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Oestrogen is not only a sex hormone but also an important regulator of the immune system. Expression of the heavy chain of IgM (mu) is essential for B-cell differentiation. However, a small number of IgA-positive B cells can be found in mice lacking the mu chain (mu MT-/-). The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of oestrogen on this alternative B-cell pathway in mu MT-/- mice. Our re

Samples of compositionally (highly) asymmetric diblock copolymers and, also, mixtures of diblock and triblock copolymers (the latter obtained as end-coupling products of two diblock molecules of the mixture), composed of (a) monodisperse majority block(s) of poly(styrene) (PS) and a polydisperse minority block of poly(methacrylic acid) (PMAA), microphase separate into spherical PMAA microdomains,

Abstract. We consider a of the forest fire model on graph G, where eachvertex of a graph becomes occupied with rate one. A fixed vertex v0 is hit by lightning with the same rate, and when this occurs, the whole cluster of occupied vertices containing v0 is burnt out. We show that when G = Z+, the times between consecutive burnouts at vertex n, divided by log n, converge weakly as n → ∞ to a random

Atmospheric aerosol samples from a boreal forest (Hyytiala, April 2007), a rural site in Hungary (K-puszta, summer 2008), a polluted rural area in Italy (San Pietro Capofiume, Po Valley, April 2008), a moderately polluted rural site in Germany located on a meadow (Melpitz, May 2008), a natural park in Spain (Montseny, March 2009) and two urban background locations (Zurich, December 2008, and Barce

Broad public contention against nuclear energy can be observed as a new phenomenon in Japanese society after the 2011 Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant accident. This study aimed to identify a sufficient explanation about why the emergence of such a protest movement only occurred after the direct experience of a critical event and did not happen before. Discrediting a sole and simple grievance

Most bacteriophages are known to inject their double-stranded DNA into bacteria upon receptor binding in an essentially spontaneous way. This downhill thermodynamic process from the intact virion to the empty viral capsid plus released DNA is made possible by the energy stored during active packaging of the genome into the capsid. Only indirect measurements of this energy have been available until

This article examines how Colonialism — as a cosmologically informed process of profound existential and political implications — is understood, experienced and conceptualized by Aymara shaman activists. By contextualizing the term Colonialism this article reassesses not only the supposed postcolonial nature of the world, but also the distinctions between colonialism and coloniality.

The status of preservation of the historic brain specimen of C.H. Fuchs, C.F. Hermann, P.G. Lejeune Dirichlet, and C.F. Gauss from R. Wagner's collection from the 19th century has been investigated using modern magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) techniques. A brief report on their properties and current state of preservation is given.

This article assesses the potential and the limitations of Thailand's proposed policy which would have local governments buy back targeted waste electronic and electrical equipment (WEEE) from households at designated locations. The proposal relies on the premise that a monetary incentive at the time of disposal is needed to gain participation from households which would otherwise sell to private

In hot humid regions the high outdoor temperature has negative effects on the indoor temperature of buildings that are not designed to cope with the local climate. This leads to discomfort for the occupants. In Maputo City, the capital of Mozambique, electrical devices such as fans and air conditioners are used to obtain a comfortable indoor climate. The cost of electricity is a problem for consum

was spring and autumn for the sites characterized by summer droughts (southern sites) and (peak) summer for the Alpine and northern study sites. This general pattern was interrupted by grassland management practices, that is, mowing and grazing, when the variability in NEE explained by PPFD decreased in concert with the amount of aboveground biomass (BMag). Temperature was the abiotic influence fa

A lysimeter method was evaluated for its suitability in gas emission studies by studying the effect of temperature on CO2 emissions (dark respiration) from cultivated peat soils. The study was carried out with organic soils from two locations in Sweden, a typical cultivated fen peat with low pH and high organic matter content (Orke) and a more uncommon fen peat with high pH and low organic matter

Context. The astrometric solution for Gaia aims to determine at least five parameters for each star, representing its position, parallax, and proper motion, together with appropriate estimates of their uncertainties and correlations. This requires at least five distinct observations per star. In the early data reductions the number of observations may be insufficient for a five-parameter solution,

Research on ecosystem services has grown rapidly over the last decade. Two conceptual frameworks have been published to guide ecological assessments of organisms that deliver services-the concepts of service-providing units (SPUs) and ecosystem service providers (ESPs). Here, we unite these frameworks and present an SPU-ESP continuum that offers a coherent conceptual approach for synthesizing the

Background Widespread abnormalities in white matter development are frequently reported in cases of autism spectrum disorders (ASD) and could be involved in the disconnectivity suggested in these disorders. Homozygous mutations in the gene coding for fatty-acid 2-hydroxylase (FA2H), an enzyme involved in myelin synthesis, are associated with complex leukodystrophies, but little is known about the

In this paper we investigate the problem of embedding a number of points given certain (but typically not all) inter-pair distance measurements. This problem is relevant for multi-dimensional scaling problems with missing data, and is applicable within anchor-free sensor network node calibration and anchor-free node localization using radio or sound TOA measurements. There are also applications wi

Typical for Western classical music is the process of interpreting and conveying a written score into sounding music. However, sometimes the communication of musical issues between musicians may be experienced as aggravating. In educational contexts in a broad sense, it might be advantageous if this communication could be facilitated, for example, by using visual illustrations as a complement to t