Background Compared with placebo, prophylactic treatment with bisphosphonates reduces risk of skeletal events in patients with multiple myeloma. However, because of toxicity associated with long-term bisphosphonate treatment, establishing the lowest effective dose is important. This study compared the effect of two doses of pamidronate on health-related quality of life and skeletal morbidity in pa

Non-invasive diode laser spectroscopy was, for the first time, used to assess gas content in the intestines and the lungs of a new-born, 4 kg, baby. Two gases, water vapor and oxygen, were studied with two low-power tunable diode lasers, illuminating the surface skin tissue and detecting the diffusely emerging light a few centimeters away. The light, having penetrated into the tissue, had experien

With fast growing power consumption and device miniaturization, micro/minichannels are superior to macrochannels or conventional channels for high heat-flux dissipation due to their large surface area to volume ratios and high heat transfer coefficients. However, the associated large pressure drop penalty and flow boiling instability of micro/minichannels hinder their advancement in many practical

Our simple dynamic-simulation model shows that the global supply of Rare Earth Elements is limited for meeting the future demands of new technologies. Unless improved recycling policies are adapted strategic elements may become scarce in the next half-century as a result of a “peak Rare Earths Elements” phenomenon. The model results also show that the market alone cannot solve the resource-ineffic

Characteristic mode analysis provides unparalleled insights into designing high performance multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) terminal antennas at frequencies where the antenna elements are constrained to be electrically small. Conventionally, an electrically small single-antenna utilizes the fundamental characteristic mode of the terminal chassis to obtain sufficient bandwidth while maintaini

How are people facing a virtual agent affected by the vividness and graphical fidelity of the agent and its environment? A choice blindness (CB) experiment - measuring detection rate of hidden manipulations - was conducted presenting a high versus low immersion virtual environment. The hypothesis was that the lower quality virtual environment (low immersion) would increase the detection rate for t

A portable and time-integrating field sampler based on the supported liquid membrane (SLM) extraction technique was constructed. Using two programmable syringe pumps and one programmable valve, the sampler could carry out automatic unattended extraction for up to seven extracts, combining the steps of sampling, trace enrichment and clean-up. The sampler was applied to the extraction of four s-tria

Salt-inducible kinase (SIK) 3 is a virtually unstudied, ubiquitously expressed serine/threonine kinase, belonging to the AMP-activated protein kinase (AMPK)-related family of kinases, all of which are regulated by LKB1 phosphorylation of a threonine residue in their activation (T)-loops. Findings in adrenal cells have revealed a role for cAMP in the regulation of SIK1, and recent findings suggest

Background/Aims: Large epidemiological prospective studies represent an important opportunity for investigating risk factors for rare diseases such as Parkinson's disease (PD). Here we describe the procedures we used for ascertaining PD cases in the EPIC (European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition) study. Methods: The following three-phase procedure was used: (1) elaboration of a

Cellobiose dehydrogenase (CDH) is capable of direct electron transfer (DET) on various carbon and thiol-modified gold electrodes. As a result, these systems have been utilized as biocatalyst in biosensors and biofuel cell anodes. Class I CDHs, from basidiomycetous fungi, are highly specific to cellulose or lactose, and DET is only observed at pH values below 5.5. To extend the applicability of CDH

Crack tip conditions in SUS 304 austenitic stainless steel are studied using a constitutive model in which the martensitic phase transformation is an integral part. The phase transformation occurring in the crack tip region gives rise to fracture toughening of the material whereby the resistance against crack initiation, as well as the macroscopic material response are strongly altered by the pres

We present the first dynamical implementation of the combined GW and dynamical mean-field scheme ("GW + DMFT") for first-principles calculations of the electronic properties of correlated materials. The application to the ternary transition metal oxide SrVO3 demonstrates that this scheme inherits the virtues of its two parent theories: a good description of the local low-energy correlation physics

The purpose of the Swedish specialist examination in Emergency Medicine is not only to determine whether residents have attained the level of competence of specialists, but also to guide and facilitate residency training.

The menisci are internal structures that are of central importance for a healthy knee joint; they have a key role in the structural progression of knee osteoarthritis (OA), and the risk of the disease dramatically increases if they are damaged by injury or degenerative processes. Meniscus damage might be considered a signifying feature of incipient OA in middle-aged and elderly people. As approxim

Cooperative diversity using distributed space-time codes has been recently proposed to form virtual antennas in order to achieve diversity gain. In this paper, we consider a multi-relay network operating in amplify-and-forward (AAF) mode. Motivated by protocol III presented in (Nabar et al. 2004), we propose a cooperative diversity protocol implementing space–time coding for an arbitrary number of

Epidemiological studies have shown an inverse relation between a whole grain consumption and risk of type-2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease. One tentative mechanism relates to colonic metabolism of indigestible carbohydrates. In a previous study, we reported a positive relation between colonic fermentation and improved glucose tolerance. This work can be seen as an extension of that study, foc

This article addresses the role of the civilizing process' in the historiography of the Victorian period. The author develops a critique of perspectives that deem the nineteenth century to be an era of discipline and self-restraint, arguing that these result from the hegemonic position of literary perspectives within Victorian Studies and their frequent reliance on Foucauldian-inspired techniques

Sexual selection has resulted in some of the most captivating features of insects, including flashy colors, bizarre structures, and complex pheromones. These features evolve in dynamic environments, where conditions can change rapidly over space and time. However, only recently has ecological complexity been embraced by theory and practice in sexual selection. We review replicated selection studie

Magnetoreception of the light-dependent magnetic compass in birds is suggested to be mediated by a radical-pair mechanism taking place in the avian retina. Biophysical models on magnetic field effects on radical pairs generally assume that the light activating the magnetoreceptor molecules is nondirectional and unpolarized, and that light absorption is isotropic. However, natural skylight enters t