Lifetimes of four short-lived levels belonging to the 4f(8)(F-7)6p configuration of Tb III have been measured using a two-step excitation time-resolved laser-induced fluorescence technique. They agree quite well with multiconfigurational relativistic Hartree-Fock calculations performed with inclusion of core-polarization effects. Using the experimental lifetimes and the theoretical branching fract

The temperature-driven adaptation of the bacterial community in peat was studied, by altering temperature to simulate self-heating and a subsequent return to mesophilic conditions. The technique used consisted of extracting the bacterial community from peat using homogenization-centrifugation and measuring the rates of thymidine (TdR) or leucine (Leu) incorporation by the extracted bacterial commu

We investigated the effect of water and acetone extract of Juglans regia L. to evaluate its antimutagenic and antiproliferative activities. The antimutagenic study using TA98 and TA100 tester strains of Salmonella revealed the water and acetone extracts to be more effective than the benzene and chloroform extracts in inhibiting the revertants induced by 2-aminoflourene (2AF) in TA100 tester strain

The neurogenic ocular inflammatory response in the cat was investigated by means of intracameral injections of capsaicin. At a dose of 200 micrograms intracamerally the eye responded with a breakdown of the blood-aqueous barrier (BAB) and a transient ocular hypertension. A response of the same magnitude was observed when a dose of 1 microgram capsaicin was given. Most of the response to this lower

A genomic DNA fragment, isolated from a human phage library using a chicken crk cDNA probe, was shown to derive from the human CRK locus. We have used fluorescent in situ hybridization (FISH) to map CRK distal in chromosome band 17p13, a region which demonstrates frequent deletion or loss of heterozygosity in a wide range of human cancers.

Environmental samples (soil, sediment and lake water) in the Thule area (NW Greenland) have been studied to assess the contamination of radionuclides originating from a nuclear weapons accident (the Thule accident in 1968). Four lakes were chosen at different distances from the point of impact with the Thule air base community situated in between. The sedimentation rates in the lakes varied from 0

Athernsclerotic renal artery stenosis (ARAS) may cause hypertension, progressive renal failure, and recurrent pulmonary edema. It typically occurs in high risk patients with coexistent vascular disease elsewhere. Most patients with ARAS are likely to die from coronary heart disease or stroke before end-stage renal failure occurs. Recent controlled trials have shown that most patients undergoing an

Background/Aims: The homeostasis of essential metals such as copper, iron, selenium and zinc may be altered in the brain of subjects with Alzheimer's disease (AD). Methods: Concentrations of metals (magnesium, calcium, vanadium, manganese, iron, cobalt, nickel, copper, zinc, selenium, rubidium, strontium, molybdenum, cadmium, tin, antimony, cesium, mercury and lead) were determined in plasma and c

Advanced radio system designs have been proposed to overcome the radio channel caused by multipath effects in urban environments or even take advantage of it to achieve higher performance.. In this letter, we present a clustering approach to represent the power delay angle profiles (PDAPs) of the multipath components in urban environments. A cluster in an urban area originates from scattering poin

Aims: To investigate factors associated with health care utilisation in ambulatory diabetes care in relation to complications attributable to diabetes mellitus in an adult diabetic population. Methods: A cross-sectional study; standardised interview, physical examination, and an evaluation of medical records, comprising all known diabetic subjects living in six primary health care districts in sou

The F-FCSR stream cipher family has been presented a few years ago. Apart from some flaws in the initial propositions, corrected in a later stage, there are no known weaknesses of the core of these algorithms. The hardware oriented version, called FCSR-H, is one of the ciphers selected for the eSTREAM portfolio. In this paper we present a new and severe cryptanalytic attack on the F-FCSR stream

Progenitor and stem cell transplantation represent therapeutic strategies for retinal disorders that are accompanied by photoreceptor degeneration. The transplanted cells may either replace degenerating photoreceptors or secrete beneficial factors that halt the processes of photoreceptor degeneration. The present study analyzes whether rat retinal progenitor cells differentiated into photoreceptor

We present a measurement of the double longitudinal spin asymmetry in inclusive pi(0) production in polarized proton-proton collisions at roots=200 GeV. The data were taken at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider with average beam polarizations of 0.27. The measurements are the first in a program to study the longitudinal spin structure of the proton, using strongly interacting probes, at collider

BACKGROUND: Cardiac surgery places extensive stress on spouses who often are more worried than the patients themselves. Spouses can experience difficult and demanding situations when the partner becomes critically ill. OBJECTIVES: To identify, describe, and conceptualize the individual needs of spouses of patients with complications of heart failure after cardiac surgery. METHODS: Grounded theory

Background: A European concerted action (the EuroNatal study) investigated differences in perinatal mortality between countries of Europe. This report describes the methods used in the EuroNatal international audit and discusses the validity of the results. Methods: Perinatal deaths between 1993 and 1998 in regions of ten European countries were identified. The categories of death chosen for the s

In this paper, we present the development of a new potential blood pool contrast agent for magnetic resonance imaging applications (MRA/MRI) based on gadolinium complexes containing amphiphilic supramolecular aggregates. A novel amphiphilic unimer, containing the DTPAGlu chelating agent covalently bound to two C18 alkylic chains, has been synthesized. DTPAGlu is a well-known chelating agent for a