Increased mortality risks associated with smoking are well established among men. There are very few population-based studies comprising a sufficient number of heavily smoking women, measuring the direct effect of smoking on mortality risks. Between 1974 and 1992, 8,499 women and 13,888 men attended a health screening programme including reporting of smoking habits. Individuals were followed for t

This paper reports on research to estimate leaf area index (LAI) in Swedish forests with satellite sensor data. The study is part of a research programme that aims at generating input data for process-oriented forest carbon models. Field-work was carried out in two areas in Sweden about 530 km apart, in the nemoral and boreo-nemoral forest regions. Various ways of estimating LAI in the field were

Treatment with alkali, particularly overliming, has been widely used as a method for the detoxification of lignocellulose hydrolysates prior to ethanolic fermentation. However, the mechanisms behind the detoxification effect and the influence of the choice of cation have not been well understood. In this study, a dilute acid hydrolysate of spruce and an inhibitor cocktail consisting of six known i

Objective. Previous population studies have suggested that both rheumatoid factor (RF) production and rheumatoid arthritis (RA) may be declining in occurrence, and. both secular and birth-cohort influences have been implicated. Since Pima Indians have a very high incidence of RA and also have shown recent evidence or a decline in RA, this study evaluated the relative contributions of age, secular,

Objective. The objective of this article is to examine whether public expenditure on higher education has an effect on income inequality by increasing enrollment. Methods. Combining data from the World Bank Development Indicators with data from the World Income Inequality Database version 2, we study the relation between government education expenditure and enrollment rates, as well as the relatio

Intra-abdominal adhesions are normally found after most surgical procedures. Many of the adhesions are asymptomatic, but in about 5% they will lead to readmission due to adhesion-related disorders, such as small bowel obstruction, pelvic pain and infertility. This review discusses possible ways to prevent abdominal adhesions and provides an update as comes to where we stand today in research regar

The nucleus Lu-163 has been populated through the reaction La-139(Si-29,5n) with a beam energy of 157 MeV. Three triaxial, strongly deformed (TSD) bands have been observed with very similar rotational properties. The first excited TSD band has earlier been assigned as a one-phonon wobbling excitation built on the lowest-lying (yrast) TSD band. The large B(E2)(out)/B(E2)(in) value obtainable for on

Coherent light sources have been widely used in control schemes that exploit quantum interference effects to direct the outcome of photochemical processes. The adaptive shaping of laser pulses is a particularly powerful tool in this context: experimental output as feedback in an iterative learning loop refines the applied laser field to render it best suited to constraints set by the experimenter.

This paper presents a study of the pH dependence of the activity and stability of a set of family 11 xylanases for which X-ray structures are available, using the PROPKA approach. The xylanases are traditionally divided into basic and acidic xylanases, depending on whether the catalytic acid is hydrogen bonded to an Asn or Asp residue. Using X-ray structures, the predicted pH values of optimal act

Background: Natural antibodies specific for phosphorylcholine (anti-PC) have been implicated as protective factors in atherosclerosis. We herein determined the relationship between IgM anti-PC and incidence of cardiovascular disease (CVD). Methods: We studied 349 incident cases (200 men) of first events of CVD (coronary heart disease (CHD; n = 203 or ischemic stroke; n = 146) and 693 age- and sex-

Organic food labelling debates in Sweden and the USA are examined in order to compare two different policy discourse climates on the basis of interviews, documents, and websites of governmental and non-governmental organisations. Framings in the Swedish debates mainly take place through eco-pragmatic metaframing, aimed at consensus, and based on a mixture of undefined scientific and ideological fr

Laser wakefield accelerators offer the possibility of compact electron acceleration. However one of the key outstanding issues with the results reported to date is the electron beam stability. Experiments on two laser systems reveal that the contrast ratio between the ASE pedestal and main pulse is an important factor in determining the quality of the electron beam. With a high contrast ratio (10^

Combined treatment with electroremediation and sulphate reducing bacteria (SRB) was tested in laboratory and pilot scale. The contaminated soil came from a chlor-alkali factory and contained about 100 mg/kg Hg. Iodide/iodine complexing agent was used to mobilize mercury. Mercury iodide complexes were moved to the anode solution using an electric field. The anode solution was then mixed with hydrog

There is currently no effective vaccine for Neisseria meningitidis (Nm) serogroup B. Generation of optimal immune responses to meningococci could be achieved by targeting meningococcal antigens to human dendritic cells (DCs). Recent studies have shown that diverse DC responses and subsequent generation of protective immunity can be observed if the microbes are viable or killed. This is important b

We report on the development of a bi-layer bi-enzyme biosensor architecture using different peroxidases and alcohol oxidase from Hansenula polymorpha C-105 as biological recognition elements. The sensor architecture comprises a first layer containing either horseradish peroxidase or royal palm tree peroxidase crosslinked with an Osmium complex-modified redox hydrogel. On top, a second layer was fo

Indapamide is a nontiazidic sulfonamide diuretic which has not been previously reported as a cause of fixed drug eruption. We describe a patient who experienced several episodes of fixed drug eruption during treatment with indapamide. The diagnosis was confirmed by positive controlled oral challenge test. The possible existence of cross-reactivity with other sulfonamide derivatives was investigate

By employing metal salts in dilute-acid pretreatment the severity can be reduced due to reduced activation energy. This study reports on a dilute-acid steam pretreatment of spruce chips by addition of a small amount of ferrous sulfate to the acid catalyst, i.e., either SO(2), H(2)SO(3) or H(2)SO(4). The utilization of ferrous sulfate resulted in a slightly increased overall glucose yield (from 74%

Quinoa stalk (Chenopodium quinoa Willd.) from agricultural crop residue, totora (Schoenoplectus tatora) and o-macrophytes (aquatic flora) from Lake Titicaca (on the Bolivian Altiplano) were studied in a wet anaerobic co-digestion process together with manure front llama, cow and sheep. Anaerobic semi-continuous experiments were performed in (10) 2-1 reactors at a temperature of 25 degrees C with 3

Heterostructure nanowires have many potential applications due to the avoidance of interface defects by lateral strain relaxation. However, most heterostructure semiconductor nanowires suffer from persistent interface compositional grading, normally attributed to the dissolution of growth species in the common alloy seed particles. Although progress has been made for some material systems, most bi