The concept of social capital has gained wide interest in public health research in recent years. However, we suggest a concept that was introduced and developed by Fukuyama, named "miniaturization of community".. as an alternative to that of social capital. The concept of miniaturization of community emphasizes that a high level of social participation can be accompanied by a low level of trust,

This study examines reproducibility of water and ethanol drop volumes from plastic squeeze dropper bottles, examines the difference in drop volumes between commonly used liquid patch test solutions, and evaluates the volumes of water and ethanol needed to saturate Finn and IQ Chamber filter papers. 2 plastic squeeze dropper bottles recommended for use in patch testing have poor reproducibility com

Protonation and subsequent intramolecular hydrogen bonding as methods to control chain structure and tune luminescence in heteroatomic conjugated polymers were reported experimentally [A. P. Monkman , J. Am. Chem. Soc. 124, 6049 (2002)]. In this paper, the structure and photophysical properties of the model teraryl compound of phenylene-pyridylene copolymer before and after protonation are theoret

BACKGROUND: Screening for inflammatory small bowel disease has hereto relied on barium examination, usually performed after duodenal intubation. A noninvasive technique for imaging of the small bowel in such patients would be preferable. METHODS: A total of 59 patients were included in the study. A small bowel barium examination (SBE) was performed after duodenal intubation using a barium and air

Introduction: Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) studies have demonstrated that patients with schizophrenia have thinner brain cortices compared with healthy control subjects. Neurodevelopment is vulnerable to obstetric complications (OCs) such as hypoxia and birth trauma, factors that are also related to increased risk of developing schizophrenia. With the hypothesis that OCs might explain the thin

Abstract in UndeterminedMarine operations depend on the ability to forecast suddenly appearing storms, and failures often cause great damage. As part of a sea-state alarm study, meteorological forecasts overlaid with satellite observations sent to ships have been found to be a useful too]. In this paper we present a real-time assimilation algorithm that extends this tool using statistical methods.

BACKGROUND: Eotaxin is a chemokine that attracts and activates eosinophils. The present study examines the occurrence of eotaxin in nasal mucosal surface liquids in patients with seasonal allergic rhinitis without allergen exposure and during repeat allergen challenge with and without topical glucocorticosteroid treatment. The number of subepithelial eosinophils and mucosal outputs of bulk plasma

Background There is an absence of population-based long-term studies on the risk of neurological sequelae in children born after in-vitro fertilisation (IVF). Our aim was to compare the frequency of such problems between IVF-born children and controls. Methods We did a population-based retrospective cohort study in which we compared development of neurological problems in 5680 children born after

We use action spectra published by the International Commission on Illumination to examine diurnal, seasonal and latitudinal variations in erythemally weighted (sunburning) UV-a health risk, and vitamin D-weighted UV-a health benefit. Vitamin D-weighted UV is more strongly dependent on ozone and solar zenith angle. Consequently, its diurnal, seasonal and geographic variability is more pronounced t

A density functional theory for polymer solutions is generalized to cases where the monomers have a different diameter to the solvent. An appropriate free energy functional is obtained by integration of the generalized Flory equation of state for such systems. This functional predicts that entropic demixing may occur in polymer solutions in which the solvent particles are smaller than the monomers

BACKGROUND: Studies suggest that the dopaminergic system is involved in the pathogenesis of major depression, Axis II disorders, and suicidal behavior. Depressed suicide attempters constitute a heterogenous group and important differences may exist between depressed suicide attempters with or without Axis II disorders. Therefore, we compared demographic and clinical parameters, and cerebrospinal f

Male small china-mark moth Cataclysta lemnata (Pyralidae) swarming over shallow water show a flight activity that peaks during the afternoon but which sometimes is extended into the night. We exposed wild, naturally flying C. lemnata to simulated predator attacks consisting of a) bursts of ultrasound (26 kHz, simulating a bat) and b) a thrown stick (rapid movement, simulating a small bird), during

The bis(triarylamine) systems 1-5 were synthesized and investigated by spectroscopic and electrochemical methods. They all have an aromatic five-membered ring system in common as a central part of their pi-electron bridge. The absorption spectra are presented. All compounds undergo five oxidations whereupon only the first two are reversible under semi-infinite cyclic voltammetry conditions. The sp

The mitochondrial permeability transition (mPT) is considered to be an important mediator of apoptosis and necrosis, and is specifically blocked by cyclosporin A (CsA). CsA has been shown to exert a potent neuroprotective action in vivo when allowed to cross the blood–brain barrier in various animal models of acute neurological insults and neurodegenerative disease. The neuroprotective effect of C

In the present work the genetically modified Trichoderma reesei strain QM9414 was used to produce full-length Ce17B (endoglucanase I, EGI) under the control of the constitutive Aspergillus nidulans gpdA promoter in the presence of glucose. However, the full-length Ce17B enzyme was found to be truncated to lower molecular weight components in the culture broth. Truncation of recombinant proteins pr