Huntington's disease (HD) is an autosomal-dominant neurodegenerative disorder caused by a polyglutamine expansion in the huntingtin protein (Htt). Group I metabotropic glutamate receptors (mGluRs) are coupled to G(alphaq) and play an important role in neuronal survival. We have previously demonstrated that mGluRs interact with Htt. Here we used striatal neuronal primary cultures and acute stria...

AIMS To examine long-term changes in environmental tobacco smoke (ETS) exposure in British men between 1978 and 2000, using serum cotinine. DESIGN Prospective cohort: British Regional Heart Study. SETTING General practices in 24 towns in England, Wales and Scotland. PARTICIPANTS Non-smoking men: 2125 studied at baseline [questionnaire (Q1): 1978-80, aged 40-59 years], 3046 studied 20 year...

We report on multilayer layer-by-layer (LbL) films of the conjugated polymer sodium poly[2-(3-thienyl)ethyloxy-4-butylsulfonate] (PTH) assembled with polycations: poly(diallyldimethylammonium chloride) (PDDA), 20% quaternized poly(N-ethyl-4-vinylpyridinium bromide) (Q20), poly(ethylene imine) (PEI), and poly(allylamine hydrochloride) (PAH). These films were prepared through spin-assisted LbL as...

The process of environmental regulation is usually a two-step one. In the first step, a standard for environmental quality is set. Then, in the second step, a regulatory mechanism is put in place to achieve the standard. In this paper I show how renewal theory can be used to set the quality standard optimally. JEL Classification: D81, Q20

The estimated discount rate of parents is used to test a choice-based intergenerational model of the contribution of environment to the cognitive skills of a child of a given endowment. A lower parental discount rate is shown to imply higher cognitive skills of the young child. In the context of the model, estimates also imply that environmental conditions and human capital formation are not se...

Cooperation can increase the efficiency of commonly–owned renewable resource use. However, received knowledge is that, absent side payments, cooperative solutions are more difficult to achieve the less homogenous the agents involved. We revisit this claim by analyzing how differences in the opportunity costs of resource harvesting affect the scope for Pareto–improving contracts, where contracti...

Small-x DIS is described as the scattering of a partonic fluctuation of the photon off a superposition of target color fields. Diffraction occurs if the emerging partonic state is in a color singlet. Introducing a specific model for the averaging over all relevant color field configurations, both diffractive and inclusive parton distributions at some low scale Q20 can be calculated. A conventio...

The paper analyses the economic payoffs from marine reserves using a stochastic optimal control model. The results show that even if the reserve and harvested populations face the same negative shocks, harvesting is optimal, the population is persistent and with no uncertainty over current stock size, a reserve can increase resource rents. Using actual fishery data we demonstrate that the payof...