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M1 serotype of Streptococcus pyogenes plays an important role in streptococcal toxic shock syndrome. Simvastatin, a HMG-CoA reductase inhibitor, has been shown to inhibit streptococcal M1 protein-induced acute lung damage although downstream mechanisms remain elusive. Protein isoprenylation, such as farnesylation and geranylgeranylation, has been suggested to regulate anti-inflammatory effects exe

We have studied nucleation and crystal growth of calcium carbonate on hard surfaces, i.e. stainless steel and silica, at different temperatures, in relation to the corresponding bulk processes, using scanning electron microscopy (SEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD), and ellipsometry. In the bulk solution, a mixture of all three calcium carbonate crystalline polymorphs, calcite, aragonite, and vaterite,

Epidemiological evidence suggests that the Mediterranean diet (MD) could reduce the risk of breast cancer (BC). As evidence from the prospective studies remains scarce and conflicting, we investigated the association between adherence to the MD and risk of BC among 335,062 women recruited from 1992 to 2000, in ten European countries, and followed for 11 years on average. Adherence to the MD was es

Semiconductor quantum dot (QD) to metal oxide electron injection dynamics is well documented in the scientific literature. In contrast to that, not much is known so far about hole injection time scales in such systems. The current study fills this gap. We investigate photocathodes consisting of CdSe QDs and p-type NiO to study hole injection dynamics from the valence band of the QDs to NiO. The co

The adsorption to hydrophilic silica surfaces in relation to the bulk phase behavior was investigated by in situ null ellipsometry and bulk turbidity measurements for four cationic copolymers of varying hydrophobicity in mixtures with anionic surfactant sodium dodecylsulfate (SDS). The purpose was to reveal the effect of polyion hydrophobicity on the association with surfactant at surfaces and in

Artificial nanobiomolecular architectures that follow natural examples in protein assembly become more and more important from basic and applied points of view. Our study describes the investigation on cellobiose dehydrogenase (CDH), cytochrome c (cyt c), and silica nanoparticles (SiNP's) for the construction of fully catalytically active supramolecular architectures on electrodes. We report on in

Familial adenomatous polyposis (FAP) is caused by germline mutations in the adenomatous polyposis coli (APC) gene. Two promoters, 1A and 1B, have been recognized in APC, and 1B is thought to have a minor role in the regulation of the gene. We have identified a novel deletion encompassing half of this promoter in the largest family (Family 1) of the Swedish Polyposis Registry. The mutation leads to

Through the use of low voltage high resolution scanning electron microscopy (LV-HRSEM) we have studied the fine details of the intricate pore structure of SBA-15. Intrawall pores and deviations from the ideal and uniform cylindrical pores are clearly observed, and we report for the first time the direct observation of "plugs" in the pores. N-2-sorption measurements confirm their existence. LV-HRSE

Cold-atom systems offer a great potential for the future design of new mesoscopic quantum systems with properties that are fundamentally different from semiconductor nanostructures. Here, we investigate the quantum-gas analogue of a quantum wire and find a new scenario for the quantum transport: Attractive interactions may lead to a complete suppression of current in the low-bias range, a total cu

External electric field is incorporated into the generalized Mulliken-Hush model and Marcus theory. With this new development, we have investigated the field-dependent electronic structure and rate of photoinduced charge transfer in organic donor-acceptor dyad using time-dependent density functional theory and extensive multidimensional visualization techniques. The model is used to evaluate the i

We study changes in ultrafast transient absorption due to photodegradation of quantum dots attached to ZnO nanowire. The time-resolved measurements reveal impact of photodegradation on three distinct kinetic components present in transient absorption tau similar to 7 ps, 80 ps, and 7.5 ns). In addition, we observe superlinear dependence of photodegradation rate on concentration of excited electron

We propose to combine the method of fluorescence intensity centroid localization with rotation of the plane of excitation polarization. Polarized light interacts selectively with differently oriented fluorophores; thus yielding topological information on the nanometer scale, without any need for fluorophore blinking. The method is applicable to photostable individual systems, when most of the trad

Using a combination of results from exact mappings and from mean-field theory we explore the phase diagram of quasi-one-dimensional systems of identical fermions with attractive dipolar interactions. We demonstrate that at low density these systems provide a realization of a single-component one-dimensional Fermi gas with a generalized contact interaction. Using an exact duality between one-dimens