A water activity control system for enzymatic synthesis in organic media, for litre-scale reactors has been constructed. Water activity, a(w), is a key factor when using enzymes in non-conventional media and the optimum value varies for different enzymes. The control system consists of a water activity sensor in the headspace of a jacketed glass reactor (equipped with narrow steel tubes to introdu

Objective: To describe and compare self-reported health complaints, overall and health-related quality of life and to investigate how health complaints, age, gender, marital status, living and dwelling conditions and socio-economy predicted overall and health-related quality of life. Data and Method: A sample of 469 persons (aged 75-99) responded to a postal questionnaire. Multiple linear regressi

An increasing number of investigations suggest volumetric changes and glial pathology in several brain regions of patients with bipolar disorder. Lithium, used in the treatment of this disorder, has been reported to be neuroprotective and increase brain volume. Here we investigate the effect of lithium on the proliferation and survival of glial cells positive for the chondroitin sulphate proteogly

In this article, we show evidence for the assembly of ordered 3-dimensional aggregates of 5-nm gold particles in toluene, 1-octanol, n-decane, and chloroform. The use of plunge-freezing allows to freeze the solution containing the aggregates at a rate which does not allow reorganisation of the particles during sample preparation. The samples were then observed using cryo-transmission electron micr

Laminins are heterotrimeric glycoproteins of the basement membranes. Laminin 1 (alpha 1, beta 1, gamma 1) is the major laminin expressed during early mouse embryogenesis. To gain access, to the physiological function of laminin alpha 1 chain, we developed a conditionally null allele of its encoding gene (Lama1) using the cre/loxP system. Floxed-allele-carrying mice (Lama1(flox/flox)) display no ov

The distribution of substituents along the polymer chain in cationic potato amylopectin starch, modified in solution, granular slurry, or dry state, was investigated. The starch derivatives were successively hydrolyzed by different enzymes, followed by characterization of the hydrolysis products obtained by means of electrospray mass spectrometry (ESI-MS) and matrix-assisted laser desorption/ioniz

Distributed middleware technologies, such as CORBA can enable finite element software to be used in a more flexible way. Adding functionality is possible without the need for recompiling client code. Transfer of data can be done directly, without the need for intermediate input and output files. The CORBA software components can be easily configured and distributed tranparently over the network. A

Abstract is not available

When building shape models, it is first necessary to filter out the similarity transformations from the original configurations. This is normally done using Procrustes analysis, that is minimising the sum of squared distances between the corresponding landmarks under similarity transformations. In this article we propose to align shapes using the Minimum Description Length (MDL) criterion. Previou

Chloroatranol and atranol are degradation products of chloroatranorin and atranorin, respectively, and have recently been identified as important contact allergens in the natural fragrance extract, oak moss absolute. Oak moss absolute is widely used in perfumery and is the cause of many cases of fragrance allergic contact dermatitis. Chloroatranol elicits reactions at very low levels of exposure.

Divergent-light halos are produced when light from nearby light sources is scattered by ice crystals in the atmosphere. We present a theory of divergent-light halos leading to an improved algorithm for the simulation of such halos. Contrary to the algorithm that we presented earlier for simulating such halos, the new algorithm includes a mathematically rigorous weighting of the events. The compute

Using a numerical fitting scheme we construct the exact Density-Functional (DF) effective potential, corresponding wave-functions and orbital eigenvalues from an accurate correlated reference density for the neon atom. Our results compare well with those obtained later using a number of different methods, thus demonstrating the utility of the original and relatively simple fitting scheme. The exac

Background and Aims Organisms may be polymorphic within natural populations, but often the significance and genetic background to such polymorphism is not known. To understand the colour polymorphism expressed in the diploid marsh-orchids Dactylorhiza incarnata, morphological, habitat and genetic differentiation was studied in mixed populations on the island of Gotland, supplemented with genetic m

The aim of this study was to determine the frequency of responses to selected fragrance materials in consecutive patients patch tested in 6 dermatological centres in Europe. 1855 patients were evaluated with the 8% fragrance mix (FM) and 14 other frequently used well-defined fragrance chemicals (series 1). Each patient was classified regarding a history of adverse reactions to fragrances: certain,

This study investigates utilization of the Internet in the rehabilitation of people on long-term sick leave with chronic pain and/or burnout. Fifty-five people were randomly assigned to two groups: a treatment group (n = 27) that participated in a rehabilitation course over the Internet and a waiting list group (n = 28). The goals were to improve participants' health and increase quality of life,