The serotonin system has emerged as a potential target for anti-dyskinetic therapy in Parkinson's disease. In fact, serotonin neurons can convert L-DOPA into dopamine, and mediate its synaptic release. However, they lack a feedback control mechanism able to regulate synaptic dopamine levels, which leads to un-physiological stimulation of post-synaptic striatal dopamine receptors. Accordingly, drug

Image warping for spatial forecast verification is applied to the test cases employed by the Spatial Forecast Verification Intercomparison Project (ICP), which includes both real and contrived cases. A larger set of cases is also used to investigate aggregating results for summarizing forecast performance over a long record of forecasts. The technique handles the geometric and perturbed cases with

The initial oxidation of Fe(110) in oxygen gas at 400 degrees C beyond initial adsorbate structures has been studied using X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, X-ray absorption spectroscopy, low-energy electron diffraction, and scanning tunneling microscopy (STM). Formation of several ordered phases of surface oxides is observed at oxygen coverages between approximately 2.3 and 3.5 oxygen atoms/Fe(11

Running an internal combustion engine with diluted methane/air mixtures has a potential of reducing emissions and increasing efficiency. However, diluted mixtures need high ignition energy in a sufficiently large volume, which is difficult to accomplish. Increasing the spark duration has shown to be a promising way of delivering more energy into the diluted charge, but this requires a more sophist

This thesis is devoted to inverse spectral problems for Laplace operators on metric graphs, and it is based on the following papers: Paper I - P. Kurasov and M. Nowaczyk 2005 Inverse spectral problem for quantum graphs J. Phys. A: Math. Gen 38 4901--15 Paper II - M. Nowaczyk 2007 Inverse spectral problem for quantum graphs with rationally dependent edges Operator Theory, Analysis and Mathematical

Interferon (IFN)-β exerts anti-inflammatory effects, coupled to remarkable neurological improvements in multiple sclerosis, a neuroinflammatory condition of the central nervous system. Analogously, it has been hypothesized that IFN-β, by limiting inflammation, decreases neuronal death and promotes functional recovery after stroke. However, the core actions of endogenous IFN-β signaling in stroke a

Abstract ABSTRACT: BACKGROUND: Repeated administration of antibody-based therapies such as radioimmunotherapy depends on preserved antigen expression in tumor lesions. The purpose of this study was to evaluate whether the antigen expression in metastases observed after radioimmunotherapy differs from that of untreated primary tumors. FINDINGS: 30 of the 35 Brown Norway rats with syngeneic colon

Type 1 diabetes (TID) in children and particularly in teenagers and adults is strongly associated with autoreactivity to the Mr 65,000 isoform of glutamic acid decarboxylase (GAD65). Autoantibodies to GAD65 are common at the time of clinical diagnosis and may be present for years prior to the onset of hyperglycemia. GAD65 autoantibodies predict conversion to insulin dependence when present in pati

Group B Streptococcus (GBS) is a leading cause of invasive bacterial infections in human newborns. A key GBS virulence factor is its capsular polysaccharide (CPS), displaying terminal sialic acid (Sia) residues which block deposition and activation of complement on the bacterial surface. We recently demonstrated that GBS Sia can bind human CD33-related Sia-recognizing immunoglobulin (Ig) superfami

With some of the highest biodiversity on the planet, the Mediterranean Biome is experiencing a conservation crisis driven by high human population density, development, and habitat fragmentation. While protected areas safeguard some critical habitat, economic realities require conservation efforts in human-dominated landscapes to maintain biodiversity in practice. As an essential component of food

Receding horizon control is a well established approach for control of systems with constraints and nonlinearities. Optimization over an infinite time-horizon, which is often computationally intractable, is therein replaced by a sequence of finite horizon problems. This paper provides a method to quantify the performance degradation that comes with this approximation. Results are provided for prob

Multi-proxy analysis was performed on a radiocarbon-dated core, collected from a relic oxbow lake in the Limpopo River-plain, Mozambique, with the aim to reconstruct paleo-environment and past flooding of the lower river system over the past c. 800 years. An additional objective was to evaluate and investigate the potential use of different proxies as recorders of paleo-flooding events and paleo-e

Biotechnology offers extensive possibilities to incorporate new traits into organisms. Genetically modified (GM) traits relevant for agro-ecosystems include traits such as pest resistance and herbicide tolerance in crop plants, increased growth rate in fish and livestock, and enhanced nitrogen-fixation capabilities of soil microbes. In this review, we evaluated the direct and indirect trait-specif

Background: The aims of this study were to estimate the prevalence of left ventricular systolic (LVSD) and diastolic (LVDD) dysfunction, and to test if BNP and urinary albumin excretion rate (AER) are related to LVSD, LVD and left ventricular mass (LVM) in asymptomatic type 2 diabetes patients. Methods: Presence of LVSD, LVDD and LVM, determined with echocardiography, was related to levels of BNP

Abstract in Undetermined Background: Measured or modeled levels of outdoor air pollution are being used as proxies for individual exposure in a growing number of epidemiological studies. We studied the accuracy of such approaches, in comparison with measured individual levels, and also combined modeled levels for each subject's workplace with the levels at their residence to investigate the influe

DNA methylation at CpG dinucleotides is modified in tumorigenesis with potential impact on transcriptional activity.

Diabetes is a group of metabolic diseases characterized by the inability of the organism to autonomously regulate the blood glucose levels. It requires continuing medical care to prevent acute complications and to reduce the risk of long-term complications. Inadequate glucose control is associated with damage, dysfunction and failure of various organs. The management of the disease is non trivial

In this work three in vitro methods for the measurement of mucoadhesion have been compared: ellipsometry, tensile strength and rheology. The conditions used for the three methods have been as similar as possible. Six different polymers were investigated: sodium carboxymethyl cellulose (CMC), hydroxyethyl cellulose (HEC), chitosan, polyvinyl pyrrolidone (PVP) and two cross-linked polyacrylic acids,

Background: Macrophage migration inhibitory factor (MIF) has been proposed to play a detrimental role in stroke. We recently showed that MIF promotes neuronal death and aggravates neurological deficits during the first week after experimental stroke, in mice. Since MIF regulates tissue inflammation, we studied the putative role of MIF in post-stroke inflammation. Methods: We subjected C57BL/6 mice