Study objective: Prior studies have shown that children are particularly sensitive to air pollution. This study examined whether children of low socioeconomic status suffered greater exposure to outdoor nitrogen dioxide than more affluent ones, both at their place of residence and at school, in a country with widespread state intervention for social equity. Design: Local scale data on outdoor nitr

Perlecan is a heparan sulfate proteoglycan that is expressed in all basement membranes (BMs), in cartilage, and several other mesenchymal tissues during development. Perlecan binds growth factors and interacts with various extracellular matrix proteins and cell adhesion molecules. Homozygous mice with a null mutation in the perlecan gene exhibit normal formation of BMs. However, BMs deteriorate in

A moderately halophilic, aerobic, motile, Gram-negative, rod-shaped bacterium (strain LV4T) was isolated from saline soil around the lake Laguna Verde in the Bolivian Andes. The organism is a heterotroph, able to utilize various carbohydrates as a carbon source. It showed tryptophan deaminase, oxidase and catalase activity, but was unable to produce indole or H2S; nitrate was not reduced. The G+C

This paper introduces the notion of a quasi-hom-Lie algebra, or simply, a qhl-algebra, which is a natural generalization of hom-Lie algebras introduced in a previous paper [J.T. Hartwig, D. Larsson, S.D. Silvestrov, Deformations of Lie algebras using sigma-derivations, math. QA/0408064]. Quasi-hom-Lie algebras include also as special cases (color) Lie algebras and superalgebras, and can be seen as

Photoabsorption cross sections of sulfur dioxide over a range of temperatures are required to interpret observations and to support models of the atmospheres of Io and Venus. We report high-resolution (lambda/Delta lambda approximate to 450,000) photoabsorption cross-section measurements by Fourier transform spectrometry of SO2 at 160 K in the wavelength region 199 to 220 nm, which encompasses the

The effect of protein kinase C (PKC) inhibitors on the induction of endothelin ET(B) receptors during organ culture was examined in isolated segments of the rat mesenteric artery. After 24 h of organ culture, the endothelin ET(B) receptor agonist sarafotoxin 6c (S6c) induced a strong contraction compared to fresh segments. The contractile response after 24-h organ culture to S6c was studied in pre

The consumption of nondigestible carbohydrates is perceived as beneficial by health professionals and the general public, but the translation of this information into dietary practice, public health recommendations, and regulatory policy has proved difficult. Nondiaestible carbohydrates are a heterogeneous entity, and their definition is problematic. Without a means to characterize the dietary com

Brain damaging insults cause alterations in neuronal networks that trigger epileptogenesis, and eventually lead to the appearance of spontaneous seizures. The present experiments were designed to study the cellular expression and functions of a cysteine proteinase inhibitor, cystatin C, whose gene expression is previously shown to be upregulated in the rat hippocampus during status epilepticus (SE

The use of substrate analogues as inhibitors provides a way to understand and manipulate enzyme function. Here we report two 1 A resolution crystal structures of liver alcohol dehydrogenase in complex with NADH and two inhibitors: dimethyl sulfoxide and isobutyramide. Both structures present a dynamic state of inhibition. In the dimethyl sulfoxide complex structure, the inhibitor is caught in tran

A simple method is proposed to quantify volume of potato chips by measuring the displaced volume of a finely granular material (tape seeds) by the volume of the chips. Firstly, compaction of the seeds was studied to evaluate the reproducibility and accuracy of the technique. The results obtained indicate an encouraging potential of the technique to estimate the apparent volume of potato chips and

The residual algal-bacterial biomass from photosynthetically supported, organic pollutant biodegradation processes, in enclosed photobioreactors, was tested for its ability to accumulate Cu(II), Ni(II), Cd(II), and Zn(II). Salicylate was chosen as a model contaminant. The algal-bacterial biomass combined the high adsorption capacity of microalgae with the low cost of the residual biomass, which ma

Tumour cells use two major routes to spread during metastasis, e.g. lymph vessels and blood vessels within or surrounding the primary tumour. The growth rate of the primary tumour often correlates with the quantity of new blood vessels that form within the tumour. However, qualitative abnormalities of the tumour vasculature profoundly affect the perfusion of the primary tumour and the escape of tu

Background: Long-term pain is an important outcome after inguinal hernia repair. The aim of this study was to test the validity and reliability of a specific Inguinal Pain Questionnaire (IPQ). Methods: The study recruited patients aged between 15 and 85 years who had undergone primary inguinal or femoral hernia repair. To test the validity of the questionnaire, 100 patients received the IPQ and th

Purpose: To study the incidence of aphakia after cataract surgery, the surgical complications that can lead to it, and the visual outcome. Setting: Six community-run eye clinics participating in the Swedish National Cataract Register. Methods: Data on cataract extractions were collected prospectively from 1997 through 2001. The data also covered the type of surgery and type of intraocular lens, in

Surface electromyography (EMG) has been used extensively to estimate muscular load in studies of work related musculoskeletal disorders, especially for the trapezius muscle. The occurrences of periods of EMG silence (gaps), the time below a predetermined threshold level (muscular rest) and various percentiles of the amplitude distribution (APDF) are commonly used summary measures. However, the eff