Recently, the determination of S-phenylmercapturic acid (S-PMA) in urine has been proposed as a suitable biomarker for the monitoring of low level exposures to benzene. In the study reported here, the test has been validated in 12 separate studies in chemical manufacturing plants, oil refineries, and natural gas production plants. Parameters studied were the urinary excretion characteristics of...

We previously showed that the MUC5B gene expression was elevated by phorbol 12-myristate 13-acetate (PMA) through an epidermal growth factor receptor-independent Ras/MEKK1/JNK and P38 signaling-based transcriptional mechanism. In the current study, we elucidated the molecular basis of this transcriptional regulation using promoter-reporter gene expression and chromatin immunoprecipitation (ChIP...

Background: Polymalic acid (PMA) is a water-soluble biopolymer with many attractive properties for food and pharmaceutical applications mainly produced by the yeast-like fungus Aureobasidium pullulans. Acid hydrolysis of PMA, resulting in release of the monomer l-malic acid (MA), which is widely used in the food and chemical industry, is a competitive process for producing bio-based platform ch...

Previous studies have shown that coexposure to marginally toxic concentrations of phorbol 12-myristate 13-acetate (PMA; 10 nM) and the cyclin-dependent kinase inhibitor flavopiridol (FP; 100-200 nM) synergistically induces apoptosis in human myeloid leukemia cells U937 and HL-60 (i.e., >50% apoptotic at 24 h). Attempts have now been made to characterize the cell death pathway(s) involved in thi...

Molecular techniques based on real-time polymerase chain reaction (qPCR) allow the detection and quantification of DNA but are unable to distinguish between signals from dead or live cells. Because of the lack of simple techniques to differentiate between viable and nonviable cells, the aim of this study was to optimize and evaluate a straightforward test based on propidium monoazide (PMA) dye ...

Epidermal growth factor (EGF) and the tumor-promoting diterpene phorbol 12-myristate 13-acetate (PMA) have been shown previously to increase the production of prostaglandin E2 (PGE2) in bone, a biochemical action which leads to resorption of extracellular matrix and calcium release. In this report, we have identified specific, high affinity receptors for EGF and phorbol esters on 4 lines of PGE...

Perpendicular magnetic anisotropy (PMA) in ferromagnet/oxide systems has attracted considerable attention owing to its significant potential spintronic applications; however, an understanding of the causes PMA enhancement such remains inadequate. This study investigates influence epitaxial strain on Fe/MgO system. The energy increases monotonically as in-plane lattice constant Fe decreases, and...

The origin of the interfacial perpendicular magnetic anisotropy (PMA) induced in ultrathin Fe layer on Au(111) surface was examined using synchrotron-radiation-based M\"{o}ssbauer spectroscopy (MS), X-ray circular dichroism (XMCD), and angle-resolved photoemission (ARPES). To probe detailed electronic structure orbital hybridization between 3$d$ Au 6$p$ bands, we detected proximity effect, whic...

Performance monitoring in the Annai tool environment for distributed-memory parallel computing systems is achieved through a flexible combination of different types of instrumentation. Latent instrumentation in the communication library and inserted in executables by the compilation system can be dynamically configured during program execution. Analysis of the subject program and knowledge of t...