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Territorial animals maintain a certain distance to neighbouring conspecifics, presumably leading to a regular spatial pattern through social spacing. Nevertheless, most animal populations are assumed to show aggregation at certain distance ranges, reflecting the scale dependency of spatial patterns. Leucorchestris arenicola (Araneae: Sparassidae) is a burrow-living spider species that shows territ
This study evaluated the relationship between the activity of the inflammatory indicator adenosine deaminase (ADA) in placental tissue and maternal and fetal (umbilical cord) plasma and the severity of pre-eclampsia. Maternal and umbilical vein whole blood and placental tissue samples were collected from women with normal pregnancies (n = 33) and patients with mild (n = 12) or severe (n = 17) pre-
We report on the shear induced transition from the L-3- to the L-alpha-phase studied by means of flow birefringence using the system pentaethyleneglycol monododecylether (C12E5), decane, water. The dependence of the critical shear rate, at which the transition from the isotropic state to the anisotropic takes place, on membrane volume fraction was studied in temperature ramp experiments at differe
In this prospective, case-control study, femoral neck diameter, cross-sectional moment of inertia, or section modulus was an independent predictor of hip fracture risk after adjustment for BMD. However, the contribution of each of these indices to hip fracture prediction was modest in the presence of BMD. Introduction: The relative contribution of measures of hip strength to hip fracture predictio
Objective. To investigate the perinatal adaptive response of the adrenal blood flow/adrenal fractional moving blood volume (AFMBV) and carotid blood flow (CBF), in sheep fetuses subjected to severe acute intrauterine hypoxia/asphyxia induced by total cord occlusion.Methods. Adrenal blood flow velocity, AFMBV and CBF were measured in 13 exteriorized fetal sheep; eight of them underwent total umbili
Instantaneous force production in wing-propelled diving Atlantic puffins (Fratercula arctica) was investigated using four birds for which instantaneous estimates of velocity and acceleration of the body were made. The quasi-steady resultant force acting on the body in the sagittal plane was calculated using acceleration reaction coefficients, buoyancy estimates, and drag coefficients taken from th
lThe antigen binding site of an antibody is made up of residues residing in six hypervariable loops of the heavy and light chains. In most cases several or all of these loops are required for the establishment of the antigen-binding surface. Five of these loops display a limited diversity in length and sequence while the third complementarity determining region (CDR) of the heavy chain is highly d
Modern immunosuppressive regimens reduce the acute rejection rate by combining a cornerstone immunosuppressant like tacrolimus or cyclosporine with adjunctive agents like corticosteroids, mycophenolate mofetil (MMF) or azathioprine, often associated with untoward side effects. A 6-month randomized study was conducted in 47 European centers. Triple therapy with tacrolimus (trough levels 5-15 ng/mL)
Background: Plasma total homocysteine (tHcy) is often elevated in patients with mental illness. Since patients with mental illness and vascular disease exhibit a higher plasma tHcy concentration than patients without vascular disease, it is possible that elevated plasma tHcy in mental illness is mainly due to concomitant vascular disease. Methods: We have investigated plasma tHcy, cobalamin/folate
Apolipoprotein M (apoM) is a recently discovered human apolipoprotein predominantly present in high-density lipoprotein (HDL), and in minor proportion in triglyceride-rich lipoprotein (TGRLP) and low-density lipoprotein (LDL). The gene coding for apoM has been detected in all mammal genomes. The function of apoM is unknown yet. In the present study, we demonstrated that apoM is exclusively express
Real-time PCR technology is increasingly used for detection and quantification of pathogens in food samples. A main disadvantage of nucleic acid detection is the inability to distinguish between signals originating from viable cells and DNA released from dead cells. In order to gain knowledge concerning risks of false-positive results due to detection of DNA originating from dead cells, quantitati
Xylanases without contaminating cellulases are produced by a wide variety of aerobic bacteria and fungi but anaerobic organisms producing such enzymes are rare. Clostridial species viz., Clostridium beijerinckii LU-1, C. acetobutylicum LU-1, C. butyricum and C. bifermentans LU-1 isolated from rumen produced xylanase (E.C. 3.2.1.8) of 1.5-4.2 U/ml on oat spelt xylan as sole carbon source. Cellulose
Background-The objective was to evaluate the role of risk factors and stent type for stent thrombosis (ST) using a large real world registry. Methods and Results-We evaluated all consecutive coronary stent implantations in Sweden from May 1, 2005, to June 30, 2007. All cases of ST, documented in the Swedish coronary angiography and angioplasty registry until September 21, 2008, were analyzed. ST w
We have studied the influence of a wide concentration range of islet amyloid polypeptide (IAPP) on both glucagon and insulin release stimulated by various types of secretagogues. In an islet incubation medium devoid of glucose, the rate of glucagon release being high, we observed a marked suppressive action by low concentrations of IAPP, 10−10 and 10−8 M, on glucagon release. Similarly, glucagon r
The authors propose a new algorithm, "local K" (LK), for fast evaluation of the exchange Fock matrix in case the Cholesky decomposition of the electron repulsion integrals is used. The novelty lies in the fact that rigorous upper bounds to the contribution from each occupied orbital to the exchange Fock matrix are employed. By formulating these inequalities in terms of localized orbitals, the scal
When an excess of human cystatin C or chicken cystatin was mixed with papain, an enzyme-inhibitor complex was formed immediately. The residual free cystatin was then progressively converted to a form with different electrophoretic mobility and chromatographic properties. The modified cystatins were isolated and sequenced, showing that there had been cleavage of a single peptide bond in each molecu
In bacterial meningitis, chemokines lead to recruitment of polymorphonuclear leucocytes (PMN) into the CNS. At the site of infection in the subarachnoid space, PMN release reactive oxygen species, reactive nitrogen intermediates (RNI) and interleukin-1 beta (IL-1 beta). Although these immune factors assist in clearance of bacteria, they also result in neuronal injury associated with meningitis. Tr
