This paper uses a census of Russian manufacturing firms to study the relationship between exports and productivity at the firm level. The period studied, 1996–2002, implies that the results are affected by the Russian financial crisis of 1998. Exporters are shown to be more productive and larger than non-exporters, seemingly an effect of more productive firms self-selecting into the export market,

Helicobacter pylori infection is associated with chronic gastritis, peptic ulcer disease, gastric adenocarcinoma and MALT lymphoma. Mice with H. pylori infection develop severe gastritis and atrophic changes in their stomachs after 6 months. We followed H. pylori -infected animals for 13 months to find out whether dysplasia, carcinoma or lymphoma developed. Six-week-old C57BL/6 mice were infected

Background/Aims: The causes of ulcerative colitis are unknown, although it is plausible that dietary factors are involved. Case-control studies of diet and ulcerative colitis are subject to recall biases. The aim of this study was to examine the prospective relationship between the intake of nutrients and the development of ulcerative colitis in a cohort study. Methods: The study population was 26

In this study, dynamic light scattering (DLS), turbidity, and rheo-small angle light scattering (rheo-SALS) methods have been utilized to examine the impact of pH (1

Samples from 48 benign and 102 malignant bone and soft-tissue tumors were analyzed cytogenetically and by DNA flow cytometry. Clonal chromosome abnormalities were found in 82 tumors and normal karyotypes in 68; 61 tumors were DNA-non-diploid and 89 were diploid. The cytogenetically abnormal tumors were used for comparison between the 2 types of investigation; 45 of these tumors were DNA-diploid an

Extracorporeal photochemotherapy (ECP) has demonstrated immunological effects. The proposed cytotoxic lymphocyte antigen 4 (CTLA-4) involvement, together with forkhead box P3 (FoxP3) and transforming growth factor (TGF)-beta are associated with regulatory T cell activity. The aim of the study was to evaluate the regulatory T cell-associated effect of ECP in recent onset type 1 diabetic (T1D) child

The interpretation of folding rates is often rationalized within the context of transition state theory. This means that the reaction rate is linked to an activation barrier, the height of which is determined by the free energy difference between a ground state (the starting point) and an apparent transition state. Changes in the folding kinetics are thus caused by effects on either the ground sta

Oxi4503, which is the diphosphate prodrug of combretastatin A1, is a novel vascular targeting agent from the combretastatin family. Another member of this family, Combretastatin A-4 phosphate (CA4P), is a well-characterized vascular targeting agent already being evaluated in clinical trials. The potential for tumor vascular targeting by Oxi4503 was assessed in a mouse system. This approach aims to

Construction industries, especially those in developing countries, face the problems of low productivity. It comes about partly due to organizational ineffectiveness. The major attributes of organizational effectiveness are identified from literature. Means to achieving greater organization effectiveness and higher productivity are identified under the major headings of cohesion and morale of work

1. Although it is well established that hypertension is the main risk factor for stroke, the complexity of cerebrovascular problems related to hypertension is not generally appreciated. 2. Hypertension can cause stroke through many mechanisms. A high intraluminal pressure will lead to extensive alteration in endothelium and smooth muscle function in intracerebral arteries. The increased stress on

OBJECTIVES: This study assessed the health effects of occupational acrylamide exposure using hemoglobin (Hb) adducts as biomarkers of internal dose. METHODS: Two hundred and ten tunnel workers exposed for about 2 months to a chemical-grouting agent containing acrylamide and N-methylolacrylamide underwent a health examination. Blood samples were drawn for the analysis of Hb adducts of acrylamide. F

Cholesky decomposition of the atomic two-electron integral matrix has recently been proposed as a procedure for automated generation of auxiliary basis sets for the density fitting approximation [F. Aquilante , J. Chem. Phys. 127, 114107 (2007)]. In order to increase computational performance while maintaining accuracy, we propose here to reduce the number of primitive Gaussian functions of the co

As today’s market forces the implementation of quality-of-service-enabled services spanned over multiple administrative domains, isolated and locally optimized interdomain routing decisions become increasingly inadequate. Instead, coordinated routing models are required together with joint optimization goals. Available papers and standardization documents focus on the description of technical mean

A novel, flexible framework is proposed for parameterizing the heterogeneous nucleation of ice within clouds. It has empirically derived dependencies on the chemistry and surface area of multiple species of ice nucleus (IN) aerosols. Effects from variability in mean size, spectral width, and mass loading of aerosols are represented via their influences on surface area. The parameterization is inte

Dynamic light scattering (DLS), time-resolved fluorescence quenching (TRFQ), and isothermal titration microcalorimetry have been used to show that, in dilute solution, low molecular weight poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG, M-w = 12 kDa) interacts with the nonionic surfactant octaethylene glycol n-dodecyl monoether, C12E8, to form a complex. Whereas the relaxation time distributions for the binary C12E8/

In polymer gel dosimetry using magnetic resonance imaging, the uncertainty in absorbed dose is dependent on the experimental determination of T2. The concept of dose resolution (Dpdelta) of polymer gel dosimeters is developed and applied to the uncertainty in dose related to the uncertainty in T2 from a range of T4 encountered in polymer gel dosimetry. Dpdelta is defined as the minimal separation

Two studies investigated how decision makers characterize alternatives in important real-life decisions, which they themselves had made (to leave a partner, to choose an education and to choose a home). First, the participants indicated a very high degree of involvement in the decisions studied and about half of the participants gave maximum involvement ratings for the partner decision. Second, th

The retinoblastoma tumor-suppressor gene, RB, has been implicated in tumor suppression, in regulation of the cell cycle, and in mediating cell differentiation. RB is necessary for hematopoiesis in mice, and aberrant RB-expression is associated with the progress and prognosis of leukemia. We have used antisense oligonucleotides, established clones stably expressing an antisense RB construct, and al

Patient-reported health status questionnaires intend to assess illness and therapy from the patients' perspective. To provide fair and valid assessments, they should be equally relevant to major subsets of respondents. Furthermore, disease-specific measures are assumed to be perceived as more relevant than generic ones. This study assessed these assumptions among people with Parkinson's disease. C

OBJECTIVE: Our purpose was to compare the ability of transvaginal Doppler ultrasonographic examination with that of gray-scale ultrasonographic examination to discriminate between benign and malignant and between normal and pathologic endometrium in women with postmenopausal bleeding. STUDY DESIGN: One hundred thirty-eight consecutive women scheduled for curettage because of postmenopausal bleedin