BACKGROUND Polymalic acid (PMA) is a novel polyester polymer that has been broadly used in the medical and food industries. Its monomer, L-malic acid, is also a potential C4 platform chemical. However, little is known about the mechanism of PMA biosynthesis in the yeast-like fungus, Aureobasidium pullulans. In this study, the effects of different nitrogen concentration on cell growth and PMA bi...

The population migration algorithm (PMA) is a simulation of a population of the intelligent algorithm. Given the prematurity and low precision of PMA, this paper introduces a local search mechanism of the leap-frog algorithm and crossover operator to improve the PMA search speed and global convergence properties. The typical test function verifies the improved algorithm through its performance....

Recently, the determination of S-phenylmercapturic acid (S-PMA) in urine has been proposed as a suitable biomarker for the monitoring of low level exposures to benzene. In the study reported here, the test has been validated in 12 separate studies in chemical manufacturing plants, oil refineries, and natural gas production plants. Parameters studied were the urinary excretion characteristics of...

Several studies have suggested that murine and human keratinocytes respond differently to phorbol 12-myristate 13-acetate (PMA). Using an in vitro assay, we found that in contrast to its effect on murine skin, PMA did not induce ornithine decarboxylase (ODC) activity in human skin biopsies. To explore the signalling induced by PMA and to determine whether an in vitro culture system could be use...

Daily transpiration rate was decreased by low soil moisture, phenylmercuric acetate (PMA) in combination with kaolinite, Mobileaf (a filmforming wax emulsion manufactured by the Mobil Oil Co.), PMA alone, and kaolinite alone in this order. At high soil moisture, dry matter was decreased by PMA but was increased by Mobileaf and by PMA + kaolinite combination. At low soil moisture, dry matter was...

Rare-earth iron garnet thin films with perpendicular magnetic anisotropy (PMA) have recently attracted a great deal of attention for spintronics applications. Bismuth substituted garnets are particularly popular among these various because Bi3+ larger ion radius can adjust the lattice constant, strain state, and PMA films. In this paper, Tm2BiFe5O12 (TmBiIG) Y2BiFe5O12 (YBiIG) series thicknesse...

Ethidium monoazide (EMA) and propidium monoazide (PMA) have been utilized for selective PCR amplification of DNA from viable bacterial cells. In this study, we compared the abilities of EMA and PMA, together with real-time PCR, to specifically distinguish dead Legionella cells from viable cells. Several experiments showed that PMA or EMA treatment could specifically prevent the PCR amplificatio...

We previously showed that the MUC5B gene expression was elevated by phorbol 12-myristate 13-acetate (PMA) through an epidermal growth factor receptor-independent Ras/MEKK1/JNK and P38 signaling-based transcriptional mechanism. In the current study, we elucidated the molecular basis of this transcriptional regulation using promoter-reporter gene expression and chromatin immunoprecipitation (ChIP...

Epidermal growth factor (EGF) and the tumor-promoting diterpene phorbol 12-myristate 13-acetate (PMA) have been shown previously to increase the production of prostaglandin E2 (PGE2) in bone, a biochemical action which leads to resorption of extracellular matrix and calcium release. In this report, we have identified specific, high affinity receptors for EGF and phorbol esters on 4 lines of PGE...

Molecular techniques based on real-time polymerase chain reaction (qPCR) allow the detection and quantification of DNA but are unable to distinguish between signals from dead or live cells. Because of the lack of simple techniques to differentiate between viable and nonviable cells, the aim of this study was to optimize and evaluate a straightforward test based on propidium monoazide (PMA) dye ...