Our aim was to evaluate the severity of liver disease resulting from chronic hepatitis C in haemophilia or von Willebrand disease and the efficacy of 6 months treatment with interferon alpha and ribavirin. Fifty-five liver biopsies were performed in 43 patients without any bleeding complications, as seen with ultrasound immediately after the biopsy and 48 h thereafter. Histological changes were mi

To examine pathways of glutamate and glutamine metabolism in the ectomycorrhizal fungus Paxillus involutus, tracer kinetic experiments were performed using L-[U-C-14]glutamate and L-[U-C-14]glutamine and the enzyme inhibitors methionine sulfoximine (MSX), azaserine (AZA) and aminooxyacetate (AOA). When [C-14]glutamate was supplied to fungal cultures, 25% of the radioactivity of the amino acid frac

This paper empirically addresses two questions using a large, individual-level Swedish data set which links mortality data to health survey data. The first question is whether there is an effect of an individual's self-assessed health (SAH) on his subsequent survival probability and if this effect differs by socioeconomic factors. Our results indicate that the effect of SAH on mortality risk decli

Programmes driving ELT design are discussed. The nature and evolution of circum-stellar shells and planetary discs are attractive, while the small angular sizes place basic properties, asymmetry and warps, beyond VLT capability. An ELT is neeed to reveal the conversion processes shell - disc - planets, planetary systems, Earth-like planets, habitability and life signatures. Formation and evolution

Background and Study Aims: Sedation and monitoring practice during colonoscopy varies between centers and over time. Knowledge of current practice is needed to ensure quality of care and help focus future research. The objective of this study was to examine sedation and monitoring practice in endoscopy centers internationally. Patients and Methods: This observational study included consecutive pat

Fat cadherins constitute a subclass of the large cadherin family characterized by the presence of 34 cadherin motifs. To date, three mammalian Fat cadherins have been described; however, only limited information is known about the function of these molecules. In this paper, we describe the second fat cadherin in Drosophila, fat-like (ftl). We show that ftl is the true orthologue of vertebrate fat-

Associations between the glycemic index (GI) or glycemic load (GL) and diseases are heterogeneous in epidemiological studies. Differences in assigning GI values to food items may contribute to this inconsistency. Our objective was to address methodological issues related to the use of current GI and GL values in epidemiological studies. We performed ecological comparison and correlation studies by

We describe how upper limb amputees can be made to experience a rubber hand as part of their own body. This was accomplished by applying synchronous touches to the stump, which was out of view, and to the index finger of a rubber hand, placed in full view (26 cm medial to the stump). This elicited an illusion of sensing touch on the artificial hand, rather than on the stump and a feeling of owners

Lifetimes of four short-lived levels belonging to the 4f(8)(F-7)6p configuration of Tb III have been measured using a two-step excitation time-resolved laser-induced fluorescence technique. They agree quite well with multiconfigurational relativistic Hartree-Fock calculations performed with inclusion of core-polarization effects. Using the experimental lifetimes and the theoretical branching fract

The temperature-driven adaptation of the bacterial community in peat was studied, by altering temperature to simulate self-heating and a subsequent return to mesophilic conditions. The technique used consisted of extracting the bacterial community from peat using homogenization-centrifugation and measuring the rates of thymidine (TdR) or leucine (Leu) incorporation by the extracted bacterial commu

We investigated the effect of water and acetone extract of Juglans regia L. to evaluate its antimutagenic and antiproliferative activities. The antimutagenic study using TA98 and TA100 tester strains of Salmonella revealed the water and acetone extracts to be more effective than the benzene and chloroform extracts in inhibiting the revertants induced by 2-aminoflourene (2AF) in TA100 tester strain

The neurogenic ocular inflammatory response in the cat was investigated by means of intracameral injections of capsaicin. At a dose of 200 micrograms intracamerally the eye responded with a breakdown of the blood-aqueous barrier (BAB) and a transient ocular hypertension. A response of the same magnitude was observed when a dose of 1 microgram capsaicin was given. Most of the response to this lower

A genomic DNA fragment, isolated from a human phage library using a chicken crk cDNA probe, was shown to derive from the human CRK locus. We have used fluorescent in situ hybridization (FISH) to map CRK distal in chromosome band 17p13, a region which demonstrates frequent deletion or loss of heterozygosity in a wide range of human cancers.

Environmental samples (soil, sediment and lake water) in the Thule area (NW Greenland) have been studied to assess the contamination of radionuclides originating from a nuclear weapons accident (the Thule accident in 1968). Four lakes were chosen at different distances from the point of impact with the Thule air base community situated in between. The sedimentation rates in the lakes varied from 0

Athernsclerotic renal artery stenosis (ARAS) may cause hypertension, progressive renal failure, and recurrent pulmonary edema. It typically occurs in high risk patients with coexistent vascular disease elsewhere. Most patients with ARAS are likely to die from coronary heart disease or stroke before end-stage renal failure occurs. Recent controlled trials have shown that most patients undergoing an

Background/Aims: The homeostasis of essential metals such as copper, iron, selenium and zinc may be altered in the brain of subjects with Alzheimer's disease (AD). Methods: Concentrations of metals (magnesium, calcium, vanadium, manganese, iron, cobalt, nickel, copper, zinc, selenium, rubidium, strontium, molybdenum, cadmium, tin, antimony, cesium, mercury and lead) were determined in plasma and c

Advanced radio system designs have been proposed to overcome the radio channel caused by multipath effects in urban environments or even take advantage of it to achieve higher performance.. In this letter, we present a clustering approach to represent the power delay angle profiles (PDAPs) of the multipath components in urban environments. A cluster in an urban area originates from scattering poin

Aims: To investigate factors associated with health care utilisation in ambulatory diabetes care in relation to complications attributable to diabetes mellitus in an adult diabetic population. Methods: A cross-sectional study; standardised interview, physical examination, and an evaluation of medical records, comprising all known diabetic subjects living in six primary health care districts in sou