BACKGROUND Hypercholesterolaemia (HC) is a major risk factor for ischemic heart disease and is also known to be a risk factor for erectile dysfunction (ED). ED caused by HC is thought to be related to HC-induced oxidative stress damage in the vascular endothelium and erectile tissue. KH-204 is an herbal formula with a strong antioxidant effect. We evaluated the effects of KH-204 on erectile fun...

Enterovirus (EV71) can cause severe neurological diseases, but the underlying pathogenesis remains unclear. The capsid protein, viral protein 1 (VP1), plays a critical role in the pathogenicity of EV71. High level expression and secretion of VP1 protein are necessary for structure, function and immunogenicity in its natural conformation. In our previous studies, 5 codon-optimized VP1 DNA vaccin...

The HFC model for parallel evolutionary computation is inspired by the stratified competition often seen in society and biology. Subpopulations are stratified by fitness. Individuals move from low-fitness to higher-fitness subpopulations if and only if they exceed the fitness-based admission threshold of the receiving subpopulation, but not of a higher one. The HFC model implements several crit...

Eosinophils are important in antibody-mediated immune defense against parasites based on interaction with Ig receptors (FcR). Of the three classes of IgG FcR in humans, hFc gamma RI, II, and III, solely hFc gamma RII (CD32) is expressed on freshly isolated eosinophils. Despite an expression level similar to that found on monocytes and polymorphonuclear granulocytes, binding activity of hFc gamm...

Currently, millions of kilograms HFCs and HFC mixtures are in use with no method for efficiently separating the components. Membranes an attractive refrigerant due to both lower energy consumption capital requirements compared alternative separation methods such as distillation. This study investigates poly(dimethylsiloxane) CyclAFlor™, amorphous copolymer 5 mol% perfluoro(butenyl vinyl ether) ...

This paper studies household financial choices: why are these decisions dependent on the education level of the household? A life-cycle model is constructed to understand a rich set of facts about decisions of households with different levels of educational attainment regarding stock market participation, the stock share in wealth, the stock adjustment rate and the wealth-income ratio. Model pa...