However, obesity

is on the rise worldwide, and its association with these metabolic symptoms increases the risk for diabetes and cardiovascular disease (among many other diseases). Research needs to determine the mechanisms by which obesity and MetS increase the risk of disease. In light of this growing epidemic, it is imperative to develop animal models of MetS. These models will help determine the pathophysiological basis for MetS and how MetS increases the risk for other diseases. Among the various animal models available to study MetS, mice are the most commonly used for several reasons. First, there are several spontaneously occurring obese mouse strains that have been used for decades and that are very well characterized. Second, high-fat feeding studies require B-Raf assay only months to induce MetS. Third, it is relatively easy to study the effects of single genes by developing transgenic

or gene knockouts to determine the influence of a gene on MetS. For these reasons, this review will focus on the benefits and caveats of the most common mouse models of MetS. It is our hope SP600125 that the reader will be able to use this review as a guide for the selection of mouse models for their own studies.”
“Temperature-dependent carrier mobility and threshold voltage of organic field effect transistors (OFET) with tetracene single crystals pressed onto a SiO(2)/Si substrate were measured in the temperature range between 80 and 300 K. The mobility increases with decreasing temperature, reaching a maximum at 240 K. Further reduction of temperature leads to the decrease of the mobility, before leveling out below 140 K. We find that the critical temperature is strongly correlated with that of the threshold voltage which depends on the number of carriers captured in deep traps. From these

temperature-dependent OFET characteristics, a carrier transport model including shallow and deep traps is suggested. (C) 2010 American Institute of Physics. [doi:10.1063/1.3499631]“
“Hepatitis B virus (HBV) viral load and its genotype play important roles in clinical outcome, management of disease and response to antiviral CP-690550 molecular weight therapy. In many parts of the world such as Europe or the Middle East, distinguishing HBV genotype D from non-D is most relevant for treatment decisions, because genotype D-infected patients respond poorly to interferon-based therapeutic regimens. Here, we developed an in-house real-time PCR to concordantly assess HBV genotype (D vs non-D) based on melt curve analysis and quantify the viral load. Genotype distinction was established with control plasmids of all HBV genotypes and validated with 57 clinical samples from patients infected with six different HBV genotypes. Our in-house real-time PCR assay could discriminate HBV genotype D from non-D using single-step melt curve analysis with a 2 degrees C difference in the melt curve temperature in all samples tested.