Fluorescence lidar is a non-invasive, remote sensing technique that makes it possible to extend the application of the laser-induced fluorescence technique to the outdoor environment where uncontrolled, external conditions must be met. Although initially developed for the investigation of marine environment and vegetation, in the past decade this technique has been successfully applied to the fiel

Web sites are exposed to high rates of incoming requests. Since web sites are sensitive to overload, admission control mechanisms are often implemented. The purpose of such a mechanism is to prevent requests from entering the web server during high loads. This paper presents how admission control mechanisms can be designed and implemented with a combination of queueing theory and control theory. S

In neonatal retinal explants cultured long-term green cones are missing. Recently it was reported that thyroid hormone beta2 receptors (TR-beta2) are essential for these green cones to differentiate. Therefore transcript level of these receptors was investigated in our mouse retinal explants. However, thyroid receptors function as heterodimers with retinoid receptors (RR); so the fate of selected

Background New treatment strategies for early rheumatoid arthritis are evolving rapidly. We aimed to compare addition of conventional disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs (sulfasalazine and hydroxychloroquine) with addition of a tumour necrosis factor antagonist (infliximab) to methotrexate in patients with early rheumatoid arthritis. Methods We undertook a randomised trial in 15 rheumatology uni

Recent studies show that plant organ positioning may be mediated by localized concentrations of the plant hormone auxin. Auxin patterning in the shoot apical meristem is in turn brought about by the subcellular polar distribution of the putative auxin efflux mediator, PIN1. However, the question of what signals determine PIN1 polarization and how this gives rise to regular patterns of auxin concen

In a prospective pilot study nested in the EPIC-Oxford cohort, we examined the seroprevalence of antibodies against the L1 antigen of 38 human papilloma virus (HPV) types among 39 cases of cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) for whom plasma was collected prior to diagnosis (incident) and 80 controls. Fifteen cases having already developed SCC at blood collection (prevalent) were also tested. T

The effects of age on the fibre type arrangement in the human muscle m. vastus lateralis were studied. There were 10, 6 and 8 healthy men in the three age-groups with means 24, 52 and 77 years, respectively. For each fascicle considered, the numbers of type 1 (ST) and type 2 (FT) fibres on the boundary and internally, and the numbers of enclosed fibres of either type, were counted. The randomness

The distribution of fine roots and external ectomycorrhizal mycelium of three species of trees was determined down to a soil depth of 55 cm to estimate the relative nutrient uptake capacity of the trees from different soil layers. In addition, a root bioassay was performed to estimate the nutrient uptake capacity of Rb+ and NH4+ by these fine roots under standardized conditions in the laboratory.

In a search for compounds inhibiting the inducible TNF-alpha promoter activity in T cells, a new spirocompound, designated oxaspirodion, was isolated from fermentations of the ascomycete Chaetomium subspirale. Oxaspirodion inhibited TNF-alpha promoterdriven luciferase reporter gene expression with an IC50 value of 2.5 mug/ml (10 muM) in TPA/ionomycinstimulated Jurkat T cells. Studies on the mode o

Although several studies have examined how honeybees gauge and report the distance and direction of a food source to their nestmates, relatively little is known about how this information is combined to obtain a representation of the position of the food source. In this study we manipulate the amount of celestial compass information available to the bee during flight, and analyse the encoding of s

Water-based copolymer dispersions were prepared using methyl methacrylate (MMA), ethyl acrylate (EA) (MMA/EA = 1:2), and a series of nonionic polymerizable surfactants, i.e., "surfmers" based on poly(ethylene glycol)-(meth)acrylates. The latexes were compared with the behavior of a conventionally stabilized (nonionic nonylphenol ethoxylate, NP100 with 84 ethylene oxide units) dispersion with the s

A comprehensive on-line two-dimensional 2D-HPLC system with integrated sample preparation was developed for the analysis of proteins and peptides with a molecular weight below 20 kDa. The system setup provided fast separations and high resolving power and is considered to be a complementary technique to 2D gel electrophoresis in proteomics. The on-line system reproducibly resolved similar to1000 p

BACKGROUND. A patient with follicular lymphoma was investigated with 0.5 mg Fab' anti-CD22 labeled with 1100 MBq technetium-99m (Tc-99m). A computed tomography scan performed a week later revealed regression. This unexpected response prompted an investigation of single cell dosimetry of low-energy electron emitters. METHODS. Another patient with low-grade, unclassifiable B-cell lymphoma with a low

Abstract in Undetermined BACKGROUND: Testicular cancer (TC) patients have a high survival rate, and the question of post-therapy recovery of sperm production and its dependence on genetic predisposition is of major interest. METHODS: Ejaculates were obtained from 112 TC patients at one or more of the following time points: post-orchidectomy, or 6, 12, 24, 36 and 60 months post-therapy. The lengths

OBJECTIVE: To identify all new cases of systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) within a defined area in Southern Sweden with validated methods of retrieval, and to compare 2 cohorts assembled during 1981-86 and 1987-91. METHODS: The catchment area, the health care district of Lund-Orup, had during 1981-91 a mean adult population (> 15 years of age) of 172,300 individuals. During 1987-91 we identified

How well do we understand which enzymes are involved in the primary metabolism of the cell? A recent study using comparative genomics and postgenomics approaches revealed a novel pathway in the most studied organism, Escherichia coli. The analysis of a new operon consisting of seven previously uncharacterized genes thought to be involved in the degradation of nucleic acid precursors showsthe impac