Field studies of pesticide effects on birds often utilize indicator species with the purpose of extrapolating to other avian taxa. Little guidance exists for choosing indicator species to monitor the presence and/or effects of contaminants that are labile in the environment or body, but are acutely toxic, such as anticholinesterase (anti-ChE) insecticides. Use of an indicator species that does ...

Bacillus subtilis implements several adaptive strategies to cope with nutrient limitation experienced at the end of exponential growth. The DegS-DegU two-component system is part of the network involved in the regulation of postexponential responses, such as competence development, the production of exoenzymes, and motility. The degU32(Hy) mutation extends the half-life of the phosphorylated fo...

The chemotaxis gene cluster from the photosynthetic bacterium Rhodospirillum centenum contains five open reading frames (ORFs) that have significant sequence homology to chemotaxis genes from other bacteria. To elucidate the functions of each ORF, we have made various mutations in the gene cluster and analyzed their phenotypic defects. Deletion of the entire che operon (delta che), as well as n...

The possible role of nerve activity in triggering changes in the localization of acetylcholine receptors (AChRs) and cholinesterase (ChE) on nerve-contacted Xenopus muscle cells has been assessed. The localization of these molecules was examined on nerve-contacted and noncontacted muscle cells in cultures of spinal cord and myotomal muscle derived from Xenopus embryos. Sites of high AChR densit...

Secondo J. M. Juran, uno dei fondatori delle management and quality theories, i dati sono detti di alta qualità se possono essere utilizzati in modo appropriato per operations, decision making and planning. Il termine Quality of Data (QoD) quindi, si riferisce ad un aspetto multi-dimensionale che esprime una caratteristica intrinseca dei dati offerti, come opposto all’omologo Quality of Service...

Background CHE Discussion Papers (DPs) began publication in 1983 as a means of making current research material more widely available to health economists and other potential users. So as to speed up the dissemination process, papers were originally published by CHE and distributed by post to a worldwide readership. The new CHE Research Paper series takes over that function and provides access ...

BACKGROUND We have previously shown that the eukaryotic elongation factor subunit 1B gamma (eEF1Bγ) interacts with the RNA polymerase II (pol II) alpha-like subunit "C" (POLR2C), alone or complexed, in the pol II enzyme. Moreover, we demonstrated that eEF1Bγ binds the promoter region and the 3' UTR mRNA of the vimentin gene. These events contribute to localize the vimentin transcript and conseq...

BACKGROUND China uses both social health insurance (SHI) programs and a medical financial assistance (MFA) program to protect the poor from illness-induced financial risks. The MFA provides a dual benefit package targeting low-income families: subsidizing these families' participation in SHI programs, and providing cash aid to protect them from catastrophic health expenditure (CHE). This study ...

There is much interest in developing fuel cells for commercial applications. This interest is driven by technical and environmental advantages offered by the fuel cell, including high performance characteristics, reliability, durability, and clean power. A fuel cell is similar to a battery—it uses an electrochemical process to directly convert chemical energy to electricity. Unlike a battery, h...

Various organophosphorus compounds, particularly those with low acute toxicity levels, such as Fenitrothion (common name; Sumithion), Fenthion (common name; Baycid) and Pyridaphenthion (common name; Ofunack), are widely used as insecticides around the world. PAM (2-Pyridinum aldoxime methiodide), the specific antidote against Parathion, is not very effective against poisoning by these organopho...