PURPOSE: To study midterm changes in aortic aneurysm morphology after endovascular aneurysm repair. METHODS: Of 94 patients with abdominal aortic aneurysms (AAAs) treated with endografts between November 1993 and August 1998, 84 were available for follow-up. Patients were evaluated preoperatively by spiral computed tomography (CT) and aortography; in follow-up, spiral CT scanning was performed at

From an ecological point of view it is important to close nutrient cycles by recirculating mineral nutrients from the urban society back to agriculture and forestry, and thereby obtaining a sustainable resource utilisation. A part of this cycle is illustrated by irrigation of bioreactor landfill leachates on short rotation forests. This paper presents a budget for nutrients and heavy metals, begin

The possible relation between stuttering and the basal ganglia is discussed. Important clues to the pathophysiology of stuttering are given by conditions known to alleviate dysfluency, like the rhythm effect, chorus speech, and singing. Information regarding pharmacologic trials, lesion studies, brain imaging, genetics, and developmental changes of the nervous system is reviewed. The symptoms of s

Achterbahn is one of the stream cipher proposals in the eSTREAM project. After the first version had been successfully cryptanalyzed, the second version, denoted Achterbahn-Version 2, was proposed. This paper demonstrates an attack on this second version. In the attack, a quadratic approximation of the output function is considered. The attack uses less keystream bits than the upper limit given by

Sixty-six randomly selected older adults and their contact nurses participated in interviews based on standardised assessments of pain and open-ended questions focusing how pain was expressed and recognised. The sample included older adults with normal as well as cognitively impaired function. Seventy-nine percent of older adults with normal cognition were often in pain. Contact nurses assessed pa

Cathelicidins are a family of antimicrobial proteins found in the peroxidase-negative granules of neutrophils. The known biologic functions reside in the C-terminus, which must be cleaved from the holoprotein to become active. Bovine and porcine cathelicidins are cleaved by elastase from the azurophil granules to yield the active antimicrobial peptides. The aim of this study was to identify the ph

The CC chemokine CCL25 (TECK) is selectively expressed in the thymus and small intestine, indicating a potential role in T lymphocyte development. In the present study we examined the role of CCL25 in the generation of the small-intestinal CD8alpha alpha(+)CD3(+) intraepithelial lymphocyte (IEL) compartment. CCL25 mRNA expression in the murine small intestine increased at three weeks of age and co

In this study 158 children, 80 children with diabetes mellitus and 78 healthy classmates, were interviewed about their concept of different types of illness (a cold, diabetes, infection, the most and least serious disease) and illness-related concepts (pain, becoming ill and going to the doctor or hospital). Special attention was given to the relationship between development of thinking and the va

An interference quenching of the m=1 final state vibrational line in the resonant Auger decay of N 1s-->pi(*) core-excited N-2 is observed and analyzed. The intensity ratio between the m=1 and m=0 vibrational levels of the X (2)Sigma(g)(+) final state shows a surprising nonmonotonic variation as a function of frequency detuning, going through a minimum with a complete suppression of m=1. We have d

Background The Euro Heart Survey showed that antithrombotic treatment in patients with atrial fibrillation (AF) was moderately tailored to the 2001 American College of Cardiology, American Heart Association, and European Society of Cardiology (ACC/AHA/ESC) guidelines for the management of AF. What consequences does guideline-deviant antithrombotic treatment have in daily practice? Methods In the E

Beam profile measurements of laser-wakefield accelerated electron bunches reveal that in the monoenergetic regime the electrons are injected and accelerated at the back of the first period of the plasma wave. With pulse durations c tau >=lambda(p), we observe an elliptical beam profile with the axis of the ellipse parallel to the axis of the laser polarization. This increase in divergence in the l

This paper presents a wavelet based event detector for cardiac pacemakers implemented in 0.35μm CMOS technology. The architecture is optimized by wordlength and strength reduction resulting in a total chip area of 2.2mm 2. Detector performance is studied by means of databases containing electrograms as well as different types of noise and interferences, which are added to the signals. The results

The aim of the study was to examine the changes in attitudes towards mental illness after theoretical education and clinical placement among students from university programmes preparing for different kinds of health professions. Three different questionnaires were used, measuring the level of familiarity with mental illness and attitudes towards mental illness in general and towards specific ment

Palaeomagnetic data from the 337 Ma Mageroy dykes (northern Norway) are of exceptionally high quality, and a positive contact test along with an existing regional result from the Silurian Honningsvag Igneous Suite attests to a primary Early Carboniferous magnetic signature. The palaeomagnetic pole (S 14.8degrees, E320.1degrees, dp/dm = 4.4/8.6degrees) is the first Early Carboniferous pole from Bal

Background: Upper esophageal sphincter resting tone is reduced during partial neuromuscular block, whereas contraction of the pharyngeal constrictor muscle is only slightly affected. We hypothesized that this difference may arise from differential nicotinic acetylcholine receptor (nAChR) density, the density supposedly being lower in the more sensitive cricopharyngeal muscle than in the resistant

CDK8 (cyclin-dependent kinase 8), along with CycC, Med12, and Med13, form a repressive module (the Cdk8 module) that prevents RNA polymerase II (pol II) interactions with Mediator. Here, we report that the ability of the Cdk8 module to prevent pol II interactions is independent of the Cdk8-dependent kinase activity. We use electron microscopy and single-particle reconstruction to demonstrate that