SoTL

OBJECTIVES: Metabolic factors such as obesity, hypertension, dyslipidemia and hyperglycemia have consistently been associated with increased risk of cardiovascular disease. There is also growing evidence that these factors are linked to cancer incidence and mortality. The aim of this study was to investigate long-term trends in major metabolic risk factors in three large cohorts. MATERIALS AND MET

The ultrafast timescale of electron transfer processes is crucial to their role in many biological systems and technological devices. In dye-sensitized solar cells(1-4), the electron transfer from photoexcited dye molecules to nanostructured semiconductor substrates needs to be sufficiently fast to compete effectively against loss processes and thus achieve high solar energy conversion efficiencie

Migratory birds can use a magnetic compass for orientation during their migratory journeys covering thousands of kilometers. But how do they sense the reference direction provided by the Earth's magnetic field? Behavioral evidence and theoretical considerations have suggested that radical-pair processes in differently oriented, light-sensitive molecules of the retina could enable migratory birds t

During a 2-year period, 5476 normal routine obstetrical ultrasound investigations were performed in the 2nd trimester (16th to 20th week). Data on biparietal diameter (BPD), abdominal diameter (AD) and femur length (FL) have been obtained from this material. Ratios between BPD/AD and BPD/FL have been calculated, and from these ratios, graphs were constructed. Only nine normal fetuses (0.2%) were f

The burden of disease/cost-effectiveness analysis (BoD/CE) was introduced as a method for detailed planning and budgeting in 13 districts of Uganda. This endeavor can be seen as a “natural experiment”, attempting to pursue policy implementation by means of a heavy focus on rationalistic/technical arguments as a main supportive factor. However, modern theory of policy implementation, e.g. the new i

Bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL) fluid was analysed from 21 patients with breast cancer, stage T1N0M0, who had undergone tumour resection and post-operative local irradiation (accumulated dose 56 Gy). The lavage was performed two months after radiotherapy, in the anterior part of the lingula (left side) or of the right middle lobe (right side), depending on which side had been exposed to radiation. Th

The degradation and biogas production potential of sisal fibre waste could be significantly increased by pre-treatment for reduction of particle size. Batch-wise anaerobic digestion of sisal fibre waste was carried out in 1-l digesters with fibre sizes ranging from 2 to 100 mm, at an ambient temperature of 33 °C. Sediment from a stabilisation pond at a sisal production plant was used as starter se

Twice each year, millions of night-migratory songbirds migrate thousands of kilometers. To find their way, they must process and integrate spatiotemporal information from a variety of cues including the Earth's magnetic field and the night-time starry sky. By using sensory-driven gene expression, we discovered that night-migratory songbirds possess a tight cluster of brain regions highly active on

Background: During the last decade, the evidence of beneficial effects of cholesterol lowering in patients with coronary heart disease (CHD) has been proven in several clinical trials. This has prompted international guidelines on prevention of CHD to include recommendations on dietary and pharmacological treatment of hyperlipidaernia with set goals on total- and LDL-cholesterol. Methods: The firs

The formation of ectomycorrhizal (ECM) root tissue is characterized by distinct morphological and developmental stages, such as preinfection and adhesion, mantle, and Hartig net formation. The global pattern of gene expression during these stages in the birch (Betula pendula)-Paxillus involutus ECM association was analyzed using cDNA microarrays. In comparison with nonsymbiotic conditions, 251 fun

The influence of sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS) on the interfacial behavior of two amphiphilic polyelectrolytes, which are copolymers of the cationic monomers triethyl(vinylbenzyl)ammonium chloride and dimethyldodecyl(vinylbenzyl)ammonium chloride, at the silica-aqueous interface was studied. The fraction of amphiphilic monomers was varied, where ODT, 40DT, and 80DT contained 0, 40, and 80 mol % mon

Human cathelicidin antimicrobial protein hCAP18/LL-37 is an effector molecule of the nonspecific innate immune system. hCAP18/LL-37 is present in leukocytes and is expressed in skin and other epithelia, where it is upregulated in association with inflammation and injury. In addition, antimicrobial proteins including cathelicidins have been proposed to play a role in the nonspecific defense against

Phytochemical investigations on the most active EtOAc extract led to the isolation of 9 flavonoids [quercetin (1), quercetin 3-O-beta-glucopyranoside (2), quercetin 3-O-beta-galactopyranoside (3), quercetin 3-O-(2 ''-O-galloyl)-beta-glucopyranoside (4), quercetin 3-O-(2 ''-O-galloyl)-beta-galactopyranoside (5), quercetin 3-O-(6 ''-O-galloyl)-beta-glucopyranoside (6), quercetin 3-O-(6 ''-O-galloyl)

The methodology for ready-made matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization (MALDI) target plates covered with an optimized thin layer consisting of matrix and nitrocellulose has been developed. Piezoelectric microdispensing enabled sample depositions in a high-density array format of 2000 sample depositions on a conventionally sized target plate (45 x 47 mm). The sample depositions were made repro

P>1. Ants show complex interactions with plants, both facultative and mutualistic, ranging from grazers through seed predators and dispersers to herders of some herbivores and guards against others. But ants are rarely pollinators, and their visits to flowers may be detrimental to plant fitness. 2. Plants therefore have various strategies to control ant distributions, and restrict them to foliage

Every tripotent e of a generalized Jordan triple system of second order uniquely defines a decomposition of the space of the triple into a direct sum of eight components. This decomposition is a generalization of the Peirce decomposition for the Jordan triple system. The relations between components are studied in the case when e is a left unit.