In this investigation, we have collected family-structured data from a partly self-compatible, outcrossing population of Brassica cretica to estimate and compare the effects of one-generation selfing on different types of characters. Inbreeding not only depressed characters that should be positively correlated with fitness irrespective of habitat, e.g. germinability, leaf number and inflorescence

Differential measurements of elliptic flow (v(2)) for Au+Au and Cu+Cu collisions at root s(NN)=200 GeV are used to test and validate predictions from perfect fluid hydrodynamics for scaling of v(2) with eccentricity, system size, and transverse kinetic energy (KET). For KET equivalent to m(T)-m up to similar to 1 GeV the scaling is compatible with hydrodynamic expansion of a thermalized fluid. For

The performance of an explicit algebraic stress model with a cubic equation for closure constants is assessed in predicting the turbulent flow dynamics of ducts relevant for heat exchangers. The use of a cubic equation allows elimination of any damping functions in the tensor representation for the Reynolds stresses and thereby improves prediction of turbulent stresses theoretically. The methodolo

Humans are colour-blind at night, and it has been assumed that this is true of all animals. But colour vision is as useful for discriminating objects1 at night as it is during the day. Here we show, through behavioural experiments, that the nocturnal hawkmoth Deilephila elpenor uses colour vision to discriminate coloured stimuli at intensities corresponding to dim starlight (0.0001 cd m-2). It can

Objective: To define the importance of leukocyte recruitment in endotoxin-induced gut permeability. Materials and methods: 31 male C57BL/6 mice were challenged with lipopolysaccharide (LPS). Ileal permeability was measured in Ussing chambers and leukocyte-endothelium interactions studied with intravital fluorescence microscopy after 18 h. Results: LPS caused a clear-cut increase in leukocyte accum

Cryogels are gel matrices that are formed in moderately frozen solutions of monomeric or polymeric precursors. Cryogels typically have interconnected macropores (or supermacropores), allowing unhindered diffusion of solutes of practically any size, as well as mass transport of nano- and even microparticles. The unique structure of cryogels, in combination with their osmotic, chemical and mechanica

The C-terminal G3 domains of lecticans mediate crosslinking to diverse extracellular matrix (ECM) proteins during ECM assembly, through their C-type lectin (CLD) subdomains. The structure of the rat aggrecan CLD in a Ca(2+)-dependent complex with fibronectin type III repeats 3-5 of rat tenascin-R provides detailed support for such crosslinking. The CLD loops bind Ca2+ like other CLDs, but no carbo

The World Health Organization considers an aetiological classification of diabetes to be essential. The aim of this study was to evaluate whether HLA-DQB1 genotypes facilitate the classification of diabetes as compared with assessment of islet antibodies by investigating young adult diabetic patients. Blood samples were available at diagnosis for 1,872 (90%) of the 2,077 young adult patients (aged

Calbindin D28k (calbindin) is a member of the calmodulin superfamily of Ca2+ -binding proteins. An intracellular target of calbindin was discovered using bacteriophage display. Human recombinant calbindin was immobilized on magnetic beads and used in affinity purification of phage-displayed peptides from a random 12-mer peptide library. One sequence, SYSSIAKYPSHS, was strongly selected both in the

We develop a density-functional theory for polydisperse polymer fluids satisfying the Schulz-Flory distribution. The resulting equations are remarkably simple and quickly solved, the computational effort scaling with the polydispersity index, rather than the average molecular weight. Equilibrium, or "living", polymers enter naturally as very polydisperse samples. We illustrate the importance of po

A model of human eye for experiments in vision research has been developed using PLZT ceramics. This ``artificial eye{''} allows to simulate light scattering caused by cataract in the eye lens. Light scattering of a composite eye lens of the model depends on the electric field applied to a transparent electrooptic PLZT ceramics plate that is attached directly to the lens. The image degradation in

Murine monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) which specifically react, in immunoblot and immunolocalization experiments, with the human desmosomal cadherins, desmocollins Dsc1 (mAb Dsc1-U100) and Dsc3 (mAb Dsc3-U114), have allowed to study systematically the synthesis of these proteins in tissues and cultured cells. Application of these mAbs in immunofluorescence microscopy on human skin has shown the pres

Although sexual reproduction appears to be rare in many clonal plant species, the majority of clonal species show similar levels of genetic variation to non-clonal plant species. Aegopodium podagraria is a noxious garden weed and has become a successful invader in many natural habitats. Earlier studies have demonstrated population differentiation in life-history traits between different A. podagra

Superior androgen receptor (AR) function in subjects carrying a GGN repeat length of 23 (GGN23) has been indicated in vivo. Therefore, the activity of the AR carrying GGN23 combined with CAG22 was compared to the AR with GGN10, 24 and 27, respectively, in the presence of 0.1-100 nM testosterone or DHT. At 100 nM DHT, GGN24 showed 35% lower transactivating activity (95% [CI]: 20-50%) than GGN23. GG

We previously showed that conjugated linoleic acid (CLA) increases 15-keto-dihydro-prostaglandin F-2 alpha, a marker for cyclooxygenase-mediated lipid peroxidation and thus an indicator of cyclooxygenase-mediated inflammation. The aim of the present study was to investigate the effects of CLA on other indicators of inflammation in human subjects, including C-reactive protein, TNF-alpha, TNF-alpha

Species of Haemoproteus (Haemosporida: Haemoproteidae), avian haemosporidians, have traditionally been described based on morphology of their gametocytes and on limited experimental information on their vertebrate host specificity. We investigated to what extent the morphological species are represented by monophyletic groups based on DNA sequence data using 2 different fragment lengths of the cyt

We study deterministic algorithms for the gossiping problem in ad hoc radio networks under the assumption that each combined message contains at most b(n) single messages or bits of auxiliary information, where b is an integer function and n is the number of nodes in the network. We term such a restricted gossiping problem b(n) -gossiping. We show that rootn-gossiping in an ad hoc radio network on