Colonial birds often demonstrate considerable breeding synchrony. In southern Sweden the semi-colonial European starling initiated the vast majority of clutches within one week. Laying dates were positively skewed so that many birds initiated clutches at similar dates early in the season. Breeding was further synchronised by a particularly strong clutch-size reduction equivalent to one third of an

Rat adipocyte cGMP-inhibited cAMP phosphodiesterase (cGI-PDE) appears to be dually regulated in intact cells by serine phosphorylations induced by isoprenaline and insulin, respectively (Degerman, E., Smith, C. J., Tornqvist, H., Vasta, V., Belfrage, P., and Manganiello, V. C. (1990) Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 87, 533-537; Smith, C. J., Vasta, V., Degerman, E., Belfrage, P., and Manganiello, V.

Genotoxic heterocyclic amines (HAs) are formed via the Maillard reaction and free radical reaction mechanisms when meat or fish is cooked at usual cooking conditions. In this paper, the effect of the addition of red wine was tested to study if it interferes in HA formation. Fried chicken breast was the food item chosen, and three different red wines, characterized in terms of grape varieties, free

A model for an electric infrared (IR) paper dryer 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. Such heat transfer calculations are combined with energy balances to provide a system of equations that simulates the behaviour of an electric III dryer

Recently a large flora of lactic acid bacteria (LAB) was identified in the honey stomach of the honey bee Apis mellifera. In this study, the presence of this flora in bee pollen and bee bread was investigated. Pollen was collected from the legs of honey bees, and both two week old and two month old bee bread were also obtained for the study. Bacterial isolates cultivated from these bee products we

Aims/hypothesis. The aim of this study was to examine the putative role of mutations in the insulin promoter 1 (IPF1) gene in early-onset diabetes. Methods. We carried out mutation screening of the IPF1 gene in 115 Scandinavian families with at least two members with onset of diabetes younger than 40 years. The allele frequencies were also tested in 183 unrelated patients with late-onset Type II (

Fluence rate and irradiance, two parameters used to quantify light and ultraviolet radiation, do not have a constant relation under natural fight conditions, A method is described for measuring fluence rate, the preferred parameter, using meters intended for irradiance measurements. Values measured under natural light conditions are compared to a daylight model.

A model, MAKEDEP, was developed for reconstructing historic atmospheric deposition and nutrient uptake for forests using present day values. Deposition is reconstructed by separation of wet deposition and throughfall into five different categories. Dry deposition is assumed to depend linearly on needle biomass. Non-marine deposition is scaled using general European emission and deposition trends f

Dilatory responses of extracellular nucleotides were examined in the precontracted isolated rat mesenteric artery. Dilatation mediated by endothelium-derived hyperpolarising factor (EDHF) was studied in the presence of Nomega-nitro-L-arginine (L-NOARG) and indomethacin, and was most potently induced by the selective P2Y(1) receptor agonist adenosine 5'-O-thiodiphosphate (ADPbetaS), while 2-methylt

Several approaches to the use of health claims on foods have been made around the world, and the common theme is that any health claim will require scientific validation and substantiation. There is also broad consensus that any regulatory framework should protect the consumer, promote fair trade and encourage innovation in the food industry. This paper is based on a critical evaluation of existin

This article presents a mechanical cutting force model for multi-tooth cutting processes, where initial position errors in radial and axial direction, eccentricity and edge wear are taken into account. The cutting forces are presented for each individual cutting edge, and in a system of coordinates where one axis is parallel to the cutting speed vector at any instant. The process parameter cutting

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