Although ginseng and related herbs have a long history of utility for various health benefits, their application in cancer therapy and underlying mechanisms of action are not fully understood. Our recent work has shown that 20(S)-25-methoxyl-dammarane-3β, 12β, 20-triol (25-OCH(3)-PPD), a newly identified ginsenoside from Panax notoginseng, exerts activities against a variety of cancer cells in ...

Argonaute and Piwi proteins are key players in the RNA silencing pathway, with the former interacting with micro-RNAs (miRNAs) and siRNAs, whereas the latter targets piwi-interacting RNAs (piRNAs) that are 2'-O-methylated (2(')-OCH(3)) at their 3' ends. Germline-specific piRNAs and Piwi proteins play a critical role in genome defense against transposable elements, thereby protecting the genome ...

The development of multicellular organisms requires a balance between the cellular processes of proliferation, differentiation and death. These processes are important throughout the whole life of the organism. Daily, the DNA in our cells is under attack by agents that can cause damage. Thus, the cells have developed mechanisms to manage the DNA damage through activation of pathways leading to ...

Dimethyl ether (DME) has been proposed to be a promising alternative to conventional diesel fuel because of its favorable compression ignition property (high cetane number) and its soot-free combustion. A radical chain mechanism for hydrocarbon autoignition has been proposed for DME at low temperatures. In this mechanism, the chain initiation step consists of DME undergoing hydrogen abstraction...

In the growing field of spintronics, development of semiconducting magnets is a high priority. Organic-based molecular magnets are attractive candidates since their properties can be tailor-made by organic chemistry. Other advantages include low weight and low temperature processing. Vanadium tetracyanoethylene, V(TCNE)x, x~2, is particularly interesting since it is one of very few semiconducti...

Computers have become an everyday encounter, not at least in work settings. These computers must support the user in order for her to work in an effective and efficient manner. The field of Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) has among other things been focusing on this issue, and there are numerous methods and activities that aim at helping developers to develop usable computer systems. However, ...

Pain is a worldwide clinical problem that causes great suffering for the individual and costs for society. The assessment and evaluation of perceived pain is necessary for diagnosis, choice of treatment, and for the evaluation of treatment efficacy. The assessment of an individual’s pain is a challenge since pain is a subjective, multidimensional experience based on the person’s own self-report...

I en värld med ökande energibehov och stora miljöpåfrestningar är förnybar energi en lösning som skulle kunna tillgodose alla behov. En sorts förnybar energi är solcellsenergi, men solcellsanläggningar kan vara svåra att få ekonomiskt lönsamma i Sverige. Detta delprojekt är en del i ett större projekt vars gemensamma mål är att utföra en lönsamhetsalanys på en tänkt solcellsanläggning i Stockho...

By further developing an existing model of a walking cat, important neuromechanical aspects of locomotion were studied. The present 3-d simulator (by Ö. Ekeberg) was fitted with additional front leg segments (wrists) and an implementation of biological realistic muscle activation dynamics, as described by Zajac (1989). It was shown that a new refined model could withstand a moderate signal time...

Organic electronics is the study of organic materials with electronic functionality and the applications of such materials. In the 1970s, the discovery that polymers can be made electrically conductive led to an explosion within this field which has continued to grow year by year. One of the attractive features of organic electronic materials is their inherent mechanical flexibility, which has ...