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Intense Study (intense + study)
Selected AbstractsInnate immunity against malaria parasites in Anopheles gambiaeINSECT SCIENCE, Issue 1 2008Yang Chen Abstract Malaria continues to exert a huge toll in the world today, causing approximately 400 million cases and killing between 1-2 million people annually. Most of the malaria burden is borne by countries in Africa. For this reason, the major vector for malaria in this continent, Anopheles gambiae, is under intense study. With the completion of the draft sequence of this important vector, efforts are underway to develop novel control strategies. One promising area is to harness the power of the innate immunity of this mosquito species to block the transmission of the malaria parasites. Recent studies have demonstrated that Toll and Imd signaling pathways and other immunity-related genes (encoding proteins possibly function in recognition or as effector molecules) play significant roles in two different arms of innate immunity: level of infection intensity and melanization of Plasmodium oocysts. The challenges in the future are to understand how the functions of these different genes are coordinated in defense against malaria parasites, and if different arms of innate immunity are cross,regulated or coordinated. [source] A review of recent studies in China on the possible beneficial health effects of teaINTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF FOOD SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY, Issue 4 2006Yong-xing Zhu Summary Tea is one of the most heavily consumed beverages in the world. The relationship between tea drinking and human health is becoming a subject of intense study by scientists throughout the world. In this paper, we first provide a comprehensive analysis of the medical literature on tea published in China during the past 20 years, and then highlight some recent studies in China on the relationship between tea and several human diseases. During the period 1982,2002, 691 research papers related to tea and health have been published in 290 Chinese journals. These studies showed that tea and tea constituents have various biological activities and suggested that tea drinking might be beneficial to human health. Tea has potential in the prevention or adjuvant treatment of several diseases including cancer, cardiovascular diseases and obesity. The trend and future direction in medical research on tea in China are also briefly discussed. [source] Alterations in renal cilium length during transient complete ureteral obstruction in the mouseJOURNAL OF ANATOMY, Issue 2 2008Leanne Wang Abstract The renal cilium is a non-motile sensory organelle that has been implicated in the control of epithelial phenotype in the kidney. The contribution of renal cilium defects to cystic kidney disease has been the subject of intense study. However, very little is known of the behaviour of this organelle during renal injury and repair. Here we investigate the distribution and dimensions of renal cilia in a mouse model of unilateral ureteral obstruction and reversal of ureteral obstruction. An approximate doubling in the length of renal cilia was observed throughout the nephron and collecting duct of the kidney after 10 days of unilateral ureteral obstruction. A normalization of cilium length was observed during the resolution of renal injury that occurs following the release of ureteral obstruction. Thus variations in the length of the renal cilium appear to be a previously unappreciated indicator of the status of renal injury and repair. Furthermore, increased cilium length following renal injury has implications for the specification of epithelial phenotype during repair of the renal tubule and duct. [source] Multiple Endocrine Neoplasia , IntroductionJOURNAL OF INTERNAL MEDICINE, Issue 1 2005S. J. MARX Abstract. Each multiple endocrine neoplasia (MEN) syndrome expresses striking features of hormone oversecretion from its own characteristic group of tissues. Additional expressions include non-hormonal tumours in each MEN syndrome and selected cancers in some syndromes. The complexity of its stereotyped features results in difficult management issues that often justify cooperation across multiple specialties. MEN syndromes, though rare, have long received intense study as models for more common diseases. The syndromal nature often with a large pedigree has promoted recent discovery of the main gene that differs for each of the six MEN syndromes. Each mutant gene has been introduced into clinical decision-making and into further clarification of tumorigenesis. This mini-symposium is related to the 9th International Workshop on Multiple Endocrine Neoplasia in June 2004; it consists of six manuscripts. They report new developments in clinical practices and in basic understandings about this rapidly advancing field. [source] Thick single crystal CVD diamond prepared from CH4 -rich mixturesPHYSICA STATUS SOLIDI (A) APPLICATIONS AND MATERIALS SCIENCE, Issue 12 2006G. Bogdan Abstract Recent interests in freestanding single-crystal CVD diamond (SC-CVD) discs for several applications in electronics led to an intense study of SC-CVD layer growth and properties. In this work we have investigated the growth mechanism of monocrystalline CVD diamond films with surfaces smooth in nanometer scale taking into account the defect incorporation in the SC-CVD layers. Specifically we discuss the surface structure characteristics for these conditions as studied with high-resolution AFM mapping. The as-grown CVD layers were removed from the substrate by laser cutting, followed by a polishing step, yielding freestanding plates. Subsequently, microscopic and colour studies as well as infrared absorption spectroscopy were performed. These investigations revealed the presence of several characteristic defects and impurities. (© 2006 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim) [source] Osmolyte controlled fibrillation kinetics of insulin: New insight into fibrillation using the preferential exclusion principleBIOTECHNOLOGY PROGRESS, Issue 5 2009Arpan Nayak Abstract Amyloid proteins are converted from their native-fold to long ,-sheet-rich fibrils in a typical sigmoidal time-dependent protein aggregation curve. This reaction process from monomer or dimer to oligomer to nuclei and then to fibrils is the subject of intense study. The main results of this work are based on the use of a well-studied model amyloid protein, insulin, which has been used in vitro by others. Nine osmolyte molecules, added during the protein aggregation process for the production of amyloid fibrils, slow-down or speed up the process depending on the molecular structure of each osmolyte. Of these, all stabilizing osmolytes (sugars) slow down the aggregation process in the following order: tri > di > monosaccharides, whereas destabilizing osmolytes (urea, guanidium hydrochloride) speed up the aggregation process in a predictable way that fits the trend of all osmolytes. With respect to kinetics, we illustrate, by adapting our earlier reaction model to the insulin system, that the intermediates (trimers, tetramers, pentamers, etc.) are at very low concentrations and that nucleation is orders of magnitude slower than fibril growth. The results are then collated into a cogent explanation using the preferential exclusion and accumulation of osmolytes away from and at the protein surface during nucleation, respectively. Both the heat of solution and the neutral molecular surface area of the osmolytes correlate linearly with two fitting parameters of the kinetic rate model, that is, the lag time and the nucleation rate prior to fibril formation. These kinetic and thermodynamic results support the preferential exclusion model and the existence of oligomers including nuclei and larger structures that could induce toxicity. © 2009 American Institute of Chemical Engineers Biotechnol. Prog., 2009 [source] | ||||||||||