Huntington's disease patients have a number of peripheral manifestations suggestive of metabolic and endocrine abnormalities. We, therefore, investigated a number of metabolic factors in a 24-hour study of Huntington's disease gene carriers (premanifest and moderate stage II/III) and controls.

We present a study of neural network architectures able to internally simulate perceptions and actions. All these architectures employ the novel Associative Self-Organizing Map (A-SOM) as a perceptual neural network. The A-SOM develops a representation of its input space, but in addition also learns to associate its activity with an arbitrary number of additional (possibly delayed) inputs. One arc

Background: The onset of birth in humans, like other apes, differs from non-primate mammals in its endocrine physiology. We hypothesize that higher primate-specific gene evolution may lead to these differences and target genes involved in human preterm birth, an area of global health significance. Methods: We performed a comparative genomics screen of highly conserved noncoding elements and identi

Neutron-rich isotopes around lead, beyond N = 126, have been studied exploiting the fragmentation of an uranium primary beam at the FRS-RISING setup at GSI. For the first time beta-decay half-lives of Bi-219 and Tl-211,Tl-212,Tl-213 isotopes have been derived. The half-lives have been extracted using a numerical simulation developed for experiments in high-background conditions. Comparison with st

Precipitation amounts and patterns at high latitude sites have been predicted to change as a result of global climatic changes. We addressed vegetation responses to three years of experimentally increased summer precipitation in two previously unaddressed tundra types: Betula nana-dominated shrub tundra (northeast Siberia) and a dry Sphagnum fuscum-dominated bog (northern Sweden). Positive respons

The mean squared displacement of a tracer particle in a single file of identical particles with excluded volume interactions shows the famed Harris scaling aEurox (2)(t)aEuro parts per thousand a parts per thousand integral K (1/2) t (1/2) as function of time. Here we study what happens to this law when each particle of the single file interacts with the environment such that it is transiently imm

Detection of analytes in complex biological samples, such as milk and blood, normally requires sample pretreatment. These pretreatment regimes reduce assay throughput and increase testing costs. Technologies that make it possible to eliminate sample pretreatment are of great industrial interest. Here we report the development of a dual-signal flow injected analysis device which eliminates the need

High-spin states in Tm-160,Tm-161 were populated using the Te-128(Cl-37, 5n and 4n) reactions at a beam energy of 170 MeV. Emitted gamma rays were detected in the Gammasphere spectrometer. Two rotational bands with high moments of inertia were discovered, one assigned to Tm-160, while the other tentatively assigned to Tm-161. These sequences display features similar to bands observed in neighborin

HIV infection is known for replicating in proliferating CD(+) T-cells. Treatment of these cells with cytostatic (anti-proliferation) compounds such as hydroxyurea interferes with the cells's ability support HIV replication. Combinations of such cytostatic compounds with proven anti-retroviral drugs (like ddI) are known as virostatic, and have been shown to aid in the control of the infection. The

Accessibility throughout society has been gaining interest on both international and national levels in order to meet the transportation needs of, for example, older people as pedestrians. The overall aim of this thesis is to examine the implementation process in municipal planning, and effects of measures taken, to achieve barrier-free outdoor environments the year round. Older peoples’ perceptio

The efficacy of integrating open access geospatial data to produce habitat suitability maps for the corn bunting (Miliaria calandra) was investigated. Landsat Enhanced Thematic Mapper Plus (ETM+), Shuttle Radar Topography Mission (SRTM) and Corine (Coordination of Information on the Environment) land cover data for the year 2000 (CLC2000) were processed to extract explanatory variables and divided

The small flavoprotein NrdI is an essential component of the class Ib ribonucleotide reductase system in many bacteria. NrdI interacts with the class Ib radical generating protein NrdF. It is suggested to be involved in the rescue of inactivated diferric centres or generation of active dimanganese centres in NrdF. Although NrdI bears a superficial resemblance to flavodoxin, its redox properties ha

Travel in the footsteps of cinema is an expanding market, both in Sweden and internationally. Travel habits are changing, and the fact of a good number of people planning their journeys in order to follow in the footsteps of fictitiousn characters, or alternatively follow a particular route in order to experience first-hand something they saw at the cinema or on television, has become an important

This paper is the state of the art of charcoal signal studies (macro-, meso- and micro-charcoal) that have been carried out at the Epigravettian settlement of Mezhyrich. This work took part of the French ANR project "Mammouths". Charcoal signals have been found in both natural and archaeological (pits and activity areas) deposits that have been sampled during the 2007-2008 archaeological excavatio

Magnesium, the second and fourth most abundant cation in the intracellular compartment and whole body, respectively, is of great physiologic importance. Magnesium exists as bound and free ionized forms depending on temperature, pH, ionic strength, and competing ions. Free magnesium participates in many biochemical processes and is most commonly measured by ion-selective electrode. This analytical

Low temperature is a key factor that limits growth and productivity of many important agronomical crops worldwide. Rice (Oryza sativa L.) is negatively affected already at temperatures below +10°C and is therefore denoted as chilling sensitive. However, chilling tolerant rice cultivars exist and can be commercially cultivated at altitudes up to 3,050 meters with temperatures reaching as low as +4°