| 1. |
- Ederth, Thomas, et al.
(författare)
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Interactions of Zoospores of Ulva linza with Arginine-Rich Oligopeptide Monolayers
- 2009
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Ingår i: Langmuir. - : American Chemical Society (ACS). - 0743-7463 .- 1520-5827. ; 25:16, s. 9375-9383
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- We recently reported oil the strong interactions of zoospores of the green alga, Ulva linza with all arginine-rich oligopeptide self-assembled monolayer (SAM) [Biofouling 2008, 24, 303-312], where the arginine-rich peptide induced not only high spore settlement, but also a form of abnormal settlement, or "pseudo-settlement", whereby it proportion of spores do not go through the normal process of surface exploration, adhesive exocytosis, and loss of flagella. Further. it was demonstrated that both the total number of settled spores and the fraction of pseudosettled spores were related to the surface density of the arginine-rich peptide. Here we present a further investigation of the interactions of zoospores of ulva with a set of oligomeric, de nom designed, arginine-rich peptides, specifically aimed to test the effect of peptide primary structure on the interaction. Via variations in the peptide length and by permutations in the amino acid sequences, we gain further insight into the spore-surface interactions. The interpretation of the biological assays is supported by physicochemical characterization of the SAMs using infrared spectroscopy, ellipsometry, and contact angle measurement. Results confirm the importance of arginine residues for the anomalous pseudosettlement, and we found that settlement is modulated by variations in both the total length and peptide primary structure. To elucidate the Causes of the anomalous settlement and the possible relation to peptide-membrane interactions, we also compared the settlement of the "naked" zoospores of Ulva(which present it lipoprotein membrane to the exterior without a discrete polysaccharide cell wall), with the settlement of diatoms (unicellular algae that are surrounded by it silica cell wall), onto the peptide SAMs. Cationic SAMs do not notably affect settlement (attachment), adhesion strength, or viability of diatom cells, Suggesting that the effect of the peptides on zoospores of Ulva is mediated via specific peptide-membrane interactions.
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| 2. |
- Karlsson, Magnus, et al.
(författare)
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The evolution of the pheromonal signal system and its potential role for reproductive isolation in heterothallic neurospora
- 2008
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Ingår i: Molecular biology and evolution. - : Oxford University Press (OUP). - 0737-4038 .- 1537-1719. ; 25:1, s. 168-178
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Comparative sequencing studies among a wide range of taxonomic groups, including fungi, provide the overall pattern that reproductive genes evolve more rapidly than other genes, and this divergence is believed to be important in the establishment of reproductive barriers between species. In this study, we investigated the molecular evolution of the pheromone receptor genes pre-1 and pre-2 of strains belonging to 12 and 13 heterothallic taxa, respectively, of the model genus Neurospora. Furthermore, we examined the regulatory pattern of both pheromone precursor and receptor genes during sexual crosses of Neurospora crassa and Neurospora intermedia, for which reinforcement of interspecific reproductive barriers in sympatry previously has been documented. We conclude that the part encoding the C-terminal intracellular domain of pre-1 and pre-2 genes evolves rapidly. Both stochastic and directional processes drive this divergence; both genes contain neutrally evolving codons, and in addition, pre-1 contains codons evolving under positive selection, whereas in pre-2 we found highly variable regions with numerous repeats encoding glycine, threonine, or aspartic acid. In addition, we found regulatory changes of the pheromone and receptor genes during crosses between N. crassa and N. intermedia with different reproductive success. Gene expression levels are higher in the interspecific sympatric crosses with low reproductive success than in their intraspecific and/or allopatric equivalents, both at the stage of initial communication and contact and later at postfertilization stages. Taken together, our data indicate that pheromones and receptors are important key players during reproductive isolation between Neurospora species, and this study provides a general framework for future studies on the role of reproductive proteins for reproductive isolation.
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| 3. |
- Nygren, Ingela, 1961-
(författare)
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ALS – a Clinical Thesis
- 2005
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is characterized by a progressive loss of upper and lower motor neurons, resulting in muscle weakness and death from respiratory failure within 3-5 years after onset. The incidence is 1.5-2.7/100,000 inhabitants. 5-10% of all cases are hereditary. The aetiology of sporadic ALS is still unknown. The only neuroprotective drug approved for the treatment of ALS is riluzole, a glutamate-antagonist, which has shown to improve survival. We evaluated if riluzole sales statistics can be used as a method for estimating the prevalence of ALS/motor neuron disease in Sweden. We found that this method, which is less time consuming than conventional methods, could be used as a crude marker for the prevalence. In a longitudinal study of overall Quality of Life (QoL) in ALS we found that QoL changes only slightly over time despite disease progression. ALS does not necessarily result in a low QoL. Growth factors are important for the survival of neurons. In ALS we found increased or normal levels of GDNF mRNA and BDNF mRNA in muscle biopsies, VEGF in serum and spinal cord and FGF-2 in serum and cerebrospinal fluid. There is thus no deficit of these growth factors although there may be a relative lack because of high demands of the motor neurons. Polyamines are small aliphatic molecules that are important for the function of cells. The level of the polyamines spermidine and spermine were increased in red blood cells in both patients with ALS and patients with Parkinson’s disease, suggesting that polyamines may have a role for the neurodegenerative process. Polyamines in spinal cord were of the same level in the patients with ALS and in controls, indicating a maintained regulation of polyamines at the end-stage of the disease.
