Search results

Filter

Filetype

Your search for "*" yielded 528642 hits

Active selection for large guppies, Poecilia reticulata, by the pike cichlid, Crenicichla saxatilis

Size-selective predation has been proposed to be one important evolutionary force shaping life-history traits in guppies (Poecilia reticulata). Populations living in the presence of the ring-tailed pike cichlid (Crenicichlasaxatilis) are smaller, mature earlier, allocate more energy to offspring and get more and smaller young than guppies in localities without Crenicichla. We investigated if Creni

Risk of malignant disease among 1525 adult male US veterans with gaucher disease

Background: Some, but not all, reports suggest that patients with Gaucher disease are at increased risk of developing malignancies, particularly hematopoietic tumors. The aim of this study was to assess the pattern of Gaucher disease and subsequent malignancies among male veterans admitted to US Veterans Affairs hospitals. Methods: Among 832 294 African American and 3 668 983 white male veterans w

A friction compensator for pneumatic control valves

A procedure that compensates for staticfriction (stiction) in pneumatic control valves is presented.The compensation is obtained by adding pulses tothe control signal. The characteristics of the pulses are determinedfrom the control action. The compensator is implemented inindustrial controllers and control systems, and the industrialexperiences show that the procedurereduces the control error dur

Human eosinophils express, relative to other circulating leukocytes, large amounts of secretory 14-kD phospholipase A2

Human eosinophils perform several functions dependent on phospholipase A2 (PLA2) activity, most notably the synthesis of platelet-activating factor (PAF) and leukotriene C4 (LTC4). Several forms of PLA2 have been identified in mammalian cells. In the present study, the 14-kD, secretory form of PLA2 was detected in human eosinophils by immunocytochemical staining with the specific monoclonal antibo

Benzenecarboxylate surface complexation at the goethite (alpha-FeOOH)/water interface - III. The influence of particle surface area and the significance of modeling parameters

A surface complexation model describing the adsorption of three benzenecarboxylates (phthalate, trimellitate, and pyromellitate) on goethite (alpha-FeOOH) was calibrated on data using goethite particles of 37 and 43 m(2)/g surface area. The models predict potentiometric titration and batch adsorption data with the multisite complexation model coupled with the three-plane model to account for surfa

The need for nutrition support teams in pediatric units: A commentary by the ESPGHAN Committee on Nutrition

The reported prevalence of malnutrition in pediatric hospitals ranges from 15% to 30% of patients, with an impact on growth, morbidity and mortality. Major deficits in nutrition care have been highlighted in European hospitals, and the implementation of nutrition support teams (NSTs) has been suggested as a means to improve malnutrition diagnosis and nutrition care for hospitalized patients. This

A numerical investigation of heat transfer enhancement in offset strip fin heat exchangers in self-sustained oscillatory flows

Numerical analysis of the instantaneous flow and heat transfer has been carried out for offset strip fin geometries in self-sustained oscillatory flow. The analysis is based on the two-dimensional solution of the governing equations of the fluid flow and heat transfer with the aid of appropriate computational fluid dynamics methods. Unsteady calculations have been carried out. The obtained time-de

Thymidine kinase diversity in bacteria

Thymidine kinases (TKs) appear to be almost ubiquitous and are found in nearly all prokaryotes, eukaryotes, and several viruses. They are the key enzymes in thymidine salvage and activation of several anti-cancer and antiviral drugs. We show that bacterial TKs can be subdivided into 2 groups. The TKs from Gram-positive bacteria are more closely related to the eukaryotic TK1 enzymes than are TKs fr

Spatial and Temporal Performance of the MiniFACE (Free Air CO2 Enrichment) System on Bog Ecosystems in Northern and Central Europe

The Bog Ecosystem Research Initiative (BERI) projectwas initiated to investigate, at five climaticallydifferent sites across Europe, the effects of elevatedCO2 and N deposition on the net exchange ofCO2 and CH4 between bogs and the atmosphere,and to study the effects of elevated CO2 and Ndeposition on the plant biodiversity of bogcommunities. A major challenge to investigate theeffects of elevated

Quality of life in older people with cancer - a gender perspective.

The aim of this study was to investigate quality of life (QoL) and its association with sense of coherence (SOC), complaints, comorbidity, social resources, perceived economic situation and receiving help for daily living, investigating differences between women and men aged 75 and above with cancer and comparing women and men aged 75 and above without cancer. A further aim was to identify which o

Evaluation of salivary cortisol as a biomarker of self-reported mental stress in field studies

This study examine's the association between self-reported mental stress and the salivary cortisol response via a systematic literature review by using recommendations from the Cochrane Collaboration. Literature in different databases was screened and articles were selected on the basis of a set of inclusion criteria. Each article was assigned a total score on the basis of a rating system includin

Exploiting visibility correlation in direct illumination

The visibility function in direct illumination describes the binary visibility over a light source, e.g., an environment map. Intuitively, the visibility is often strongly correlated between nearby locations in time and space, but exploiting this correlation without introducing noticeable errors is a hard problem. In this paper, we first study the statistical characteristics of the visibility funct

Areal Reduction Factors from Rain Movement

The relation between rain movement and areal reduction of rain intensity is investigated. An approach for calculating areal reduction factors from point hyetographs and storm speed is suggested. Very good agreement is found between moving storm derived areal reduction factors and reduction factors determined using a dense net of rain gauges. Moving areal reduction factors calculated for design sto

LIF study of mixing in a model of a vein punctured by a cannula

Steady flow and mixing in a model of an "arterialized" vein punctured by a cannula as occurs during hemodialysis has been investigated in vitro. The motivation is that a major cause of vascular access dysfunction is the development of venous stenoses. This phenomenon lacks physiological explanation. However, one may attribute this quick process to the chemical content of the dialyzed blood and its

A grounding framework

In order for an agent to achieve its objectives, make sound decisions, communicate and collaborate with others effectively it must have high quality representations. Representations can encapsulate objects, situations, experiences, decisions and behavior just to name a few. Our interest is in designing high quality representations, therefore it makes sense to ask of any representation; what does i

Simultaneous graphic generalization of vector data sets

Manual cartographic generalization is a simultaneous process. However, most automatic approaches so far have been sequential; generalization operators are applied one at a time in a certain order. This has been the case both for model generalization (generalization of the conceptual model) and graphic generalization. Our research seeks to demonstrate that the graphic part of cartographic generaliz