PURPOSE: Vagus nerve stimulation (VNS) is a neurophysiologic treatment for patients with refractory epilepsy. There is growing evidence of additional quality of life (QOL) benefits of VNS. We report the effects of VNS on seizure frequency and severity and how these changes are related to cognitive abilities, QOL, behaviour and mood in 15 children with medically refractory and for surgery not eligi

Background: Men with chronic renal failure evaluated for transplantation are often tested for prostate specific antigen (PSA) to detect prostate cancer. PSA occurs in several different molecular forms in serum: free PSA (fPSA) and complexed PSA (cPSA), the sum of which corresponds to total PSA (tPSA). In addition to tPSA, percent fPSA to tPSA (%fPSA) is widely used to enhance discrimination of ben

Surface exposed cysteines were genetically engineered in the structure of recombinant horseradish peroxidase (rHRP). Recombinant forms of HRP with either a His-tag or a Strep-tag at the C-terminus were produced, which additionally had cysteines at positions 57, 189 or 309 (C-terminus) of the polypeptide chain. An E coli expression system was exploited. The effect of these mutations on the direct e

In this thesis Word of Life (Slovo zivota) in the Czech Republic is studied from a sociological perspective with a special focus on the Swedish influence, especially the teachings of Ulf Ekman, on the Czech Word of Life-congregations. Another purpose is to examine if there also is space for domestic interpretations of the theology of the faith-movement and if there is any integration with Czech re

PURPOSE: It has been suggested that abdominal aortic aneurysms (AAA) develop as a result of an alteration in the systemic connective tissue metabolism. This might change wall mechanics and diameter, not only in the AAA but also in the rest of the vascular system. This hypothesis was tested by studying the mechanical properties of AAAs as well as the common carotid artery (CCA) in the same patient

Crosslinking of small heat-shock proteins (sHsps) by tissue transglutaminase (tTG) is enhanced by stress and under pathological conditions. We here used hexapeptide probes to determine the amine donor (K) and acceptor (Q) sites for tTG in Hsp20. Mass spectrometric peptide mass fingerprinting and peptide fragmentation established that Q(31) and the C-terminal K-162 are involved in inter- and intram

Chlordane was used as an insecticide for half a century until its withdrawal from the world market in 1997. Trans- and cis-chlordane (TC, CC) are racemic in the technical product, but undergo enantio selective degradation in soil to leave nonracemic residues. In most cases, the (+) enantiomer of TC and the (-) enantiomer of CC are depleted, leading to enantiomer fractions, EF = (+)/[(+) + (-)], th

This study of 36 rats with rat colon adenocarcinoma transplants was carried out to investigate the efficacy of a new method of whole blood immunoadsorption (WBIA) in removing biotinylated monoclonal antibodies (MAbs) directly from unseparated blood, in order to increase 'the tumor/normal-tissue uptake ratio', as compared with extracorporeal immunoadsorption (ECIA) of antibodies from plasma. Compar

The structurally related group II pyridoxal phosphate (PLP)dependent amino acid decarboxylases glutamic acid decarboxylase (GAD), aromatic L-amino acid decarboxylase (AADC), and histidine decarboxylase (HDC) are known autoantigens in endocrine disorders. We report, for the first time, the prevalence of serum autoantibody reactivity against cysteine sulfinic acid decarboxylase (CSAD), an enzyme tha

Today the main optimization parameter of digital filters is the filter order. By the aid of two implemented filters we will show that both power and speed can be enhanced if the optimization effort is made on reducing the filter coefficient lengths rather than minimizing the order. Both filters have been designed from the same specification, one as a standard minimum order filter, the other as a f

A conscious therapeutic approach was used combining methods in physiotherapy with psychological awareness to re-educate nine transfemoral amputees during 10 months in outdoor environments. All were rehabilitated trauma or tumour cases, mean age 33 years, and had worn their prostheses for more than 18 months. The method aimed at integrating the prosthesis in normal movements and increasing body awa

35 episodes of septicemia in 33 patients occurred among 269 consecutive patients with granulocytopenia (granulocyte cell count less than or equal to 0.5 x 10(9)/l) during the 7-year period 1982-1988. 59% of isolated bacteria were Gram-positive (Staphylococcus aureus, Staph. epidermidis, Streptococcus species and Pneumococcus) and 41% Gram-negative (Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Escherichia coli, Klebsie

Disruption of the ZWF1 gene encoding glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase (G6PDH) has been shown to reduce the xylitol yield and the xylose consumption in the xylose-utilizing recombinant Saccharomyces cerevisiae strain TMB3255. In the present investigation we have studied the influence of different production levels of G6PDH on xylose fermentation. We used a synthetic promoter library and the copper