During a 2-year period, 5476 normal routine obstetrical ultrasound investigations were performed in the 2nd trimester (16th to 20th week). Data on biparietal diameter (BPD), abdominal diameter (AD) and femur length (FL) have been obtained from this material. Ratios between BPD/AD and BPD/FL have been calculated, and from these ratios, graphs were constructed. Only nine normal fetuses (0.2%) were f

The burden of disease/cost-effectiveness analysis (BoD/CE) was introduced as a method for detailed planning and budgeting in 13 districts of Uganda. This endeavor can be seen as a “natural experiment”, attempting to pursue policy implementation by means of a heavy focus on rationalistic/technical arguments as a main supportive factor. However, modern theory of policy implementation, e.g. the new i

Bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL) fluid was analysed from 21 patients with breast cancer, stage T1N0M0, who had undergone tumour resection and post-operative local irradiation (accumulated dose 56 Gy). The lavage was performed two months after radiotherapy, in the anterior part of the lingula (left side) or of the right middle lobe (right side), depending on which side had been exposed to radiation. Th

The degradation and biogas production potential of sisal fibre waste could be significantly increased by pre-treatment for reduction of particle size. Batch-wise anaerobic digestion of sisal fibre waste was carried out in 1-l digesters with fibre sizes ranging from 2 to 100 mm, at an ambient temperature of 33 °C. Sediment from a stabilisation pond at a sisal production plant was used as starter se

Twice each year, millions of night-migratory songbirds migrate thousands of kilometers. To find their way, they must process and integrate spatiotemporal information from a variety of cues including the Earth's magnetic field and the night-time starry sky. By using sensory-driven gene expression, we discovered that night-migratory songbirds possess a tight cluster of brain regions highly active on

Background: During the last decade, the evidence of beneficial effects of cholesterol lowering in patients with coronary heart disease (CHD) has been proven in several clinical trials. This has prompted international guidelines on prevention of CHD to include recommendations on dietary and pharmacological treatment of hyperlipidaernia with set goals on total- and LDL-cholesterol. Methods: The firs

The formation of ectomycorrhizal (ECM) root tissue is characterized by distinct morphological and developmental stages, such as preinfection and adhesion, mantle, and Hartig net formation. The global pattern of gene expression during these stages in the birch (Betula pendula)-Paxillus involutus ECM association was analyzed using cDNA microarrays. In comparison with nonsymbiotic conditions, 251 fun

The influence of sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS) on the interfacial behavior of two amphiphilic polyelectrolytes, which are copolymers of the cationic monomers triethyl(vinylbenzyl)ammonium chloride and dimethyldodecyl(vinylbenzyl)ammonium chloride, at the silica-aqueous interface was studied. The fraction of amphiphilic monomers was varied, where ODT, 40DT, and 80DT contained 0, 40, and 80 mol % mon

Human cathelicidin antimicrobial protein hCAP18/LL-37 is an effector molecule of the nonspecific innate immune system. hCAP18/LL-37 is present in leukocytes and is expressed in skin and other epithelia, where it is upregulated in association with inflammation and injury. In addition, antimicrobial proteins including cathelicidins have been proposed to play a role in the nonspecific defense against

Phytochemical investigations on the most active EtOAc extract led to the isolation of 9 flavonoids [quercetin (1), quercetin 3-O-beta-glucopyranoside (2), quercetin 3-O-beta-galactopyranoside (3), quercetin 3-O-(2 ''-O-galloyl)-beta-glucopyranoside (4), quercetin 3-O-(2 ''-O-galloyl)-beta-galactopyranoside (5), quercetin 3-O-(6 ''-O-galloyl)-beta-glucopyranoside (6), quercetin 3-O-(6 ''-O-galloyl)

The methodology for ready-made matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization (MALDI) target plates covered with an optimized thin layer consisting of matrix and nitrocellulose has been developed. Piezoelectric microdispensing enabled sample depositions in a high-density array format of 2000 sample depositions on a conventionally sized target plate (45 x 47 mm). The sample depositions were made repro

P>1. Ants show complex interactions with plants, both facultative and mutualistic, ranging from grazers through seed predators and dispersers to herders of some herbivores and guards against others. But ants are rarely pollinators, and their visits to flowers may be detrimental to plant fitness. 2. Plants therefore have various strategies to control ant distributions, and restrict them to foliage

Every tripotent e of a generalized Jordan triple system of second order uniquely defines a decomposition of the space of the triple into a direct sum of eight components. This decomposition is a generalization of the Peirce decomposition for the Jordan triple system. The relations between components are studied in the case when e is a left unit.

Catalytic systems based on the clusters [H4RU4(CO)(10)-{mu-1,2-(P-P)}] and [H4RU4(CO)(10){1,1-(P-P)}] (P-P = (R)-(R)-Ph(2)PPhFcCHCH(3)PR(2); Fc = ferrocenyl; R = 3,5-CF3Ph (W001), Ph (W002)) have been used successfully in asymmetric hydrogenation of prochiral alpha-unsaturated carboxylic acids under mild conditions. Enantiomeric excesses of 42-92% and conversion rates in excess of 99% were observe

Pseudoachondroplasia (PSACH) is one of the more common skeletal dysplasias and results from mutations in cartilage oligomeric matrix protein (COMP). Most COMP mutations identified to date cluster in the TSP3 repeat region of COMP and the mutant protein is retained in the rough endoplasmic reticulum (rER) of chondrocytes and may result in increased cell death. In contrast, the pathomolecular mechan

Objective: In the quadrivalent (types 6/11/16/18) HPV vaccine (GARDASIL (R)/SILGARD (R)) clinical program, 73% of women aged 16-26 were naive to all vaccine HPV types. In these women, prophylactic administration of the vaccine was highly effective in preventing HPV 6/11/16/18-related cervical disease. Of the remaining women, 15% of had evidence of past infection with one or more vaccine HPV types

We show that isolated magnetic dipoles centred at the position of manganese impurities in a gallium arsenide lattice lead to spin polarized states in the bandgap of the III-V semiconductor. Spectroscopy simulations with a tungsten tip agree well with experimental data; in this case, no difference can be observed for the two magnetic groundstates. But if the signal is read with a magnetic iron tip,