Leucine is the only physiologic amino acid that can stimulate insulin release by itself, and a great deal of evidence suggests that leucine does this by allosterically activating glutamate dehydrogenase (GDH). GDH catalyzes the oxidative deamination of endogenous glutamate, which is present at a high concentration in the pancreatic b-cell. Studies that support this role of leucine include the f...

The aim of this article is to present a sort of state of the art from a soil classification point of view. How far are soils from their original natural state? A few years ago, the two most important soil classification systems added a classification of anthropogenic soils. Even so, although the concept of anthropogenic soil differs slightly in the two systems, it is easy to recognize these soi...

H. Schröder, A. Bongers, L. R. Schad Department of Medical Physics in Radiology, Deutsches Krebsforschungszentrum, Heidelberg, Germany Introduction Following a model of tissue structure, proposed by Yablonskiy [1], oxygen extraction fraction from blood (OEF) can be calculated by measuring blood volume fraction (λ) and reversible relaxation rate (R2). In this work, a new nested multi-echo EPI ac...

Unlike other congenital fatty acid oxidation defects, short-chain L-3-hydroxyacyl-CoA (SCHAD, HADH) deficiency is characterised by hypoglycemia with hyperinsulinism in the neonatal or infancy periods. The long-term and detailed clinical progression of the disease is largely unknown with almost 40 patients reported and only a few patients described clinically. We present clinical and laboratory ...

The taxonomical status of Paranoplocephala bairdi (Schad, 1954)-like cestodes (Anoplocephalidae) in heather voles Phenacomys spp. and tree voles Arborimus spp. (Muridae: Arvicolinae) and their discrimination from five related species of Paranoplocephala is assessed using uni- and multivariate morphometrics. The analyses support the independent status and conspecificity of specimens from Phenaco...

This year the meeting included again a wide variety of topics. Beside ‘typical’ ones like malaria (Rothe) or actual aspects concerning vaccinations (Burchard, Kling) other lecturers reported about international aid in case catastrophies (Schad), polar regions (Kohlberg), volcano tourism (Heggie), diving medicine (Koonen and Schröder), rare diseases naegleria even work space (Ewald). A session f...

Impaired mitochondrial function and structure and intramyocellular lipid (IMCL) accumulation have been associated with obesity and Type 2 diabetes. We examined whether endurance exercise training and sex influenced IMCL and mitochondrial morphology using electron microscopy, whole-body substrate use, and mitochondrial enzyme activity. Untrained men (n = 5) and women (n = 7) were tested before a...

Amphibians are a very diverse group of vertebrates; however, in general their feeding is opportunistic with food up to gape width being ingested. Amphibians such as frogs and toads only target moving prey and prefer elongated prey such as crickets or insect larvae that move across their field of vision. However, many aquatic amphibians will target food by scent and will consume inert food. The ...