Mercury in the Barents region - River fluxes, sources, and environmental concentrations.

Arctic rivers are receiving increased attention for their contributing of mercury (Hg) to the Arctic Ocean. Despite this, the knowledge on both the terrestrial release sources and the levels of Hg in the rivers are limited. Within the Arctic, the Barents region has a high industrial development, including multiple potential Hg release sources.

Precision Spectroscopy of the Pionic Helium-4.

The transition frequency of (n,ℓ)=(17,16)→(16,15) in pionic helium-4 is calculated to an accuracy of 4 ppb (parts per billion), including relativistic and quantum electrodynamic corrections up to O(R_{∞}α^{5}). Our calculations significantly improve the recent theoretical values [Hori et al., Phys.

Nonadiabatic, Relativistic, and Leading-Order QED Corrections for Rovibrational Intervals of ^{4}He_{2}^{+} (X ^{2}Σ_{u}^{+}).

The rovibrational intervals of the ^{4}He_{2}^{+} molecular ion in its X ^{2}Σ_{u}^{+} ground electronic state are computed by including the nonadiabatic, relativistic, and leading-order quantum-electrodynamics corrections. Good agreement of theory and experiment is observed for the rotational excitation series of the vibrational ground state and the fundamental vibration. The lowest-energy rotational interval is computed to be 70.

Morphological Characteristics of the Action of Cationic Peptide Warnerin on Regeneration of the Connective Tissue around Implanted Teflon Catheters in Mice under Conditions of Immunosuppression.

Warnerin pretreatment of catheter segments subcutaneously implanted to mice under conditions of immunosuppression led to a significant increase in the number of neutrophils in the surrounding tissues on day 1; the number of fibroblasts tended to decrease by day 3. Immunohistochemical study showed the presence of T and B lymphocytes on day 3, but no positive reactions to vimentin and CD34 were observed during the first 2 days. These changes suggest that warnerin reduced the intensity of regeneration processes in tissues around the implant, which can be used for suppression of fibrosis.

Proton-electron mass ratio from laser spectroscopy of HD at the part-per-trillion level.

Recent mass measurements of light atomic nuclei in Penning traps have indicated possible inconsistencies in closely related physical constants such as the proton-electron and deuteron-proton mass ratios. These quantities also influence the predicted vibrational spectrum of the deuterated molecular hydrogen ion (HD) in its electronic ground state. We used Doppler-free two-photon laser spectroscopy to measure the frequency of the = 0→9 overtone transition (, vibrational quantum number) of this spectrum with an uncertainty of 2.

Precise test of quantum electrodynamics and determination of fundamental constants with HD ions.

Bound three-body quantum systems are important for fundamental physics because they enable tests of quantum electrodynamics theory and provide access to the fundamental constants of atomic physics and to nuclear properties. Molecular hydrogen ions, the simplest molecules, are representative of this class. The metastability of the vibration-rotation levels in their ground electronic states offers the potential for extremely high spectroscopic resolution.

The effect of sucrose-induced osmotic stress on the sensitivity of to bacteriocins.

Bacteriocins are antimicrobial peptides, produced by Gram-positive bacteria such as lactococci and staphylococci, that have limited bactericidal action against Gram-negative bacteria. The aim of this paper was to study the sensitivity of three strains of to bacteriocins: nisin (as Nisaplin®) and two staphylococcal peptides (warnerin and hominin) during sucrose-induced osmotic stress. We found that all peptides in a 0.

[Evolution and Comparative Genomics of the pSM22 Plasmid of the IncF/MOBF12 Group].

A new plasmid, pSM22, was isolated from Serratia marcescens and sequenced. Its 43 190-bp sequence with an average GC-content of 58% contains 31 open reading frames (ORFs) which form replication, conjugation, stability, and adaptive modules. The replication module includes a site of initiation of leading-strand synthesis in plasmid replication, a replication termination site (terC), the rep A (=repA1) and repA4 genes, and the copA sequence, which codes for an antisense RNA (asRNA).

Isolation and sequence analysis of pCS36-4CPA, a small plasmid from sp. 36-4CPA.

A small plasmid designated pCS36-4CPA with a size of 5217 base pairs and G-C content of 50.74% was isolated from sp. 36-4CPA.

Plasma, serum, albumin, and divalent metal ions inhibit the adhesion and the biofilm formation of .

Adhesion and biofilm formation of human skin bacteria on plasma, serum and albumin-coated polystyrene or in the presence of these blood components were studied. The proteins which were pre-adsorbed to polystyrene surface or added to the medium simultaneously with bacterial cells reduced adhesion and biofilm formation by 2-5 times to compare to the control. The role of calcium, magnesium and zinc on attachment was also assessed.

Fundamental Transitions and Ionization Energies of the Hydrogen Molecular Ions with Few ppt Uncertainty.

We calculate ionization energies and fundamental vibrational transitions for H_{2}^{+}, D_{2}^{+}, and HD^{+} molecular ions. The nonrelativistic quantum electrodynamics expansion for the energy in terms of the fine structure constant α is used. Previous calculations of orders mα^{6} and mα^{7} are improved by including second-order contributions due to the vibrational motion of nuclei.

N-acetylcysteine inhibits growth, adhesion and biofilm formation of Gram-positive skin pathogens.

N-Acetylcysteine (NAC) is a non-antibiotic drug with antimicrobial properties against biofilm phenotypes of Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria. Our aim was to assess the effects of NAC on the growth of Gram-positive human skin and mucous membrane pathogens in the planktonic and biofilm phases. The minimum inhibitory concentrations (MICs) of NAC against Enterococcus faecalis, Corynebacterium ammoniagenes, Mycobacterium smegmatis, Propionibacterium acnes, Staphylococcus aureus, S.

