The routine recommendation to women to count fetal movements daily during late pregnancy for the prevention of antepartum late fetal death in normally formed singletons has been evaluated. 68,000 women were randomly allocated within thirty-three pairs of clusters either to a policy of routine counting or to standard care, which might involve selective use of formal counting or informal noting of m

BACKGROUND. Today, intensive therapy that includes high-close melphalan with autologous stein cell transplantation (ASCT) is considered standard therapy in younger patients with newly diagnosed myeloma. When the current trial was initiated, combined vincristine, doxorubicin, and dexamethasone (VAD) was the most commonly used induction therapy before ASCT and yielded rapid major responses without i

In order to create a heme environment that permits biomimicry of heme-containing peroxidases, a number of new hemin–peptide complexes—hemin-2(18)-glycyl-l-histidine methyl ester (HGH), hemin-2(18)-glycyl-glycyl-l-histidine methyl ester (HGGH), and hemin-2,18-bis(glycyl-glycyl-l-histidine methyl ester) (H2GGH)—have been prepared by condensation of glycyl-l-histidine methyl ester or glycyl-glycyl-l-

Functions of biologically active molecules are frequently initiated by elementary chemical reactions such as energy and electron transfer, cis-trans isomerizations, and proton transfer. The nature of these reactions generally makes them very fast and efficient, occurring on picosecond and femtosecond timescales. Ultrafast spectroscopy has played an important role in the study of a number of biolog

This study presents a method to regenerate molecularly imprinted polymers (MIPs) used for the selective removal of endocrine disrupting compounds from aqueous effluents. Regeneration was based on solvent extraction under UV irradiation to regenerate the polymer and the solvent while destroying the contaminants. Acetone was selected as the best solvent for irradiation of estrone (E1), 17beta-estrad

Many industrial applications use flame impingement to obtain high heat-transfer rates. An analytical expression for the convective part of the heat transfer of a flame jet to a plate is derived. Therefore, the flame jet is approximated by a hot inert jet. In contradiction with existing convective heat-transfer relations, our analytical solution is applicable not only for large distances between the j

A simple N-country specific-factor-type model with imperfectly mobile labour is developed. It is shown that the effects of country-specific productivity shocks hitting a small country have fundamentally asymmetric effects: A positive shock will be accommodated by a moderate wage increase and sizeable in-migration, whereas a negative shock will be accommodated by a significant decrease in wages and

The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of ethanol exposure on the expression of fos and jun genes. Exposure of human neuroblastoma SH-SY5Y cells to ethanol for 2-4 days caused a dose-dependent increase in c-jun and junD mRNA levels, whereas mRNAs for c-fos, fosB and junB were not detectable in control or ethanol-treated cells. Four days of ethanol exposure also enhanced the AP-1 bindi

Background Ex vivo gene therapy in the central nervous system (CNS) holds great promise for diseases such as the neurodegenerative disorders. However, achieving stable, long-term transgene expression in grafted cells has proven problematic. This study reports the establishment of an in vitro model of transgene down-regulation in cells grafted to the CNS using the immortalized neural progenitor cel

Since many years we routinely use diagnostic selective nerve root blocks (SNRB) at our department when evaluating patients with cervical radiculopathy. Frequently patients who also presented with headache reported that the headache disappeared when the nerve root responsible for the radicular pain was blocked with local anaesthetics. Headache has been described as a companioning symptom related to

Many pathogens are equipped with factors providing resistance against the bactericidal action of complement. Yersinia enterocolitica, a Gram-negative enteric pathogen with invasive properties, efficiently resists the deleterious action of human complement. The major Y. enterocolitica serum resistance determinants include outer membrane proteins YadA and Ail. Lipopolysaccharide (LPS) O-antigen (O-a

Human complement regulators are important targets for pathogenic microorganisms. In one such interaction, Bordetella pertussis binds human C4b-binding protein (C4BP), a high-molecular-weight plasma protein that acts as inhibitor of the classical pathway of complement activation. At least two different B. pertussis surface components, one of which is the virulence factor filamentous hemagglutinin (

The activity and density of generalist predators, such as carabid beedes, rove beedes and spiders, may increase in response to: (1) increased availability of prey from the belowground subsystem and/ or (2) enhanced complexity of aboveground vegetation. Organic farming practices support decomposer populations and enhance habitat complexity due to an increased weed density. A response by generalist

Phosphatase activity of arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) fungi has attracted attention in three fairly distinct domains: intracellular enzymes with defined metabolic functions that have been studied in intraradical hyphae, histochemical staining of alkaline phosphatase as an indicator of fungal activity measured both intra- and extraradically, and extracellular activity related to mineralization of org