BACKGROUND: Approximately 570 patients are diagnosed with multiple myeloma (MM) in Sweden each year. Few studies have estimated the cost of treatment for these patients. OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this study was to retrospectively investigate the direct hospital resource utilization and costs associated with the treatment of patients with MM in southwest Sweden. METHODS: Patients aged > or =18 year

This paper presents a method of optimal coordination of load shedding, capacitor switching and tap changer operation using a dynamic system model in order to preserve or retain long-term voltage stability. The method is based on model predictive control and tree search. A model of the controlled system, including the network and load dynamics, is used to predict the future system behaviour based o

Background Low competence levels among nursing staff have been associated with lower quality of elderly care. However, interventions aimed at improving nursing staff competence have not always been evaluated for their possible impact on the quality of elderly care. An educational intervention in the form of a workplace “toolbox” was shown to have positive effects on nursing staff competence and wo

A technique to determine which nutrients limit bacterial growth in soil was developed. The method was based on measuring the thymidine incorporation rate of bacteria after the addition of C, N, and P in different combinations to soil samples. First, the thymidine incorporation method was tested in two different soils: an agricultural soil and a forest humus soil. Carbon (as glucose) was found to b

Solution properties of ethyl(hydroxyethyl)cellulose (EHEC) and a hydrophobically modified analogue (HM-EHEC) in water in the presence of various amounts of sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS) have been investigated by cloud point (CP) measurements, titration microcalorimetry, and static light scattering. The CP experiments revealed that the hydrophobically modified polymer is less soluble than the unmodi

Nanowires in the InAs/InP material system are grown with catalyst-assisted chemical beam epitaxy. Ohmic contacts are then fabricated to selected wires, allowing electron transport measurements to be carried out at room-temperature as well as at low T. InAs nanowires show strong quantum confinement effects, where thin wires (

In this study, we present a novel method to isolate and enrich low concentrations of Campylobacter pathogens. This method, Acanthamoeba-Campylobacter coculture (ACC), is based on the intracellular survival and multiplication of Campylobacter species in the free-living protozoan Acanthamoeba polyphaga. Four of the Campylobacter species relevant to humans and livestock, Campylobacter jejuni, C. coli

We find explicit solutions of type IIB string theory on R-4/Z(2) corresponding to the classical geometry of fractional D1-branes. From the supergravity solution obtained, we capture perturbative information about the running of the coupling constant and the metric on the moduli space of N = 4, D = 2 super Yang-Mills.

Wilm's Tumor gene 1 (WT1) encodes a zinc finger protein with four distinct splice isoforms. WT1 has a critical role in genesis of various cancer types both at the DNA/RNA and the protein level. The zinc-finger DNA-binding capacity of the protein is located in the C-terminal domain. Two recombinant proteins, 6HIS-ZN-(wt1) and 6HIS-ZN+(wt1), corresponding to two alternative splice variants of the C-

Susceptibility to lung cancer may in part be attributable to inter-individual variability in metabolic activation or detoxification of tobacco carcinogens. The glutathione S-transferase M1 (GSTM1) genetic polymorphism has been extensively studied in this context; two recent meta-analyses of case-control studies suggested an association between GSTM1 deletion and lung cancer. At least 15 studies ha

The lithology, age, geological setting, structural and metamorphic history of the granitic mylonites from the Mylonite Zone (MZ) in southwestern Sweden have been studied extensively. The deformation history, growth of microstructures, intensity of deformation, changes in mineral compositions, and pressure-temperature conditions of deformation have, however, not been addressed. In this study, powde

2,4,6-Trinitrotoluene (TNT) is the major explosive ingredient in ammunition dumped into lakes and sea after World War II. The aim of the present field study was to study the fate and effect of TNT and its degradation products from dumped ammunition. Artillery shells were cleaved longitudinally to expose TNT and placed in open boxes filled with sediment, and then placed at the sea bottom. Sediment

The study of creativity needs a theory of personality as its backbone. Several alternatives are reviewed. Psychoanalysis is deemed unserviceable because of its lack of an integrated theory of perception. A useful theory of personality should be process-oriented and avoid substance concepts like traits. It may still borrow a number of fruitful constructs from its predecessors. One such, often debat

Prenatal stress has been shown to disturb neonatal rat brain development. The astroglial-specific neurotrophic factor S100B is known to play an important role in normal brain development. In the present study, we investigated the effects of prenatal stress on S100B concentrations in the hippocampus of I-day-old Fischer 344 rats. Overall, prenatal stress resulted in a 25% reduction in hippocampal S

A dot blot hybridization method was developed to detect Plasmodium falciparum sporozoites in naturally infected mosquitoes. A fluorescein-labelled oligomer was used as a probe. Initial non-specific hybridization was found to correlate with the presence of blood in the mosquitoes. This was eliminated by allowing digestion of the engorged blood by keeping the mosquitoes in cages for 48 h before proc

BACKGROUND: This study compares the high-frequency QRS components (HF-QRS) in patients with and without standard electrocardiogram (ECG) changes indicative of old myocardial infarction (MI). Previous studies have indicated that patients with an old MI differ in their HF-QRS compared with healthy subjects. The HF-QRS has been reported to be decreased during acute coronary occlusion and increased af

We take a fairly comprehensive approach to the problem of solving elliptic partial differential equations numerically using integral equation methods on domains where the boundary has a large number of corners and branching points. Use of non-standard integral equations, graded meshes, interpolatory quadrature, and compressed inverse preconditioning are techniques that are explored, developed, mix