The thin layer drying of pine forest residues consisting of bark, needles, leaves, and chips was experimentally conducted at air temperatures of 40, 50, 60, 70, and 80C. Physical and chemical properties of fractionated forest residues were determined to evaluate its fuel properties. The experimental data obtained from thin layer drying study were fitted with Lewis, Page, and Henderson and Pabis...

The inherent stochastic nature of biochemical processes can drive differences in gene expression between otherwise identical cells. While cell-to-cell variability in gene expression has received much attention, randomness in timing of events has been less studied. We investigate event timing at the single-cell level in a simple system, the lytic pathway of the bacterial virus phage λ. In indivi...

For porcine myocardium, ultrasonic regional deformation parameters, systolic strain (epsilon(sys)) and peak systolic strain rate (SR(sys)), were compared with stroke volume (SV) and contractility [contractility index (CI)] measured as the ratio of end-systolic strain to end-systolic wall stress. Heart rate (HR) and contractility were varied by atrial pacing (AP = 120-180 beats/min, n = 7), incr...

IL-6 induces lipolysis when administered to humans. Consequently, it has been hypothesized that IL-6 is released from skeletal muscle during exercise to act in a "hormonelike" manner and increase lipolysis from adipose tissue to supply the muscle with substrate. In the present study, we hypothesized that suppressing lipolysis, and subsequent free fatty acid (FFA) availability, would result in a...

Properties of the viral R plasmid Rphi6P are described. As a temperate bacteriophage, it plaques on the facultative phototroph Rhodopseudomonas sphaeroides. Under aerobic conditions the phage had a latent period of 180 min, a burst time of 200 min, and a burst size of 15 to 20 particles per infective center. The encapsidated viral genome occurred as a supercoiled, circular DNA duplex with a mea...

In an effort to discover an alternative antibiotic for treating infections with methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), Pseudomonas sp. UJ-6, a marine bacterium that exhibited antibacterial activity against MRSA, was isolated. The culture broth and its ethyl acetate extract exhibited bactericidal activity against MRSA. The extract also exhibited antibacterial activity against gram-n...

BACKGROUND The aim of the present study was to investigate in vitro the effect of hypo- and hyperthermia alone or in combination with irradiation on natural killer cell (NK) cytotoxicity, recovery of this function and the possibility of preventing damage to or enhancing cytotoxicity recovery using interferons (IFNs) α, β, and γ and interleukin-2 (IL-2). MATERIALS AND METHODS We used non-selec...

Currently available cancer therapies can cause damage to healthy tissue. We developed a unique method for specific mechanical lysis of cancer cells using superparamagnetic iron oxide nanoparticle rotation under a weak alternating magnetic field. Iron oxide core nanoparticles were coated with cetuximab, an anti-epidermal growth factor receptor antibody, for specific tumor targeting. Nude mice be...

The inherent stochastic nature of biochemical processes can drive differences in gene expression between otherwise identical cells. While cell-to-cell variability in gene expression has received much attention, randomness in timing of events has been less studied. We investigate event timing at the single-cell level in a simple system, the lytic pathway of the bacterial virus phage l. In indivi...

Animal body temperature (Tbody) varies over daily and annual cycles, affecting multiple aspects of biological performance in both endothermic and ectothermic animals. Yet a comprehensive comparison of thermal performance among animals varying in Tbody (mean and variance) and heat production is lacking. Thus, we examined the thermal sensitivity of immune function (a crucial fitness determinant) ...