Apidaecins, short proline-arginine-rich peptides from insects, are highly bactericidal through a mechanism that includes stereoselective elements but is completely devoid of any pore-forming activity. The spectrum of antibacterial activity, always limited to Gram-negatives, is further dependent on a small number of variable residues and can be manipulated. We show here that mutations in the evo...

Radon contributes with more than 50% to the dose equivalent to the public coming from natural sources, and is a major risk factor for lung cancer occurrence (10–14%, in Europe, p.a.) which should be investigated. Insufficient data on radon levels exist for Romania up to now and further extensive surveys are needed. The paper presents a series of in-situ indoor radon data in various locations in...

Particle intensity, dose equivalent and absorbed dose have been measured on board the space shuttles during their visit to the International Space Station (ISS) on STS-108 and STS-112. The dose estimates are based on very accurate measurements of recoils produced in CR-39 by cosmic ray primary and secondary protons and heavier nuclei and by secondary neutrons. The corresponding LET spectra were...

A time-efficient surface grinding and polishing procedure was developed to remove noise pitting associated with the etching of CR-39. CR-39 is a solid-state nuclear track detector used to measure and analyze ions produced by fusion implosions on the OMEGA and OMEGA EP laser systems. Using CR-39 thickness measurements acquired during the grinding process, surface removal rates of 68 µm/min and 5...

The lethal effects occurring in neonatal (< 24-h old) BALB/c mice after challenge with E. coli lipopolysaccharide (LPS) were significantly counteracted by pretreatment with antibacterial peptide PR-39. Neonatal mice protection was probably related to the depressive effect of PR-39 on production of TNF-alpha known to be the major mediator of the lethal effects of neonatal endotoxic shock. Indeed...

Energetic ions and ultrashort X-rays were generated by an intense ultrashort laser interacting with a copper target. Fast ions up to 3 MeV were observed with CR-39 nuclear track detector sheets when 7 TW laser was used. Cu ∼ Cu ions with the energy from 50 keV to 220 keV were detected with a Thomson parabola detector in the case of the laser power of 2.5 TW. Time-resolved X-ray diffraction was ...