Participants were 40 persons from a group of 44 end-stage renal disease patients in southern Sweden who in 1985 received home hemodialysis under the auspices of a hospital renal unit, together with their spouses (n = 35). At a 10-year follow-up, 15 of the patients had died and 25 had survived. Univariate log rank tests of the influence of physical and demographic factors, the patient's dialysis-li

Two items are commensurable in value if and only if one of them is better than the other or if they are equally as good. They are incommensurable if none of these relations obtains. Given incommensurability, not even a purely ordinal measure is available for comparison: We cannot represent the relationship between the items by assigning a number to each that specifies the position of that item in

Two new species, Xanthoria karrooensis S. Kondratyuk & Karnefelt and Xanthoria alexanderbaai S. Kondratyuk & Karnefelt, both apparently endemic to South Africa, are described and illustrated. Other xanthorioid species known from southern Africa are listed in a Table and a preliminary key is provided for the African species. The new species are compared with a number of presumably related s

Parametric linkage analysis is usually used to find chromosomal regions linked to a disease (phenotype) that is described with a specific genetic model. This is done by investigating the relations between the disease and genetic markers, that is, well-characterized loci of known position with a clear Mendelian mode of inheritance. Assume we have found an interesting region on a chromosome that we

Communication between the lower thoracic paravertebral region and the celiac ganglion through the retrocrural space was investigated. After dye was injected into the endothoracic fascia in the lower thoracic paravertebral region at the T11 level, its spread to the celiac ganglion was examined in fifteen cadavers. The dye reached the celiac ganglion in nine cadavers (60%) by passing through the ret

Large phytochrome ((P) from Avena sativa) immobilized via anti-phytochrome immunoglobulin bound to Sepharose beads was irradiated to saturation with unpolarized far-red (fr) light. The apparent absorbance level was recorded in a dual wavelength spectrophotometer with both measuring beams set to either 600 or 730 nm and polarized perpendicular to each other. The sample was then irradiated with red

Software inspections, which were originally developed by Michael Fagan in 1976, are an important means to verify and achieve sufficient quality in many software projects today. Since Fagan's initial work, the importance of software inspections has been long recognized by software developers and many organizations. Various proposals have been made by researchers in the hope of improving Fagan's ins

A prospective longitudinal investigation of spontaneous cephalic version from breech presentation in the last trimester is reported. All pregnancies were assessed with ultrasound in the 32nd week of gestation, and were thereafter checked weekly. Of the 310 singleton breech presentations identified at 32 weeks, spontaneous cephalic version occurred in 177 (57%) while breech presentation persisted i

We have investigated the acid-unfolded state of acyl-coenzyme A binding protein (ACBP) using N-15 laboratory frame nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) relaxation experiments at three magnetic field strengths. The data have been analyzed using standard model-free fitting and models involving distribution of correlation times. In particular, a model-independent method of analysis that does not assume a

We studied the influence of added compost, consisting of Acacia cyanophylla leaves, on the production of extra-radical mycelia of arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) fungi in natural stands of Acacia tortilis, which forms a desert savanna. Four different plots with different soil characteristics in terms of nutrient level and water-holding capacity were included in the study. The production of AM fungi wa

Objective: To study a controversy that has been discussed for more than two decades: whether or not children with autism have abnormalities affecting the cochlear nerve or the auditory pathway in the brain stem and, if so, to describe these abnormalities. Design: A group of 153 children and adolescents with autistic disorder were included in an investigation of auditory brain stem responses (ABR).

In order to simplify computational methods based on dynamic programming, a relaxed procedure based on upper and lower bounds of the optimal cost was recently introduced. The convergence properties of this procedure are analysed here. In particular, it is shown that the computational effort in finding an approximately optimal control law by relaxed value iteration is related to the polynomial degre

In this article, we describe the integration of logistics after Mergers and Acquisitions (M&As) of firms within the same industry and, same industry level (i.e. horizontal M&As). First, we present a review of the literature on M&As and conclude that operational issues, in general, and logistics issues, in particular, have received little attention. In parallel with the literature revie

Gelatinized starch/water dispersions with a water content of 70% w/w were studied in order to evaluate the influence of the incubation time at two fixed temperatures (6 and 37 degrees C) on the recrystallization behavior. The starch material was produced from waxy maize starch by acid hydrolysis followed by a mechanical treatment, i.e. a high pressure homogenization. Empirical models for the recry

Recently, at least six types of hepatitis C viruses (HCV) have been identified. Different types of HCV appear to possess different pathogenic properties and a different sensitivity to interferon treatment. Typing of HCV isolates may therefore be an important diagnostic procedure. We report on a new method for identification of HCV types 1a, 1b, 2a, 2b and 3a which are most prevalent in Europe, Nor