Recombinant amorpha-4,11-diene synthase from Artemisia annua, expressed in Escherichia coli, was incubated with the deuterium-labeled farnesyl diphosphates, (1R)-[1-H-2]FPP, (1S)-[1-H-2]FPP, and [1,1-H-2(2)]FPP. GC-MS analysis of amorpha-4,11-diene formed from the deuterated FPPs shows that the deuterium atoms are retained in the product. Furthermore, analysis of the MS-spectra obtained with the d

Allergic contact dermatitis is recognized as a public health problem and some major allergens have been subject to intervention aiming at lowering skin exposure. There is an obvious interest in evaluating the effect of such interventions. Population studies are difficult to perform and epidemiological studies based on clinical data from testing patients with contact dermatitis are common surrogate

The cosmogenic radionuclides 14C, 10Be and 36Cl allow us to trace solar variability several tens of millennia back in time. Different methods of reconstructing past solar variability based on radionuclide concentrations measured in ice cores will be discussed. The similarity in the variability of measurements of solar magnetic activity and solar irradiance over the last 20 years makes cosmogenic r

Complexation of o-phthalate (1,2-benzenedicarboxylate) at the water-boehmite (gamma-AlOOH) interface has been studied in 0.1 N NaCl media at 298.2 K within the range 4.0 < pH < 10.0. Equilibrium measurements were performed as potentiometric titrations and adsorption measurements. Attenuated total reflectance IR spectra were recorded to obtain structural information of the phthalate surface complex

This article presents some critical comments on the use of Rogers' innovation-diffusion model, which is often referred to in health promotion research as an explanation of how behavioural changes occur over time. The analytical focus is on the belief that there is a social pattern in the process of diffusion, so that higher socioeconomic groups lead the way in adopting ‘preventive innovations’, an

The aggregation behavior of a charged amphiphilic graft copolymer, prepared from poly(styrene-co-methyl methacrylate-co-maleic anhydride) and poly(ethylene oxide) monomethyl ether, was studied using flow field-flow fractionation (flow FFF). This method determines the hydrodynamic size of aggregates. The polymer was shown to have a complex aggregation behavior in aqueous solutions containing salt.

Cocaine- and amphetamine-regulated transcript (CART) peptide, originally isolated from brain, is also expressed in the peripheral nervous system. The distribution, origin and projections of CART-expressing enteric neurones by immunocytochemistry and in situ hybridization in rat gastrointestinal (GI) tract were studied. Possible motor functions of CART were studied in vitro using longitudinal muscl

Detailed mineral magnetic measurements were carried out on three varved lake-sediment sequences in Sweden, which extend to ca. 7000 BC. The comparison of the magnetic properties of the organic rich varved lake-sediments with their respective catchment materials indicates that the magnetic properties of the sediments are dominated by relatively high concentrations of single-domain magnetite magneto

The antenatal clinics in the catchment area of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, University Hospital, Lund, were divided into a study group and a control group. At the study antenatal clinics during a 15-month period 1,004 pregnant women received a written and verbal information that a routine ultrasound examination during gestational week 18 should be considered as a prenatal diagnosti

Objectives: In severe hay fever, some patients are strongly affected despite the use of first-line therapy and are therefore treated with an intramuscular injection of systemic corticosteroid (i.m. SCS) in some countries. The aim of this paper was to explore the efficacy and side effects of a single i.m. SCS injection in hay fever in adults. Data sources: PubMed, EMBASE, Cochrane Library. Method

RNA repair has now been demonstrated to be a genuine biological process and appears to be present in all three domains of life. In this article, we consider what this might mean for the transition from an early RNA-dominated world to modem cells possessing genetically encoded proteins and DNA. There are significant gaps in our understanding of how the modem protein-DNA world could have evolved fro

We report a kindred in which two siblings suffered spontaneous venous thromboses in the second decade of life. Further investigation showed reduced coagulation factor V (FV) activity and activated protein C resistance (APCR) ratio but no other thrombophilic abnormalities. The reduction in APCR ratio persisted in a modified APCR assay in which FV activity was normalized between test and control pla

Greylag Geese Anser anser have been neck-banded on an annual basis in Scania, southern Sweden since 1984 and in Norway since 1986 as part of a Nordic Greylag project. This has yielded a large database of resightings, which we used here to estimate and compare survival rates between the two populations by means of mark-recapture models. Estimated adult survival was sex-dependent in the Scanian popu

The task of a fast correlation attack is to efficiently restore the initial content of a linear feedback shift register in a stream cipher using a detected correlation with the output sequence. We show that by modeling this problem as the problem of learning a binary linear multivariate polynomial, algorithms for polynomial reconstruction with queries can be modified through some general technique

The Klebsiella pneumoniae ozenae KIIIA strain was isolated from the River Rhine soon after a serious mercury pollution episode and was selected for mercury resistance as well as for intergeneric DNA mobilization helper potential. This transfer helper capacity was shown to be related to the presence of a Tn3-like transposable element, Tn5403. Because transposon-mediated fusion was found to be invol

Background: Long-term frozen storage may alter the results of prostate-specific antigen (PSA) measurements, mainly because of degradation of free PSA (fPSA) in vitro. We compared the effects of long-term storage on fPSA, total PSA (tPSA), and complexed PSA (cPSA) in serum vs EDTA-plasma samples. Methods: We measured fPSA and tPSA concentrations in matched pairs of archival serum and EDTA-plasma sa

In this paper we describe the flight characteristics of a swift (Apus apus) in cruising flight at three different flight speeds (8.0, 8.4 and 9.2 m s(-1)) in a low turbulence wind tunnel. The wingbeat kinematics were recorded by high-speed filming and the wake of the bird was visualized by digital particle image velocimetry (DPIV). Certain flight characteristics of the swift differ from those of p

The aim of the study was to determine whether an impairment of the haemostasis could be observed experimentally when thromboprophylactic substances, which act differently on the haemostatic mechanism, were given single or in combination in prophylactic doses. In 36 rabbits we measured the primary haemostatic plug formation time (PHT), rebleedings and total haemostatic plug formation time (THT) aft