Objective. To develop a measure of renal activity in systemic lupus erythematosus and use it to develop a renal response index. Methods. Abstracted data from the medical records of 215 patients with lupus nephritis were sent to 8 nephrologists and 29 rheumatologists for rating. Seven nephrologists and 22 rheumatologists completed the ratings. Each physician rated each patient visit with respect to

The effects of temperature changes and polymer addition on the behavior of droplet microemulsions of nonionic surfactant, water, and decane are reported and analyzed within polymer depletion theory. Dilution viscometry and dynamic light scattering were used to confirm that these microemulsions behave essentially as hard-sphere dispersions, providing us with an ideal reference system. Addition of p

[1] A unified scheme to assign pollen samples to vegetation types was used to reconstruct vegetation patterns north of 55degreesN at the last glacial maximum (LGM) and mid-Holocene (6000 years B. P.). The pollen data set assembled for this purpose represents a comprehensive compilation based on the work of many projects and research groups. Five tundra types (cushion forb tundra, graminoid and for

To analyse the occurrence and host species distribution of campylobacteria species in shorebirds, geese and cattle on grazed coastal meadows in Sweden. Species identification was performed through a polyphasic approach, incorporating Amplified Fragment Length Polymorphism (AFLP) profiling, 16S RNA gene sequence analysis together with extensive phenotypic characterization. From 247 sampled birds a

Epidermal growth factor (EGF) is a mitogenic stimulus in many tissues and occurs in large amounts in the pancreas and salivary glands. Whether EGF is mitogenic in the pancreas is controversial, and the EGF effect has not been studied in the salivary glands. Therefore, the aim of the present study was to investigate the possible effects on the pancreas and parotid and submandibular glands at differ

The hydrochloride salts of 5-aminolevulinic acid (ALA) and its methyl ester (m-ALA), respectively, were dissolved in a lipid sponge phase comprising monoolein, propylene glycol and aqueous buffer at concentrations of approximately 0.25% and 16% w/w m-ALA. The iontophoretic and passive delivery of ALA and m-ALA from this formulation through porcine skin in vitro were measured and compared to formul

Objective: The precision of sound frequency discrimination in newborn infants in the 250-4000-Hz frequency range was determined using the neonatal electrophysiological mismatch response (MMR), the infant equivalent of adult mismatch negativity (MMN). Methods: The electroencephalogram (EEG) was recorded in I 1 full-term sleeping newborn infants mostly in active sleep (67 % of the time). Pure tones

A follow-up study was performed to investigate the stability of IQ measures in a group of dyslexic teenagers and young adults. Earlier research had shown contradictory results. The 65 subjects, 12 years old on the average at first test, were retested after a mean interval of six and a half years. There was a significant relative decrease in verbal IQ (VIQ), which was interpreted as either an effec

In this study, two numerical methods are used to predict the load-bearing capacity of multiple steel-timber dowel joints loaded parallel to the grain. The aim was to show the possibility and the advantages of using numerical methods when designing multiple dowel-type joints.The results showed a good correlation to experimental results taken from the literature and to traditional joint calculations

The only published VC data from the Ordovician of China are from the Lower and Upper Ordovician, and only the latter records include a significant excursion, namely the Hirnantian excursion (HICE). Our recent chemostratigraphic work on the Upper Ordovician (Sandbian-Katian) Pagoda and Yanwashan formations at several localities oil the Yangtze Platform and Chiangnan (Jiangnan) slope belt has result

The macroscopic-microscopic method to calculate nuclear masses is extended into the high-spin regime in order to calculate the nuclear binding energy as a function of proton number, neutron number and angular momentum. We describe the method and exemplify it on recent experimental data.

A wide divergence has been detected in the telomeric sequences among budding yeast species. Despite their length and homogeneity differences, all these yeast telomeric sequences show a conserved core which closely matches the consensus RAP1-binding sequence. We demonstrate that the RAP1 protein binds this sequence core, without involving the diverged sequences outside the core. in Saccharomyces ca

The major histocompatibility complex (MHC) genes are extremely polymorphic and this variation is assumed to be maintained by balancing selection. Cyclic interactions between pathogens and their hosts could generate such selection, and specific MHC alleles or heterozygosity at certain MHC loci have been shown to confer resistance against particular pathogens. Here we compare the temporal variation

This review gives an overview of the early development of transmetallation reactions for synthetic purposes and presents some recent results on the transmetallation reaction as a part of cross-coupling reactions and the mechanism of these reactions.

Biotite, muscovite and vermiculite were treated in HCl and H2SO4 solutions at pH ranging between 7 and 1. The solid residue was studied using Mossbauer spectroscopy at room temperature. The spectra of the untreated samples, D0Bio, D0Mus and DOVer were fitted assuming quadrupole splitting distribution, QSD. Different fitting models with different combinations of Gaussian components for the Fe sites

Heparin is widely used as an antithrombotic agent, but one reported complication is thrombocytopenia associated with platelet aggregation. The mechanism is not fully clear but heparin interference in the prostaglandin production has been proposed. To investigate if heparin interacts with the production of prostacyclin from the vessel wall, and if low-molecular-weight heparin differs from unfractio