The MAGIC telescope observed the region around the distant blazar 3C 66A for 54.2 hr in 2007 August–December. The observations resulted in the discovery of a γ-ray source centered at celestial coordinates R.A. = 22312 and decl.= 430.7 (MAGIC J0223+430), coinciding with the nearby radio galaxy 3C 66B. A possible association of the excess with the blazar 3C 66A is discussed. The energy spectrum o...

Mutations in the POU domain gene Brn-3c causes hearing impairment in both the human and mouse as a result of inner ear hair cell loss. We show here that during murine embryogenesis, Brn-3c is expressed in postmitotic cells committed to hair cell phenotype but not in mitotic progenitors in the inner ear sensory epithelium. In developing auditory and vestibular sensory epithelia of Brn-3c-/- mice...

Antigen cross-presentation in dendritic cells is a complex intracellular membrane transport process, but the underlying molecular mechanisms remain to be thoroughly investigated. In this study, we examined the effect of siRNA-mediated knockdown of 57 Rab GTPases, the key regulators of membrane trafficking, on antigen cross-presentation. Twelve Rab GTPases were identified to be associated with a...

Citreoviridin, asteltoxin and aurovertin B are members of a group of mycotoxins which act as inhibitors of oxidative phosphorylation in rnitochondria. The biosynthetic origin of the carbon skeleton of these metabolites was studied by incorporation of 13C—labelled precursors: [l—'3C]—, [2—'3C]—, [l,2—'3C2]—, [l—'3C,2—2H3—, and 12—'3C,2—2H3]acetate, (25)—[methyl— 13C ]methionine and [1— 3C]— and ...

Thiopurine S-methyltransferase (TPMT) methylates purine analogues, showing TPMT activity in inverse relation to concentrations of active metabolites such as 6-thioguanine nucleotide (6-TGN). With conventional dosing of thiopurines, patients with homozygous variant TPMT alleles consistently suffer from severe myelosuppression. Here, we report a patient with TPMT*3C/*3C who managed successfully w...

Observations with the Wide-Field/Planetary Camera-2 of the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) are presented for three radio-loud quasars: 3C 48 (z = 0.367), B2 1425+267 (z = 0.366), and 3C 345 (z = 0.594). All three quasars have luminous (∼ 4× L) galaxies as hosts, which are either elliptical (B2 1425+267 and 3C 345) or interacting (3C 48), and all hosts are 0.5 − 1.0 mag bluer in (V −I) than other g...

Single crystal 3C-SiC films were grown on (100) and (111) Si substrate orientations in order to study the resulting mechanical properties of this material. In addition, poly-crystalline 3CSiC was also grown on (100)Si so that a comparison with monocrystaline 3C-SiC, also grown on (100)Si, could be made. The mechanical properties of single crystal and polycrystalline 3C-SiC films grown on Si sub...

Recent research efforts in growth of 3C-SiC are reviewed. Sublimation growth is addressed with an emphasis on the enhanced understanding of polytype stability in relation to growth conditions, such as supersaturation and Si/C ratio. It is shown that at low temperature/supersaturation spiral 6H-SiC growth is favored, which prepares the surface for 3C-SiC nucleation. Provided the supersaturation ...