Many breeding attempts in birds do not result in any fledged young due to predation on eggs or young. Consequently, the influence of time constraints on reproductive decisions are integrated parts of the reproductive behaviour of birds breeding within short, seasonal climate zones. In this study. I mimicked nest predation by removing blue tit (Parus caeruleus) clutches shortly after completion. Ar

Objective To investigate the basic pharmacodynamic properties of teicoplanin in vitro for Staphylococcus aureus, Staphylococcus epidermidis and Enterococcus faecium. Methods The following experiments were performed: (1) bacterial killing by teicoplanin at different concentrations; (2) bacterial killing by teicoplanin at 8 x MIC against the same strains with inocula of 5x10(3), 5x10(5) and 5x10(7)

Background: It is not clear whether risk factors for local recurrence after breast-conserving surgery differ in women having surgery for in situ or invasive cancer. Furthermore, the Nottingham Prognostic Index (NPI) and Nottingham Histological Grade (NHG) have been little studied as determinants of local recurrence risk. Method: In a case-control study (491 cases and 1098 controls) nested within a

Accurate absorbed dose calculations are important for a proper dose planning in internal radionuclide therapy. The activity distribution must be measured and the target volume defined. This can be done with single photon emission tomography (SPET) if proper attenuation and scatter correction are employed. This study investigated the calculation of the activity and the volume of different spherical

Accumulating evidence suggests that AIDS orphanhood status is accompanied by increased levels of psychological distress such as anxiety, depression, intense guilt, shame, and anger. However, few studies have examined the possible reduction of psychological distress in AIDS orphans through the help of interventions that promote well-being. The objective of the study was to evaluate the effects of a

The biological response of increased manganese in seawater was tested experimentally with the oyster species Crassostrea gigas by adding, once per day, a fixed quantity of MnCl2 to the container where the oysters were living. Uptake of Mn2+ in the shell was traced with cathodoluminescence and quantified with a high spatial resolution proton microprobe. The daily addition of MnCl2 resulted in the v

The evidence concerning the possible association between physical activity and the risk of prostate cancer is inconsistent and additional data are needed. We examined the association between risk of prostate cancer and physical activity at work and in leisure time in the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition (EPIC) cohort. In our study, including 127,923 men aged 20-97 years

1. We performed both a large- and a small-scale echo sounding study on the spatial and temporal distribution of fish (mainly roach, Rutilus rutilus and perch, Perca fluviatlis), as well as a small-scale study of zooplankton distribution in the small, shallow and eutrophic Lake Hanebjerg in Denmark. In the small-scale study, sampling was conducted in open water as well as in the edge zone immediate

A systematic study is carried out on the angular distribution and polarization of photons emitted following radiative-recombination of bare and He-like ions of Ne, Ar, Ni and Mo with a unidirectional electron beam. In order to incorporate the screening effect due to inner-shell electrons, a distorted wave method is used. Scaling rules for polarization of the photon following radiative recombinatio

We propose a traffic model based on microscopic stochastic dynamics. We built a Markov chain equipped with an Arrhenius interaction law. The resulting stochastic process is comprised of both spin-flip and spin-exchange dynamics which models vehicles exiting, entering and interacting in a two-dimensional lattice environment corresponding to a multi-lane highway. The process is further equipped with

Many explanations have been provided for variations of the spatial distribution and thickness of till sheets. This paper gives new insight into the architecture of a stratigraphically distinct till sheet as a function of the type of substratum and preadvance topography at a scale of similar to 10 km. This emphasises the sensitivity of the subglacial system to changes in the basal drainage conditio

Conventional Optically Stimulated Luminescence (OSL) dating using the equivalent dose distributions of 8 mm aliquots have been extended to key stratigraphical sites in southernmost Sweden and the island of Bornholm. The objective has been to bridge the lack of an independent chronology, which might catalyze a new understanding of the ice flow patterns related to the initiation of the Last Glacial

Since the late 1970s the central government of China has initiated several ecological environmental protection projects. The most significant of these has been the tui geng huan lin (returning cultivated land to forest and pasture) project in operation since the late 1990s. China's northwest region is characterized by lack of water resources, yet such resources are of vital importance. There is sc

The understanding of post-Fordist societies as learning economies, in which learning organizations such as learning firms and learning regions play a strategic role, has lately received some criticism. The critique has partly pointed at the structural limits to learning in a capitalist global economy, and partly argued that firms in capitalist societies have always been learning, referring especia

We study different classes of Jensen measures for plurisubharmonic functions, in particular the relation between Jensen measures for continuous functions and Jensen measures for upper bounded functions. We prove an approximation theorem for plurisubharmonic functions inB-regular domain. This theorem implies that the two classes of Jensen measures coincide inB-regular domains. Conversely we show th

Background: HIV-1 infection is associated with an increased incidence of and mortality from tuberculosis. Few community studies have examined the effect of HIV-2 on tuberculosis. Methods: We investigated the association between HIV-1, HIV-2 and active tuberculosis in four districts (population 42 709) in Bissau, capital of Guinea-Bissau, with the highest known seroprevalence of HIV-2 infection in

Background: Some patients with allergic asthma treated with anti-IgE (Xolair (R)) do not become symptom free. Better criteria for response assessment than allergy skin tests or IgE determination are needed. The impact of the size of the disease relevant allergen-specific IgE antibody fraction, i.e. the percentage of IgE antibody of total IgE, was evaluated in cat allergic patients treated with the

Routine coagulation tests have a low predictability for perioperative bleeding complications, and spinal hematoma after removal of epidural catheters is very infrequent. Thromboelastometry and point-of-care platelet aggregometry may improve hemostatic monitoring but have not been studied in the context of safety around epidural removal.