Phenolic compounds and disease resistance of 5 blackcurrant varieties in an organic growing system

The field resistance and the concentration of phenolic compounds of five black currant varieties grown under organic conditions were compared. Significant differences between varieties were seen for all of seven quantified hydroxycinnamic acid derivatives. The variety 'Intercontinental' clearly contained the highest level of hydroxycinnamic acid esters and at the same time was the most resistant variety. There seems to be a connection between the content of a caffeoyl-di-quinic acid ester and coumaryl-quinic acid ester and disease resistance under field conditions. The effect of four different growing conditions was much less evident. Analysis of the content of these phenolic acids might be a tool to help choosing the disease resistant varieties that are suitable for organic growing

Lower Urinary Tract Symptoms, Erectile Dysfunction, and Quality of Life in Poststroke Men:A Controlled Cross-Sectional Study

The aim of the current study was to compare lower urinary tract symptoms (LUTS), erectile dysfunction (ED), and quality of life (QoL) in poststroke and healthy men. Thirty poststroke men with stroke-related LUTS, and as controls, 96 healthy men participated in this controlled, cross-sectional study. Participants filled in the Danish Prostate Symptom Score (DAN-PSS-1) Questionnaire, the International Index of Erectile Function (IIEF-5), the 36-Item Short Form (SF-36), the Nocturia Quality-of-Life (N-QoL) Questionnaire. In the age group ≤55 years, comparing poststroke men with healthy controls both with LUTS, the results indicated DAN-PSS-1, total score median 13 (4-17) versus 3 (2-6), p =.05; IIEF-5 25 (14-25) versus 24 (23-25), p =.06; SF-12, total score 499 (360-679) versus 695 (644-734), p =.02; and N-QoL 98 (70-100) versus 96 (90-100), p =.65. In the age group >55 years, comparing poststroke men with healthy controls both with LUTS, the results indicated DAN-PSS-1, total score 13 (8-24) versus 5 (2-7), p <.01; IIEF-5 13 (5-20) versus 25 (24-25), p <.01; SF-36, total score 585 (456-718) versus 742 (687-772), p <.01; and N-QoL, total score 81 (66-95) versus 98 (80-100), p <.01. The results demonstrated that in age group above, but not below 55 years, poststroke men with LUTS had significantly higher frequency of severe and bothersome LUTS and ED than the healthy controls with LUTS, while QoL and N-QoL were significantly lower in comparison. It is recommended to identify and assess older poststroke men for LUTS, ED, and QoL

On the shape of barchan dunes

Barchans are crescent-shaped sand dunes forming in aride regions with unidirectional wind and limited sand supply. We report analytical and numerical results for dune shapes under different environmental conditions as obtained from the so-called `minimal model' of aeolian sand dunes. The profiles of longitudinal vertical slices (i.e. along the wind direction) are analyzed as a function of wind speed and sand supply. Shape transitions can be induced by changes of mass, wind speed and sand supply. Within a minimal extension of the model to the transverse direction the scale-invariant profile of transverse vertical cuts can be derived analytically.Comment: to appear in J. Phys.: Condens. Matter 17 (2005

Protocol for a 20-year follow-up after a randomized controlled trial of a Mediterranean diet in pregnancy:maternal and offspring risk factors for cardiovascular disease

Background: An inadequate maternal diet during pregnancy can impair offspring health and may increase the risk of cardiovascular disease later in life. The purpose of the proposed study is to assess the risk factors associated with cardiovascular disease in both mothers and their offspring 20 years following their participation in a Mediterranean diet intervention trial during pregnancy.Methods: The “Cardiovascular Risk Reduction Diet In Pregnancy” (CARRDIP) study was a randomized controlled trial performed between 1999 and 2001. The participants were randomized to adhere to either a Mediterranean diet or their regular diet during pregnancy. An extensive amount of data such as diet information, ultrasound measurements, anthropometry, and biomarkers from these mothers during pregnancy and their offspring in the neonatal period were collected. The mother–offspring pairs (n = 269) from the CARRDIP study will be invited to participate in a clinical examination and blood sample collection. This follow-up study, conducted 20 years after the original CARRDIP study, will investigate cardiovascular risk factors in mothers and offspring. The primary outcome will be the blood pressure of the offspring. In addition, the study will explore various aspects of cardiovascular health, including metabolic and inflammatory status, clinical history, and body composition of the participants.Discussion: Previous studies investigating the effects of nutrition during pregnancy on maternal and offspring health have been either observational studies, animal studies, or randomized controlled trials with a follow-up period of less than 5 years. This project aims to study the long-term effects of dietary intervention during pregnancy on maternal and offspring cardiovascular risk markers.Clinical Trial Registration: Clinicaltrials.gov, identifier (NCT05030922)

Structural and evolutionary relationships among protein tyrosine phosphatase domains

With the current access to the whole genomes of various organisms and the completion of the first draft of the human genome, there is a strong need for a structure-function classification of protein families as an initial step in moving from DNA databases to a comprehensive understanding of human biology. As a result of the explosion in nucleic acid sequence information and the concurrent development of methods for high-throughput functional characterization of gene products, the genomic revolution also promises to provide a new paradigm for drug discovery, enabling the identification of molecular drug targets in a significant number of human diseases. This molecular view of diseases has contributed to the importance of combining primary sequence data with three-dimensional structure and has increased the awareness of computational homology modeling and its potential to elucidate protein function. In particular, when important proteins or novel therapeutic targets are identified—like the family of protein tyrosine phosphatases (PTPs) (reviewed in reference 53)—a structure-function classification of such protein families becomes an invaluable framework for further advances in biomedical science. Here, we present a comparative analysis of the structural relationships among vertebrate PTP domains and provide a comprehensive resource for sequence analysis of phosphotyrosine-specific PTPs

Возникновение и развитие еврейской прессы Крыма

В статье выделяются основные этапы процесса возникновения и развития еврейской прессы Крыма, вводится в научный оборот ряд еврейских изданий.У статті виділяються основні етапи процесу виникнення і розвитку єврейської преси Криму, вводиться в науковий обіг ряд єврейських видань.The article researches the Jewish Crimean mass-media

Corridors of barchan dunes: stability and size selection

Barchans are crescentic dunes propagating on a solid ground. They form dune fields in the shape of elongated corridors in which the size and spacing between dunes are rather well selected. We show that even very realistic models for solitary dunes do not reproduce these corridors. Instead, two instabilities take place. First, barchans receive a sand flux at their back proportional to their width while the sand escapes only from their horns. Large dunes proportionally capture more than they loose sand, while the situation is reversed for small ones: therefore, solitary dunes cannot remain in a steady state. Second, the propagation speed of dunes decreases with the size of the dune: this leads -- through the collision process -- to a coarsening of barchan fields. We show that these phenomena are not specific to the model, but result from general and robust mechanisms. The length scales needed for these instabilities to develop are derived and discussed. They turn out to be much smaller than the dune field length. As a conclusion, there should exist further - yet unknown - mechanisms regulating and selecting the size of dunes.Comment: 13 pages, 13 figures. New version resubmitted to Phys. Rev. E. Pictures of better quality available on reques