The intracellular pathogenesis-related proteins have been identified in a broad range of flowering plants. Some display quite different patterns of expression, in many cases unrelated to the pathogenic response. Nevertheless, these proteins are all very similar and in most cases share more than 35% sequence identity. In this report we investigate the significance of a rather weak similarity betwee

Background: The objective of this study was to estimate the risk of severe osteoarthritis, with the need for arthroplasty, in the knee and/or hip according to body mass index (BMI) both within a normal range and in persons with high BMI. Furthermore, we wanted to study the significance of smoking. Methods: This study identifies male construction workers participating in a national health control p

To evaluate the relative importance of climatic factors and the level of natural canopy disturbance on sapling growth rates, terminal shoot increment of Norway spruce (Picea abies (L.) Karst.) saplings was analyzed in old-growth Sphagnum-Myrtillus forests of the European southern boreal zone (Tver Region, Russia). For a 5-year period, terminal increments were retrospectively measured in 225 saplin

In the present study we have investigated the effect of L-nitro arginine mono methyl ester (L-NAME), an inhibitor of nitric oxide (NO) synthase on Sephadex induced inflammation in the rat lung. Instillation of Sephadex into the airways induced an inflammatory reaction characterized by a long-lasting interstitial oedema, measured as an increase in lung weight, and an influx of inflammatory cells in

Interferon (IF) was produced in glia and glioma cell lines in titers comparable to those produced by human fibroblasts. It was inducible by both Sendai virus and polyriboinosinic:polyribocytidylic acid. "Superinduction" resulted in up to 500-fold-higher titers of IF. The IF appeared to be of the fibroblast type, as revealed by experiments using heat treatment, assay of antiviral activity in hetero

Background: Studies on the temporal variation in stroke incidence have reported inconsistent results. Few have studied the temporal variations in case fatality. No study on incidence and case fatality of stroke by season in Sweden has been found. This study explores the weekly, monthly and seasonal variations in incidence and 28-day case fatality of stroke. Methods: A total of 7,129 patients with

We show that the travelling salesman problem in bounded-degree graphs can be solved in tune O((2 - epsilon)(n)), where epsilon > 0 depends only on the degree bound but not on the number of cities, n. The algorithm is a variant of the classical dynamic programming solution due to Bellman, and, independently; Held and Karp. In the case of bounded integer weights on the edges, we also present a polyn

We propose a spin current diode which can work even in a small applied bias condition (the linear-response regime). The prototypal device consists of a hornlike electron waveguide with Rashba spin-orbit interaction, which is connected to two leads with different widths. It is demonstrated that when electrons are incident from the narrow lead, the generated spin conductance fluctuates around a cons

A two-phase hollow-fiber (HF) liquid-phase microextraction (LPME) method was developed for determination of a quaternary ammonium compound surfactant, dicocodimethylammonium chloride, in aqueous samples. The porous HF was fixed on a metal rod support and was impregnated with approximately 6.6 mu L of organic extractant, which was immobilized in the HF pores. Surfactant extraction was facilitated b

Core-level spectroscopy and valence band photoelectron spectroscopy were used to study H2O adsorption on the Si(100) and Ge(100) surfaces. We find that H2O dissociates into H and OH on both surfaces at 300 K. The H and OH are adsorbed in on top positions on the surface. The OH group is tilted with respect to the surface normal on the Si(100) surface. We consider two possible interpretations for th

Twenty-five patients with colorectal liver metastases had a subcutaneous portal connection with a peritoneal catheter implanted for the intraperitoneal (i.p.) administration of 5-fluorouracil (5-FU). In five patients, the malignant disease rapidly progressed and the implanted catheter system was never used. Among the remaining 20 patients, seven patients had i.p. 5-FU as adjuvant treatment followi

BACKGROUND: The metabolism of sphingomyelin generates important signals regulating cell proliferation and apoptosis. Previous studies found that the administration of colon carcinoma carcinogen was associated with an accumulation of membrane sphingomyelin, and that dietary sphingomyelin inhibited promotion of experimental colon carcinoma in mice, indicating that the abnormal metabolism of sphingom

During screening of genes upregulated by lipopolysaccharide (LPS; endotoxin) treatment of bone marrow-derived mouse macrophages, it was unexpectedly found that cholesterol 25-hydroxylase (Ch25h) was strongly upregulated. Treatment of macrophages with 10 ng/ml of LPS for 2 h resulted in a 35-fold increase in the expression of Ch25h. In contrast, LPS treatment did not increase the expression of Cyp2

Recently it was discovered that composites of Terfenol-D alloys with an insulating binder produce very large magnetostrictions. Resistivities of these composites reach high values, making them attractive for high-frequency applications which require small eddy current losses. In this paper the magnetostriction, magnetization, and Young's moduli measurements made under constant magnetic field condi

Humans are poorly adapted for underwater vision. In air, the curved corneal surface accounts for two-thirds of the eye's refractive power, and this is lost when air is replaced by water [1]. Despite this, some tribes of sea gypsies in Southeast Asia live off the sea, and the children collect food from the sea floor without the use of visual aids [2]. This is a remarkable feat when one considers th

A model for an electric infrared (IR) heater has been developed. The model includes non-grey radiative heat transfer between the different parts of the IR heater, as well as conduction in reflector material and convective cooling of surfaces. The geometry is simplified into one dimension. Using IR module voltage, as the only input, the model predicts the temperature of heater components and coolin