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Long-term tobacco smokers with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) or chronic bronchitis display an excessive accumulation of neutrophils in the airways; an inflammation that responds poorly to established therapy. Thus, there is a need to identify new molecular targets for the development of effective therapy. Here, we hypothesized that the neutrophil-mobilizing cytokine interleukin (IL)

Hemicelluloses account for 25-30% of total wood dry weight. Mannan-based polysaccharides are the major component of softwood hemicelluloses. They are characterized by their β-1,4-glycosidic linked backbone composed of mannose or a combination of mannose and glucose residues. The backbone can be substituted by α-1,6-linked galactose residues. β-mannanases cleave the internal β-1,4-glycosidic bonds

Background: Influenza infection increases the risk of pneumonia and respiratory failure in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and mucins play an important role in pulmonary host defense. Methods: Lower airway mucins were obtained from long-term smokers with and without COPD, pneumonia patients, and healthy never-smokers; oral MUC5B was obtained from a healthy never-smoker, and the abilit

Aim: Grass-yellow butterflies (Eurema) are a group of pantropical Pieridae distributed throughout Asia, Australasia, Africa and the New World. However, little is known about their diversification, including the biogeographic mechanism(s) explaining their circumglobal distribution. We present the first densely sampled, time-calibrated phylogeny and biogeographic reconstruction of grass-yellows to c

In this paper, design and measurements of a fully integrated power amplifier (PA) are presented. The PA consists of two amplifying chains each having a driver and a power stage. A low loss on chip power combiner combines the outputs from two amplifying chains, and also performs impedance transformation and differential to single-ended conversion. To linearize the PA, the driver stage is biased in

Diamond–Blackfan anemia (DBA) results from haploinsufficiency of ribosomal protein subunits in hematopoietic progenitors in the earliest stages of committed erythropoiesis. Nemo-like kinase (NLK) is chronically hyperactivated in committed erythroid progenitors and precursors in multiple human and murine models of DBA. Inhibition of NLK activity and suppression of NLK expression both improve erythr

Chondrules in primitive meteorites likely formed by recrystallisation of dust aggregates that were flash-heated to nearly complete melting. Chondrules may represent the building blocks of rocky planetesimals and protoplanets in the inner regions of protoplanetary discs, but the source of ubiquitous thermal processing of their dust aggregate precursors remains elusive. Here we demonstrate that esca

BACKGROUND: Subtelomeric regions are gene rich and deletions in these chromosomal segments have been demonstrated to account for approximately 2.5% of patients displaying mental retardation with or without association of dysmorphic features. However, cases that report de novo terminal deletions on chromosome arm 15q are rare. METHODS: In this study we present the first example of a detailed molecu

BACKGROUND: The aim of this study was to analyse the effects of an estradiol (E2)–progesterone substitution protocol on the endometrial expression of estrogen-sensitive genes during the peri-implantation period. METHODS: Peripheral blood and endometrial biopsies were obtained from 13 infertile women both in a natural cycle (NC), on days 5 and 7 after ovulation (NC5, NC7), and in an artificial (sub