Spatial properties of field soils vary in a complex manner. Especially in arid and semiarid areas, this variability affects plant quality and crop production. An experimental field plot was extensively sampled regarding soil water (378 gravimetrical samples), soil chemical content (314 samples), and crop yield and chemical content (26 samples) at the Cherfech agricultural field research station...

Operant conditioning of the H-reflex, the electrical analog of the spinal stretch reflex (SSR), induces activity-dependent plasticity in the spinal cord and might be used to improve locomotion after spinal cord injury. To further assess the potential clinical significance of spinal reflex conditioning, this study asks whether another well-defined spinal reflex pathway, the disynaptic pathway un...

BACKGROUND Given the key role of interleukin-5 (IL-5) in eosinophil function, we investigated the regulated expression of the membrane-anchored (TM-IL-5Ralpha) isoform, or a secreted (SOL IL-5Ralpha) isoform, on both protein and transcript level in vitro and in vivo. METHODS A real-time PCR, FACS and ELISA were established to determine IL-5Ralpha isoform expression in peripheral blood and nas...

Development of optical biosensors is an active area of research in the field of medical technology. Sol-gel matrices made from alkoxide silicates, tetraethyl orthosilicate (TEOS) appear to be suitable glassy host matrix for the sensing system. However, the major problem in the TEOS based sol-gel matrices is stability. So it is important to study dopant-matrix interaction as a function of time. ...

The expression of 4 myosin heavy chain (MHC) isoforms was analyzed in the rat soleus (SOL) and extensor digitorum longus (EDL) muscles after denervation and chronic electric stimulation. The stimulation frequencies used were 20 and 150 Hz and the amount of stimulation was either large (20 Hz), intermediate (150 Hz), or small (150 Hz). These patterns resemble some features of normal motor unit a...

Sixty-four patients with various chest diseases were divided on clinical grounds into those suffering from asthma, chronic bronchitis, and chronic bronchitis with heart failure and those with damage to the lung parenchyma. A 24-hour specimen of sputum was collected from each patient and the electrolyte, protein, and carbohydrate composition was determined on the sol phase which was separated by...

We report on the fabrication of diffraction gratings in photosensitive sol–gel thin films by direct contact printing using a UV-mercury lamp. Titanium amplitude masks were used to replicate diffraction gratings into photosensitive sol–gel films by contact printing with an incoherent UV-light source. Gratings with 1-mm period were fabricated in sol–gel films. The diffraction efficiencies of each...

The overall objective of this research is to enhance the bioactivity of cellulase enzymes as well as the stability of the enzymes to increase it reusability through immobilization of the enzymes in the microenvironment of porous inorganic-organic hybrid sol-gel polymers. Recently, we have discovered that the microenvironment of these sol-gel polymers markedly increases the bioactivity of immobi...

The emissivity of soil surfaces at microwave frequencies depends strongly on the near-surface water content. However this relationship varies between soils. Use is made of a model (MICRO-SWEAT) which couples water, heat and microwave radiation transfers through soils to show that the main cause of soil variation in the relationship between apparent emissivity at 1.4 GHz (eapp) and the average w...