Metabolic disorders are a key problem in the transition period of dairy cows and often appear before the onset of further health problems. They mainly derive from difficulties the animals have in adapting to changes and disturbances occurring both outside and inside the organisms and due to varying gaps between nutrient supply and demand. Adaptation is a functional and target-oriented process i...

Postmortem neuropathological studies of autism consistently reveal distinctive types of malformations, including cortical dysplasias, heterotopias, and various neuronomorphometric abnormalities. In keeping with these observations, we review here that 88% of high-risk genes for autism influence neural induction and early maturation of the neuroblast. In addition, 80% of these same genes influenc...

A long controversy exists about the structure of chromatin. Theoretically, this structure could be resolved by scattering experiments if one determines the scattering function or equivalently the pair distribution function of the nucleosomes. Unfortunately, scattering experiments with live cells are very difficult and limited to only a couple of nucleosomes. Nevertheless, new techniques like th...

In 1967, Daniel Janzen proposed the influential, but largely untested hypothesis, that tropical mountain passes are physiologically higher than temperate mountains. I test his key prediction, the one upon which all the others rely: namely, that elevational range sizes of organisms get larger on mountains at increasing latitudes. My analyses use 170 montane gradients spanning 36.5 degrees S to 4...

Escherichia coli DNA photolyase is a DNA-repair enzyme that repairs cyclobutane pyrimidine dimers (CPDs) that are formed on DNA upon exposure of cells to ultraviolet light. The light-driven electron-transfer mechanism by which photolyase catalyzes the CPD monomerization after the enzyme-substrate complex has formed has been studied extensively. However, much less is understood about how photoly...

Azhdarchid pterosaurs include the largest animals to ever take to the skies with some species exceeding 10 metres in wingspan and 220 kg in mass. Associated skeletons show that azhdarchids were long-necked, long-jawed predators that combined a wing planform suited for soaring with limb adaptations indicative of quadrupedal terrestrial foraging. The postcranial proportions of the group have been...

Two varieties of agar medium (Trypticase [BBL Microbiology Systems]-serum-sorbitol-bromcresol purple agar [TSSB] and Trypticase-blood-sorbitol-CaCO3 agar [TBSCa]) indicating microbial acid production from sorbitol were tested. The media were devised for use in studies on the prevalence of sorbitol-fermenting human oral microorganisms incubated in an anaerobic or microaerophilic atmosphere conta...

Although drumlins and other subglacial bedforms are well-studied features, controls on their formation and morphometry have remained elusive. Of current interest is the hypothesis that elongate bedforms (length:width ratios]/10) indicate fast ice flow, and perhaps the location of past ice streams. This hypothesis is explored by analysing drumlins from the New York State drumlin field. A subset ...

The Maillard reaction (MR) is a non-enzymatic browning reaction that occurs between carbonyl and amino groups present in foods that are processed or cooked at high temperatures; the result being a vast number of reaction products, termed Maillard reaction products (MRPs). Whereas initial stages of the reaction produce small molecular weight, colorless products; some being volatile and contribut...