The cloud-nucleating properties of the atmospheric aerosol were studied in an area under strong influence of vegetation burning. The measurements were part of Large-Scale Biosphere Atmosphere Experiment in Amazonia-Smoke Aerosols, Clouds, Rainfall and Climate (LBA-SMOCC) and were carried out at a ground site located in the state of Rondonia in southwestern Amazonia, Brazil, September to November 2

PEG 12-acyloxy-stearates are used as drug delivery carriers that have low cell damage effects. The mechanical and physical properties surrounding these processes and surfactants are still however not known. In this study, the physicochemical micellar properties of PEG 12-acyloxy-stearates were characterized by optical microscopic, nuclear magnetic resonance, and small-angle X-ray scattering techni

Background: Vasa previa is a rare but potentially dangerous fetal condition that may occur during pregnancy. Ideally, all cases such cases are detected antenatally, but many present as late vaginal hemorrhaging. At the current time, there is no test for fetal hemoglobin (HbF) in general use. Methods: A modified method of identifying HbF is presented. Five milliliters of 0.14 M NaOH was combined wi

BACKGROUND. The authors previously sought to identify novel markers of glioma invasion and recurrence. Their research demonstrated that brain gliomas overexpressed a subset of vascular basement components, laminins, that contained the alpha4 chain. One of these laminins, laminin-8, was found to be present in highly invasive and malignant glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) (Grade 4 astrocytoma); its exp

Based on the body of evidence implicating ocular blood flow disturbances in the pathogenesis of glaucoma, there is great interest in the investigation of the effects of antiglaucoma drugs and systemic medications on the various ocular vascular beds. The primary aim of this article was to review the current data available on the effects of antiglaucoma drugs and systemic medications on ocular blood

The year 2007 was an extraordinary year for the U.S. patent system. In a response to far-reaching proposals for significant changes in substantive and procedural patent law, the House of Representatives adopted the 2007 Patent Reform Act in September, heating up the debate over crucial issues that are now being discussed in the U.S. Senate.(1) Moreover, the U.S. Supreme Court also turned its atten

Objective. To investigate 1 functional (rs17266594) and 2 potentially functional (rs10516487 and rs3733197) BANK1 variants, which were previously identified as systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) susceptibility markers, to test whether they are associated with rheumatoid arthritis (RA). Methods. Four different cohorts were included in the study: 1,080 RA patients and 1,368 healthy controls from Spa

The degree of immunoreactive connexin43 (C x 43) in rat lung was evaluated during the development of radiation-induced pulmonary fibrosis in rat by a double immunofluorescence technique using polyclonal antisera to Cx43 and monoclonal antibodies to cytokeratins on cryostat sections. In normal rat lungs, Cx43 was detected in pneumocytes type II and I, in large blood vessel endothelia, in peribronch

The focus of the present paper is a late posterior negative slow wave (LPN) that has frequently been reported in event-related potential (ERP) studies of memory. An overview of these studies suggests that two broad classes of experimental conditions tend to elicit this component: (a) item recognition tasks associated with enhanced action monitoring demands arising from response conflict and (b) me

Background: Electroconvulsive seizure (ECS)-treatment, a model for electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) has been shown to induce proliferation of endothelial cells in the dentate gyrus (DG) of adult rats. Here we quantified the net angiogenic response after hypoxia a known inducer of aniogenesis. Therefore we also examined the effect of oxygenation on ECS-induced proliferation of endothelial cells. Met

A numerical method for the transient moisture flow in porous cellulosic materials like paper and wood is presented. The derivation of the model is based on mass conservation for a mixture containing a vapour phase and an adsorbed water phase embedded in a porous solid material. The principle of virtual moisture concentrations in conjunction with a consistent linearization procedure is used to prod

BACKGROUND: Earlier studies have found that transthyretin (TTR) is reduced in cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) from patients with major depressive disorder and that levels correlate negatively with suicidal ideation. The purpose of this study was to examine CSF-TTR in a cohort of suicide attempters with different psychiatric diagnoses and to further assess the relationship between CSF-TTR and suicidal be

This paper presents finite element analyses of the tensile behaviour of elementary fibres of flax and hemp, focusing on the non-linear tensile behaviour of the fibres and the relationship between the stiffness and the diameter of the fibre. The non-linear tensile behaviour is modelled by introducing dislocations in the helical structure of the cellulose fibrils and assuming that the hemicellulose

BACKGROUND: Valid assessments of health-related Quality of Life (HRQL) are increasingly important in chronic, incurable conditions, such as chronic heart failure (CHF). AIMS: To evaluate the psychometric properties of a Swedish version of the Kansas City Cardiomyopathy Questionnaire (KCCQ) in hospitalized patients with decompensated CHF. METHOD AND RESULTS: The KCCQ and SF-36 were administered to

Sequential serum samples from four plasma donors (designated A, B, C, and D) at a Chinese blood bank with hepatitis C transmission problems were studied from 1994 to 1997. The samples were examined for antibodies to HCV, for HCV viremia by PCR and HCV genotyping. Co- and superinfections were studied by direct sequencing of the 5'-NCR, core, and HVR-1 regions, using low and high genotype-specific p

We propose a comprehensive protocol for the performance assessment of photon migration instruments. The protocol has been developed within the European Thematic Network MEDPHOT (optical methods for medical diagnosis and monitoring of diseases) and is based on five criteria: accuracy, linearity, noise, stability, and reproducibility. This protocol was applied to a total of 8 instruments with a set