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

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

Mould problems in buildings have become a growing concern during the past decades. The growth of mould fungi indoors deteriorates air quality, influences human health and causes economical losses. Preventing mould growth from occurring is a more cost effective option than cleaning and renovation of buildings with mould problems. Mould growth will occur in buildings when there are moisture problem

We consider the problem of computing a minimum weight pseudo-triangulation of a set S of n points in the plane. We first present an O(n log n)-time algorithm that produces a pseudo-triangulation of weight O(log n - wt(M(S))) which is shown to be asymptotically worst-case optimal, i.e., there exists a point set S for which every pseudo-triangulation has weight 0 (log n - wt(M(S))), where wt(.M(S))

Background: In a microarray experiment the difference in expression between genes on the same slide is up to 103 fold or more. At low expression, even a small error in the estimate will have great influence on the final test and reference ratios. In addition to the true spot intensity the scanned signal consists of different kinds of noise referred to as background. In order to assess the true spo

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The reactions (Ni(Ar, alpha2p)Mo)-Ni-58-Ar-36-Mo-88 and (Ni(Ar, 4p)Mo)-Ni-58-Ar-36-Mo-90 at 149 and 140 MeV beam energies have been used to carry out Doppler shift attenuation and recoil distance lifetime measurements and to determine DCO ratios in Mo-88 and Mo-90. A singles angular distribution experiment using the reaction (Ni(Cl, 3p)Mo)-Ni-59-Cl-35-Mo-90 has been performed at 120 MeV beam energ

The antibody response to the envelope proteins of hepatitis C virus (HCV) may play an important role in controlling the infection. To allow molecular analyses of protective antibodies, we isolated human monoclonal antibodies to the E2 envelope glycoprotein of HCV from a combinatorial Fab library established from bone marrow of a chronically HCV-infected patient. Anti-E2 reactive clones were select

We show that random pair densities that can arise from a many-body wavefunction have a distinct distribution of their eigenvalues, when interpreted as a kernel of an integral operator. This gives a probabilistic condition for pair densities as well as two-particle density matrices to be obtainable from a wavefunction. The condition depends on the number of particles in the system.

Objectives. Polyarteritis nodosa (PAN) is a term that has been used to describe a wide variety of vasculitic conditions. In 1994, the Chapel Hill Consensus Conference on the nomenclature of systemic vasculitides proposed that the name classical PAN should be restricted to diseases where there is arteritis in small and medium-sized arteries without the involvement of smaller vessels. Our aim was to

Genetic engineering has been used for fusion of the peptide tag, Trp-Pro-Trp-Pro, on a protein to study the effect on partitioning in aqueous two-phase systems. As target protein for the fusions the cellulase, endoglucanase I (endo-1,4-β-d-glucan-4-glucanohydrolase, EC 3.2.1.4, EGI, Cel7B) of Trichoderma reesei was used. For the first time a glycosylated two-domain enzyme has been utilized for add

In polyandrous insects, postcopulatory sexual selection is a pervasive evolutionary force favouring male and female traits that allow control of offspring paternity. Males may influence paternity through adaptations for sperm competition, and females through adaptations facilitating cryptic female choice. Yet, the mechanisms are often complex, involving behaviour, physiology or morphology, and the

The effect of microbial desulfurization of two different low-sulfur coals by the thermophilic archaebacteria Acidianus brierleyi was studied with respect to the following properties of the coal: porosity, surface area, pore diameter, particle size, heating value, proximate and ultimate analyses as well as ash composition. About 35-40 percent of the sulfur was oxidized microbially. The microbial tr

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