OBJECTIVE--To investigate whether a lack of glutathione-S-transferase mu (GSTM1) activity was related to an increased risk for adverse outcome after asbestos exposure. METHODS--A study was made of 78 male former asbestos cement workers, with retrospective cohort data on exposure, radiographical findings, and lung function. Venous blood samples were obtained for the analysis of GSTM1 polymorphism b

Recent progress shows that neurons suitable for transplantation can be generated from stem cells in culture, and that the adult brain produces new neurons from its own stem cells in response to injury. These findings raise hope for the development of stem cell therapies in human neurodegenerative disorders. Before clinical trials are initiated, we need to know much more about how to control stem c

The problem of constructing generalized point interactions of the second derivative operator in L-2( R) leading to the same scattering data as for reflectionless potentials is considered. It is proved that this problem has a solution only if extensions in Pontryagin spaces are involved. The solution of the inverse scattering problem is not unique, this is illustrated by considering the scattering

In this paper we demonstrate a fast correlation attack on the recently proposed stream cipher LILI-128. The attack has complexity around 2(71) bit operations assuming a received sequence of length around 2(30) bits and a precomputation phase of complexity 2(79) table lookups. This complexity is significantly lower than 2(112), which was conjectured by the inventors of LILI-128 to be a lower bound

Based on a literature review and the SSG experience, the most important prognostic factors in high-grade osteosarcoma appear to be the presence of detectable metastases at diagnosis, tumour volume, old age, sex, histologic response, and possibly tumoral P-glycoprotein expression. However, for an adolescent patient with non-metastatic extremity disease, there is no consensus regarding prognostic fa

Gel electrolytes were prepared by swelling a self-assembling ABA triblock copolymer with different amounts of a solution of I M lithium bis(trifluoromethylsulfonyl)imide salt in gamma-butyrolactone. The triblock copolymer had endblocks of polyethylene (PE) and midblocks of poly(ethylene oxide-co-propylene oxide) (PEOPO), where the former blocks constituted 10 wt% of the copolymer. Thus, the electr

It was recently proposed to use variational functionals based on many-body perturbation theory for the calculation of the total energies of many-electron systems. The accuracy of such functionals depends on the degree of sophistication of the underlying perturbation expansions. An older such functional and a recently constructed functional, both at the level of the GW approximation (GWA), were tes

The article discusses the usefulness of the concept of North Eastern Europe. It was developed as a cognitive instrument in order for historical analysis to focus on social structures and processes rather than on states. Swedish historical consciousness is linked to the history of the seventeenth century, not least thanks to the historical novels by Peter Englund, Sweden of those times was a multin

gamma -Carboxylated proteins were detected in normal human pancreas by immunohistochemistry with a monoclonal antibody (M3B) specific for gamma -carboxyglutamyl residues, Staining appeared to be localized to the glucagon-secreting alpha -cells in the islets of Langerhans, Consistent with this, sections from a glucagonoma were stained much more intensely with the M3B antibody than those from an ins

We introduce a new notion of independence based on the Borel-Cantelli lemma. We study this characteristic in the context of i.i.d. stochastic processes and processes driven by equilibrium dynamics.

OBJECTIVES: to evaluate the long-term results of stenting in iliac and aortic occlusive disease and identify factors predicting clinical outcome. Design: retrospective study. MATERIALS AND METHODS: 82 patients (87 limbs) with stenoses (n =63) and occlusions (n =24) in the aortoiliac segment were treated with stents. 81 lesions involved the iliac arteries, 3 the infrarenal aorta and 3 the aortic bi

Egg and clutch size variation among populations of common frogs (Rana temporaria) were studied in 14 ponds in Sweden. Also two secondary indices, clutch mass and allocation tactics (egg size3/clutch size) were studied. For all four characters there was a pond-wise correlation between the values across the two study years. All characters differed among ponds and all but allocation tactics differed

Electrochromic devices have the ability to produce reversible and persistent changes of their optical properties. The phenomenon is associated with joint ion and electron transport into/out of an electrochromic thin film, in most cases being a transition metal oxide. This paper outlines the various applications of such devices in smart windows suitable for energy-conscious architecture, in variabl