteins, hemopexin (Hpx) and alpha-1-microglobulin (A1M) in maternal plasma using enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay during the late second trimester of pregnancy in women with high and low risk of developing PE. In total 142 women were included in nest

A general introduction to the use of feed-back artificial neural networks (ANN) for obtaining good approximate solutions to combinatorial optimization problems is given, assuming no previous knowledge in the field. In particular we emphasize a novel neural mapping technique which efficiently reduces the solution space. This approach maps the problems onto Potts glass rather than spin glass models.

We propose an ac current source that can be tuned from a pure charge to a pure spin current source. The device consists of two mesoscopic capacitors attached to a two-dimensional strip of a topological insulator. The change from charge to spin current is controlled by an offset in the top gate potentials that drive the capacitors. In addition to this setup, which anticipates the experimental reali