BACKGROUND: Working as a hairdresser involves exposure to a variety of chemical agents. AIMS: To estimate the risk of such exposure in relation to reproductive outcome. METHODS: A cohort of hairdressers, certified in Sweden from 1970 onwards, and a referent cohort of women from the general population were established and linked to the Swedish Medical Birth Register for the period 1973 to 1994. In

A knowledge of the distribution of the attenuation coefficient is generally required for a successful correction of attenuation in nonhomogeneous regions. This can be accomplished by performing transmission measurement with either parallel or fan-bean collimation. The Monte Carlo method makes it possible to fully evaluate the results of such a correction. This study shows results from such simulat

The motion of atoms on interatomic potential energy surfaces is fundamental to the dynamics of liquids and solids. An accelerator-based source of femtosecond x-ray pulses allowed us to follow directly atomic displacements on an optically modified energy landscape, leading eventually to the transition from crystalline solid to disordered liquid. We show that, to first order in time, the dynamics ar

The tissue distribution and some properties of human alpha-mannosidase (alpha-D-mannoside mannohydrolase EC 3.2.1.24) have been studied. The acidic forms of the enzyme were fairly stable, whereas the neutral forms easily lost enzymic activity. The acidic forms were sensitive to neuraminidase but the neutral forms were unaffected. The experiments indicate that the acidic components are closely rela

Control loops that are closed over a communication network get more and more common. A problem with such systems is that the transfer delays will be varying with different characteristics depending on the network hardware and software. The network delays are typically varying due to varying network load, scheduling policies in the network and the nodes, and due to network failures. Two network mod

Dynamic fracture experiments on crack initiation and crack growth in single edge bend specimens are performed. The impact velocity is in the range of 14 to 50 m/s and the specimen size is 320 x 75 mm with a thickness varying from 18 to 40 mm. The experiments are recorded by high speed photography. Two different steel qualities are investigated and their constitutive characterisation are obtained f

Popular Abstract in Swedish Åderförfettning (även kallat åderförkalkning eller ateroskleros) börjar genom att det ?onda kolesterolet? LDL fastnar i väggen på ett blodkärl. Där kan LDL börja modifieras och orsaka inflammation. Inflammationen påskyndas av att vita blodceller kommer in i artärväggen och försöker ta bort fettet. Om en stor mängd fett lagras in, kan det inte avlägsnas. Tillsammans med Atherosclerosis is a chronic inflammatory disease, characterized by the accumulation of lipids and fibrous tissue in the wall of medium and large-sized arteries. The characteristic culprit of the disease is the atheroma, or atherosclerotic plaque, a patchy thickening of the arterial wall which affects the lumen, inducing various degrees of stenosis. The rupture of the atherosclerotic plaques, foll

Personality, mental distress, and risk perception were assessed in (a) cases of multiple chemical sensitivity (MCS; n = 17), (b) chemically intolerant toxic encephalopathy cases (TE), type 2A (n = 31) and 2B (n = 26), and (c) healthy referents (n = 200). MCS cases showed elevated mental distress scores on the Depression, Interpersonal Sensitivity, Global Severity Index, and Somatization scales in

The research in the Department of Physical Chemistry 1 at Lund University includes topics such as surfactant self-assembly; polymers, solutions, gels and phase behavior, polymer-surfactant systems; protein and protein-amphiphile systems; adsorption and surface forces; experimental methodology in colloid science; and theory and modeling. (Annual Report (2004) Physical Chemistry 1; Lund University;

This thesis consists of two parts. The first part is devoted to automatic shape analysis and the second part is devoted to decision support systems in medical imaging. Shape models are widely used in segmentation and shape analysis. The thesis begins with a review of deformable models and the preliminaries of shape modelling. The criteria for Minimum Description Length (MDL) and a new optimization

A reduction method is proposed for analysing structure-acoustic and poroelastic-acoustic problems within a finite element framework. This includes systems consisting of an acoustic fluid domain coupled to a flexible structural domain and/or a porous sound absorbing material domain. The studied problem is reduced by dividing the system into a number of physical subdomains. A set of basis vectors is

A new technique for treating anion exchangers has been proposed allowing direct capture of the fermentation product, shikimic acid directly from the cell-containing fermentation broth. A layer of hydrophilic polymer, poly(acrylic acid) (PAA) has been physically adsorbed on the anion exchanger followed by a covalent cross-linking of PAA. The PAA layer is penetrable for small molecules despite being

Abstract is not available

The interaction between a nanopatterned polymer brush and a rigid pyramidal body representing an AFM tip has been investigated using molecular dynamics ( MD) simulation. The computed forces for varying position and penetration depth are systematically contrasted with the density and pressure tensor profiles of the unperturbed brush. For weak penetration of the AFM tip in the brush, we find that th

The haemostatic effect of by-passing agents such as activated prothrombin complex concentrates (aPCC) and recombinant factor VIIa is inadequate in some patients with severe haemophilia and high-responding inhibitors. Theoretically, this could be due to antibody reactivity to procoagulant proteins other than the deficient factor. To evaluate this hypothesis, immunoglobulin (Ig) fractions from six m

OBJECTIVE: Periodontal ligament (PDL) cells express oestrogen receptor beta (ERbeta) protein, but cellular functions regulated by ERbeta in these cells have not been identified. In this study we determine if ERbeta is localised to mitochondria and if oestrogen regulates mitochondrial function in human PDL cells obtained from teeth extracted for orthodontic reasons. DESIGN: Subcellular distribution

Our knowledge of neuroprotective factors important for the adult enteric nervous system is poor. Changes in expression of vasoactive intestinal peptide (VIP) and pituitary adenylate cyclase-activating peptide (PACAP) in enteric neurons in response to neuronal injury or colchicine treatment, as well as in intestinal adaptation, have been described. Cultured myenteric neurons increase their expressi