The extracellular medium-chain-length polyhydroxyalkanoate (MCL-PHA) depolymerase of Pseudomonas fluorescens GK13 catalyzes the hydrolysis of poly(3-hydroxyoctanoic acid) [P(3HO)]. Based on the strong tendency of the enzyme to interact with hydrophobic materials, a low-cost method which allows the rapid and easy purification and immobilization of the enzyme has been developed. Thus, the extrace...

Although many effective chiral bisphosphines have been developed, there is no general solution in dealing with the many challenging transition metal-catalyzed asymmetric transformations since enantioselectivities are often substrate-dependent. Subtle changes in geometric, steric, and/or electronic properties of chiral ligands can lead to dramatic variations of reactivity and enantioselectivity....

Polychlorobiphenyls (PCBs), polybromodiphenylethers (PBDEs) and organochlorine pesticides (OCPs), such as dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane (DDT) and hexachlorobenzene (HCB), are considered as endocrine disruptors in laboratory and wild animals. This study investigated whether these compounds and their hydroxylated metabolites (HO-PCBs and HO-PBDEs) may affect the homoeostasis of vitamin A, a die...

REPLY: We would like to thank Drs. Lam and Smits for their concerns and comments regarding the methodology in our study (1). The aim of our study was to answer the frequently occurring clinical question of whether a patient with low or no 99mTcmacroaggregated albumin (99mTc-MAA) uptake in metastatic lesions should undergo 90Y-radioembolization. The observation in our patient cohort with colorec...

BACKGROUND Heterotopic ossification (HO) is a frequent complication after central nervous system (CNS) damage but has seldom been studied. We aimed to investigate features of HO for the first time in a large sample and the rate of early recurrence of HO in terms of the time of surgery. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS We retrospectively analyzed data from an anonymous prospective survey of pati...

Brønsted acidic ionic liquids (BAILs) can play a dual role, as a solvent and as a catalyst, in many reactions. However, molecular details of the catalytic mechanism are poorly understood. We present here a density functional theory (DFT) study for the catalytic mechanism of the transesterification of methyl ester (ME) with trimethylolpropane (TMP), in the presence of three representative BAILs,...

Descriptions are given of 18 species of copepods that live in symbiotic association with polychaete worms in European Seas. Three new genera and six new species of the family Clausiidae Giesbrecht, 1895 are described: Boreoclausia rectan. gen. et n. sp. is described from Galathowenia fragilis (Nilson & Holthe, 1985), Boreoclausia holmesi n. gen. et n. sp.is described from Myriochele danielsseni...

BACKGROUND Hydroxylated polybrominated diphenyl ethers (HO-PBDEs) may disrupt thyroid hormone status because of their structural similarity to thyroid hormone. However, the molecular mechanisms of interactions with thyroid hormone receptors (TRs) are not fully understood. OBJECTIVES We investigated the interactions between HO-PBDEs and TRbeta to identify critical structural features and physi...

Twenty grey seal (Halichoerus grypus) mother-pup pairs from the colony of the Isle of May (Scotland) were sampled at early and late lactation in order to study the transfer of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs) and their metabolites (HO-PCBs and HO-PBDEs) as well as organochlorine pesticides (OCPs), such as DDT and metabolites (DDXs) and hexachlorobenzene (...

A genetic algorithm is used together with calculus of variations to optimize an interplanetary trajectory for the Bryson-Ho Earth-to-Mars orbit transfer problem. The global search properties of genetic algorithm combine with the local search capabilities of calculus of variations to produce solutions that are superior to those generated with the calculus of variations alone, and these solutions...