Work-related respiratory symptoms, including dyspnoea, cough, fever, tiredness and malaise, were recorded in two customs officers employed in 2 depositories of confiscated cigarettes, of which one showed signs of dampness. Microbiological sampling of the air and the cigarettes stored in a damp depository revealed the presence of potentially pathogenic fungi and bacteria and the biochemical markers

Light microscopy and cryo-scanning electron microscopy showed that hyphae of Bipolaris sorokiniana adhered to the wax surfaces of barley leaves by means of an extensive extracellular matrix (ECM). Prehelminthosporol, the major non-host specific phytotoxin formed by B. sorokiniana was immunolocalized in large amounts in the ECM surrounding the hyphae. Similarly, esterase activity involved in degrad

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE: Low-flow anaesthesia is economical and less polluting. The purpose of this study was to determine the inspired and end-tidal desflurane concentrations during anaesthesia with a vaporizer setting maintained at 5%, during low-flow anaesthesia after 120 min with fresh gas inflows of 1.0 and 2.0 L min-1. METHODS: The study was both prospective and randomized, including 56 pat

Caveolae are flask-shaped invaginations in the membrane that depend on the contents of cholesterol and on the structural protein caveolin. The organisation of caveolae in parallel strands between dense bands in smooth muscle is arguably unique. It is increasingly recognised, bolstered in large part by recent studies in caveolae deficient animals, that caveolae sequester and regulate a variety of s

We present a theoretical analysis that considers the phenotypic trait of compensatory growth ability in a context of population dynamics. Our model depicts a system of three interactors: herbivores and two different plant types referred to as ordinary and compensating. The compensating plant type has the ability to increase its intrinsic rate of biomass increase as a response to damage. This compe

Medical research and publications are the back-bone for advancing the medical field. We identified the PubMed medical publications that are affiliated with Libya to shed some light on the contribution of this country’s medical community to the PubMed database. All publications affiliated with Libya in the PubMed were counted over a five year period ending December 2006. We also used the same metho

Two systems for time-resolved diffuse spectroscopy were used for the optical characterization of the female breast in 4 volunteers. A first system was a compact laser diode instrument operated at 660 and 785 nm, while the second one was a broadband laboratory set-up based on mode-locked lasers tunable in the 610-1000 nm range. Measurements were obtained both in transmittance and in reflectance geo

Human skeletal muscle undergoes major structural and functional changes with advancing age. A progressive degeneration of the nervous system is now considered a major factor underlying these alterations. This review will briefly describe the changes that occur in the human motor unit with increasing age and focus specifically on the changes that relate to a degeneration of the nervous system.

In 175 premenopausal breast cancer patients, a history of oral contraceptive (OC) use before 20 years of age was significantly associated with higher tumor cell proliferative activity, as indicated by a higher S-phase fraction (SPF), and a higher fraction of DNA aneuploid tumors, compared with later or never users (P = 0.05 and p = 0.01, respectively). The higher SPF among early OC users was appar

Background Dermatophyte infections have been considered rare in psoriasis. However, there are data indicating that tinea unguium is as common or even more common in psoriasis compared with healthy controls. Tinea unguium is generally a secondary event to tinea pedis infection. Objectives To study the prevalence of tinea pedis and tinea unguium in psoriasis compared with a control group. Methods

Abstract in UndeterminedThe Palaeoproterozoic Svecofennian crust in southern and central Fennoscandia was established about 1.8 Ga ago after a prolonged history of accretion and intrusion. During late stages of the Svecofennian orogeny, deformation was partitioned into several crustal-scale shear zones in present-day Finland, Sweden and Estonia. One such major ductile deformation zone, 'the South

Nanoparticles present enormous surface areas and are found to enhance the rate of protein fibrillation by decreasing the lag time for nucleation. Protein fibrillation is involved in many human diseases, including Alzheimer's, Creutzfeld-Jacob disease, and dialysis-related amyloidosis. Fibril formation occurs by nucleation-dependent kinetics, wherein formation of a critical nucleus is the key rate-

Background: Diabetes-prone (DP) congenic DR.lypllyp BioBreeding (BB) rats all develop Type I diabetes between 50 and 81 days of age, while DR. lyp/+ or DR.+/+ BB rats are diabetes resistant (DR). The DP rats display reduced weight gain prior to developing hyperglycemia, implying that metabolic events may precede diabetes onset. We tested the hypothesis that temperature measurements could serve as

Thirty-three groups of guinea pigs, consisting of five animals in each group, were exposed to a simulated impact noise with peak levels ranging between 119.5 and 134.5 dB SPL. By varying the repetition rate, different equivalent levels could be set at each peak level. The equivalent levels ranged from 96 to 117 dB SPL, and the exposure duration was 1.5 to 24 hours. The compound action potential th

We describe the production of hierarchical branched nanowire structures by the sequential seeding of multiple wire generations with metal nanoparticles. Such complex structures represent the next step in the study of functional nanowires, as they increase the potential functionality of nanostructures produced in a self-assembled way. It is possible, for example, to fabricate a variety of active he

Direct electron transfer (DET) reactions of recombinant tobacco peroxidase (rTOP), namely direct electroreduction of Compound I/ Compound II and heme Fe3+/2+ conversion, were studied on gold electrodes. rTOP of wild type, non-glycosylated, was produced using, an Escherichia coli expression system. At pH 5.0, the redox potential for direct electrochemical transformation of the Fe3+/2+ of the peroxi

Objective. There is increasing evidence in support of an association between systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) and malignancy, but in earlier studies the association could not be quantified precisely. The present study was undertaken to ascertain the incidence of cancer in SLE patients, compared with that in the general population. Methods. We assembled a multisite (23 centers) international coho

Bacteriocins are natural antimicrobial agents produced by food fermentative bacteria. Lactobacillus acidophilus DSM 20079 produces a small bacteriocin, with a molecular mass of 6.6 kDa, designated acidocin D20079. This antimicrobial peptide was extremely heat-stable (30 min at 121 degrees C) and was active over a wide pH range. It was found to be sensitive to proteolytic enzymes (trypsin, ficin, p

The effect of long-term elevated soil Pb levels on soil microbiota was studied at a forest site in Norway, where the soil has been severely contaminated with Pb since the last period of glaciation (several thousand years). Up to 10% Pb (total amount, w/w) has been found in the top layer. The microbial community was drastically affected, as judged from changes in the phospholipid fatty acid (PLFA)