A technique to determine which nutrients limit bacterial growth in soil was developed. The method was based on measuring the thymidine incorporation rate of bacteria after the addition of C, N, and P in different combinations to soil samples. First, the thymidine incorporation method was tested in two different soils: an agricultural soil and a forest humus soil. Carbon (as glucose) was found to b

Solution properties of ethyl(hydroxyethyl)cellulose (EHEC) and a hydrophobically modified analogue (HM-EHEC) in water in the presence of various amounts of sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS) have been investigated by cloud point (CP) measurements, titration microcalorimetry, and static light scattering. The CP experiments revealed that the hydrophobically modified polymer is less soluble than the unmodi

Prenatal stress has been shown to disturb neonatal rat brain development. The astroglial-specific neurotrophic factor S100B is known to play an important role in normal brain development. In the present study, we investigated the effects of prenatal stress on S100B concentrations in the hippocampus of I-day-old Fischer 344 rats. Overall, prenatal stress resulted in a 25% reduction in hippocampal S

BACKGROUND: This study compares the high-frequency QRS components (HF-QRS) in patients with and without standard electrocardiogram (ECG) changes indicative of old myocardial infarction (MI). Previous studies have indicated that patients with an old MI differ in their HF-QRS compared with healthy subjects. The HF-QRS has been reported to be decreased during acute coronary occlusion and increased af

Purified, recombinant M12 protein from Streptococcus pyogenes CS24 has recently been demonstrated to bind human immunoglobulin G3 (IgG3). The binding site for IgG has been localized to an internal peptide encoded by a PvuII fragment of the gene emm12. We have investigated the ability of an isolated recombinant M12 protein consisting of the peptide encoded by the PvuII fragment to bind various mono

Lately, sensor networks have received much attention in the research community. One of the aims of these networks is to make them self-configuring and self-healing so that they can be easily deployed and self-sufficient. A fundamental limitation with sensor networks is their limited life span because of their battery operation. To that end, much research has been carried out to maximize the life s

This article proposes Lagrange multiplier-based tests for the null hypothesis of no cointegration. The tests are general enough to allow for heteroskedastic and serially correlated errors, deterministic trends, and a structural break of unknown timing in both the intercept and slope. The limiting distributions of the test statistics are derived, and are found to be invariant not only with respect

Acute pancreatitis (AP) is a common disease in which the underlying mechanisms of the local initiating events in the pancreas, the systemic dissemination of the inflammatory response and the development of remote organ dysfunction have not been fully clarified. AP is still associated with substantial morbidity and mortality. Clinical therapeutic strategies for AP have so far been mainly directed a

PURPOSE: The purpose was to quantify changes of epileptiform activity during ketogenic diet (KD) treatment in children with therapy resistant epilepsy, and evaluate how these changes are related to activity stage and to clinical effects on seizure frequency, seizure severity, attentional behaviour, quality of life (QOL), and beta-hydroxybutyrate (betaOHb). METHODS: Eighteen children were investiga

The near-edge fine structure of the Fe2p and Si2p X-ray absorption spectra (NEXAFS) of iron-oxygen nanolayers on the surface of single-crystal silicon (100) was studied for the first time. The structure of the quasi-2D iron-oxygen nanosystems synthesized by molecular layering was considered on this basis.

The receptor for advanced glycation end products ( RAGE) is a member of the immunoglobulin superfamily being expressed as a cell surface molecule and binding a variety of ligands. One of these ligands is high-mobility group box chromosomal protein 1, a potent proinflammatory cytokine, expression of which is increased in synovial tissue and in synovial fluid of rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients. T

OBJECTIVE: In Sweden, a country with high standards of obstetric care, the high rate of perinatal mortality among children of immigrant women from the Horn of Africa raises the question of whether there is an association between female circumcision and perinatal death. METHODS: To investigate this, we examined a cohort of 63 perinatal deaths of infants born in Sweden over the period 1990–96 to cir

A novel type of limited double-moment scheme for bulk microphysics is presented here for cloud-systemresolving models (CSRMs). It predicts the average size of cloud droplets and crystals, which is important for representing the radiative impact of clouds on the climate system. In this new scheme, there are interactive components for ice nuclei (IN) and cloud condensation nuclei (CCN). For cloud ic

Purpose. To describe conceptions, as registered by a semi-structured interview, of exercise as treatment among sixteen middle-aged patients with moderate to severe knee osteoarthritis. Method. Sixteen patients ( aged 39 - 64) with symptomatic, radiographic knee osteoarthritis and previous participants in an exercise intervention, were interviewed. The qualitative data obtained were analysed using

Controlled oxidation reactions catalyzed by the large, proton-pumping complexes of the respiratory chain generate an electrochemical gradient across the mitochondrial inner membrane that is harnessed for ATP production. However, several alternative respiratory pathways in plants allow the maintenance of substrate oxidation while minimizing the production of ATE We have investigated the role of lig

Aims To explore the morphology of the proximal coronary sinus (CS) and the surrounding tissues in order to identify possible routes for interatrial conduction. Method Specimens containing interatrial septum and proximal CS were taken from 21 necropsied hearts and sliced into 10-mu m thick parallel histological sections in 1-mm steps starting from the valve plane, up to the atrial. roof (40-80 sect

Background & Aims: The long-term prognosis of patients with small-duct primary sclerosing cholangitis (PSC) remains incompletely characterized. We aimed at determining the natural history and long-term outcomes of a large number of patients with small-duct PSC. Methods: Data from 83 patients with well-characterized small-duct PSC from several medical institutions in Europe and the United State

The BB (BioBreeding) rat is one of the best models of spontaneous autoimmune diabetes and is used to study non-MHC loci contributing to Type 1 diabetes. Type 1 diabetes in the diabetes-prone BB (BBDP) rat is polygenic, dependent upon mutations at several loci. Iddm1, on chromosome 4, is responsible for a lymphopenia (lyp) phenotype and is essential to diabetes. In this study, we report the positio

We present a theory for the full distribution of current fluctuations in incoherent diffusive superconducting junctions, subjected to a voltage bias. This theory of full counting statistics of incoherent multiple Andreev reflections is valid for an arbitrary applied voltage. We present a detailed discussion of the properties of the first four cumulants as well as the low and high voltage regimes o

We report the experimental observation of a strongly selective population of the spin-orbit components in the HCl+ (X) over tilde (2)Pi(Omega) states after excitation into the dissociative 2p(-1)6sigma* core excited state. A progression of highly excited vibrational states with either the Omega=3/2 or Omega=1/2 component of the final state is populated, respectively, when the excitation is tuned i