We describe a novel cell culture protocol for the generation of neurons from a human teratocarcinoma cell line. These neurons were used to investigate hypoxic-ischaemic cell damage and for developing neuroprotective strategies. Cultures of human model neurons should eventually serve to reduce the number of experimental animals in cerebral stroke research.

The ultrafast decay of the x-ray diffraction intensity following laser excitation of an InSb crystal has been utilized to observe carrier dependent changes in the potential energy surface. For the first time, an abrupt carrier dependent onset for potential energy surface softening and the appearance of accelerated atomic disordering for a very high average carrier density have been observed. Inert

BACKGROUND: Intestinal ischaemia-reperfusion can lead to pulmonary injury characterised by increased macromolecular leakage and leukocyte sequestration. Important mediators of ischaemia-reperfusion-associated injury include polymorphonuclear granulocytes and platelet-activating factor. AIM: To investigate the potential therapeutic inhibition of platelet-activating factor in intestinal ischaemia-re

Tumor-associated trypsin-2 and matrix metalloprotease-9 (MMP-9) are associated with cancer, particularly with invasive squamous cell carcinomas. They require activation for catalytical competence via proteolytic cascades. One cascade is formed by enterokinase, trypsin-2 and MMP-9; enterokinase activates trypsinogen-2 to trypsin-2, which is an efficient proMMP-9 activator. We describe here that ora

The analysis of Helicobacter pylori proteins is a demanding task for the elucidation of virulence factors, antigens and vaccines, all important for diagnosis, therapy and protection. In the "pre-genomic era" the purification of proteins was mostly performed by using various techniques such as detergent treatment of the bacterial cells, ultra-centrifugation, various chromatographic methods, antibod

Investigating claims that a clothed person’s mass loss does not always represent their evaporative heat loss (EVAP), a thermal manikin study was performed measuring heat balance components in more detail than human studies would permit. Using clothing with different levels of vapor permeability and measuring heat losses from skin controlled at 34°C in ambient temperatures of 10, 20, and 34°C with

Vestibular evoked myogenic potentials (VEMP) has been put forward as a test to evaluate the symmetry of saccular function. In the present study, the symmetry of VEMP was evaluated in 23 healthy subjects using automatic analysis. In response to binaural clicks with a stimulus repetition rate of 4/s all subjects revealed significant VEMP on both sides. The ipsilateral response to monaural clicks was

Reconstructing the vortex wake of freely flying birds is challenging, but in the past few years, direct measurements of the wake circulation have become available for a number of species. Streamwise circulation has been measured at different positions along the span of the birds, but no measurements have been performed in the transverse plane. Recent findings from studies of bat wakes have pointed

The acidity and basicity of prereduced V-Ti-O catalysts were measured by adsorption of NH3 and CO2. It was found that a high activity in the ammoxidation of 3-picoline corresponds to a relatively small amount of acidic sites. A catalyst selective in the formation of nicotinonitrile requires high concentrations of both acidic and basic sites. These results are discussed, and can be correlated if th

Three aspects on nanocantilevers are presented in this letter. First, we present the fabrication process of 2 mum long freestanding chromium cantilevers with width 150 nm, and thickness 50 nm. Second, a measurement scheme using an atomic force microscope operating in contact mode was employed to study the mechanical properties along the length of the cantilevers. Third, we have investigated extrem

We show how to find series expansions for pi of the form pi = Sigma(n=0)(infinity) S(n)/((mn)(pn)) a(n), is some polynomial in n (depending on m,p,a). We prove that there exist such expansions for m = 8k, p = 4k, a = (-4)(k), for any k, and give explicit examples for such expansions for small values of m, p and a.

Direct and inverse scattering from dispersive media are studied in the time domain. The media are one-dimensional and homogeneous but can be impedance mismatched to the surrounding media. A time-domain method is introduced where the reflection and transmission kernels are obtained from Volterra equations of the second kind. Numerical examples are given based upon both synthetic and measured data f

Hospitalized patients have a right to be assessed for pain and receive optimal pain management, but inadequate pain management is still widely prevalent. Different quality improvement (QI) approaches have been used to improve patients’ experience of pain, with varied results. The aim of this study was to implement a QI program and evaluate its effects on pain management routines in acute care, exp

Autoxidation of five flavonoids representing range of different hydrophilicities (epicatechin gallate (ECG), (+) catechin((+)Q, epicatechin (EC), epigallocatechin gallate (EGCG) and epigallocatechin (EGC)) in three different aqueous solutions: molecular solution, micellar solution (Tween 20) and liposoml dispersion (soybean lecithin) was monitored by HPLC. The rate of oxidaton of the five flvonoid

We present a Monte Carlo study of a model protein with 54 amino acids that folds directly to its native three-helix-bundle state without forming any well-defined intermediate state. The free-energy barrier separating the native and unfolded states of this protein is found to be weak, even at the folding temperature. Nevertheless, we find that melting curves to a good approximation can be described