Cat's Claw (Uncaria tomentosa) water extracts, essentially free of oxindole alkaloids, have been shown to possess a broad spectrum of biological activity including DNA repair enhancement and antiinflammatory properties. These two biological mechanisms are key molecular targets to develop treatments that protect skin exposed to ultraviolet light from the sun. Because C-Med-100, a Cat's Claw water e

Overall migration speed is likely to be a trait under selection pressure in animals migrating annually between habitats for reproduction and survival. A general expression was used for migration speed (V-migr), accounting for energy accumulation and transport, and derive how V-migr scales with body mass for three types of migratory locomotion: running, swimming and flying (powered and soaring flig

OBJECTIVES: The sensitizing properties of organic acid anhydrides (OAA) were evaluated in a rat model. METHODS: The development of specific immunoglobulin (Ig)E and Ig G in serum was investigated after immunization with 14 OAA and 3 OAA conjugates. Brown Norway rats were injected intradermally with 0.1 ml of 0.2 M OAA in liquid paraffin or 1.4 mg of rat serum albumin conjugate in saline. Serum sam

There have been contradictory reports on the shift in the T-cell cytokine expression pattern of peripheral blood mononuclear cells from patients with atopic dermatitis (AD); more specifically the interleukin (IL)-4 and interferon (IFN)-gamma profiles. The aim of this study was to shed further light on this contradiction by measuring the intracellular cytokines IL-4 and IFN-gamma by flow cytometry

The common approach for constructing factor mimicking portfolios is to go long in assets with high loadings and to short-sell those with low loadings on some background factors. As a result portfolios containing stocks with low loading on the background factor receive negative betas against the corresponding mimicking portfolio. Thus, such portfolios appear as hedges against the background risk an

Evidence for a novel route of adult hematopoietic stem cell lineage commitment through Lin(-)Sca-1(+)Kit(+)Flt3(hi) (LSKFlt3(hi)) lymphoid-primed multipotent progenitors (LMPPs) with granulocyte/monocyte (GM) and lymphoid but little or no megakaryocyte/erythroid (MkE) potential was recently challenged, as LSKFlt3(hi) cells were reported to possess MkE potential. Herein residual (1-2%) MkE potentia

Objective: To analyze sex differences among adult, never-treated patients referred for central stimulant treatment of ADHD. Method: Data for 600 consecutive patients from northern Norway referred for evaluation by an expert team during 7 years were analyzed. General background information, diagnostic and social history, and symptom profiles were compared between previously never-treated men and wo

This thesis describes six empirical investigations of two techniques applied to software inspections, namely reading techniques and fault content estimation techniques. The first part of the thesis presents a series of experiments of a novel reading technique called usage-based reading. The second part investigates fault content estimation applied to the software inspection process. The estimation

Association studies were carried out in a sample of 86 patients from Sweden who had survived a myocardial infarction (MI) at a young age and 93 age-matched healthy individuals, to compare the impact of polymorphisms at the apolipoprotein (apo) AI-CIII-AIV gene cluster on among-individual differences in plasma lipid and lipoprotein traits, the five high density lipoprotein (HDL) subclasses (2b to 3

We previously showed concordance between Goodpasture syndrome antibody binding and production of experimental glomerulonephritis using human chimeric proteins. We now examine a more limited aminoterminal region of alpha(3)( IV) non- collagenous domain ( NC1) and the impact of single amino acid ( AA) mutations of this region on glomerulonephritis induction. Rats were immunized with collagenase- sol

Agricultural overproduction has led the European Union to encourage long-term abandonment of agricultural land and the adoption of management practices which enhance transition to semi-natural grassland or forest. This paper reports the results of a field study conducted in newly abandoned agricultural land where the development of the mycorrhizal community was investigated in response to manipula

Efficient xylose utilisation by microorganisms is of importance to the lignocellulose fermentation industry. The aim of this work was to develop constitutive catabolite repression mutants in a xylose-utilising recombinant Saccharomyces cerevisiae strain and evaluate the differences in xylose consumption under fermentation conditions. S. cerevisiae YUSM was constitutively catabolite repressed throu

Patients with chronic hepatic encephalopathy (HE) may present affective symptoms and antidepressant drug treatment in this condition is not uncommon. The present microdialysis study investigated treatment with the chronic antidepressant venlafaxine (VEN) in experimental HE with regard to tentative changes in pharmacokinetic and/or pharmacodynamic parameters. Three weeks after portacaval shunt (PCS

Naked DNA plasmid represents the simplest vehicle for gene therapy and DNA-based vaccination purposes; however, the, molecular mechanisms of DNA uptake in mammalian cells are poorly understood. Here, we show that naked DNA uptake occurs via proteoglycan-dependent macropinocytosis, thus challenging the concept of a specific DNA-internalizing receptor. Cells genetically deficient in proteoglycans, w

Empirical and theoretical research on the demand for health inputs has been, and still is, extensive. However, it is not only important to analyse how household choice is affected by alternative and household specific attributes. but it is equally important to analyse the welfare implications of, for example, a change in the price of different inputs. Policyrnakers and donor agencies involved in s

Background and Purpose - Warfarin prevents stroke in atrial fibrillation (AF); however, concerns regarding international normalized ratio control and hemorrhage limit its use in the elderly. The oral direct thrombin inhibitors (DTIs) are potential alternatives to warfarin, offering fixed dosing without drug and dietary interactions and the need for international normalized ratio monitoring. Althou

Molecular techniques were used to investigate the composition and ontogenetic development of the intestinal bacterial community in the marine herbivorous fish Kyphosus sydneyanus from the north eastern coast of New Zealand. Previous work showed that K. sydneyanus maintains an exclusively algivorous diet throughout post-settlement life and passes through an ontogenetic diet shift from a juvenile di

We present a fast fabrication technique to achieve SU-8 structures with sloped side walls. We investigate the method of ‘Step-and-Flash’ which combines hot embossing with UV sensitive materials. The stamps are fabricated in Si by KOH etching to achieve mesa structures with side walls at a 54.7° angle to the bottom. These stamps are imprinted into SU-8-coated Pyrex wafers during the soft bake step