Redox chemistry is central to the primary functions of chloroplasts and mitochondria, that is, to energy conversion in photosynthesis and respiration. However, these bioenergetic organelles always contain very small, specialized genetic systems, relics of their bacterial origin. At huge cost, organellar genomes contain, typically, a mere 0.1% of the genetic information in a eukaryotic cell. There

Malaria is the leading cause of morbidity and mortality in Sub-Saharan Africa. One key strategic intervention is provision of early diagnosis and prompt effective treatment. A major setback has been the development of drug resistance to commonly used antimalarials. To overcome this, most countries in Sub-Saharan Africa have adopted Artemisinin Combination Therapy (ACT) as a first line treatment fo

Sulfotransferase 1A1, an important member of sulfotransferase superfamily, is involved in the biotransformation of many compounds including tobacco carcinogens. A single nucleotide polymorphism (G638A) in the sulfotransferase 1A1 (SULT1A1) gene causes Arg213His amino acid change and consequently results in significantly reduced enzyme activity and thermostability. We thus hypothesized that the var

Some strains of the human pathogen Streptococcus pyogenes express a surface protein called protein H, which is released from the streptococcal surface by a cysteine proteinase produced by the bacteria. Here, we find that soluble protein H binds to the surface of lymphocytes and granulocytes, and that the molecule is taken up by lymphocytes and transported to the perinuclear region. The translocati

Earlier experimental studies have demonstrated the ability of day-migrating birds to perform migration under overcast skies, thereby indicating use of cues other than solar. The orientation behaviour of the chaffinch, a diurnal migrant, was investigated in orientation cage experiments during the autumn migration period. The aim of our experiments was to examine the relationship between different o

Five acute leukaemia or highly malignant lymphoma patients at a hospital in southern Sweden were interviewed about their daily living problems, their coping strategies and their opinions about the nursing care they received during the active phase of their treatment. In addition the EORTC QLQ-C30, the Global Life Quality and the Sense of Coherence scales were administered. The data were analysed f

BACKGROUND Monoamines play important roles in decidualization, implantation, immune modulation and inflammation. Furthermore, monoamines are potent vasoactive mediators that regulate blood flow and capillary permeability. Regulation of the uterine blood flow is important both during menstruation and pregnancy. Adequate monoamine concentrations are essential for a proper implantation and physiologi

It has recently been suggested that the rs738409 G allele in PNPLA3, which encodes adiponutrin, is strongly associated with increased liver fat content in three different ethnic groups. The aims of the present study were as follows: (1) to try to replicate these findings in European individuals with quantitative measures of hepatic fat content; (2) to study whether the polymorphism influences hepa

The “acidic mantle” of the skin surface has been related to several essential functions of the skin, although the origin of the acidity is still obscure. In this paper, we investigate how different transport processes can influence the local proton concentration inside a membrane consisting of oriented lipid bilayers. This system is chosen as a simple model of the extracellular lipids in the upper

Procollagen N-proteinase (EC 3.4.24.14) is the enzyme that specifically cleaves the NH2-terminal propeptides from type I procollagen. Two forms of N-proteinase with apparent molecular sizes of 300 and 500 kDa were found in partially purified preparations from fetal bovine tendon extracts. The 500-kDa form of enzyme was purified 16,000-fold with a recovery of 8% from the extracts of the tendons by

Continuing our development of artificial models for photosystem II in green plants, a series of compounds have been prepared in which a Ru(bpy)32+ photosensitizer is covalently linked to a manganese(II) electron donor. In addition to a trispicolylamine ligand, two other manganese ligands, dipicolylamine and aminodiacetic acid, have been introduced in order to study ligands that are appropriate for

ID (inhibitor of differentiation/DNA binding) proteins, frequently deregulated in advanced human malignancies, can participate in multiple fundamental traits of cancer, such as block of differentiation, increased proliferation, tissue invasiveness, and angiogenesis. We have previously demonstrated that hypoxia decreases expression of neuronal marker genes in neuroblastoma, but induces genes expres

Single-stranded overhangs of the G-rich strand belong to the conserved features of telomeres composed of short telomeric repeats. These structures are thought to be essential for the maintenance of proper telomeric structure and function and the mechanism of their generation is telomerase-independent. We have examined the presence of single-stranded overhangs in Chironomus tentans, a dipteran inse

This paper describes new methods for fast correlation attacks, based on the theory of convolutional codes. They can be applied to arbitrary LFSR feedback polynomials, in opposite to the previous methods, which mainly focus on feedback polynomials of low weight. The results improve significantly the few previous results for this general case, and are in many cases comparable with corresponding resu

With the present research, we further exploited the potential of the ENABLE-AGE Project, more precisely the Swedish and German data. We hypothesised that the magnitude of accessibility problems (MAP) in the home environment and external housing-related control beliefs (HCB) play a substantial role for a range of outcomes related to quality of life. Our sample at T1 consisted of 847 single-living a

The human neutrophil is a professional phagocyte of fundamental importance for defense against microorganisms, as witnessed by the life-threatening infections occurring in patients with neutropenia or with defects that result in decreased microbicidal activity of the neutrophil. Likewise, the skin and mucosal surfaces provide important barriers against infections. Traditionally, these major defens

In the present study, the mechanism for the antigen formation of alpha, beta-unsaturated ketones was investigated. A series of analogues of carvone ((5R)-5-isopropenyl-2-methyl-2-cyclohexenone) with altered chemical reactivity and with retained overall structure or with retained reactivity and altered three-dimensional structure were synthesized. These analogues were tested for cross-reactivity in

A method is presented for the fast and accurate solution of elliptic boundary value problems on domains with corners. The method is based on integral equations and Nyström discretization. Close to corners two representations for the solution coexist — a pointwise representation and a representation in terms of special basis functions. Mappings and kernel evaluations are constructed on a symmetric

The behavior of macroscopic long cracks in the ceramic top coat of a thermal barrier coating (TBC) system subjected to thermal shock loading and the influence of the cracks on the coating durability were investigated experimentally and numerically. Thermal shock testing was conducted until coating failure. Comparisons were made with coating samples without macroscopic cracks. The experimental resu