Many new therapeutic strategies have been and are being developed to correct, prevent, or slow the progression of osteoarthritis. Our ability to evaluate the efficacy of these techniques, or to determine the situations for which they might provide the most benefit, critically depends on diagnostic measures that can serve as proxies for the present or predicted state of the cartilage. Many of the m

In SPECT imaging of the chest, nonuniform attenuation correction requires use of a patient specific attenuation (p)map. Such a map can be obtained by estimating the regions of 1)the lungs and 2) the soft tissues and bones, and then assigning an appropriate value of attenuation coefficient (p) to each region. We proposed a method to segment such regions from the Compton scatter and photopeak window

The proportion of CD4- CD8- double-negative (DN) alpha beta T cells is increased both in the thymus and in peripheral lymphoid organs of TCR alpha chain-transgenic mice. In this report we have characterized this T cell population to elucidate its relationship to alpha beta and gamma delta T cells. We show that the transgenic DN cells are phenotypically similar to gamma delta T cells but distinct f

Introduction: The Hip disability and Osteoarthritis Outcome Score (HOOS) was constructed in Sweden; this questionnaire has proved to be valid for persons with hip disability with or without hip osteoarthritis (OA) and with high demands of physical function. Objective: The objective of this study was to evaluate the internal consistency, reliability, construct validity, and floor and ceiling effect

Intrastriatal delivery of the tyrosine hydroxylase gene by viral vectors is being explored as a tool for local delivery of L-dopa in animals with lesions of the nigrostriatal pathway. The functional effects reported using this approach have been disappointing, probably because the striatal L-dopa levels attained have been too low. In the present study, we have defined a critical threshold level of

Structures of the medium- to high-spin states in the doubly magic nucleus Ni-56 have been investigated using the reaction Si-28(Ar-36, 2 alpha) and the gamma-ray spectrometer Gammasphere in conjunction with the 4 pi charged-particle detector array Microball. Two well-deformed rotational bands have been identified. There is evidence that one of the bands, which is identical to a sequence in the odd

Quantitative structure-activity relationship (QSAR) models for fungal laccase-catalyzed degradation of different hydroxylated polychlorinated biphenyls (OH-PCBs) were developed using some fundamental quantum chemical descriptors. The cross-validated Q(cum)(2) values for the two optimal QSAR models are as high as 0.958 and 0.961 for laccases from Trametes versicolor and Pleurotus ostreatus, respect

Ethics committees approved human and animal study components; informed written consent was provided (prospective human study [20 men; mean age, 62 years]) or waived (retrospective human study [16 men, four women; mean age, 59 years]). The purpose of this study was to prospectively evaluate a clinically applicable method, accounting for the partial volume effect, to automatically quantify myocardia

We wanted to investigate the origin of seminal plasma albumin and its relation to the male reproductive parameters. Semen samples from 916 men, under infertility assessment, were analysed according to guidelines of the World Health Organization. Seminal plasma constituents, i.e. albumin, markers of the epididymal (neutral alpha-glucosidase, NAG), prostatic (prostate-specific antigen, PSA, and zinc

Invasive infections caused by the important pathogen Streptococcus pyogenes are often associated with disturbed blood coagulation in the human host, and may in severe cases develop into the life-threatening condition disseminated intravascular coagulation. In this study, the addition of M1 protein to human blood or purified peripheral blood mononuclear cells led to a dose-dependent increase of pro

Forty-five female outpatients sexually abused in childhood were offered a 2-year phase-divided group therapy. Before and after treatment and at 12 months follow-up, they answered questionnaires designed to elicit responses concerning psychological symptoms (Symptom Checklist; SCL-90) and sense of coherence (SOC). Symptoms for posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) were assessed before and after trea

In this article, we introduce a new method for manufacturing harmonic morphisms from semi-Riemannian manifolds. This is employed to yield a variety of new examples from the compact Lie groups SO(n), SU(n) and Sp(n) equipped with their standard Riemannian metrics. We develop a duality principle and show how this can be used to construct the first known examples of harmonic morphisms from the non-co

Based on research to date, we can state some expectations about terrestrial ecosystem response as several elements of global climate change develop in coming decades. Higher plant species will vary considerably in their response to elevated UV-B radiation, but the most common general effects are reductions in height of plants, decreased shoot mass if ozone reduction is severe, increased quantities