No difference was observed in transpiration (E) during winter between red and green-leaved species. When data were combined, only three of the six red-leafed species examined appeared physiologically acclimated to prolonged drought stress, compared to one of the five green-leafed species. This suggests that drought

stress alone is not sufficient to explain winter reddening in evergreen angiosperms.”
“The narrow therapeutic range of tacrolimus requires careful management after liver transplantation (LT). The aim of this study was to investigate the influence of graft function on tacrolimus trough levels during the first post-transplant week. Ninety-three patients receiving deceased-donor LT were observed in a prospective observational study.

Graft function was determined by the new LiMAx test (maximal liver function capacity). Significant correlations between LiMAx readouts and consecutive tacrolimus levels, up to r = -0.529 learn more (p < 0.0001), were determined throughout the observed period of time. Patients with initially poor graft function revealed higher trough levels (n = 24; 20.1 +/- 11.6 ng/mL) in comparison with fair (n = 40; 13.7 +/- 7.8 ng/mL) and good function (n = 29; 9.5 +/- 4.4 ng/mL; p < 0.0001) already at the second post-transplant day. Toxic levels could be predicted with an area under receiver operating characteristic analysis AUROC=0.751 (p = PF-03084014 0.001) with high sensitivity and specificity. Insufficient levels could be predicted with AUROC=0.800 (p = 0.003). In conclusion, initial graft function is a major factor influencing the pharmacokinetics of tacrolimus and Gamma-secretase inhibitor can be validly determined by the LiMAx test. Thus, recipients with poor functioning grafts are prone of developing toxic levels within the first week after LT, whereas patients with good functioning grafts frequently develop insufficient

levels with the current immunosuppressive protocols.”
“We propose a microsystem integration technique that is ideal for low-cost fabrication of vibration energy harvesting sensor nodes. Our approach exploits diverse uses of sol-gel deposited lead zirconate titanate, effectively combining fabrication of several microsystem components into a single process and significantly reducing manufacturing cost and time. Here, we measure and characterize thin film parameters-such as the piezoelectric coefficient e(31) (-4.0 C/m(2)), the dielectric constant epsilon(r-eff) (219 at 3.3 V), and the total switching polarization (2P(r); 52 mu C/cm(2))-in order to verify this material’s potential for energy harvesting, energy storage, and nonvolatile memory applications simultaneously on the same device. (C) 2011 American Institute of Physics. [doi: 10.1063/1.3524271]“
“Proteins and traces of polysaccharide are the only polymeric colloids consistently transported in the xylem sap of plants. The hypothesis that such proteins could have physical inhibitory effects on xylem water transport was investigated.