Structural design is today concerned with single component performance where each limit state is related to a single mode of failure of a single component. Further, in limit state codes the strength variables are related to a deterministic value (usually the 5-percentile). However, in a structure with a number of elements, two different effects (called system effects) can be found: The probabilist

The Technological Change in Health Care Research Network collected unique patient-level data on three procedures for treatment of heart attack patients (catheterization, coronary artery bypass grafts and percutaneous transluminal coronary angioplasty) for 17 countries over a 15-year period to examine the impact of economic and institutional factors on technology adoption. Specific institutional fa

We present a minimalistic and °exible single-beam instrumen- tation based for sensitive tunable diode laser absorption spectroscopy (TD- LAS) and its use in structural analysis of highly scattering pharmaceu- tical solids. By utilising a vertical-cavity surface emitting laser (VCSEL) for sensing of molecular oxygen dispersed in tablets, we address structural properties such as porosity. Experiment

OBJECTIVE AND STUDY DESIGN: We report for the first time an inhibitory effect on cell division and germ tube formation by Candida albicans and strains of other Candida species by putrescine and cadaverine. RESULTS: Both bacterial amines showed a dose-dependent inhibition of germ tube formation by C albicans, as well as budding (inhibition of cell division) of strains of other Candida species (ie,

In 1958, two years after the Dartmouth conference, where the term artificial intelligence was coined, Herbert Simon and Allen Newell asserted the existence of "machines that think, that learn and create". They were further prophesying that the machines' capacity would increase and be oil par with the human mind. Now, 50 years later, computers perform many more tasks than one could imagine in the 1

Young individuals, taking the locational choices made by their altruistic parents as given, decide whether or not to acquire skills. The use of location-specific word-of-mouth communication in the transmission of information about (skilled) job opportunities implies that the local social environment partly determines an individual's expected returns to education. Stratified equilibria, when they e

Population-based epidemiological studies of atherosclerosis using autopsy material is now impossible to perform in most countries due to declining autopsy rates. Based on epidemiological studies of atherosclerosis using autopsy material in five European cities which were carried out with an interval of 25 years in the 1960s and 1980s, respectively, we have shown that atherosclerosis in young so-ca

The interaction between positively charged poly(amido amine) (PAMAM) dendrimers of generation 4 and DNA has been investigated for two DNA lengths; 2000 basepairs (bp; L = 680 nm) and 4331 bp (L = 1472.5 nm) using a theoretical model by Schiessel for a semiflexible polyelectrolyte and hard spheres. The model was modified to take into account that the dendrimers are to be regarded as soft spheres, t

We have studied the influence of the InP spacer layer thickness on stacked InAs/InP quantum dots, using cross-sectional scanning tunnelling microscopy. We show that for a spacer layer thickness of up to 30 nm, the quantum dots are spatially correlated but for a separating distance of 50 nm the vertical ordering of the dots is lost. These values are the same as previously found for quantum dots in

In today’s software development organizations, methods and tools are employed that frequently lack sufficient evidence regarding their suitability, limits, qualities, costs, and associated risks. The need to select the best-suited method, technique or tool in a given business context is becoming more and more important. From a business perspective the trade-off between time-to-market, quality, and

The paediatric care of children with haemophilia in developed countries should focus on the health of the child, not on the disorder. Gene therapy offers the hope of an ultimate 'cure' for the disorder, but until this is a viable proposition, patients should be given more control over their treatment, and the focus should be on 'self-monitored and self-adjusted' prophylaxis. New instruments for me

The Euro50 is an extremely large telescope for optical and infrared wavelength with a 50 m primary mirror. It has a segmented, aspherical primary mirror and an aspherical, deformable secondary in a Gregorian layout. A tentative conceptual design exists and has been documented in a study report. Recent activities have concentrated on the science case for extremely large telescopes in the 50 m class

Ellipsometry was used to determine the adsorbed layer thickness (d) and the surface excess (adsorbed amount, Gamma) of a nonionic diblock copolymer, E106B16, of poly(ethylene oxide) (E) and poly(butylene oxide) (13) at the air-water interface. The results were obtained (i) by the conventional ellipsometric evaluation procedure using the change of both ellipsometric angles, T and A and (ii) by usin

Summary: Topical butyrate has been shown to be effective in the treatment of ulcerative colitis (UC). Butyrate is derived from colonic fermentation of dietary fiber, and our aim was to study whether UC patients could safely increase the fecal butyrate level by dietary means. We enrolled 22 patients with quiescent UC (mean age, 44 years; 45% women; median time from last relapse, 1 year) in a contro

Reduced fetal growth has been suggested as a possible risk factor for diabetic nephropathy. The aim of the present study was to examine whether there could be an association also with rapidly progressing severe retinopathy in younger type 1 diabetic patients. Maternal pregnancy, as well as birth parameters of 27 type 1 diabetic patients with severe retinopathy diagnosis at a median age of 25 years

Natural radiative lifetimes, measured by time-resolved laser-induced fluorescence spectroscopy, are reported for eighteen levels of neutral erbium belonging to the odd-parity 4f(12)6s6p, 4f(11)5d6s(2), 4f(11)5d(2)6s and 4f(11)5d6s7s configurations in the wavenumber range from 26 237 to 42 154 cm(-1). Free erbium atoms were produced in a laser-induced plasma. Stimulated Brillouin scattering (SBS) t