Background A previous study by our group (JACI 2003;112:45-50) showed a significant allergic gastrointestinal inflammation in birch pollen allergic patients with gastrointestinal symptoms during the birch pollen season. The pathophysiological mechanisms of this type of allergic reaction are still poorly studied. However it is not yet explored if all birch pollen patients have signs of gastroint...

Background Biogas production from lignocellulosic biomass is generally considered to be challenging due to the recalcitrant nature of this biomass. In this study, the recalcitrance of birch was reduced by applying steam-explosion (SE) pretreatment (210 °C and 10 min). Moreover, bioaugmentation with the cellulolytic bacterium Caldicellulosiruptor bescii was applied to possibly enhance the methan...

The scaling relationship between height and diameter is important for understanding the dynamic patterns of tree growth and estimating the accrual of tree biomass. Metabolic ecology predicts that tree growth follows a universal scaling invariant relative to the height-diameter relationship (i.e., no variation based on taxonomy or resource availability). Comparing field data for different tree s...

Adapting to site conditions is a central part of forest regeneration and can be done through selection different planting positions. Requirements are tree species specific, the use soil moisture maps could way support decision making in planning. At two experimental sites with varying southern Sweden Norway spruce (Picea abies (L.) Karst.), Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris L.), silver birch (Betula...

0378-1127/$ see front matter 2011 Elsevier B.V. A doi:10.1016/j.foreco.2011.07.011 ⇑ Corresponding author. E-mail address: [email protected] (B. Young). This study empirically evaluates and maps the relationships between recruitment and species and tree size diversity, as measured with the Shannon’s index, within mixed poplar/birch and mixed spruce stands across the boreal forest of Alaska. Da...

Alkaline pretreatment with NaOH under mild operating conditions was used to improve ethanol and biogas production from softwood spruce and hardwood birch. The pretreatments were carried out at different temperatures between minus 15 and 100oC with 7.0% w/w NaOH solution for 2 h. The pretreated materials were then enzymatically hydrolyzed and subsequently fermented to ethanol or anaerobically di...

It is still unclear whether allergen-specific immunotherapy (AIT) with birch pollen improves birch pollen-related food allergy. One reason for this may be the lack of standardized tests to assess clinical reactions to birch pollen-related foods, for example apple. We tested the applicability of recombinant (r) Mal d 1, the Bet v 1-homolog in apple, for oral challenge tests. Increasing concentra...

Silver and downy birch (Betula pendula Roth B. pubescens Ehrhs) are pioneer species which play an important role in forest regeneration disturbed areas. Knowledge of seed production dispersal is key to making good predictions the persistence colonization birch. Both processes can be affected by density trees neighbourhood. In this study, we studied two plots Wytham Woods, UK, 2015, investigated...