Urbanisation leads to increased thermal stress in hot-humid climates due to increased surface and air temperatures and reduced wind speed. We examined the influence of urban morphology and sea breeze on the microclimate of Colombo, Sri Lanka. Air and surface temperatures, humidity and wind speed were measured at 1 rural and 5 urban sites during the warmest season. The urban sites differed in their

The effect of two isoforms of platelet-derived growth factor (PDGF), PDGF-AA and PDGF-BB, was tested on dissociated cell cultures of ventral mesencephalon from rat and human embryos. PDGF-BB but not PDGF-AA reduced the progressive loss of tyrosine hydroxylase- (TH)-positive neurons in rat and human cell cultures. The mean number of TH-positive cells in the PDGF-BB-treated rat culture was 64% and 1

[1] Mires are key landscape elements at high latitudes and have certainly accumulated carbon during the Holocene, but their current carbon balance at the present time is very unclear. The major carbon flux is the land-atmosphere CO2 exchange and full-year data are still limited. Here we present data from 3 a (2001-2003) of continuous Eddy Covariance measurements at Degero Stormyr (64 degrees 11'N,

Genes involved in sex hormone pathways are candidates for influencing bone strength. Polymorphisms in these genes were tested for association with heel quantitative ultrasound (QUS) parameters in middle-aged and elderly European men. Men 40-79 yr of age were recruited from population registers in eight European centers for the European Male Aging Study (EMAS). Polymorphisms were genotyped in AR, E

Background: It is highly important in nursing care for persons with stroke to screen for, assess and manage eating difficulties. The impact on eating after stroke can be of different types, comprising dysphagia as well as eating difficulties in a larger perspective. Eating difficulties can cause complications such as malnutrition, dehydration, aspiration, suffocation, pneumonia and death. There is

A three-dimensional model for stiffness and hygroexpansion of fiber and particle composite materials is presented. The model is divided into two steps, first a homogenization of a single fiber with a coating representing the matrix material, then a network mechanics modeling of the assembly of coated fibers that constitutes the composite material. The network modeling is made by a fiber orientatio

Migrating birds often alternate between flight steps, when distance is covered and energy consumed, and stopover periods, when energy reserves are restored. An alternative strategy is fly-and-forage migration, useful mainly for birds that hunt or locate their prey in flight, and thus, enables birds to combine foraging with covering migration distance. The favourability of this strategy in comparis

Objective: To investigate whether intermittent short-term courses of penicillin V (PcV) administered as intermittent prophylaxis against acute otitis media (AOM) during upper respiratory tract infections altered the nasopharyngeal bacterial. flora and/or its susceptibility to penicillin. Methods: In a double blind, placebo controlled study 70 children (30 in the PcV group and 40 in the placebo gro

OBJECTIVE: We wanted to determine whether the long-term bone marrow culture (LTBMC) transduction system would lead to efficient gene transfer and engraftment of murine repopulating hematopoietic stem cells (HSC), particularly in nonablated recipients. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Congenic mouse strains expressing Ly 5.1 or Ly 5.2 and the GP+E86 cell line producing the MGirL22Y vector carrying the gene f

Feeding, reproduction and accumulation of cyanobacterial toxins by the calanoid copepods Acartia bifilosa and Eurytemora affinis were studied during a cruise in the northern Baltic Sea. The experiments were carried out using both mixtures of natural plankton communities, mixtures containing the toxic Nodularia spumigena, and diets containing only the toxic cyanobacterium. Both copepod species had

A Holocene calcareous tufa deposit in the Fyledalen Valley in southern Sweden was investigated with respect to molluscs, pollen, plant macrofossils and Coleoptera remains. The investigation recovered four mollusc species that today are severely threatened and included in the Swedish Red List of Endangered Species and/or the European Community's Natura 2000 programme. These include Vertigo genesii

Identical in situ dust detectors are flown on board the Galileo and Ulysses spacecraft. They record impacts of micrometeoroids in the ecliptic plane at heliocentric distances from 0.7 to 5.4 AU and in a plane almost perpendicular to the ecliptic from -79 deg to +79 deg ecliptic latitude. The combination of both Ulysses and Galileo measurements yields information about the radial and latitudinal di

Large clinical studies describing the typical clinical presentation of diabetic foot ulcers are limited and most studies were performed in single centres with the possibility of selection of specific subgroups. The aim of this study was to investigate the characteristics of diabetic patients with a foot ulcer in 14 European hospitals in ten countries. The study population included 1,229 consecutiv

Detailed studies of organisms' life cycles are important for understanding population response to climate change. However, in general one cannot make strong inference about the overall population response from such studies, unless the full annual cycle of the species in question is covered. Here, we present a theoretical framework for the understanding of population response to climate change. Owi

Remote fluorescence imaging of fungal growth on polymeric high-voltage insulators was performed using a mobile lidar system with a laser wavelength of 355 nm. Insulator areas contaminated by fungal growth could be distinguished from clean surfaces and readily be imaged. The experiments were supported by detailed spectral studies performed in laboratory using a fibre-optic fluorosensor incorporatin

The polyamines putrescine, spermidine and spermine, are ubiquitous intracellular metabolites associated with growth and protein synthesis. In this study effects of polyamine synthesis inhibition on bladder growth, polyamine levels and mechanical properties were investigated in rat urinary bladder subjected to partial outflow obstruction that causes bladder hypertrophy. The S-adenosyl methionine de

Background: The role of prophylactic factor VIII (FVIII) to decrease hemophilic bleeding and arthropathy is well established. The rationale for this strategy is to convert patients with severe hemophilia A to a moderate clinical phenotype by reducing time spent with a FVIII level < 1 IU dL(-1). Studies to date, however, have not demonstrated a strong link between FVIII level and the bleeding rate.

OBJECTIVE: To study the seroprevalence of Helicobacter pylori (H. pylori) infection in patients with primary Sjogren's syndrome (SS), fulfilling the 1993 European classification criteria compared with three different control groups. METHODS: Serological tests investigating the presence of antibodies against H. pylori were performed by Enzyme Immuno Assay (EIA) and confirmed by immunoblot (IB). The