Background. The systemic and local tissue repair responses of radiation in combination with surgery are still unclear. We have studied the effect of fractionated pre-operative radiotherapy with or without subsequent laparotomy on collagen accumulation using a rodent model. Materials and methods. Thirty-two male Sprague-Dawley rats were divided into four groups (eight rats per group): 1) sham radia

Heterologous genes for xylose utilization were introduced into an industrial Saccharomyces cerevisiae, strain A, with the aim of producing fuel ethanol from lignocellulosic feedstocks. Two transformants, A4 and A6, were evaluated by comparing the performance in 4-l anaerobic batch cultivations to both the parent strain and a laboratory xylose-utilizing strain: S. cerevisiae TMB 3001. During growth

The etiology of polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) is unknown. However, PCOS has a strong resemblance to the insulin resistance (metabolic) syndrome, where an increased rate of visceral fat cell lipolysis is believed to play a pathophysiological role. We hypothesized that primary defects in visceral lipolysis might also exist in PCOS. Ten young, nonobese, and otherwise healthy PCOS women were compar

Supply chain risk management (SCRM) is of growing importance, as the vulnerability of supply chains increases. The main thrust of this article is to describe how Ericsson, after a fire at a sub-supplier, with a huge impact on Ericsson, has implemented a new organization, and new processes and tools for SCRM. The approach described tries to analyze, assess and manage risk sources along the supply c

Most people hold beliefs about personality characteristics typical of members of their own and others' cultures. These perceptions of national character may be generalizations from personal experience, stereotypes with a "kernel of truth," or inaccurate stereotypes. We obtained national character ratings of 3989 people from 49 cultures and compared them with the average personality scores of cultu

The effect of postharvest long-term storage and pre-treatments on the mass transfer rates during osmotic dehydration of carrots was investigated. Four blanching times were used and the carrots were sampled during 12 weeks of storage. Cell vitality was measured by isothermal calorimetry on cores taken from blanched slices. During the storage period, effective diffusion coefficients for water and su

The responses to step and pulse transients with reactants have been simulated for conventional step-transient conditions at atmospheric pressure and pulsing under vacuum using a temporal analysis of products (TAP) reactor, respectively. Propene oxidation over an oxide catalyst with the participation of lattice oxygen was chosen as a model reaction. The mechanism comprises adsorption of the reactan

A flexible method of preparing and macroscopically aligning nanoparticles of crystalline silver into millimeter long fibers is presented. The approach utilizes the dual functionality of a reverse hexagonal liquid crystalline template containing a built-in reducing agent facing the aqueous domain. The method is advantageous in that its slow kinetics allows for a thorough introduction of a silver sa

Unsaturated solute transport is highly variable and therefore difficult to predict. In semi-arid areas, where water resources are limited, the presence of macropores is of great importance for crop production. The bromide ion (Br-) and dye tracers are useful for studies of water movement. One approach to describe the heterogeneous solute transport is to apply the concept of fractals to a dataset.

The CP conserving amplitudes for the decays K --> 3pi are calculated in chiral perturbation theory at the next-to-leading order. We present the expressions in a compact form with single parameter functions only. These expressions are then fitted to all available K --> 2pi and K --> 3pi data to obtain a fit of the parameters that occur. We compare with the work of Kambor, Missimer and Wyler. (C) 20

Sixteen young patients with type 1 diabetes mellitus and rapidly progressive severe retinopathy were examined regarding serum levels of growth hormone before and after the i.v. administration of 200 micrograms thyrotropin-releasing hormone (TRH). Serum IGF I, HbA1c, blood pressure, urinary albumin, and serum creatinine levels were also measured. The control group consisted of type 1 diabetic patie

A laterally extensive and conspicuously smooth erosional surface is exposed near the Wenlock-Ludlow boundary on east-central Gotland, Sweden. It occurs in the reef complex area of a carbonate platform, has an undulating topography, and separates truncated bioherms and biostromes from overlying allochthonous high energy deposits. On a basin regional scale, the surface is associated to a shift from

Two recurrent arguments levelled against the view that enduring objects survive change are examined within the framework of the B-theory of time: the argument from Leibniz's Law and the argument from Instantiation of Incompatible Properties. Both arguments are shown to be question-begging and hence unsuccessful.

This study investigates the mechanisms of (de)coding modality, focusing on the interpretation of utterances containing the modals must, may, måste, and kan. The main research question posed in this study is what enables the interlocutors to interpret modal expressions so that communicative goals are achieved. To answer this general question, Coates's (1983) study on modal contexts is initially rep

One out of ten cases of acute pancreatitis develops into severe acute pancreatitis which is a life threatening disorder with a high mortality rate. The other nine cases are self limiting and need very little therapy. The specificity of good clinical judgement on admission, concerning the prognosis of the attack, is high (high specificity) but misses a lot of severe cases (low sensitivity). The pre