In this work a compact fluorosensor has been built for point-monitoring and imaging applications. The instrument has been applied in fluorescence studies on green vegetation and on malignant tissue. The instrument is based on a violet diode laser, an integrated spectrometer and optical fibers for light delivery and collection of the fluorescence signal. This combination makes the system very compa

Background: Study aimed to describe the extent and the temporal profile of cardiac remodeling after atrial septal defect closure in the adult. Methods: Prospective and longitudinal echocardiographic assessment of right and left heart size before and after (1 day-1 week/1/4/12 months) surgical or catheter-based atrial septal closure in 39 adults (age 54 15 years). Results: Right ventricular and atr

Hashing or encrypting a key or a password is a vital part in most network security protocols. The most practical generic attack on such schemes is a time memory trade-off attack. Such an attack inverts any one-way function using a trade-off between memory and execution time. Existing techniques include the Hellman attack and the rainbow attack, where the latter uses different reduction functions (

A field study was carried out to evaluate the influence of N fertilization on the growth of the external mycelium of ectomycorrhizal (EM) fungi in a Norway spruce forest in SW Sweden. Nylon mesh bags filled with sand were buried in the soil for 6-18 months and the ingrowth of mycelium was used as an estimate of EM mycelial growth. Root-isolated, trenched plots were used to estimate background grow

A localized dehydration zone, Sondrum stone quarry, Halmstad, SW Sweden, consists of a central, 1 m wide granitic pegmatoid dyke, on either side of which extends a 2.5-3 m wide dehydration zone (650-700 degrees C; 800 MPa; orthopyroxene-clinopyroxene-biotite-amphibole-garnet) overprinting a local migmatized granitic gneiss (amphibole-biotite-garnet). Whole-rock chemistry indicates that dehydration

We prove under quite general assumptions the existence of a bounded positive solution to the semilinear Schrodinger equation in R-n, n greater than or equal to 3. (C) 2004 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

In this paper we present two novel generic schemes for approximation algorithms for optimization NP-hard graph problems constrained to partial k-trees. Our first scheme yields deterministic polynomial-time algorithms achieving typically an approximation factor of k/log(1-is an element of)n, where k = polylog(n). The second scheme yields randomized polynomial-time algorithms achieving an approximat

Our aim was to quantify the intestinal metabolic fate of dietary alpha-ketoglutarate (AKG). Female pigs In = 6; 21 d old) were implanted with arterial, venous, portal and gastric catheters and an ultrasonic portal flow probe and fed a corn and soybean meal-based diet. On (t)he day of the experiment, the pigs received a 4-h intragastric infusion of sodium AKG at a rate equivalent to 0, 2.5, 5 or 10

The proliferation and differentiation of primitive hematopoietic cells is tightly controlled by a number of signaling pathways. Transient blockage or enhancement of these signaling pathways may provide a new approach to manipulate the proliferation and differentiation of primitive hematopoietic cells. Adenoviral vectors have in recent years emerged as powerful tools for transient gene expression i

We generated a mouse model with a conditional deletion of TGF-beta signaling in the neurons by crossing TGF-beta receptor I (T beta RI) floxed mice with neurofilament-H (NF-H) Cre mice. 35% of F1 conditional knockout (COKO) mice developed spontaneous squamous cell carcinomas (SCCs) in periorbital and/ or perianal regions. Transplantation of these tumors into athymic nude mice resulted in 62% tumor

Gene expression signatures consisting of tens to hundreds of genes have been found to be informative for different biological states. Recently, many computational methods have been proposed for biological interpretation of such signatures. However, there is a lack of methods for identifying cell signaling pathways whose deregulation result in an observed expression signature. We present a strategy

Surface proteins of Streptococcus pyogenes are important virulence factors. Here we describe a novel collagen-like surface protein, designated SclA (streptococcal collagen-like surface protein). The sclA gene was identified in silico using the Streptococcal Genome Sequencing Project with the recently identified protein GRAB as the probe. SclA has a signal sequence and a cell wall attachment region

Postural control ensures stability during both static posture and locomotion by initiating corrective adjustments in body movement. This is particularly important when the conditions of the support surface change. We investigated the effects of standing on a compliant foam surface using 12 normal subjects (mean age 26 years) in terms of: linear movements at the head, shoulder, hip and knee; EMG ac

Orientation can be difficult for nocturnal bird migrants at high northern latitudes because of the large changes of magnetic declinations, rapid longitudinal time-shifts experienced during a long-distance flight and the invisibility of stars during the polar summer. Both sunset cues as well as geomagnetic cues have been shown to be of great importance in the orientation system of Savannah sparrows

Background. Primary care doctors see patients from diverse cultural backgrounds and communication plays an important role in diagnosis and treatment. Communication problems can arise when patient and doctor do not share the same cultural background. Objective. The aim of this study was to examine how consultations with immigrant patients are understood by GPs and how GPs manage these consultation