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Abstract. Activation of sympathetic nerves increases circulating glucose and inhibits insulin release from the islet beta-cells, which might contribute to stress-related diabetes. Accordingly, we have shown previously that blockade of parasympathetic activity aggravates diabetes in alloxan-treated mice, suggesting that unopposed sympathetic activity impairs diabetes. In this study, we tested wheth

Hormone-mediated maternal effects may be an important mechanism for adjusting offspring phenotype to particular requirements of the environment. We manipulated the levels of testosterone and androstenedione in the yolk of collared flycatcher Ficedula albicollis eggs to investigate the effects of pre-natal exposure to androgens on growth and immune function. Androgen treatment tended to reduce the

Objectives. To compare the outcome of a microwave thermotherapy feedback system that is based on intraprostatic temperature measurement during treatment (ProstaLund Feedback Treatment or PLFT) with transurethral resection of the prostate (TURP) for clinical benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH) in a randomized controlled multicenter study. The safety of the two methods was also investigated. Methods.

Manifold learning and nonlinear dimensionality reduction addresses the problem of detecting possibly nonlinear structure in highdimensional data and constructing lower-dimensional configurations representative of this structure. A popular example is the Isomap algorithm which uses local information to approximate geodesic distances and adopts multidimensional scaling to produce lowerdimensional re

Much research has been published which attests to desire felt by educators to improve the quality of student reflection, and engagement with learning, through processes of assessment. This paper describes how research in Systems Analysis is being transformed and applied to educational practice. Staff considered that methods were needed to stimulate students to reflect and engage in higher orders o

Escherichia coli strains from patients with febrile urinary tract infections (n=73) were examined for pap genotype and P fimbrial expression in relation to bacteremia and patients' background variables. Most isolates were pap(+) by DNA hybridization (n=51), and 36 were papG(IA2)(+) and 18 prsG(J96)(+) by polymerase chain reaction. The pap and papG genotypes of the infecting strain were shown to va

If the preferences of the consumers are represented by utility functions that are differentiable, quasi-linear and satisfy the single-crossing condition, the characteristics of the profit maximizing nonlinear outlay schedule for a monopolist are well-known. We demonstrate that these characteristics are robust against weaker assumptions on the utility functions.

The system water-oil (n-decane)-nonionic surfactant (C12E5) forms bilayer phases in a large concentration region, but, for a given oil-to-surfactant ratio, only in a narrow temperature range. In addition to the anisotropic lamellar phase (L-alpha) there is also, at slightly higher temperature, a sponge or L-3-phase where the bilayers build up an isotropic structure extending macroscopically in thr

Curcumin has been shown to inhibit cell growth and induce apoptosis in colon cancer cells. The metabolism of sphingomyelin has implications in the development of colon cancer. We examined whether curcumin affects the enzymes that hydrolyse sphingomyelin in Caco-2 cells. The cells were cultured in both monolayer and polarized conditions and stimulated with curcumin. The activities of sphingomyelina

Background. Microembolism during cardiopulmonary bypass has been suggested as being the predominant cause of neurocognitive disorders after cardiac surgery. Shed blood, normally retransfused into the patient during cardiopulmonary bypass, is a major source of lipid microemboli in the brain capillaries. A newly developed technique based on acoustic standing-wave separation of particles in fluid in

Recent urban microclimate studies in Colombo, Sri Lanka, indicate that the maximum daily temperature within street canyons decreases with increasing height to width (H/W) ratio, but higher H/W ratio negatively affects street-level wind flow. There is also evidence pointing to the cooling effect of sea breeze. The nocturnal heat island is small in contrast to daytime urban-rural differences. In thi

In this paper a novel diode laser system for photodynamic therapy is demonstrated. The system is based on linear spatial filtering and optical phase conjugate feedback from a photorefractive BaTiO3 crystal. The spatial coherence properties of the diode laser are significantly improved. The system provides an almost diffraction limited output which is efficiently coupled into a 50 mum core diameter

We estimated the biomass and growth of arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) mycelium in sand dunes using signature fatty acids. Mesh bags and tubes, containing initially mycelium-free sand, were buried in the field near the roots of the dune grass Ammophila arenaria L. AM fungal mycelia were detected at a distance of about 8.5 cm from the roots after 68 days of growth by use of neutral lipid fatty acid (NL

The adenosine analog 5,6-dichloro-1-beta-D-ribofuranosylbenzimidazole (DRB) was found to increase the production of hepatitis A (HAV) antigen in two monkey kidney cell lines (Frhk-4 and Vero cells). DRB, a known inhibitor of the synthesis of messenger RNA, caused moderate changes in cell morphology. However, Frhk-4 cells could be maintained for several weeks at 80 microM of DRB, the concentration

Transmembrane (TM) alpha-helical peptides with neutral flanking residues such as tryptophan form highly ordered striated domains when incorporated in gel-state 1,2-dipalmitoyl-sn-glycero-3-phosphocholine (DPPC) bilayers and inspected by atomic force microscopy (AFM) (1). In this study, we analyze the molecular organization of these striated domains using AFM, photo-cross-linking, fluorescence spec

Background: CD14, a receptor for lipopolysaccharides (LPS), is found in both a membrane-bound form (mCD14) and a soluble form (sCD14). It is suggested that sCD14 is mainly released from blood monocytes by serine protease-mediated shedding. Because alpha(1)-antitrypsin (AAT), an inhibitor of serine proteases, has been shown to regulate CD14 expression in human monocytes in vitro, we sought to inves