An outbreak of gastroenteritis affecting 158 of 219 (72%) guests and employees at a hotel is described. Food served at the hotel restaurant is believed to have been the source of the outbreak and to have been contaminated by sick employees working in the restaurant. A secondary attack rate of 22% was seen involving 43 persons in all. In stool specimens from seven of eight patients, Norwalk-like vi

Context. Extremely metal-poor (EMP) stars preserve a fossil record of the composition of the ISM when the Galaxy formed. It is crucial, however, to verify whether internal mixing has modified their surface composition, especially in the giants where most elements can be studied. Aims. We aim to understand the CNO abundance variations found in some, but not all EMP field giants analysed earlier. Mi

The inflammation of the lungs in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is characterised by increased numbers of macrophages, neutrophils and T-cells. Decline in lung function in these patients has been correlated to the number of CD8+ T-cells present in the lung as well as to a decline in the ratio of CD4+/CD8+ T-cells. Although systemic components are likely to be present, circulating lymp

5-HT1D (but not 5-HT1B )-receptor immunoreactivity (i.r.) can be detected on trigeminal fibres within the spinal trigeminal tract of the human brainstem. The present study used immunohistochemical and morphometric techniques to determine the proportions of trigeminal fibres expressing substance P, CGRP or 5-HT1D -receptor immunoreactivities. Co-localization studies between 5-HT1D -receptor and sub

Meteorological investigations were carried out in forests in the southwestern part of the Swabian Alb (SW Germany) to analyze the influences of exposition and silvicultural treatment on the microclimate within various stands of beech (Fagus sylvatica L.). The measurements were taken as part of an interdisciplinary project on the effects of climate and forest management on structures and processes

The influence of standard heparin or low molecular weight (LMW) heparin on healing of abdominal wounds and colonic anastomoses was studied in rats. Subcutaneous injection of 1 XaI U/g b.w. of standard or LMW-heparin or 0.5 ml physiologic saline was given 12 hours preoperatively and daily for 3 or 7 days postoperatively. Breaking strength of the abdominal wound and the anastomosis was measured, as

It is common to use activities of daily living (ADL) rating scales to identify the impact of health problems such as diseases, impaired eyesight or hearing on daily life. However, for various reasons people with health problems might feel hindered in daily life before limitations in ability to perform ADL have occurred. In addition, there is sparse knowledge of what makes people feel hindered by h

In this thesis, we develop and examine decision models intended for traffic engineering analysis of multiservice networks. Two important issues are addressed, namely call admission and routing control in multiservice broadband networks, and overload control in distributed-memory systems. Multiservice broadband networking generally refers to the ability to handle widely disparate traffic streams s

The medical device industry is a constantly growing domain which makes use of more and more software products. Given the importance to this industry of dependable software components, rigorous software engineering techniques would seem to have an important role to play. However, in a recent survey of the industry we found a lower than expected rate of adoption of certain sound software engineering

Reversed phase continuous full filling capillary electrochromatography with electrospray ionisation mass spectrometric detection was performed with highly sulphated poly [styrene-co-(lauryl methacrylate)-co-(divinylbenzene)] nanoparticles. The nanoparticles that contained a hydrophobic core and a hydrophilic surface were prepared in a one step synthesis using soap free emulsion polymerisation. By

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The variability in the morphology, modal number of chromosomes, TCR expression and functional reactivity of a CII-specific T-cell hybridoma at continuous subcultivation have been investigated. As the number of passages increased, besides the oval semiadherent cells (normal phenotype), fibroblast-like cells (transformed phenotype) were also observed. The two cell subpopulations differed in their ka

How people react to a fire alarm has been studied in retrospect as well as in experiments. In the present study, the choice of exit was examined with respect to the distance to exits and open or closed emergency exit. The second part deals with some communication aspects regarding identification of signs. It is shown that the subjects prefer a familiar ordinary cash exit even if the distance to th