Heart failure is a common disease characterised by poor prognosis and frequent hospitalisations, constituting a major economic burden to society. Mortality and morbidity can be reduced by optimal treatment, requiring objective evaluation of cardiac function and anatomy. The development of symptomatic HF can be prevented by initiating adequate treatment in early stages when LVD is still asymptomati

OBJECTIVES: To compare different treatment regimens of chronic suppurative otitis media (CSOM) in school children, in regard to their consequence in hearing and discharge from the ear drum perforation. DESIGN: Randomised controlled trial. SETTING: Randomly selected primary schools within Dar es Salaam. SUBJECTS: Three hundred and twenty eight children between 5-17 years of age with CSOM in one or

Background and Objectives: Photodynamic therapy using 20% 5 aminolevulinic acid (5-ALA) has recently been introduced as a new tool in optical skin rejuvenation. The primary objective of this study was to optimize incubation time, the topical delivery mechanism (vehicle) and the concentration of 5-ALA by detecting the dynamic changes of normal skin after 5-ALA application. The secondary objective w

The hormone leptin has been shown to be an afferent signal in a negative-feedback loop regulating body weight, and consequently, the administration of the gene product for the treatment of obesity has recently attracted considerable attention. Leptin is produced by adipocytes in response to increased trigyceride storage, and appears to affect body weight primarily through target cells in the hypot

We have used DNA microarrays to survey rates of mRNA decay on a genomic scale in early stationary-phase cultures of Bacillus subtilis. The decay rates for mRNAs corresponding to about 1500 genes could be estimated. About 80% of these mRNAs had a half-life of less than 7 min. More than 30 mRNAs, including both mono- and polycistronic transcripts, were found to be extremely stable, i.e. to have a ha

A total of 330 in-patient episodes at the urology ward, with a mean duration of 9.8 days, were registered in a study of 100 patients who died from urological cancer. Twelve patients spent more than two months of their last year of life at the urology ward. As many as 82% of the admittances were on an emergency basis. A total of 101 operations were performed on 84 patients; 47 patients received pal

Background strain is known to influence the way a genetic manipulation affects mouse phenotypes. Despite data that demonstrate variations in the primary phenotype of basic inbred strains of mice, there is limited data available about specific metabolic fluxes in vivo that may be responsible for the differences in strain phenotypes. In this study, a simple stable isotope tracer/NMR spectroscopic pr

Diabetes is associated with low concentrations of apoM in plasma. In db/db mice, ob/ob mice as well as in the alloxan-induced diabetic mouse, the low apoM levels are paralleled by decreased expression of the apoM gene. In the latter model, insulin substitution tended to reverse the low apoM expression. It is not known whether the impairment in apoM expression can be ascribed to hyperglycemia, insu

A clone encoding farnesyl diphosphate synthase (FPPS) was obtained by PCR from a cDNA library made from young leaves of Artemisia annua. A cDNA clone encoding the tobacco epi-aristolochene synthase (eAS) was kindly supplied by J. Chappell (University of Kentucky, Lexington, KY, USA). Two fusions were constructed, i.e. FPPS/eAS and eAS/FPPS. The stop codon of the N-terminal enzyme was removed and r

The total content of dry substance (DS) and readily biodegradable material (RBM) in waste streams directed to six landfill test cells were estimated. These estimates were necessary for the evaluation of the performance of the test cells and were used to both express methane production rates on a dry matter basis, and to obtain a measurement related to acidogenesis. A hierarchial description of the

Increased nitrogen leaching from forest soils is a potential environmental problem in areas with high nitrogen deposition. In Sweden nitrogen is strongly retained in the forests, and high nitrogen leaching is not common from growing forests. However, soil water measurements on clearcuts along a deposition gradient in Sweden showed a positive correlation between increased concentration of inorganic

The effects of data uncertainty in applications of the critical loads concept were investigated on different spatial resolutions in Sweden and northern Czech Republic. Critical loads of acidity (CL) were calculated for Sweden using the biogeochemical model PROFILE. Three methods with different structural complexity were used to estimate the adverse effects of SO2 concentrations in northern Czech R

Objectives: To describe and compare the consumption of dairy products in cohorts included in the European Prospective Investigation into-Cancer and Nutrition (EPIC). Methods: Data from single 24-hour dietary recall interviews collected through a highly standardised computer-based program (EPIC-SOFT) in 27 redefined centres in 10 European countries between 1995 and 2000. From a total random sample