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Objectives: In severe hay fever, some patients are strongly affected despite the use of first-line therapy and are therefore treated with an intramuscular injection of systemic corticosteroid (i.m. SCS) in some countries. The aim of this paper was to explore the efficacy and side effects of a single i.m. SCS injection in hay fever in adults. Data sources: PubMed, EMBASE, Cochrane Library. Method
The fluid dynamics of many swimming and flying animals involves the generation and shedding of vortices into the wake. Here we studied the dynamics of similar vortices shed by a simple two-dimensional flapping foil in a soap-film tunnel. The flapping foil models an animal wing, fin or tail in forward locomotion. The vortical flow induced by the foil is correlated to (the resulting) thickness varia
Abstract in French Afin d’évaluer l’importance relative de la reproduction sexuelle et végétative dans les populations d’une plante de prairie, l’Hieracium pilosella L., les auteurs ont utilisé des marqueurs allozymiques permettant d’en identifier les clones. Les études conduites aux champs, sur les populations d’espèces de plantes clonales, ont souvent fait état de recrutement absent ou négligeabAllozyme markers were used to fingerprint clones of the grassland plant Hieracium pilosella and, by inference, to estimate the relative importance of sexual and vegetative reproduction in a population. Field studies in populations of clonal plant species have often reported negligible or absent recruitment from seed. In contrast, studies of genetic markers have found substantial clonal diversity i
Water-soluble poly(acrylic acid) has been covalently labeled with a fluorescent hydrophobic chromophore, naphthalene (Np), randomly attached onto the polymer backbone with an amount of 3 mol %. The polymer, which is a new type of hydrophobically modified polymer denoted PAAMeNp-34, was investigated using steady-state fluorescence spectroscopy in aqueous solutions of different pH and in methanol. T
Traditional timber engineering design approaches use for simple geometries stress- or strain-based criteria for strength analyses. For more complex cases purely empirical methods are also used. Although practical, purely empirical methods are not general, and could lead to estimations on the unsafe side, if extrapolated outside their original scope. It is furthermore known that stress- or strain-b
Surface samples from Vancouver Island, Canada, were used to assess the relationship between discrete seasonal temperate rainforest (STR) plant communities and their corresponding pollen signatures. Pollen from ten sediment cores was further used to evaluate the postglacial development of these communities. Principal components analysis (PCA) of the surface data revealed the distinctiveness of the
A new concept for affinity two-phase partitioning was tested. The partitioning was based on the interaction of target membranes with a primary antibody which, in turn, interacted with a biotinylated secondary antibody and NeutrAvidin-dextran in a poly(ethylene glycol)/dextran two-phase system. Caveolae selectively redistributed from the top phase to the NeutrAvidin-dextran-containing bottom phase
The response of peatlands to changes in the climatic water budget is crucial to predicting potential feedbacks on the global carbon (C) cycle. To gain insight on the patterns and mechanisms of response, we linked a model of peat accumulation to a model of peatland hydrology, then applied these models to empirical data spanning the past 5000 years for the large mire Store Mosse in southern Sweden.
Membrane filtration is a separation process already used in many industrial applications. However, optimization of the design and operating conditions is necessary to lower the investment and operating costs. To achieve this for industrial (multi-component) process streams, a combination of experiments and calculations is needed. The permeate flux and energy requirement are important design parame
Amphibian larvae often face two major sources of mortality: pond desiccation and predation. Tadpoles of seven anuran species with different preferences for type of breeding habitat, on a hydroperiod scale, were tested for responses to the presence of predators by raising them experimentally in the presence and absence of a separately caged invertebrate predator that was fed on conspecific tadpoles
We study a class of model prototype hybrid systems comprised of a microscopic Arrhenius surface process describing adsorption/desorption and/or surface diffusion of particles coupled to an ordinary differential equation displaying bifurcations triggered by the microscopic process. The models proposed here are caricatures of realistic systems arising in diverse applications ranging from surface pro
We have previously shown that selective heavy meromyosin (HMM) adsorption to predefined regions of nanostructured polymer resist surfaces may be used to produce a nanostructured in vitro motility assay. However, actomyosin function was of lower quality than on conventional nitrocellulose films. We have therefore studied actomyosin function on differently derivatized glass surfaces with the aim to
Appearance of dyskinesia is a common problem of long-term l-DOPA treatment in Parkinson's disease patients and represents a major limitation for the pharmacological management of the motor symptoms in advanced disease stages. We have recently demonstrated that dopamine released from serotonin neurons is responsible for l-DOPA-induced dyskinesia in 6-hydroxydopamine (6-OHDA)-lesioned rats, raising
Palatable food is rich in fat and/or sucrose. In this study we examined the long-term effects of such diets on food intake, body weight, adiposity and circulating levels of the satiety peptide leptin and the hunger peptide ghrelin. The experiments involved rats and mice and lasted 5 weeks. In rats, we examined the effect of diets rich in fat and/or sucrose and in mice the effect of a high fat diet
The wingbeat kinematics of a thrush nightingale Luscinia luscinia were measured for steady flight in a wind tunnel over a range of flight speeds (5-10 m s(-1)), and the results are interpreted and discussed in the context of a detailed, previously published, wake analysis of the same bird. Neither the wingbeat frequency nor wingbeat amplitude change significantly over the investigated speed range
A commercial biomedical poly(ether urethane), Pellethane 2363-80AE, was surface modified through the use of amphiphilic polymeric additives, and through surface grafting with poly(ethylene glycol), PEG. Two different amphiphilic polymers, Polymer C and Pluronic PE9400, were used as additives. Polymer C, a segmented polyurethane, was prepared from PEG1500, 4,4'-diphenylmethane diisocyanate and a C-
This study investigates for the first time the tardigrade fauna in a variety of different mosses from a coniferous forest and an adjacent clear-cut area in southern Sweden. Tardigrades were found in a majority of the samples. Sixteen species were recorded, of which the cosmopolitan species Macrobiotus hufelandi was the far most common. Some mosses, particularly species with "wefts" growth form, co
Onion waste is a renewable raw material, rich in different molecular species of the antioxidant quercetin. To utilize this resource, an environmentally sustainable procedure has been developed, using pressurized hot water to extract the quercetin species, followed by biocatalytic conversion of the quercetin glycosides to quercetin and carbohydrates. Two different recombinantly expressed thermostab
