Mechanisms controlling microbial degradation of dissolved organic matter (DOM) in aquatic environments are poorly understood, although microbes are crucial to global nutrient cycling. Bacterial cell wall components may be one of the keys in understanding the presence of slowly degrading DOM in nature. We found that dominant components of bacterial cell walls (D-amino acids (D-AA), glucosamine (Glu

Plants of the partially self-incompatible perennial herb Brassica cretica, derived from contralled cross- and self-pollinations within each of seven populations, were raised under uniform conditions and scored for two measures of developmental stability, flower asymmetry (quantified as the difference in length and width between opposite petals) and cotyledon asymmetry (quantified as the difference

The importance of screening programs in reducing the prevalence of genital chlamydial infections is stressed by the fact that the majority of infected persons are more or less asymptomatic. The use of oral contraceptives may mask infections affecting the upper genital tract. This imposes selective screening and rescreening of women with a history of pelvic inflammatory disease. The recent knowledg

Type 1 diabetes (T1D) is an autoimmune disease characterized by pancreatic beta cell destruction involving auto-reactive T-cells, pro-inflammatory cytokines, reactive oxygen species (ROS) and loss of insulin. Monozygotic twin studies show a 20-60% concordance with T1D indicating there may be an environmental component to the disease. Glutathione (GSH) is the major endogenous antioxidant produced b

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the outcome of patients with suspected normal pressure hydrocephalus at 6 months and 5 years after shunt Surgery. METHODS: Seventy-five patients (mean age, 72.5 +/- 9 yr), with normal pressure hydrocephalus symptoms were included. Fifty-four patients with positive lumbar infusion and/or cerebrospinal fluid tap tests received a cerebrospinal fluid shunt, whereas 21 patients w

OBJECTIVES: To assess the effect of stent-graft implantation on the pressure within an abdominal aortic aneurysm. METHODS: Aneurysm exclusion was performed using an aorto-uniiliac stent-graft in eight patients. Following stent-graft implantation, pressure measurements were performed through a catheter adjacent to the graft in the aneurysm. This "aneurysm pressure" was compared with radial arterial

alpha-Cells were identified in preparations of dispersed mouse islets by immunofluorescence microscopy. A high fraction of alpha-cells correlated with a small cell size measured as the average cell diameter (10 microm) and whole-cell capacitance (

The spectral properties of financial correlation matrices can show features known from completely random matrices. A major reason is noise originating from the finite lengths of the financial time series used to compute the correlation matrix elements. In recent years, various methods have been proposed to reduce this noise, i.e. to clean the correlation matrices. This is of direct practical relev

An investigation of the kinetics of the Heck reaction between 4-iodoanisole and styrene catalysed by {cis-1,3-bis[(di-tert-butylphosphino)methyl]-cyclohexane} palladium (11) iodide (1) has been performed in DMF-d(7) solution. Based on mercury poisoning experiments a heterogeneous palladium catalyst formed from the PCsp3P Pd(II) pre-catalyst is proposed. Saturation behaviour with respect to the ole

Background Studies on blood flow velocity in the fetal middle cerebral artery have revealed signs of brain sparing in chronic hypoxia. These signs of brain sparing can disappear in the terminal case, but whether this applies to the whole brain or only parts of it is unknown. Methods Velocity waveforms of the middle cerebral, anterior cerebral and posterior cerebral arteries were recorded in 221 pr

We show that the undular stray light, diffusely scattered by the optical system of a synchrotron beamline, can play an important role in the formation of high-resolution resonant photoelectron (RPE) spectra. The influence of the stray light is mediated through the Stokes doubling effect, with the Lorentzian tail of the spectral function being replaced by a more complicated form. This effect is sho

We have applied the perforated patch whole-cell technique to beta cells within intact pancreatic islets to identify the current underlying the glucose-induced rhythmic firing of action potentials. Trains of depolarizations (to simulate glucose-induced electrical activity) resulted in the gradual (time constant: 2.3 s) development of a small (60%) blocked by high (10-20 mM) concentrations of tetrae

The Malmo protocol for immune tolerance induction includes high doses of Factor VIII/IX, intravenous IgG and cyclophosphamide. If the inhibitor titer exceeds 10 Bethesda units at start, extracorporeal adsorption of IgG is performed using protein A. The protocol sometimes has to be repeated. A successful response may occur within a few weeks. In hemophilia A the success rate so far is 10/17 patient