Structural-mechanical and antibacterial properties of a soft elastic polyurethane surface after plasma immersion N2(+) implantation.

The surface of elastic polyurethane treated by plasma immersion N2(+) ion implantation at different fluences has been investigated. A folded surface structure is observed in all cases. Analysis has been performed to study the structural (roughness, steepness and fraction of folds, fractal characteristics), mechanical (stiffness, adhesion force between the AFM probe and the material) and wetting properties of surfaces.

Theoretical Hyperfine Structure of the Molecular Hydrogen Ion at the 1Â ppm Level.

We revisit the mα^{6}(m/M) order corrections to the hyperfine splitting in the H_{2}^{+} ion and find a hitherto unrecognized second-order relativistic contribution associated with the vibrational motion of the nuclei. Inclusion of this correction term produces theoretical predictions which are in excellent agreement with experimental data [K. B.

Activation of the sorption of Staphylococcus epidermidis 33 on hydrophobic polystyrene surface by low-molecular-weight autogenous factors.

The results of studying the compounds secreted into the medium during the adhesion of Staphylococcus epidermidis to surfaces with different levels of hydrophobicity are presented. These compounds seem to be peptides with a molecular weight of 550-600 Da capable of stimulating the adhesion of the tested bacterial strain by performing, in essence, the function of Quorum sensing factors of bacterial adhesion.

[Physiological properties of the vancomycin-resistant strain Staphylococcus epidermidis 33 GISK VAN(R)].

Physiological properties of a selected Staphylococcus epidermidis strain 33 GISK VAN(R) with high resistance to vancomycin, multiple resistance to various antibiotics, as well as decreased sensitivity to lysozyme, lysostaphin, and the low-molecular mass peptide warnerin were studied. The strain was characterized by a thicker cell wall, resulting in considerably decreased rates of vancomycin penetration into the cells and in limited access of the antibiotic to its targets on the bacterial membrane.

The role of plasma, albumin, and fibronectin in Staphylococcus epidermidis adhesion to polystyrene surface.

The influence of soluble and immobilized plasma, albumin, and fibronectin (Fn) on the adhesion of three Staphylococcus epidermidis strains to polystyrene was investigated. Both soluble and immobilized plasma and albumin cause to 7-fold reduction of the amounts of adhered cells, regardless of the strain used. The soluble Fn exhibited the adhesion for one strain and did not affect the bacterial sorption for remaining strains, whereas on Fn-coated polystyrene two of the three strains showed about 1.

Simplest molecules as candidates for precise optical clocks.

The precise measurement of transition frequencies in cold, trapped molecules has applications in fundamental physics, and extremely high accuracies are desirable. We determine suitable candidates by considering the simplest molecules with a single electron, for which the external-field shift corrections can be calculated theoretically with high precision. Our calculations show that H(2)(+) exhibits particular transitions whose fractional systematic uncertainties may be reduced to 5×10(-17) at room temperature.

mα(7)-order corrections in the hydrogen molecular ions and antiprotonic helium.

We present a calculation of the complete set of QED corrections of order mα7 for one-electron two-center systems. Leading corrections of order mα8 are also considered, which allows us to estimate the magnitude of yet uncalculated contributions. The theoretical uncertainty on the frequencies of rovibrational transitions in the hydrogen molecular ions H2+ and HD+, and of two-photon transition in antiprotonic helium is reduced by about 1 order of magnitude, down to (3-4)×10-11 and 10-10, respectively.

[Purification of recombinant proteins with an example of tumor necrosis factor thymosin-alpha1].

Hybrid protein, cancer necrosis factor thymosin-alpha1 (CNF-T), when synthesizing in strain-producer of Escherichia coli SG200-50 with plasmid pThy315, was a part of "inclusion bodies" mostly in the form of a high-molecular complex with other proteins due to the S-S bonds formation. An approach of purification of CNF-T has been proposed, which is based on the destruction of the complex in the presence of sodium dodecylsulfate (DDS-NA) and dithiotreitol (DDT) followed by gel-filtration on Sephadex G-100 and renaturation by ultrafiltration on hollow fibers. The method allows the isolation of electrophoretically homogeneous CNF-T containing no DDS-Na and having high cytotoxic activity against cancer cells of mouse adenocarcinome L-929.

[Endovascular treatment of patients suffering from multifocal atherosclerosis in a clinic without cardiovascular support].

The article reflects the present-day aspects concerning comprehensive clinical and radiological diagnosis of multifocal atherosclerosis with the involvement of the coronary, renal, brachiocephalic arteries and arteries of the lower limbs. Confirmed herein is clinical efficacy and safety of endovascular treatment for multifocal atherosclerosis in a clinical hospital without cardiosurgical support.

One year clinical outcomes of renal artery stenting: the results of ODORI Registry.

The safety, efficacy and long term clinical benefits of renal artery revascularization by stenting are still a matter of debate. The aim of our study was to define the safety and efficacy of renal artery stenting with the Tsunami peripheral stent (Terumo Corporation, Tokyo, Japan). The ODORI was a prospective, multicentre registry which enrolled 251 consecutive patients, (276 renal arteries) in 36 centres across Europe.

[Effect of lantibiotic warnerin on lipid bilayer membranes].

The effect of the lantibiotic warnerin on the ionic permeability of artificial membranes has been studied. Membranes were composed of different lipid fractions, including lipids isolated from warnerin-sensitive cells of Staphylococcus epidermidis. It was shown that warnerin selectively interacts with artificial membranes of different lipid composition, which leads, in some cases, to the formation of ionic channels.