In pancreatic B- and A-cells, metabolic stimuli regulate biochemical and electrical processes that culminate in Ca2+-influx and release of insulin or glucagon, respectively. Like in other (neuro)endocrine cells, Ca2+-influx triggers the rapid exocytosis of hormone-containing secretory granules. Only a small fraction of granules (

Recent work has shown that pressures inside dsDNA phage capsids can be as high as many tens of atmospheres; it is this pressure that is responsible for initiation of the delivery of phage genomes to host cells. The forces driving ejection of the genome have been shown to decrease monotonically as ejection proceeds, and hence to be strongly dependent on the genome length. Here we investigate the

In order to create a heme environment that permits biomimicry of heme-containing peroxidases, a number of new hemin–peptide complexes—hemin-2(18)-glycyl-l-histidine methyl ester (HGH), hemin-2(18)-glycyl-glycyl-l-histidine methyl ester (HGGH), and hemin-2,18-bis(glycyl-glycyl-l-histidine methyl ester) (H2GGH)—have been prepared by condensation of glycyl-l-histidine methyl ester or glycyl-glycyl-l-

Many common neurological disorders, such as Parkinson's disease, stroke and multiple sclerosis, are caused by a loss of neurons and glial cells. In recent years, neurons and glia have been generated successfully from stem cells in culture, fuelling efforts to develop stem-cell-based transplantation therapies for human patients. More recently, efforts have been extended to stimulating the formation

C4b-binding protein (C4BP) is a regulator of the classical complement pathway C3 convertase (C4bC2a complex). It is a disulfide-linked polymer of seven alpha-chains and a unique beta-chain; the alpha- and beta-chains are composed of eight and three complement control protein (CCP) domains, respectively. To elucidate the importance of the polymeric nature of C4BP and the structural requirements for

The solid-state phase behaviour of lyophilised n-dodecyl-beta-D-glucoside (beta-C(12)G(1)), n-dodecyl-beta-D-maltoside (beta-C(12)G(2)) and n-dodecyl-beta-D-maltotrioside (beta-C(12)G(3)) has been investigated by differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) and X-ray techniques. For beta-C(12)G(1), lyophilisation results in a formation of a crystalline anhydrate. The lamellar spacing (37 angstrom) is c

Mann proposed a non-parametric test for trend for independent non-seasonal observations. In this paper we generalize the test to m-dependent seasonal observations. Furthermore, an estimator of trend, based on Kendall's tau, is studied and its asymptotic distribution is proved to be normal. The results are exemplified by a moving average process.

Review of Tadhg O’Keeffe, “Archaeology and the Pan-European Romanesque” (London 2007).

The effects of intravenously infused calcitonin gene-related peptide (CGRP) on the regional blood flow of the cochlea, the middle ear and the upper respiratory tract were studied. Two series of experiments were performed without pretreatment on either conscious or pentobarbital anaesthetized animals; in one series the cervical sympathetic chain was severed on one side; in another series anaestheti

Solid polymer electrolyte membranes were prepared as semi-interpenetrating networks by photo-induced polymerization of mixtures of poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG) methacrylate macromonomers in the presence of poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) and lithium bis(trifluoromethanesulfonyl)imide salt. The composition of the membranes was varied with respect to the PMMA content, the degree of cross-linking, an

Background. Excessive mortality and morbidity are serious problems after hip fracture in the elderly. Methods. Hip fractures in persons aged 50 years or older were prospectively registered in Japan in 2000. Questionnaires regarding both the first onset and the second 120-day period after hip fracture were obtained from 759 patients, 546 of whom were female and 213 male. Results. Their average age

Purpose The purpose of this study was to investigate, in a nationwide study, the inter-observer variation and performance in interpretations of bone scans regarding the presence or absence of bone metastases. Methods Bone scan images from 59 patients with breast or prostate cancer, who had undergone scintigraphy due to suspected bone metastatic disease, were studied. The patients were selected to

The influence of external phosphorus (P) on carbon (C) allocation and metabolism as well as processes related to P metabolism was studied in monoxenic arbuscular mycorrhiza cultures of carrot (Daucus carota). Fungal hyphae of Glomus intraradices proliferated from the solid minimal medium containing the colonized roots into C-free liquid minimal medium with different P treatments. The fungus formed

Many countries in Europe have experienced growing migration since World War II. It is estimated that more than one in five Swedes living today has roots in other countries and cultures. Segregation in terms of ethnic origin in housing areas makes it easier to maintain the language and cultural traditions of the home country when it comes to cooking and eating. In extremely segregated housing areas

Motivation: In recent years, a range of techniques for analysis and segmentation of array comparative genomic hybridization (aCGH) data have been proposed. For array designs in which clones are of unequal lengths, are unevenly spaced or overlap, the discrete-index view typically adopted by such methods may be questionable or improved. Results: We describe a continuous-index hidden Markov model for