We describe a simple radioimmunoassay of beta-microseminoprotein, one of the three most abundant secretory proteins of the prostate gland. The detection limit of the assay is 1 microgram/L, and its precision, expressed as the total coefficient of variation, is less than 10% for values between 10 and 150 micrograms/L. Using this assay, we found that beta-microseminoprotein immunoreactivity was pres

Changes in soil texture, bulk density, pH, concentrations and stocks of OC, N, P and K before and after conversion of a 6-year-old Acacia senegal plantation to other land management systems (LMS) were investigated, after three cropping seasons, in the drylands of western Sudan. LMS included pure and intercropped sorghum (PS), roselle (PR) and grasses (PC) with A. senegal at high and low-tree densi

in this paper, we introduce two new methods for solving binary quadratic problems. While spectral relaxation methods have been the workhorse subroutine for a wide variety of computer vision problems-segmentation, clustering, subgraph matching to name a few-it has recently been challenged by semidefinite programming (SDP) relaxations. In fact, it can be shown that SDP relaxations produce better low

Maternally derived androgens have been shown to influence offspring phenotype in various ways. In birds, the benefits of prenatal androgen exposure, such as increased competitiveness and accelerated growth in nestlings, have been suggested to be balanced by costs, such as reduced immune function. In this study, we used an integrative approach to examine the influence of yolk androgens on the devel

Objective: We examined pituitary tumor volumes in patients treated with pegvisomant for 18 months or longer and in whom the tumors were monitored for at least 3 years. We present details on 9 of 304 patients in clinical trials with pegvisomant who experienced tumor growth within the first year of treatment. Method: Magnetic reonance images prior to start of pegvisomant and at last follow-up were e

The admission control mechanism is an important part of many communication systems. In this paper we investigate load control mechanisms for server systems, that is systems that may be modelled as queueing systems. We show how control theory can be used when designing controllers for a G/G/1-system. We design a PI-controller for the system and compare the steady-state and transient behavior of thi

Background: Gallstone ileus is associated with high morbidity and mortality rates. Enterolithotomy as a single procedure is recommended to minimize complications. The trauma could potentially be reduced further by using a laparoscopic technique. Methods: Thirty-two consecutive patients with gallstone ileus operated by a laparoscopic or open approach between 1992 and 2004 were studied retrospective

The paper addresses a certain nonlocal plasticity model, where the consistency condition may be rewritten from a Fredholm equation of the second kind into a second order differential equation. Hereby, a case of equivalence between a nonlocal model and a gradient model will be found. (C) 2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Degradation of the dry semiarid ecosystems in the Mu Us Sandy Land of north central China was explored using high-resolution satellite images from 1978, 1987 and 1996. This study monitored both changes in grassland biomass production and reclamation activities to detect the nature and scale of land degradation since major economic reforms were introduced in 1978. The position of the high-resolutio

The timing of reproduction in birds varies considerably within populations and is often under strong natural selection. Individual timing within years is dependent on a range of environmental factors in addition to having an additive genetic basis. In vertebrates, an increasing amount is known about the molecular basis for variation in biological timing. The Clock gene includes a variable poly-glu

Respiratory response to inhalation of fine particles has been investigated for the aerosol generated by welding. Particles were sampled using a pair of 5-stage cascade impactors operating at 1 l./min flow rate. The subject exhaled into one impactor through an air ballast arrangement, and the other impactor simultaneously sampled the surrounding air. Particle size fractions were analyzed for princi

Most current density functional theories rely upon the presence of hard cores, also between ions of like charge. These hard cores should in principle reflect exchange repulsion. However, by the way in which these theories are formulated, the hard cores effectively determine the range of ion-ion correlations. This is because the mutual repulsion between like-charged ions is truncated below the corr

The effect of illumination at 5 K of photosystem II in different S-states was investigated with EPR spectroscopy. Two split radical EPR signals around g 2.0 were observed from samples given 0 and 3 flashes, respectively. The signal from the 0-flash sample was narrow, with a width of ~80 G, in which the low-field peak can be distinguished. This signal oscillated with the S1 state in the sample. The

Rationale, aims and objective The objectives were to describe and evaluate the structured medication questionnaire and to improve data handling of results from the Morisky four-item scale for patient compliance and Beliefs about Medicines Questionnaire-specific (BMQ-specific). Methods A questionnaire was developed with the purpose of being used when identifying medication errors and assessing pati

Degradation of toxaphene in soil from both newly contaminated (from Sweden) and aged spills (from Nicaragua) were studied. The newly contaminated soil contained approximately 11 mg kg(-1) toxaphene while the aged Nicaraguan soil contained approximately 100 mg kg-1. Degradation was studied in anaerobic bioreactors, some of which were supplied with lactic acid and others with Triton (R) X-114. In th

Patients with contact allergy to sesquiterpene lactones (SLs) are usually hypersensitive to Asteraceae plant products such as herbal teas. The objective of this study was to show sensitizers in chamomile tea by patch testing with thin-layer chromatograms. Tea made from German chamomile was separated by thin-layer chromatography. Strips of the thin-layer chromatograms were used for patch testing SL