Context: Blood hemoglobin (Hb) declines with age in healthy elderly men, in whom decreasing testosterone has been regarded as part of normal ageing. However, the association between Hb and serum estradiol is incompletely known. Objective: To determine whether estradiol is associated with anemia/Hb and established determinants of Hb in elderly men without prostate cancer. Design, Setting and Partic

A capillary-induced phase separation (CIPS) can arise in a polymer solution enclosed between two walls, provided the solution is close to phase separation. Here the CIPS phenomenon is investigated in binary and quasi-binary polymer solutions by a mean-field lattice theory. A quasi-binary polymer solution represents a binary polymer solution with a polydisperse polymer. The CIPS involves a new phas

Background. Microembolism during cardiopulmonary bypass has been suggested as being the predominant cause of neurocognitive disorders after cardiac surgery. Shed blood, normally retransfused into the patient during cardiopulmonary bypass, is a major source of lipid microemboli in the brain capillaries. A newly developed technique based on acoustic standing-wave separation of particles in fluid in

The decay-out process of the yrast superdeformed band in Cu-59 has been investigated. The firm determination of spin, parity, excitation energy, and configuration of the states involved in this process constitutes a unique situation for a detailed understanding of the decay-out mechanism. A theoretical model is introduced that includes a residual interaction and tunneling matrix element between ba

Background Melanoma risk is related to sun exposure; we have investigated risk variation by tumour site and latitude. Methods We performed a pooled analysis of 15 case-control studies (5700 melanoma cases and 7216 controls), correlating patterns of sun exposure, sunburn and solar keratoses (three studies) with melanoma risk. Pooled odds ratios (pORs) and 95% Bayesian confidence intervals (CIs) wer

Methane and carbon dioxide emission from three constructed ponds were monitored during an annual cycle. Water temperature was a good predictor of methane emission in all three ponds. In the most intensively studied pond, nitrate concentration in the bottom water could further explain the amount of methane emitted. When water temperature exceeded 15 °C between 1 and 54 mg, CH4 m−2 h−1 was emitted o

Background., Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy is a common cause of sudden death in children. In this study, we aimed to identify clinical measures for stratification of this risk in childhood. Patients and methods: By means of a retrospective cohort study from six regional centres of paediatric cardiology, we identified 128 patients with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy presenting below 19 years of age, wit

Molecularly imprinted microspheres were prepared as antibody binding mimics and used in scintillation proximity assay of a beta-adrenergic antagonist, (S)-propranolol. By using small polymer beads, we were able to place an organic scintillator and an "antenna" component in close proximity to the imprinted binding sites. When the radioactive template bound to the polymer, radiation energy was effec

Autofluorescence is a nuisance in the field of fluorescence imaging and tomography of exogenous molecular markers in tissue, degrading the quality of the collected data. In this letter, we report autofluorescence insensitive imaging using highly efficient upconverting nanocrystals (NaYF4: Yb3+ /Tm3+) in a tissue phantom illuminated with near- infrared radiation of 85 mW/cm(2). It was found that im

Aim The intention with this study was first to investigate and describe the broad-scale geographical patterns of species richness of breeding shorebirds (Charadriiformes; families: Charadriidae, Scolopacidae and Haematopodidae) throughout the arctic tundra biome. Secondly, after compensating for the positive relationship between net primary productivity (NPP) and species richness, the relative imp

We report new occurrences of ca. 1460 Ma magmatism in western Lithuania, where large volumes of granitoid melts were intruded into host supracrustal and charnockitoid rocks, and formed the Zemaiciu Naumiestis pluton. Numerous granitoids of that age have previously been described from southern Sweden and from the Danish island of Bornholm, but none have been reported from the eastern side of the Ba

Despite declining incidence rates, gastric cancer (GC) is a major cause of death worldwide. E-Cadherin is an adhesion molecule that is thought to be involved in GC. Germline mutations in the E-Cadherin gene (CDH1) have been identified in hereditary diffuse GC. Also, a promoter polymorphism at position 160 C/A has been suggested to lead to transcriptional down regulation and has been shown to affec

Background Genetic engineering of the major birch pollen allergen (Bet v 1) has led to the generation of recombinant Bet v 1 derivatives with markedly reduced IgE-binding capacity, but with retained T cell activating ability. Objective To compare the mucosal reactivity to rBet v 1 derivatives with rBet v 1 wild-type as basis for new therapeutic strategies for birch pollen allergy based on mucosal

We present a blow-up criterion for the periodic Camassa-Holm equation. The condition obtained for blow-up uses two of the conservation laws associated with the equation and improves upon some recent results.

Citrate synthase (CS) is often used in chaperone assays since this thermosensitive enzyme aggregates at moderately increased temperatures. Small heat shock proteins (sHsps) are molecular chaperones specialized in preventing the aggregation of other proteins, termed substrate proteins, under conditions of transient heat stress. To investigate the mechanism whereby sHsps bind to and stabilize a subs

An air sampling method for the determination of isocyanates. aminoisocyanates and amines formed during the thermal degradation Of polyurethane (PUR) is presented. The method is based on the collection of air samples using impinger flasks containing di-n-butylamine (DBA) in toluene with a glass fibre filter in series. Isocyanates are derivatized with DBA to urea derivatives, and amines are derivati

Objective: Using Swedish nationwide registry data, the authors investigated genetic and environmental risk factors in the etiology of drug abuse by twin sibling modeling. The authors followed up with epidemiological analyses to identify shared environmental influences on drug abuse. Method: Drug abuse was defined using public medical, legal, or pharmacy records. Twin and sibling pairs were obtaine