PURPOSE Cadmium toxicity in the exposure of the general, professional and cigarette smoking populations has been well known. From the dental point of view, it is important to find out whether and how separate and joint exposures to cadmium and zinc affect the structure and function of the submandibular gland, which is the major saliva-releasing gland. Cadmium, a particularly active xenobiotic, ...

Selenium has been increasingly recognized as an essential element in biology and medicine. Its biochemistry resembles that of sulfur, yet differs from it by virtue of both redox potentials and stabilities of its oxidation states. Selenium can substitute for the more ubiquitous sulfur of cysteine and as such plays an important role in more than a dozen selenoproteins. We have chosen to examine z...

This study was conducted to determine the occurrence of zinc and copper resistances in methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) from swine and veal calves in a global strain collection. The test population consisted of 476 porcine MRSA isolates from ten European countries, 18 porcine MRSA isolates from Canada and seven MRSA from China, 92 MRSA and 60 methicillin-susceptible S. aureus ...

A bifunctional organocatalytic system consisting of simple pyridine ligands containing separate catalytic functionalities was assembled using ZnCl2. This novel metal-templated catalyst furnished high yields and stereoselectivities towards the aldol reaction. The addition of controlled amounts of water turned out to be crucial to dissolve the system and achieve optimal results.