The bone mineral content (BMC) was determined by dual photon X-ray absorptiometry prior to hip replacement in 22 patients with rheumatoid arthritis and 31 with arthrosis. Compared with the arthrosis patients, the rheumatoids had approximately 20 percent lower bone mineral content in the proximal femur, the lumbar spine, and in the innominate bone superior to the acetabulum.

Albatrosses are known for their extreme navigation performance enabling them to locate isolated breeding islands after long-distance migrations across open seas. Little is known about the migration of young albatrosses and how they reach the adults' navigation and foraging skills during the period of immaturity lasting several years and spent permanently flying across the open ocean. We tracked by

The effect of enhanced UV-B radiation on buckwheat (Fagopyrum esculentum Moench. variety ‘Darja’), an important high elevation crop, was studied in order to estimate its vulnerability in changing UV-B environment. Plants were grown in outdoor experiments from July to October under reduced and ambient UV-B levels, and an UV-B level simulating 17% ozone depletion in Ljubljana. During the development

In this prospective study, 25 consecutive patients with untreated primary hypothyroidism were tested with a highly sensitive perimetric technique, since a high prevalence of visual field defects has been described in this condition. All patients had clinical hypothyroidism, a serum TSH value greater than 20 mU/l (reference range 0.4-4.0) and decreased/low normal serum total T4 concentration. Visua

The idea of the Gesamtkunstwerk and the belief in the kinship of the arts were passed on from late romanticism to many of the modernist movements in the first decades of the twentieth century. Thus artists and film-makers wished to accomplish a fusion that transferred the achievements of non-figurative art to the new film medium, swayed by the constraints of realist story-telling. But abstract fil

We consider a family of differential equations that describes traveling waves in a reaction-diffusion equation modeling oxidation of carbon oxide on a platinum surface, near the onset of spatio-temporal chaos. The organizing bifurcation for the bifurcation structure with small carbon oxide pressures, turns out to be a codimension 3 bifurcation involving a homoclinic orbit to an equilibrium undergo

The controlling mechanisms and feedbacks between climate, the carbon and water cycling and vegetation in European ecosystems have attracted much attention in recent years but they are still not sufficiently understood. A better understanding of them is necessary to predict how they will be affected by climate change. Process-based models of ecosystem structure and functioning provide a tool to s

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The decline in perinatal mortality in a Swedish county during a six year period is examined and analyzed by use of perinatal audit. The decline coincided with an increased rate of in utero transfers of infants, particularly those with low birth weights, to the specialized county hospital. The perinatal audit revealed that the proportion of deaths which were classified as potentially avoidable, dec

Capsaicin is used to investigate the role of peripheral sensory nerve fibers. In previous studies of rats treated by injection of capsaicin into the skin of the neck, 'spontaneous' lesions in the head and neck region were observed. In this study, the course of development over time, the regional distribution and the innervation of capsaicin-induced dermal lesions were assessed in young male Spragu

The Social Services Acts’ Value System – An Analyze of its Practical Meaning in Social Investigations on Children This article discusses the relation between legal and practical norms, on the basis of a model over the norms main components. The focus is on the norms value component, and the question is how the value of a legal norm is implemented in that practice which the norm is aimed to regula

Field investigations were performed in semiarid Tunisia to investigate spatial variability of preferential pathways in catchment- and plot-scales. A rainfall simulator with dye was used to simulate effects of a 20-year rainstorm. After infiltration into six one-meter square plots, vertical 2.5-cm thick soil sections were excavated, and dye penetrations were photographed, The results show that diff

BACKGROUND: The major factors individually reported to be associated with an increased frequency of CDKN2A mutations are increased number of patients with melanoma in a family, early age at melanoma diagnosis, and family members with multiple primary melanomas (MPM) or pancreatic cancer. METHODS: These four features were examined in 385 families with > or =3 patients with melanoma pooled by 17 Gen

The interactions of sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS) with chemically cross-linked gels of ethyl(hydroxyethyl) cellulose (EHEC) were studied. Above the so-called critical association concentration (cac), binding of SDS gives rise to an increased swelling of the EHEC gels. The binding of SDS to the gels was measured with flame emission analysis of the sodium ion. The self-diffusion of the surfactant ion

OBJECTIVE: To study the stent/vessel interaction and distensibility following the natural increase in vascular diameter using self-expanding and balloon-expanded stents. DESIGN: Open experimental study. SETTING: Animal laboratory, university hospital. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Eight Palmaz (P) and eight Gianturco (G) stents were transluminally placed in the infrarenal aortas of 16 pigs. Pulsatile dia

A new method for extracting respiratory signals from the ECG/VCG is presented. The method is based on the alignment of an observed VCG loop to a reference loop with respect to the transformations of rotation and time synchronisation. The resulting series of estimated rotation angles reflects respiratory-induced changes in the electrical axis of the heart. The respiratory frequency is estimated by