The majority of tumors from patients affected by hereditary nonpolyposis colorectal cancer (HNPCC) exhibit a mutator phenotype characterized by widespread microsatellite instability (MSI) and somatic mutations in repeated sequences in several cancer-associated genes. An inverse relationship between MSI and chromosomal instability (CIN) has been demonstrated and HNPCC-associated tumors are generall

Aims: To determine whether albuminuria, hypertension, or HbA(1c) are independently associated with antipericyte autoantibodies (APAAs) in type 2 diabetes mellitus. Methods: Two hundred ninety-nine subjects with different degrees of retinopathy according to the Early Treatment Diabetic Retinopathy Study Scale participated in this study. Albuminuria was defined as an albumin/creatinine ratio above t

This paper presents the methodology and the main results of the SIGTEBAL project “GIS for the design, management, analysis and planning of school routes in the Balearic Islands” financed by the Balearic Government to a team of the University of the Balearic Islands. It is an example of application of GIS to the field of transport (GIS-t). The SIGTEBAL begins with the design of a geographic data ba

The effect of random laser phase fluctuations on stimulated photon echoes (SPEs) and on coherently added SPEs was studied and evaluated both experimentally and analytically with statistical methods. The general concept of describing laser frequency fluctuations as a stationary stochastic process is presented and applied to three specific SPE configurations. The effect of phase fluctuations on eras

Increased male age has been associated with significant reduction in pregnancy rates. This study investigated the association between age, the function of epididymal and accessory sex glands, and their relation to sperm motility. Ejaculates from 498 men assessed for infertility were analysed according to WHO [1999] guidelines. Seminal markers of epididymal (neutral alpha-glucosidase (NAG)), prosta

In our previous genome-wide scan of Finnish nuclear families, obesity was linked to chromosome Xq24. Here we analyzed this 15-Mb region by genotyping 9 microsatellite markers and 36 single nucleotide polyp morphisms (SNPs) for 11 positional and functional candidate genes in an extended sample of 218 obese Finnish sibling pairs (sibpairs) (BMI > 30 kg/m(2)). Evidence of linkage emerged mainly from

Human immunodeficiency virus type 1 particles form by budding at the surface of most cell types. In this process, a piece of the plasma membrane is modified into an enveloped virus particle. The process is driven by the internal viral protein Pr55(gag). We have studied how host proteins in the membrane are dealt with by Pr55(gag) during budding. Are they included in or excluded from the particle?

Objective: The aim of the study was to determine if artificial neural networks (ANNs) may be useful to analyse a complex and large set of data derived from smoking welders for the purpose of finding relationships between parameters describing respiratory system efficiency and antioxidant defence. Methods: A group of 94 welders employed in a big metallurgic enterprise in Krakow, Poland (men only, a

Popular Abstract in Swedish Möjligheten att använda tillförlitlighetsteori som ett verktyg för utvärdering av säkerhet och återstående livslängd av skadade konstruktioner har undersökts. Det framkommer att tillgängliga riktlinjer och stödjande dokument är öppna för tolkningar och detta leder till resultat med oacceptabla skillnader. Tolkningar förkommer även vid deterministiska beräkningar men tilA feasibility study of reliability theory as a tool for the assessment of present safety and residual service life of damaged concrete structures has been performed in order to find a transparent methodology for the assessment procedure. It is concluded that the current guidelines are open to interpretation and that the variation in the results obtained regarding the structural safety is too grea

Absorption and fluorescence spectra of 2-R-5-phenyl-1,3,4-oxadiazoles (R = H, methyl, tert-butyl, trifluoromethyl, amino, phenyl, benzyl) were studied experimentally and by time dependent density functional theory (TDDFT) methods. In acidic media a substantial red shift is observed due to the presence of conjugate acid forms. Two conjugate acid forms (3H and 4H) are possible for unsymmetrically su

An enantioselective synthesis of (-)-pregaliellalactone (1), a biosynthetic precursor of the potent fungal metabolite ( -)-galiellalactone (3) produced by several ascomycetes, is reported. When fed to a culture of Galiella rufa, 1 was efficiently converted to 3. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.

Heavy-ion collisions at high energies calls for new technical solutions to cope with the very high multiplicities of produced particles. In this thesis the design and development of two types of tracking chambers for high multiplicity environments are presented. The first type was developed to be a part of the tracking system of the WA98 experiment. The tracking chambers were designed to provide

The electrostatic properties of charged surfactant micelles are investigated through titrations of fatty acid probes solubilized in the micelles. The titration process is followed by means of calorimetric measurements and by determining the pH values as a function of added base. This approach yields a complete thermodynamic description of the titration process. In particular, we find that the proc

Resonant Auger spectra of O-2 clusters excited at the O1s edge are reported. After excitation to the repulsive 1s(-1)3 sigma* state, the resulting resonant Auger spectrum displays features that remain constant in kinetic energy as the photon energy is detuned. The shift between known atomic fragment features and these features is consistent with that observed for atoms and clusters in singly charg