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Accurate monitoring of glaciers’ extents and their dynamics is essential for improving our understanding of the impacts of climate and environmental changes in cold regions. The satellite-based Normalized Difference Snow Index (NDSI) has been widely used for mapping snow cover and glaciers around the globe. However, mapping glaciers in snow-covered areas using existing indices remains a challengin

Right before northern hemisphere’s summer shifts to autumn small insect-eatingbirds start lengthy journeys to tropical regions. It is well established that temporarylack food and annual changes in weather are the ultimate reasons for this behavior.On a proximal level however, the process is poorly understood. Yet crosscontinental bird migration is a widespread phenomenon that has evolved severalti

4-1BB (CD137) is an activation-induced costimulatory receptor that regulates immune responses of activated CD8 T and natural killer cells, by enhancing proliferation, survival, cytolytic activity, and IFNγ production. The ability to induce potent antitumor activity by stimulating 4-1BB on tumor-specific cytotoxic T cells makes 4-1BB an attractive target for designing novel immuno-oncology therapeu

The accurate estimation of soil carbon (C) pool and fluxes is a prerequisite to better understand the terrestrial C feedback to climate change. However, recent studies showed considerable uncertainties in soil C estimates. To provide a reliable C estimate in the grasslands of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau (QTP), we calibrated key parameters in a process-based ecosystem model (the CENTURY model) throug

The fate of phosphate in the environment is governed by reactions at particle surfaces. These adsorption and desorption reactions display biphasic kinetics involving an initial rapid reaction followed by a substantially slower one extending over long time periods. In this study we have investigated the molecular mechanisms of desorption kinetics of phosphate from ferrihydrite and goethite nanopart

Bacterial genomes typically consist of a single chromosome and, optionally, one or more plasmids. But whole-genome sequencing reveals about ten per-cent of them to be multipartite, with additional replicons which by size and indispensability are considered secondary chromosomes. This raises the questions of how their replication and partition is managed without compromising genome stability and of

The DNA ploidy level of 673 accessions belonging to 238 species of Hieracium have been analyzed by flow cytometry. 222 of the species were of Scandinavian origin as members of the exclusively apomictic H. sectt. Bifida, Hieracium, Oreadea, Tridentata and Vulgata. For the overwhelming majority of the species, the ploidy level (or chromosme number) has never been investigated before. Approximately 5

Objective: To develop an enzyme linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) to quantify the levels of specific aggrecan fragments generated by aggrecanase-mediated cleavage at the (373)Glu-(374)Ala bond within the aggrecan interglobular domain. Methods: The ELISA employs a commercially available monoclonal antibody to capture aggrecan fragments containing keratan sulfate (KS). Aggrecan fragments generated

We present a new method for quantification of the coupling efficiency between amphiphilic oligonucleotides and suspended small unilamellar lipid vesicles (SUVs). The method employs a supported (phospho) lipid bilayer (SLB)-modified sensor template, which upon exposure to a mixture of SUVs and amphiphilic DNA reacts neither with free SUVs nor with DNA-modified SUVs, but with free DNA only. Using ca

Previous cytogenetic and comparative genomic hybridization (CGH) analyses have shown that the gain of chromosome arm 12p is frequent in pancreatic carcinomas. We investigated 15 pancreatic carcinoma cell lines using CGH, fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH), and semiquantitative polymerase chain reaction (PCR) to characterize 12p amplifications in detail. The CGH analysis revealed gains of 12

The binding of factor IX to cultured bovine endothelial cells was characterized using isolated domains of bovine factor IX. An NH2-terminal fragment that consists of the gamma-carboxyglutamic acid (Gla) region linked to the two epidermal growth factor (EGF)-like domains bound to the endothelial cells with the same affinity as intact factor IX, indicating that the serine protease part of factor IX

1. Using data from a 9-year study of the great reed warbler Acrocephalus arundinaceus L. carried out in Sweden, I tested the main assumption of the polygyny threshold model (that there is a cost of polygyny) and the main prediction (that this cost is compensated for). The main question was whether a female that chose a mated male (secondary females) experienced the same fitness as a female that at

[1] Mires are key landscape elements at high latitudes and have certainly accumulated carbon during the Holocene, but their current carbon balance at the present time is very unclear. The major carbon flux is the land-atmosphere CO2 exchange and full-year data are still limited. Here we present data from 3 a (2001-2003) of continuous Eddy Covariance measurements at Degero Stormyr (64 degrees 11'N,

The measured net ecosystem exchange (NEE) of CO2 between the ecosystem and the atmosphere reflects the balance between gross CO2 assimilation [gross primary production (GPP)] and ecosystem respiration (R-eco). For understanding the mechanistic responses of ecosystem processes to environmental change it is important to separate these two flux components. Two approaches are conventionally used: (1)

The preferences of some woodland understorey species for ammonium and nitrate were investigated by measuring the potential nitrification (conversion of ammonium to nitrate) in the rhizosphere compared with the bulk soil. Less acid-tolerant species, which usually prefer nitrate or a mixture of ammonium and nitrate in hydroponic culture, should have a higher potential nitrification in the rhizospher

Mixtures of rare earth elements (REEs) in fertilizers are widely used in Chinese agriculture to improve crop nutrition. REE concentrations in wild-growing plants, especially herbs, are little known. This study describes differences in the concentrations and proportions of REEs in eight forest-floor herbaceous plants and relates these differences to soil and mineral nutrient conditions. REEs studie