Many breeding attempts in birds do not result in any fledged young due to predation on eggs or young. Consequently, the influence of time constraints on reproductive decisions are integrated parts of the reproductive behaviour of birds breeding within short, seasonal climate zones. In this study. I mimicked nest predation by removing blue tit (Parus caeruleus) clutches shortly after completion. Ar

Objective To investigate the basic pharmacodynamic properties of teicoplanin in vitro for Staphylococcus aureus, Staphylococcus epidermidis and Enterococcus faecium. Methods The following experiments were performed: (1) bacterial killing by teicoplanin at different concentrations; (2) bacterial killing by teicoplanin at 8 x MIC against the same strains with inocula of 5x10(3), 5x10(5) and 5x10(7)

Background: It is not clear whether risk factors for local recurrence after breast-conserving surgery differ in women having surgery for in situ or invasive cancer. Furthermore, the Nottingham Prognostic Index (NPI) and Nottingham Histological Grade (NHG) have been little studied as determinants of local recurrence risk. Method: In a case-control study (491 cases and 1098 controls) nested within a

The evidence concerning the possible association between physical activity and the risk of prostate cancer is inconsistent and additional data are needed. We examined the association between risk of prostate cancer and physical activity at work and in leisure time in the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition (EPIC) cohort. In our study, including 127,923 men aged 20-97 years

1. We performed both a large- and a small-scale echo sounding study on the spatial and temporal distribution of fish (mainly roach, Rutilus rutilus and perch, Perca fluviatlis), as well as a small-scale study of zooplankton distribution in the small, shallow and eutrophic Lake Hanebjerg in Denmark. In the small-scale study, sampling was conducted in open water as well as in the edge zone immediate

Many explanations have been provided for variations of the spatial distribution and thickness of till sheets. This paper gives new insight into the architecture of a stratigraphically distinct till sheet as a function of the type of substratum and preadvance topography at a scale of similar to 10 km. This emphasises the sensitivity of the subglacial system to changes in the basal drainage conditio

We study different classes of Jensen measures for plurisubharmonic functions, in particular the relation between Jensen measures for continuous functions and Jensen measures for upper bounded functions. We prove an approximation theorem for plurisubharmonic functions inB-regular domain. This theorem implies that the two classes of Jensen measures coincide inB-regular domains. Conversely we show th

Background: Some patients with allergic asthma treated with anti-IgE (Xolair (R)) do not become symptom free. Better criteria for response assessment than allergy skin tests or IgE determination are needed. The impact of the size of the disease relevant allergen-specific IgE antibody fraction, i.e. the percentage of IgE antibody of total IgE, was evaluated in cat allergic patients treated with the

The role of NMDA mechanisms in spinal pathways mediating acute nociceptive input to the somatosensory cortex is not clear. In this study, the effect of NMDA-antagonists on nociceptive C fibre transmission to the primary somatosensory cortex (SI) was investigated. Cortical field potentials evoked by CO2-laser stimulation of the skin were recorded in the halothane/nitrous oxide anaesthetized rat. T

BACKGROUND: Diagnostic methods for the study of allergic reactions to Anisakis simplex (A.s.) based on whole-body extracts of the larva are clearly insufficient. OBJECTIVES: To study the allergenicity of the proteins secreted by the parasite. Comparison with somatic antigens and determination of their clinical importance in allergic patients were also addressed. METHODS: An excretory/secretory (E/

Background: Angiogenic growth factors and stem cell therapies have demonstrated varying results in patients with chronic coronary artery disease. A reason could be that these mechanisms are already up-regulated due to reduced blood supply to the myocardium. The objective of this study was to examine if plasma concentrations of circulating stem cells and angiogenic cytokines in patients with severe

During the remodeling phase of fracture healing in mice, the callus gradually transforms into a double cortex, which thereafter merges into one cortex. In large animals, a double cortex normally does not form. We investigated whether these patterns of remodeling of the fracture callus in mice can be explained by mechanical loading. Morphologies of fractures after 21, 28, and 42 days of healing wer

Pure red cell aplasia (PRCA) is a rare, but important, complication of erythropoietin (EPO) replacement therapy in patients with renal disease. There is no consensus about the best way to treat this condition; however, recent reports indicated that immunosuppressive therapy is beneficial. We report a patient with EPO-induced PRCA treated with a regimen initially designed for antifactor VIII antibo

Evidence supports an important role for beta-amyloid (A beta) in the pathogenesis of Alzheimer's disease ( AD). Here, we investigate baseline levels of the 40- and 42-amino-acid-long A beta peptides (A beta 40 and A beta 42) in cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) from a cohort of patients with mild cognitive impairment (MCI, n = 137) in relation to the final diagnosis after 4 - 6 years of follow-up time. CS

The dynamic vegetation model (LPJ-GUESS) is used to project transient impacts of changes in climate on vegetation of the Barents Region. We incorporate additional plant functional types, i.e. shrubs and defined different types of open ground vegetation, to improve the representation of arctic vegetation in the global model. We use future climate projections as well as control climate data for 1981

Film extrusion and welding of biodegradable polymer films are important processes that must be considered in the development of compostable packaging materials. Film extrusion of poly(lactic acid) (PLA) has proved to be rather difficult because of its brittleness, but the flexibility of PLA can be improved by incorporation of a plasticizer in the material. PLA was plasticized with triacetine (TAc)

A theory of self-induced transparency for a TM-mode propagating in a planar semiconductor waveguide sandwiched between two dielectric media is developed. A transition layer between the waveguide and one of the connected media is described using a model of a two-dimensional sheet of quantum dots. Explicit analytical expressions for the optical soliton in the presence of single-excitonic and biexcit

The Atlantic auk assemblage includes four extant species, razorbill (Alca torda), dovekie (Alle alle), common murre (Uria aalge), and thick-billed murre (U. lomvia), and one recently extinct species, the flightless great auk (Pinguinus impennis). To determine the phylogenetic relationships among the species, a contiguous 4.2-kb region of the mitochondrial genome from the extant species was amplifi