The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of the ovarian hormones and the use of oral contraceptive pills (OCP) on cardiac vagal withdrawal at the onset of dynamic exercise. Thirty physically active women aged 19-32 years were divided into two groups: OCP users (n = 17) and non-OCP users (n = 13). Participants were studied randomly at three different phases of the menstrual cycle...

OBJECTIVE To assess ovarian suppression during oral contraceptive pill (OCP) use among normal-weight and obese women using two OCP doses. METHODS This was a prospective, double-blind, randomized trial of two 21-day monophasic OCP formulations (20-microgram ethinyl estradiol [E2],/100-microgram levonorgestrel compared with 30-microgram ethinyl E2/150-microgram levonorgestrel) among normal-weig...

The photoprotective processes of photosynthetic organisms involve the dissipation of excess absorbed light energy as heat. Photoprotection in cyanobacteria is mechanistically distinct from that in plants; it involves the orange carotenoid protein (OCP), a water-soluble protein containing a single carotenoid. The OCP is a new member of the family of blue light-photoactive proteins; blue-green li...

In conditions of fluctuating light, cyanobacteria thermally dissipate excess absorbed energy at the level of the phycobilisome, the light-collecting antenna. The photoactive Orange Carotenoid Protein (OCP) and Fluorescence Recovery Protein (FRP) have essential roles in this mechanism. Absorption of blue-green light converts the stable orange (inactive) OCP form found in darkness into a metastab...

Cyanobacteria have developed a photoprotective mechanism that decreases the energy arriving at the photosynthetic reaction centers under high-light conditions. The photoactive orange carotenoid protein (OCP) is essential in this mechanism as a light sensor and energy quencher. When OCP is photoactivated by strong blue-green light, it is able to dissipate excess energy as heat by interacting wit...

Open circuit potential (OCP) measurements can be very sensitive to small changes in the electrode environment and may allow detection of electron transfer events involving few, and maybe single, electrons. Factors affecting the overall sensitivity of OCP measurements were investigated to achieve the highest sensitivity. The OCP of platinum ultramicroelectrodes (UMEs) was determined in solutions...

BACKGROUND This study advances a measurement approach for the study of organizational culture in population-based occupational health research, and tests how different organizational culture types are associated with psychological distress, depression, emotional exhaustion, and well-being. METHODS Data were collected over a sample of 1,164 employees nested in 30 workplaces. Employees complete...

PURPOSE Macrophage migration inhibitory factor (MIF) is a pleiotropic, proinflammatory cytokine that mediates various immunoinflammatory processes. Ocular cicatricial pemphigoid (OCP) is an autoimmune disease in which affected conjunctivae show features of an immunoinflammatory disease. In this study, the role of MIF in the pathogenesis of OCP was examined. METHODS The expression of MIF in co...