The reactive vascular-injuring amino acid homocysteine was measured in plasma samples from 79 well-characterized type 1 diabetic patients and 46 control subjects. Patients with proliferative retinopathy had higher homocysteine levels (15.0 +/- 6.3 mumols l-1; mean +/- SD, p less than 0.001; n = 42) than those with progressive retinopathy during a two-year period (10.4 +/- 1.6 mumols l-1; n = 12),

The colorimetric 3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyl tetrazolium bromide (MTT) assay was standardized for direct detection of rifampin-resistant Mycobacterium tuberculosis in sputum samples. The sensitivity and specificity of the direct MTT assay matched those of the standard indirect susceptibility assay on 7H10 medium, and interpretable results were obtained for 98.5% of the samples within

Renal cell carcinoma (RCC) is the most prevalent cancer of the kidney. In human RCC cells, we recently showed that insulin-like growth factor I (IGF-I) has growth-promoting effects regulated by IGF-binding protein 3 (IGFBP-3). In this study, the analysis was expanded to include the interaction between the IGF and transforming growth factor-beta (TGF-beta) systems in the human RCC cells Caki-2 (fro

The aim of this report is to study how the authorities in twelve Swedish municipalities consider social vulnerability in disasters. The study is based on telephone interviews with ten officials responsible for safety and risk analysis and with ten officials responsible for social and psychological support after disasters. Three group interviews about the support for affected citizens after the sto

Moments of the hadronic invariant mass and of the lepton energy spectra in semileptonic B decays have been determined with the data recorded by the DELPHI detector at LEP. From measurements of the inclusive b-hadron semileptonic decays, and imposing constraints from other measurements on b- and c-quark masses, the first three moments of the lepton energy distribution and of the hadronic mass distr

A search for pair-produced charged Higgs bosons was performed in the high energy data collected by the DELPHI detector at LEP II at centre-of-mass energies from 189 GeV to 202 GeV. The three different final states, taunutaunu, c (s) over bar(c) over bars and c (s) over bar taunu were considered. New methods were applied to reject wrong hadronic jet pairings and for the tau identification, where a

High-spin states in Kr-78 were studied using the Ni-58(Na-23,3p) reaction at 70 MeV and the Ni-58(Si-23,alpha 4p) reaction at 130 MeV. Prompt gamma-gamma coincidences were measured using the Pitt-FSU detector array and the GAMMASPHERE-MICROBALL array. Results from these experiments have led to 26 new excitation levels, some of which have been grouped into 3 new bands. Spins were assigned based on

The effect of the non-ionic contrast medium iohexol (Omnipaque) on renal function was investigated in diabetic patients with signs of peripheral ischaemia. Forty-six patients, 70 +/- 11 years (mean +/- SD) old, age at diabetes diagnosis 53 +/- 17 years, and with varying degrees of diabetic nephropathy were studied before 1, 2, and 30 days after aortobifemoral arteriography. Serum creatinine, creat

Culture filtrates of the nematophagous fungi Verticillium chlamydosporium and V. suchlasporium growing on colloidal chitin showed increasing chitinolytic activity and production of two (32- and 43-kDa) main proteins. Maximum activity was found 18-20 days after inoculation, but V. suchlasporium always displayed higher activity. Zymography of such filtrates on carboxymethyl-chitin-Remazol brilliant

Using angle-dependent photoemission spectra of core and valence levels we show that metallic, single crystal K3C60 is terminated by an insulating or weakly-conducting surface layer. We attribute this to the effects of strong intermolecular correlations combined with the average surface charge state. Several controversies on the electronic structure are thereby resolved.

High-resolution spectra of the chemically peculiar HgMn stars chi Lupiand HR 7775, obtained with the Hubble Space Telescope/Goddard HighResolution Spectrograph, are investigated for their abundance of bismuthby comparison with LTE synthetic spectrum modeling. HR 7775, previouslyknown from International Ultraviolet Explorer spectra to display stronglines of Bi II, is determined to have bismuth pres