Nitrogen (N) is often considered to be the major factor limiting tree growth in northern forest ecosystems. An increased N availability, however, increases the demand for other nutrients such as base cations and phosphorous (P) which in turn may change which nutrient is the limiting factor. If P or base cations become limiting, N will start to leach which means a risk of increased eutrophication o

To obtain a deeper insight into the genes and gene networks involved in the development of placentopathies, we have assessed global gene expression in three different models of placental hyperplasia caused by interspecies hybridization (IHPD), cloning by nuclear transfer, and mutation of the Esx1 gene, respectively. Comparison of gene expression profiles of approximately 13,000 expressed sequence

MAX-lab has introduced a local perturbation to the electron orbit of the MAX II storage ring, providing users at the SX700 monochromator beam line, D1011, with elliptically polarised soft X-rays. This is achieved by using corrector magnets to send the electron orbit on an ascending or descending trajectory through the dipole magnet source. This simple "bump" approach has many advantages over and a

DNA interacts with insoluble monolayers made of cationic amphiphiles as well as with monolayers of zwitterionic lipids in the presence of divalent ions. Binding to dioctadecyldimethylammonium bromide (DODAB) or distearoyl-sn-glycero-3-phosphocholine (DSPC) monolayers in the presence of calcium is accompanied by monolayer expansion. For the positively charged DODAB monolayer, this causes a decrease

SoTL

Synaptogenesis, the formation of functional synapses, is a crucial step for the development of the central nervous system. Among the genes involved in this process are cell adhesion molecules, such as protocadherins and neuroligins, which are essential factors for the identification of the appropriate partner cell and the formation of synapses. In this work, we studied the expression and the genet

Glucagon, secreted by the a-cells of the pancreatic islets, is the most important glucose-increasing hormone of the body. The precise regulation of glucagon release remains incompletely defined but has been proposed to involve release of inhibitory factors from neighbouring P-cells (paracrine control). However, the observation that glucose can regulate glucagon secretion under conditions when insu

A major bottleneck in understanding zoonotic pathogens has been the analysis of pathogen co-infection dynamics. We have addressed this challenge using a novel direct sequencing approach for pathogen quantification in mixed infections. The major zoonotic food-borne pathogen Campylobacter jejuni, with an important reservoir in the gastrointestinal (GI) tract of chickens, was used as a model. We inve

Excessive secretion of glucagon is a major contributor to the development of diabetic hyperglycemia. Secretion of glucagon is regulated by various nutrients, with glucose being a primary determinant of the rate of alpha cell glucagon secretion. The intra-islet action of insulin is essential to exert the effect of glucose on the alpha cells since, in the absence of insulin, glucose is not able to s

The tumor growth phenotype was characterized in relation to concentration of circulating estradiol, estradiol receptor (ER) activation and progesterone receptor (PgR) induction. Ten tumor pieces from an ER and PgR positive human endometrial adenocarcinoma grown in non-oophorectomized nude mice for one year were randomly selected to grow during a preparation phase of 4 weeks either in oophorectomiz

Morphologic and physiologic changes taking place in carbon-limited submerged cultures of Aspergillus nidulans DeltaflbA and fadA(G203R) strains were studied. Loss-of-function mutation of the flbA gene resulted in an altered germination with unusually thick germination tubes, "fluffy" pellet morphology, as well as a reduced fragmentation rate of hyphae during autolysis. In the fadA(G203R) mutant st

osteoarthritis, risedronate, knee, bisphosphonates, cartilage

For most animals their foraging environment consists of a patch network. In random environments there are no spatial autocorrelation at all, while in fine-grained systems positive autocorrelations flip to negative ones and back again against distance. With increasing grain size the turnover rate of spatial autocorrelation slows down. Using a cellular automaton with foragers having limited informat

Quality of life (QoL) assessment in children with coagulation disorders is a relatively unstudied area. While hemophilia-specific questionnaires (such as Haemo-QoL) are available, no instrument for children with idiopathic thrombocytopenic purpura (ITP) has been validated yet. A disease-specific questionnaire for children with ITP was therefore developed (ITP-QoL) in three phases: (a) a preparator