We have calculated the electronic structure of InAs quantum dots embedded in InP as a function of size, using strain dependent eight-band k.p theory in the envelope function approximation. A realistic three-dimensional shape was used for the simulations and the piezoelectric polarization of the system was included. In order to avoid spurious solutions, an extra term was added to the Hamiltonian. P

A rapidly implemented qualitative study was conducted to investigate the perceptions of women about abortion in Egypt using in-depth interviews with hospitalised patients and focus group discussions with family planning clients and non-contracepting women. The most salient issue confronting the patients (whether the abortion had been spontaneous or induced) was their physical survival. The necessi

Spontaneous activation of rhodopsin without light absorption occurs at a much lower rate in rod photoreceptors and insect rhabdoms than in cones. The difference lies in the pigment molecules themselves, and has implications for the design of visual photoreceptors.

Nineteen pre-school children with language impairment participated in a computerized naming task. The naming procedure involved two conditions, one unprimed where the child had to name a colour picture appearing on the screen as fast as possible and one primed where the picture was preceded by an uncompleted sentence. Response times were significantly shorter in the primed condition compared to th

Some fungal species have been listed as a problem causing fungi in indoor air and most of this group are known to produce mycotoxins. So far, mycotoxins have been found in building materials and in samples representing settled indoor air dust, as well in air samples from industrial or agricultural environments. The present paper presents the results of a mycological study and mycotoxin analyses of

AIM: We aimed to find out if abnormal left atrioventricular plane displacement (AVPD) is a sign of myocardial dysfunction, even in patients with normal left ventricular (LV) regional wall motion (RWM). METHODS: We prospectively performed echocardiography in 1350 consecutive patients referred to our echocardiography laboratory. Left AVPD and LV RWM were evaluated in all patients. We prospectively s

We discuss an experimental investigation of Raman scattering spectroscopy in the vicinity of a simulated reacting liquid fuel spray. Spray flames are known to produce interference from droplet elastic scattering, laser-induced fluorescence, and laser-induced incandescence of soot. The goal in this work is to evaluate various experimental approaches to this challenging problem. We evaluate Raman sc

A new, fast, and automated sample pretreatment technique for determination of lipophilic organic compounds in aqueous samples has been developed and applied to the determination of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) in environmental river water. It is based on miniaturized microporous membrane liquid-liquid extraction coupled on-line to gas chromatography (GC) with electron capture detection. The he

Abstract not available

Traditional explanations for the negative fitness consequences of parasitism have focused on the direct pathogenic effects of infectious agents. However, because of the high selection pressure by the parasites, immune defences are likely to be costly and trade off with other fitness-related traits, such as reproductive effort. In a field experiment, we immunized breeding female flycatchers with no

The wavelength is an important quantity in a number of ocean-engineering applications, e.g. for design of structures that have dimensions of the same order of magnitude as the wavelength. Most often however, the description of the wave climate is given by a spectrum. We present a methodology based on a representation of a sea state in the frequency domain which returns the joint distribution of cr

High blood concentrations of beta-carotene (BC) and alpha-tocopherol (AT) are markers of lower risk of cancer and cardiovascular disease. However, it is not clear how well they serve as markers of, food consumption in a general population setting, in a country with a traditionally low vegetable consumption, or if they work equally well in smokers and non-smokers. We performed a cross-sectional stu

Bose-Einstein correlations of identically charged pion pairs were measured by the PHENIX experiment at midrapidity in Au+Au collisions at roots(NN)=200 GeV. The Bertsch-Pratt radius parameters were determined as a function of the transverse momentum of the pair and as a function of the centrality of the collision. Using the standard core-halo partial Coulomb fits, and a new parametrization which c

ObjectiveTo investigate if caesarean section (CS) increases the risk for childhood asthma and gastroenteritis with reference made to children born with vaginal delivery (VD). MethodsRetrospective study of data from linked Swedish medical service registers - Medical Birth Registry (MBR) and Hospital Discharge Registry (HDR). Data were obtained from women without any background/perinatal morbidity

Aim Climate is an important determinant of species distributions. We assess different aspects of risk arising from future climate change by quantifying changes in the spatial distribution of future climatic conditions compared with the recent past. Location Europe. Methods A 10' x 10' resolution gridded data set of five climate variables was used to calculate expected changes to the area, distance

The decay of core-excited electronic states in free 1,3 trans butadiene molecules has been studied using high-resolution synchrotron radiation and electron spectrometry. The core-level energy shift between the terminal and central carbon atoms is 0.64 eV making selective excitation of core electrons from these atoms possible. Resonant excitation to the au(*) valence state leads to autoionizing dec