Wheat straw is an abundant agricultural residue which can be used as a raw material for bioethanol production. Due to the high xylan content in wheat straw, fermentation of both xylose and glucose is crucial to meet desired overall yields of ethanol. In the present work a recombinant xylose fermenting strain of Saccharomyces cerevisiae, TMB3400, cultivated aerobically on wheat straw hydrolysate, w

Background: The expression of interleukin-1-receptor antagonist is reduced in pancreatic islets of patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus, and high glucose concentrations induce the production of interleukin-1(beta) in human pancreatic beta cells, leading to impaired insulin secretion, decreased cell proliferation, and apoptosis. Methods: In this double-blind, parallel-group trial involving 70 pat

A new fragrance mix (FM II), with 6 frequently used chemicals not present in the currently used fragrance mix (FM I), was evaluated in 6 dermatological centres in Europe, as previously reported. In this publication, test results with the individual constituents and after repeated open application test (ROAT) of FM II are described. Furthermore, cosmetic products which had caused a contact dermatit

A description of mesoscopic fluctuations of the pairing gap in finite-sized quantum systems based on periodic orbit theory is presented. The size of the fluctuations are found to depend on quite general properties. We distinguish between systems where corresponding classical motion is regular or chaotic, and describe in detail fluctuations of the BCS gap as a function of the size of the system. Th

Recent results on the 102 residue protein U1A show that protein aggregation is not always slow and irreversible but may take place transiently in refolding studies on a millisecond time scale. In this study we observe a similar aggregation behavior with the classical two-state protein CI2. Since both U1A and CI2 appear to fold directly from the coil at low protein concentrations, it is likely that

Question: The optimal use of the point intercept method (PIM) for efficient estimation of plant biomass has not been addressed although PIM is a commonly used method in vegetation analysis. In this study we compare results achieved using PIM at a range of efforts, we assess a method for calculating these results that are new with PIM and we provide a formula for planning the optimal use of PIM. Lo

Phase III trials have demonstrated the efficacy of human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccines in preventing transient and persistent high-risk (hr) HPV infection and precancerous lesions. A mathematical model of HPV type 16 infection and progression to cervical cancer, parameterised to represent the infection in Finland, was used to explore the optimal age at vaccination and pattern of vaccine introducti

A commentary about the meaning of "One World Archaeology" today and the future of the World Archaeological Congress (WAC).

The responsiveness of the external mycelium of Glomus intraradices and Scutellospora calospora was tested in a multiple-choice experimental system in which mycelium encountered patches amended with nitrogen (N) or phosphorus (P), either alone or in combination with a host plant. We hypothesised that only AMF mycelium with sufficient supply of photo-synthate from an actively growing host would resp

The Toll-like receptors (TLRs) and the myeloid differentiation factor 88 (MyD88) are key players in the activation of the innate immune defence during microbial infections. Using different murine infection models, we show that MyD88-dependent signalling is crucial for the activation of the innate immune defence against Streptococcus pneumoniae. Our data demonstrate that both local and systemic inf

Bird flight occurs over a range of Reynolds numbers (Re; 104Re105, where Re is a measure of the relative importance of inertia and viscosity) that includes regimes where standard aerofoil performance is difficult to predict, compute or measure, with large performance jumps in response to small changes in geometry or environmental conditions. A comparison of measurements of fixed wing performance a

Several strains of group G streptococci (GGS) form aggregates when grown in vitro. Aggregating strains interact with fibrinogen, and this study reports the isolation of a novel self-associating and fibrinogen-binding protein of GGS, denoted protein FOG. Sequencing of the fog gene revealed structural similarity with M proteins of both GGS and group A streptococci (GAS). Analogous to GAS, GGS were f

A theoretical analysis of the microdialysis ethanol technique in skeletal muscle is presented, and a model governing the transport of ethanol from the microdialysis probe to the capillaries in the muscle tissue is proposed. The model is derived under the assumption of a steady-state situation, and an analytical solution is found for the outflow-to-inflow ratio of ethanol in the perfusate. Theoreti

ZnWO4, ZnWO4 : Fe and ZnWO4 : Mo crystals were investigated by the methods of time-resolved spectroscopy in the temperature range of 4.2-300 K. It is shown that the Mo and Fe impurities significantly reduce the light yield of ZnWO4. The main 2.5 eV emission of ZnWO4 and the 1.77 eV emission band of ZnWO4 : Mo are shown to originate from the triplet excited state of the WO6 and MoO6 complex, respec