Serum samples from patients referred for liver biopsy for investigation of suspected chronic liver disease (n = 286) and from healthy middle-aged volunteers (n = 445) were analyzed for markers of exposure to GB virus C/hepatitis G virus (GBV-C/HGV), hepatitis B virus and hepatitis C virus. GBV-C/HGV analyses included GBV-C/HGV PCR for detection of viremia and GBV-C/HGV enzyme-linked immunosorbent

Pretreatment of mixed softwoods with SO2 impregnation and steam for production of ethanol has been investigated. The optimal conditions, both for sugar yield and ethanol yield, to assess the effect of inhibitors formed in the pretreatment, have been determined. The parameters investigated were: SO2 concentration (1-6% (w/w) dry matter), temperature (190-230 degrees C) and residence time (2-15 min)

We present a model that explains the anomalous intensity ratios betweeneach of two very bright UV lines of Fe II at 2507 Å and 2509Å and its corresponding satellite line, observed in HST spectra ofa compact gaseous condensation (blob B) in the vicinity of the starprotect eta Car.The model is based on the assumption that the FeIItransitions have a substantial optical thickness, which varies as ares

In this paper an extension of the q-deformed Volterra equation associated with linear rescaling to the general non-linear rescaling is obtained.

Although long-acting inhaled beta(2)-agonists improve various outcome measures in COPD, no double-blind study has yet shown a significant effect of these drugs on exercise capacity. In a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled, crossover study, patients received formoterol (4.5,9, or 18 mug b.i.d via Turbuhaler(R)), ipratroplum bromide (80 mug t.i.d via pMDI with spacer), or placebo for I wee

The subject of this thesis is the pushforward map on compactly supported distributions induced by a smooth mapping. Being the adjoint of the natural pullback operation on the class of smooth functions, the pushforward map is always well-defined, and as such it must be regarded as one of the fundamental operations of distribution theory. This thesis has two main aims: The first of these is to give

Deregulation of the phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase (PI3K) pathway either through loss of PTEN or mutation of the catalytic subunit alpha of PI3K (PIK3CA) occurs frequently in human cancer. We identified PIK3CA mutations in 26% of 342 human breast tumor samples and cell lines at about equal frequency in tumor stages I to IV. To investigate the relationship between PTEN and PIK3CA, we generated a coh

We present experiments on field-free molecular alignment of N-2 and CO2 probed with short XUV pulses that are obtained via high-harmonic generation. The XUV pulses induce a dissociative ionization or a Coulomb explosion of the molecule, where the fragment ion recoil (measured using the velocity map imaging technique) provides information on the alignment of the parent molecule at the time of ioniz

Polarisation spectroscopy (PS) was used to probe CO2 gas concentration in a CO2/N-2 binary mixture at atmospheric pressure and ambient temperature. The CO2 molecules were probed by a direct laser excitation to an overtone and combination vibrational state. The tuneable narrow linewidth infrared laser radiation at 2 mum was obtained by Raman shifting of the output from a single-longitudinal-mode pu

The enzymatic hydrolysis process can be used to produce bioethanol from softwood, which are the dominating raw material in the Northern hemisphere. This thesis deals with the development of the process focusing on the pretreatment and the enzymatic hydrolysis stages. The influence of pretreatment conditions on sugar yield, and the effect of inhibitors on the ethanol yield, were investigated for s

Cognitive explanations of autism often involve higher order cognitive functions developing late in childhood, such as theory of mind, executive functions or central coherence. In home videos of infants later diagnosed with autism, children display early signs of developmental disorders, for example impaired sensorimotor functions, attention to social and non-social stimuli and a lack of circadian

Abstract is not available

The individual of a species is the basic unit which responds to climate and UV-B changes, and it responds over a wide range of time scales. The diversity of animal, plant and microbial species appears to be low in the Arctic, and decreases from the boreal forests to the polar deserts of the extreme North but primitive species are particularly abundant. This latitudinal decline is associated with a