Acute lung injury (ALI) and acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) in acute pancreatitis still represents a substantial problem, with a mortality rate in the range of 30%-40%. The present review evaluates underlying pathophysiological mechanisms in both ALI and ARDS and potential clinical implications. Several mediators and pathophysiological pathways are involved during the different phases o

An evaluation of 5 and 8 pH-point titrimetric methods for determining volatile fatty acids (VFAs) was conducted, and the results were compared for tap water and primary treated wastewater at the laboratory scale. These techniques were then applied to full-scale primary sludge hydrolysate, and the results were compared with those obtained via gas chromatography. The comparison showed that the VFA c

Introduction: Gene expression data derived from clinical cancer specimens provide an opportunity to characterize cancer-specific transcriptional programs. Here, we present an analysis delineating a correlation-based gene expression landscape of breast cancer that identifies modules with strong associations to breast cancer-specific and general tumor biology. Methods: Modules of highly connected ge

Over the past 30 years a vast number of studies have demonstrated the presence of pharmaceutical residues in the environment. But still knowledge is scarce regarding the interaction of these emerging pollutants with various matrices in nature. A chromatographic system with on-line detection was devel- oped to perform a sorption study of six selected pharmaceuticals to four natural sediments and de

Current management of hemophilia B entails multiple weekly infusions of factor IX (FIX) to prevent bleeding episodes. In an attempt to make a longer acting recombinant FIX (rFIX), we have explored a new releasable protraction concept using the native N-glycans in the activation peptide as sites for attachment of polyethylene glycol (PEG). Release of the activation peptide by physiologic activators

Carboxylic acids are important bulk chemicals that can be used as building blocks for the production of polymers, as acidulants, preservatives and flavour compound or as precursors for the synthesis of pharmaceuticals. Today, their production mainly takes place through catalytic processing of petroleum-based precursors. An appealing alternative would be to produce these compounds from renewable re

This paper analyses ethical issues in forensic psychiatric research on mentally disordered offenders, especially those detained in the psychiatric treatment system. The idea of a 'dual role' dilemma afflicting forensic psychiatry is more complicated than acknowledged. Our suggestion acknowledges the good of criminal law and crime prevention as a part that should be balanced against familiar resear

Rhinovirus infection or dsRNA stimulation increased thymic stromal lymphopoietin (TSLP), an upstream pro-allergic cytokine, in asthmatic bronchial epithelial cells. We hypothesized that dsRNA challenges superimposed on established experimental allergic asthma constitute a useful exacerbation model. We further hypothesized that TSLP is induced at dsRNA- and rhinoviral infection-induced exacerbation

This paper reports on a joint numerical and experimental investigation of the release of potassium from biomass during gasification process. In this work, laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) was adopted to measure quantitatively the concentration of potassium from gasifying biomass. The effect of temperature on the potassium release is investigated in hot gas mixture of CO2, H2O with diffe

In this paper, we derive compact representations of the depth function for a triangle undergoing motion or defocus blur. Unlike a static primitive, where the depth function is planar, the depth function is a rational function in time and the lens parameters. Furthermore, we show how these compact depth functions can be used to design an efficient depth buffer compressor/decompressor, which signifi

Background: Persistent left superior vena cava (LSVC) is one of the common anomalies of the systemic veins. Its prevalence is 0.1-0.3% in the general population and is more common with congenital heart disease (CHD). The importance of detecting persistent LSVC prior to cardiac surgery is paramount for systemic veins cannulations. Aim: The aim was to evaluate the prevalence of persistent LSVC in pa

Energy security is sometimes used to advocate renewable energy systems. Renewable energy systems can improve some aspects of security, but they will not automatically lead to the removal of all types of security problems and new problems will most certainly arise. This paper analyses energy security aspects of renewable energy systems on the basis of a broad typology on energy and security. Renewa

Studies were conducted in human isolated coronary arteries to explore the vascular effects of the calcitonin gene-related peptide (CGRP) receptor antagonist telcagepant, and to compare its coronary vasoconstrictive potential to that of zolmitriptan. KCl-precontracted coronary vessels were shown to relax to human alphaCGRP, with the CGRP-mediated vasorelaxation completely blocked with 30 muM telcag

The monosaccharide anhydrides (MAs) levoglucosan, galactosan and mannosan are products of incomplete combustion and pyrolysis of cellulose and hemicelluloses, and are found to be major constituents of biomass burning (BB) aerosol particles. Hence, ambient aerosol particle concentrations of levoglucosan are commonly used to study the influence of residential wood burning, agricultural waste burning

A Ni-Cu ion exchange has been observed for (5,15-dibromo-10,20-diphenylporphyrinato)nickel(II) (NiDBrDPP) and (5,10,15,20-tetrakis-(4-bromophenyl) porphyrinato)nickel(II) (NiTBrPP) on Cu(111). The ion exchange proceeds at a faster rate for the NiDBrDPP/Cu(111) system compared to NiTBrPP/Cu(111). This is explained in terms of the macrocycle-substrate distance and the distortions

Colostrum is an indispensable source of antibodies (IgG) protecting the newborn pig against infection. We studied the effect of feeding colostrum and purified IgG on early structure and development of the gastrointestinal tract (GIT). Newborn littermate pigs were fed either colostrum, an elemental diet (ED), or an ED supplemented with purified serum IgG (ED + IgG) for 24 h or then only ED up to 72

When designing compensation payments for biodiversity conservation measures setting appropriate incentives so that landowners select spatially connected land parcels for conservation is of key importance for many species. The proposition of an agglomeration bonus, where landowners receive a homogeneous payment and a bonus on top if the spatial allocation of conserved land benefits biodiversity, ha

We describe and discuss an outsourcing decision project, in which a large public organisation decided to outsource its ICT and IS. Different phases and critical steps in the project are highlighted, and some critical issues are identified. First, it is clear that there were different definitions of “hosting” and these different definitions made it unclear what the project was about. The desired pr

Optimal linearly constrained minimum variance (LCMV) filtering methods have recently been applied to fundamental frequency estimation. Like many other fundamental frequency estimators, these methods are constructed using an estimate of the inverse data covariance matrix. The required matrix inverse is typically formed using the sample covariance matrix via data partitioning, although this is well-