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Haem (protohaem IX) analogues are toxic compounds and have been considered for use as antibacterial agents, but the primary mechanism behind their toxicity has not been demonstrated. Using the haem protein catalase in the Gram-positive bacterium Enterococcus faecalis as an experimental system, we show that a variety of haem analogues can be taken up by bacterial cells and incorporated into haem-de

The presence of genes encoding organellar proteins in different cellular compartments necessitates a tight coordination of expression by the different genomes of the eukaryotic cell. This coordination of gene expression is achieved by organelle-to-nucleus communication. Stress-induced perturbations of the tetrapyrrole pathway trigger large changes in nuclear gene expression. In order to investigat

Pyrimidine bases are the central precursors for RNA and DNA, and their intracellular pools are determined by de novo, salvage and catabolic pathways. In eukaryotes, degradation of uracil has been believed to proceed only via the reduction to dihydrouracil. Using a yeast model, Saccharomyces kluyveri, we show that during degradation, uracil is not reduced to dihydrouracil. Six loci, named URC1-6 (f

ABSTRACT Learning and other forms of phenotypic plasticity have been suggested to enhance population divergence. Mate preferences can develop by learning, and species recognition might not be entirely genetic. We present data on female mate preferences of the banded demoiselle (Calopteryx splendens) that suggest a role for learning in population divergence and species recognition. Populations of t

This paper proposes a fast method for detection of indecent video content using repetitive motion analysis. Unlike skin detection, motion will provide invariant features irrespective of race and color. The video material to be evaluated is divided into short fixed-length sections. By filtering different combinations of B-frame motion vectors using adjacency in time and space, one dominant motion v

Understanding species’ historical ranges can provide important information for conservation planning in the face of environmental change. Cromsigt et al. (this issue) comment on our recent European bison (Bison bonasus) range reconstruction, suggesting that bison were already 8000 years ago a refugee species (i.e. restricted to marginal habitat due to past human pressure) and that species distribu

OBJECTIVE: To improve identification of gravidas at risk for thrombosis. Venous thromboembolic complications are a major cause of maternal mortality during pregnancy. Factor V Leiden, which causes activated protein C resistance, is the most prevalent thrombophilia in white populations. However, selective screening for factor V Leiden has not been evaluated previously for identifying women who migh

The origin of "cosmic" fluorine is uncertain, but there are three proposed production sites/mechanisms for the origin: asymptotic giant branch (AGB) stars, nu nucleosynthesis in Type II supernovae, and/or the winds of Wolf-Rayet stars. The relative importance of these production sites has not been established even for the solar neighborhood, leading to uncertainties in stellar evolution models of

Neurobiological markers in cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) and in serum, previously found to co-vary with destructive personality traits in violent offenders, were explored in a general population sample of 21 patients undergoing knee surgery. Results on the Karolinska Scales of Personality (KSP) and the Temperament and Character Inventory (TCI) were compared with CSF/serum albumin ratios and serum conc

Motivation: The question of how to best use information from known associated variants when conducting disease association studies has yet to be answered. Some studies compute a marginal P-value for each Several Nucleotide Polymorphisms independently, ignoring previously discovered variants. Other studies include known variants as covariates in logistic regression, but a weakness of this standard

Cholera toxin (CT) binds to GM1-ganglioside receptors present on all nucleated cells. Despite this, it is a very potent mucosal adjuvant that has a dramatic impact on immune cells, as well as nerve and epithelial cells, causing diarrhea. This fact has hampered our understanding of whether the adjuvanticity of CT is direct or indirect, as cells that bind CT may or may not be involved in its adjuvan

Although randomized controlled trials (RCT) are the gold standard for establishing causation in clinical research, their aggregated results can be misleading when applied to individual patients. A treatment may be beneficial in some patients, but its harms may outweigh benefits in others. While conventional one-variable-at-a-time subgroup analyses have well-known limitations, multivariable risk-ba

Sexual selection may take place before or after mating and may involve a large number of different mechanisms, for example, overt male aggression, mate choice, sperm competition and cryptic female choice. In most species, males show similar reproductive tactics and, hence, achieve their reproductive success in the same or a similar way. Sometimes, however, males evolve alternative reproductive tac

BACKGROUND: Maternal use of selective serotonin re-uptake inhibitors (SSRIs) has recently been associated with an increased risk for certain malformations. METHODS: Using the Swedish Medical Birth Register, we identified women who had reported the use of SSRIs in early pregnancy and studied their infants, born between July 1, 1995 and the end of 2004. Congenital malformations were identified from

BACKGROUND: In patients with atrial septal defect (ASD) the P-wave is prolonged as a marker of delayed atrial conduction which is associated with atrial fibrillation. The study aim was to analyse the impact of ASD closure in adults on P-wave duration and morphology by means of signal-averaged P-waves (PSA-ECG) and to investigate potential mechano-electrical interactions. METHODS: PSA-ECG was obtai

Human calbindin D-28k is a Ca2+ binding protein that has been implicated in the protection of cells against apoptosis. In this study, the structural and functional significance of the five cysteine residues present in this protein have been investigated through a series of cystein e-to-serine mutations. The mutants were studied under relevant physiological redox potentials in which conformational

Upon sustained insult, kinins are released and many kinin responses, such as inflammatory pain, adapt from a B2 receptor (B2R) type in the acute phase to a B1 receptor (B1R) type in the chronic phase. In this study, we show that kinins modulate receptor endocytosis to rapidly decrease B2R and increase B1R on the cell surface. B2Rs, which require agonist for activity, are stable plasma membrane com

During mammalian ocular development, several signaling pathways control the spatiotemporal highly defined realization of the three-dimensional eye architecture. Given the complexity of these inductive signals, the developing eye is a sensitive organ for several diseases. In this study, we investigated a Dkk1+/- haploinsufficiency during eye development, resulting in coloboma and anterior eye defec

We highlight some results from our detailed abundance analysis study of 703 kinematically selected F and G dwarf stars in the solar neighbourhood. The analysis is based on spectra of high-resolution (R = 45 000 to 110 000) and high signal-to-noise (S/N approximate to 150 to 300). The main findings include: (1) at a given metallicity, the thick disk abundance trends are more alpha-enhanced than tho