The oral contraceptive pill is associated with a modest increase in the risk of early-onset breast cancer in the general population, but it is possible that the risk is higher in certain subgroups of women. The relative risk of breast cancer associated with oral contraceptive use has been reported to be higher for African-American women than for white women. African-American women also have a high

Many common diseases are known to have genetic components, but since they are non-Mendelian, i.e. a large number of genetic factors affect the phenotype, these components are difficult to localize. These traits are often called complex and analysis of siblings is a valuable tool for mapping them. It has been shown that the power of the affected relative pairs method to detect linkage of a disease

The phase behavior of aqueous mixtures of a nonionic surfactant, hexaethylene glycol dodecyl ether (C12E6), was investigated by means of differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) spectroscopy, and C-13 nuclear magnetic resonance (C-13 NMR) spectroscopy, The T-X phase diagram of this system was constructed from the DSC results. Comparison of the phase diagram with

I. Previous work has shown that wing wear increases mortality rate in bumblebees. Two proximate explanations have been suggested to account for this: increased energy flight costs and increased predation risk due to reduced manoeuvrability. 2. Wing wear was mimicked by experimentally clipping the forewing distal trailing edge, causing a 10% wing area reduction. Experimental and sham control bumble

Coexistence among unequal conspecific interferers should be unlikely to persist if stronger interferers always experience a relative fitness increment from their higher foraging rates. In this study, we suggest that decreased relative costs to weaker interferers with increasing temporal fluctuations in prey availability may be a mechanism enhancing coexistence of unequal conspecific interferers. P

The endosymbiotic theory for the origin of mitochondria requires substantial modification. The three identifiable ancestral sources to the proteome of mitochondria are proteins descended from the ancestral alpha -proteobacteria symbiont, proteins with no homology to bacterial orthologs, and diverse proteins with bacterial affinities not derived from alpha -proteobacteria. Random mutations in the f

We employed gene array technology to investigate the effects of alpha 1-antichymotrypsin (ACT), soluble or fibrillar Alzheimer's peptide (A beta(1-42)) alone and the combination of ACT/A beta(1-42) on human astrocytes. Using a 1.2-fold change as significance threshold, 398 astrocyte genes showed altered expression in response to these treatments compared to controls. Of the 276 genes affected by t

The Late Ludlow topmost Hemse-Burgsvik succession includes more substantial and more rapid facies changes than most older and younger intervals on Gotland. A revised conodont zonation for this interval includes three zones, the Polygnathoides siluricus, the Icriodontid, and the Ozarkodina snajdri zones and four subzones, the Upper P. siluricus, the Lower, the Middle and the Upper Icriodonfid subzo

The major route for the synthesis of triacylglycerol (TAG) in yeast as well as in all TAG-accumulating organisms has been suggested to occur via the acylation of diacylglycerol (DAG) by acyl-CoA:diacylglycerol acyltransferase (DAGAT). Genes encoding DAGAT have been identified in both plant and animal tissues. These genes show strong sequence similarities to genes encoding acyl-CoA:cholesterol acyl

In the present work, we reexamined the gradient expansion of the exchange energy of an electron gas with a slowly varying charge density. We stay within the exchange-only approximation of Sharp, Horton, Talman, and Shadwick but go to second order in the deviation from the homogeneous limit. The coefficient of the lowest-order gradient correction is obtained analytically both for a bare and a scree

Our newly devised immunofluorometric sandwich assay for measuring plasma concentrations of activated protein C (APC) in complex with protein C inhibitor (PCI) was compared with testing for conventional markers of myocardial damage CKMB (creatine kinase MB), TNI (troponin I) and hypercoagulability (D-dimer, TAT) in 76 patients with suspected myocardial infarction (MI). APC-PCI complex levels in sam