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| 4. |
- Nygren, Ingemar, et al.
(författare)
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FDM and FEM filters in terrain navigation
- 2007
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Ingår i: Proceedings of the Institute of Navigation, National Technical Meeting. ; , s. 1155-1166
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Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- Terrain navigation in nearly flat areas is a difficult task since the probability density function (PDF) of the vehicle position typically is multimodal due to terrain repeatability. Traditional methods as TERCOM, TERPROM or similar methods fail in such situations. Instead, Bayesian methods have proven to be useful. A prerequisite for all terrain navigation methods in nearly flat areas is extremely informative measurements of the terrain topography. In addition, methods for efficiently propagating the multimodal probability density function of the vehicle are needed. This paper describes a Bayesian filtering method based on finite differences or finite elements that can efficiently handle the propagation of multimodal PDFs. The paper also goes briefly into the theory behind the filters starting with a problem formulation by stochastic differential equations. The proposed filtering method has been successfully tested with real measurement data and maps and it is fast enough to allow the filter to be used in real time even for fast vehicles. Besides being optimal, the method is highly robust, conditions for stability are well understood, and error estimates are available. Another advantage of the method is that readily available professional software for solving partial differential equations can be adopted.
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| 5. |
- Nygren, Ingemar, 1940-
(författare)
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Terrain navigation for underwater vehicles
- 2005
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- In this thesis a terrain positioning method for underwater vehicles called the correlation method is presented. Using the method the vehicle can determine its absolute position with the help of a sonar and a map of the bottom topography. The thesis is focused towards underwater positioning but most of the material is directly applicable to flying vehicles as well. The positioning of surface vehicles has been revolutionized by the global positioning system (GPS). However, since the GPS signal does not penetrate into the sea water volume, underwater vehicles still have to use the inertial navigation system (INS) for navigation. Terrain positioning is therefore a serious alternative to GPS for underwater vehicles for zeroing out the INS error in military applications. The thesis begins with a review of different estimation methods as Bayesian and extended Kalman filter methods that have been used for terrain navigation. Some other methods that may be used as the unscented Kalman filter or solving the Fokker-Planck equation using finite element methods are also discussed. The correlation method is then described and the well known problem with multiple terrain positions is discussed. It is shown that the risk of false positions decreases exponentially with the number of measurement beams. A simple hypothesis test of false peaks is presented. It is also shown that the likelihood function for the position under weak assumptions converges to a Gaussian probability density function when the number of measuring beams tends to infinity. The Cramér-Rao lower bound on the position error covariance is determined and it is shown that the proposed method achieves this bound asymptotically. The problem with measurement bias causing position bias is discussed and a simple method for removing the measurement bias is presented. By adjusting the footprint of the measuring sonar beams to the bottom topography a large increase in accuracy and robustness can be achieved in many bottom areas. This matter is discussed and a systematic theory about how to choose way-points is developed. Three sea-trials have been conducted to verify the characteristics of the method and some results from the last one in October 2002 are presented. The sea-trials verify to a very high degree the theory presented. Finally the method is briefly discussed under the assumption that the bottom topography can be described by an autoregressive stochastic process.
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| 6. |
- Åleskog, Anna, et al.
(författare)
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Rapamycin shows anticancer activity in primary chronic lymphocytic leukemia cells in vitro, as single agent and in drug combination
- 2008
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Ingår i: Leukemia and Lymphoma. - : Informa UK Limited. - 1042-8194 .- 1029-2403. ; 49:12, s. 2333-2343
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The mammalian target of rapamycin inhibitor rapamycin and its analogues show promising anticancer activity in various experimental tumor models and are presently evaluated in clinical trials. We, here, evaluated the in vitro activity of rapamycin with regard to tumor-type specificity and possible mechanisms of drug resistance in 97 tumor cell samples from patients and in a resistance-based cell line panel, using the fluorometric microculture cytotoxicity assay. Rapamycin was dose-dependently cytotoxic in patient tumor cells and in cell lines. In primary cells, rapamycin was more active in hematological than in solid tumor samples, with chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) and acute lymphocytic leukemia being the most sensitive tumor types. Considerable inter-individual differences in sensitivity were apparent among CLL samples, but no difference was observed between IGHV mutated and unmutated CLL samples, whereas a tendency to lower rapamycin sensitivity was indicated for samples displaying poor-prognostic genomic markers. Combination experiments in CLL cells indicated that rapamycin acted synergistically with vincristine, cisplatin, chlorambucil and taxotere. These results and the clinically-experienced good tolerance to rapamycin analogues encourage clinical studies of rapamycin in CLL treatment as single agent but also in combination with, e.g., vincristine and chlorambucil.
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