Proteinlike copolymers were first predicted by the computer-aided biomimetic design (Physica A 1998, 249, 253-261). These copolymers consist of comonomer units of differing hydrophilicity/hydrophobicity. Heterogeneous blockiness, characteristic for such copolymers, facilitates chain folding with the formation of specific spatial packing: a dense core consisting of hydrophobic units and a polar she

How the variability of the atmospheric circulation affects precipitation in Iceland is not completely understood. Also, the sea surface temperature (SST) has a strong influence on the temperature over the country, and thereby, snow and glacial melt. This study, therefore, aims at explaining how atmospheric circulation and sea surface temperature influence seasonal and annual precipitation, and, co

Objective: to describe first-time-expectants fathers’ experiences of pregnancy. Design: an inductive method using narrative interview form and qualitative content text analysis. The text of the transcripts was coded and categorised. Settings and participants: seven first-time-expectant fathers living in a multicultural industrial town in southern Sweden were interviewed individually when their p

Contact dermatitis to rubber products are often caused by additives used during manufacture, and diagnosed from patch test with established rubber allergen series. In these series the compounds are divided into separate groups such as thiurams, dithiocarbamates and mercaptobenzothiazoles. The objectives were to investigate the substances with allergenic structures present in a diving mask giving r

The connection between the tolerances possible to obtain in a machining process and the machining forces and clamping forces in turning of ring-shaped work pieces clamped in conventional chucks with varying jaw numbers has been investigated. The results can be used for adaptive control of the clamping forces in an optimal way so that the work piece does not come loose in the course of machining an

Retrograde and transganglionic labeling techniques are commonly used to visualize subsets of neurons and sensory afferent projections in the nervous system. These methods commonly require anesthesia and surgical methods. However, some tracers can also be administered systemically in awake animals, thus reducing risks associated with anesthesia and surgery and allowing for labeling of neuronal popu

Background Impaired activation of the human skeletal muscle glycogen synthase by insulin is typical for type 2 diabetic patients. Regulation of glycogen synthase occurs mainly by phosphorylation/dephoshorylation but little is known whether there also is transcriptional regulation. Therefore we studied transcriptional regulation of the human skeletal muscle glycogen synthase gene (GYS1) and evaluat

We report on a newly developed diode-laser spectroscopic system for gas detection in scattering media. Two pigtailed diode lasers are used, operating in a wavelength modulation scheme, to simultaneously detect molecular oxygen at 760 nm and water vapour at 935 nm within the tissue optical window (600 nm to 1.3 μm). Different modulation frequencies are used to distinguish between the two wavelength

Epidemiological studies have indicated that chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) may be associated with an increased incidence of ischaemic cardiac events. The current authors performed a post hoc analysis of the European Respiratory Society's study on Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (EUROSCOP); a 3-yr, placebo-controlled study of an inhaled corticosteroid budesonide 800 pg-day-1 in

Seven Dunkin-Hartley guinea pigs were infected with the Sydney strain of H. pylori (SS1). Gastric histopathology was evaluated and serum antibody response to H. pylori cell-surface proteins was analysed by enzyme immunoassay (EIA) and immunoblot. Tissue and faecal samples from five control animals were analysed for the presence of naturally occurring Helicobacter spp. infection by culture and Heli

Urinary N-acetyl-beta-glucosaminidase (NAG) and its isoenzymes (NAG A and NAG B) in samples from 87 type 1 diabetic patients and 40 apparently healthy reference subjects were studied with enzyme immunoassays. The diabetic patients had higher concentrations of urinary NAG than did the control subjects (P less than 0.01), but the isoenzyme pattern did not differ. There was a positive correlation bet

Ultrafiltration has proven to be a useful technology for treating alkaline bleach plant filtrates in sulphite pulp mills. In this investigation the treatment of seven alkaline filtrates from kraft pulp mills were studied. The results include high fluxes and fair, or even good, removal of organic, as well as inorganic, substances. The flux seems to depend on the concentration of the bleach plant fi

Introduction To achieve any possible positive effect on the intestinal mucosa cells it is important that probiotics adhere tightly onto the intestinal mucosa. It has been shown in healthy volunteers that Lactobacillus plantarum 299v (Lp 299v) (DSM 9843), a probiotic bacterium, given orally in a fermented oatmeal formula adheres onto the intestinal mucosa, but whether this also occurs in critically

The diurnal and vertical variability of heat and carbon dioxide (CO2) in the atmospheric surface layer are studied by analyzing measurements from a 213 m tower in Cabauw (Netherlands). Observations of thermodynamic variables and CO2 mixing ratio as well as vertical profiles of the turbulent fluxes are used to retrieve the contribution of the budget terms in the scalar conservation equation. On the

Hormone-sensitive lipase (HSL), a key enzyme in fatty acid mobilization in adipocytes, has been demonstrated also in skeletal muscle. To gain further insight into the role and importance of HSL in skeletal muscle, a transcriptome analysis of soleus muscle of HSL-null mice was performed. A total of 161 transcripts were found to be differentially expressed. Increased mRNA levels of fructose-1,6-bisp

In the present study, experimental studies are carried out to investigate the heat transfer and friction characteristics in a square duct roughened by various-shaped ribs on one wall. The ribs are oriented transversely to the main stream in a periodic arrangement. Liquid crystal thermography is employed to measure the local and average heat transfer coefficient on the ribbed surface. The rib heigh

We describe a surfactant-promoted reductive route for the shape-controlled synthesis of gold nanostructures by hydrothermal treatment of chloroauric acid in the presence of the surfactant hexadecyltrimethylammonium bromide (CTAB) without using reducing agent. The results show that the cationic surfactant CTAB provides the dual function of promoting Au-III reduction to Au-0 and size- and shape-cont

We examined the relationship between plant species diversity, productivity and the development of the soil community during early secondary succession on former arable land across Europe. We tested the hypothesis that increasing the initial plant species diversity enhances the biomass production and consequently stimulates soil microbial biomass and abundance of soil invertebrates. We performed fi

Direct and interactive effects of CO2 and light on tree phytochemistry and insect fitness parameters were examined through experimental manipulations of plant growth conditions and performance of insect bioassays. Three species of deciduous trees (quaking aspen, Populus tremuloides: paper birch, Betula papyrifera; sugar maple, Acer saccharum) were grown under ambient (387 +/- 8 mu L/L) and elevate