The NorduGrid project operates a production Grid infrastructure in Scandinavia and Finland using own innovative middleware solutions. The resources range from small test clusters at academic institutions to large farms at several supercomputer centers, and are used for various scientific applications. This talk reviews the architecture and describes the Grid services, implemented via the NorduGrid

Background and objectives: A plasma-derived von Willebrand factor (VWF) concentrate with low factor VIII (FVIII) content was specifically developed to treat von Willebrand disease (VWD). Efficacy and safety were investigated by merging the results of two comparable protocols conducted prospectively in 5 European and 12 French centers. Methods and results: Fifty patients with clinically severe VWD

Abstract is not available

Analysing the variation in flight speed among bird species is important in understanding flight. We tested if the cruising speed of different migrating bird species in flapping flight scales with body mass and wing loading according to predictions from aerodynamic theory and to what extent phylogeny provides an additional explanation for variation in speed. Flight speeds were measured by tracking

The kinetics, energetics and specificity of a general amino acid transporter were studied in the ectomycorrhizal fungus Paxillus involutus (Batsch) Fr. The uptake of amino acids showed features characteristic of active transport. After correction for a non-mediated transport component, the kinetics of glutamate, glutamine, alanine and aspartate uptake measured over a wide concentration range follo

A novel sulfophenylated polysulfone membrane material has been evaluated in a hydrogen/oxygen fuel cell using Nafion-impregnated commercial electrodes. Comparative measurements were performed with Nafion membranes to distinguish between different sources of potential losses. The operational temperatures in the experiments ranged from 60 to 110 °C, and the effect of different humidifying conditions

A generally implementable method for predicting salvageability on the presenting electrocardiogram (ECG) in patients with acute myocardial infarction (AMI) would be of great clinical importance. ECG-derived Grades of Ischemia (1) have been proven useful in predicting the extent and severity of left ventricular dysfunction after anterior MI, estimating short and long-term prognosis, final infarct s

Endotoxin exposure is associated with wheeze and asthma morbidity, while early life exposure may reduce risk of allergy and asthma. Unfortunately, it is difficult to compare endotoxin results from different laboratories and environments. We undertook this study to determine if lipopolysaccharide ( LPS) extraction efficiency could account for differences among laboratories. We generated and collect

Unilateral sternocleidomastoid muscle vibration was applied to 21 normal and six unilateral vestibular deafferented (uVD) human subjects at head erect and during 30 degrees left and right whole body roll-tilt. In normal subjects, neck vibration had no effect upon the settings of a visual bar to subjective visual horizontal (SVH) in any roll-tilt condition. In uVD subjects settings to SVH were sign

Background: Calcipotriene and betamethasone dipropionate are topical treatments for psoriasis vulgaris. Their mode of action is different. Improved risk/benefit may result with concomitant use of the two compounds together. A new vehicle has been created with the objective of obtaining optimal stability of both calcipotriene and betamethasone dipropionate in the combination product. Objective. We

The purpose of the present article is to present an overview of a set of studies conducted in our own laboratory on cognitive and communicative development in children with cochlear implants (CI). The results demonstrate that children with CIs perform at significantly lower levels on the majority of the cognitive tasks. The exceptions to this trend are tasks with relatively lower demands on phonol

Mitochondrial permeability transition (MPT) is a nonselective inner membrane permeabilization that contributes to neuronal cell death under circumstances such as brain trauma, ischemia, and hypoglycemia. Here we study the participation of MPT and the Bcl-2-sensitive apoptotic cell death pathway in glutamate receptor-mediated excitotoxicity. Intrastriatal infusions of the N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA

Smoking is a well-known risk factor for cardiovascular disease, although understanding of the pathophysiological mechanism is incomplete. The effect of heavy smoking, for more than 20 years and of 20 cigarettes per day, on aortic stiffness was studied in women (n = 23, age range 43-61 years) and men (n = 21, age range 43-61 years) who smoked but were otherwise healthy and compared with a healthy r

Objective This study aimed to explore the potential of in vivo q-space imaging in the differentiation between different cerebral water components. Materials and Methods Diffusion-weighted imaging was performed in six directions with 32 equally spaced q values and a maximum b value of 6600 s/mm2. The shape of the signal-attenuation curve and the displacement propagator were examined and compared

Background. Nurse managers act under constant pressure to develop strategies in response to professional challenges within a changing and restructured health care system. When such environmental stress is present, they need access to sufficient psychosocial recourses. Aim. The study aimed to investigate whether nurse managers' professional networks, psychosocial work conditions, job support, soci

We study the self-adjoint Pauli operators that can be realized as the square of a self-adjoint Dirac operator and correspond to a magnetic field consisting of a finite number of Aharonov–Bohm solenoids and a regular part, and prove an Aharonov–Casher type formula for the number of zero-modes for these operators. We also see that essentially only one of the Pauli operators are spin-flip invariant,

To study the relationship between foveal thickness assessed by optical coherence tomography (OCT) and foveal function measured with multi focal electroretinography (mfERG) in patients with non-proliferative diabetic retinopathy, and with no previous laser treatment. Twenty-six eyes from 18 diabetic patients (13 men), aged 59 years, (range 28-79 years), diabetes duration 15 years, (range 2-27 years