To estimate the metabolic costs of regrowth of reproductive organs and formation of eggs, we compared the resting metabolic rate (RMR) of female great tits (Parus major) during the periods of ovarian recrudescence, egg laying, nestling feeding and during winter. We found RMR of individual females, as measured in an open circuit respirometer during night, to be significantly higher during all the b

The dynamics of the synthesis of a mesoporous silica material SBA-15 is followed using time-resolved in situ H-1 NMR and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). Block copolymer-silica particles of two-dimensional hexagonal symmetry evolve from an initially micellar solution. The synthesis was carried out with the block copolymer Pluronic P123 (EO20-PO70-EO20) at 35 degreesC and using tetramethyl o

We examine an effectively repulsive Bose-Einstein condensate of atoms that rotates in a quadratic-plus-quartic trapping potential. We investigate the phase diagram of the system as a function of the angular frequency of rotation and of the coupling constant, demonstrating that there are phase transitions between multiply and singly quantized vortex states. We also show that states of different cir

Historical sediment nutrient concentrations and heavy metal distributions were studied in four estuaries in the Gulf of Finland, Baltic Sea to examine the response of these estuaries to temporal changes in human activities. Cores were collected using a 1-m Mackereth corer and dated using Pb-210 and (CS)-C-137. The cores were analyzed for total carbon (TC), total nitrogen (TN), total phosphorus (TP

Photochemical reactions rationalization is a key aspect for the understanding and setup of novel experiment and novel photoinitiated pathways. In this respect, the relationship between minimum energy paths over an excited-state and the intersection to lower potential energy surfaces is fundamental. In order to help the understanding of this relationship, in this study we present a novel kind of co

Bilateral clinical breast carcinoma has been reported to appear in up to approximately 10% of patients with breast carcinoma. Increasing diagnostic activity has raised figures of bilaterality, mainly due to detection of lesions of the in situ type. Knowledge of the natural history of carcinoma in situ is incomplete and clinical implications are uncertain. In the present study bilateral lesions wer

The influence of bile on the release of cholecystokinin (CCK) and, thereby, on the regulation of exocrine pancreatic function and growth is unsettled. The aim of this study was to elucidate the effect of long-term diversion of bile from the upper small intestine on CCK release and on the pancreas, liver, and gastrointestinal tract. A surgical biliodigestive shunt was performed in rats, diverting t

This study aims at describing and analysing what kinds of social services are provided for physically abused children in Sweden. The social services files were examined for 113 children under 15 years of age (67 boys and 46 girls) who had been reported to the police as having been physically abused by a parent or equivalent caretaker in a particular police district. The children's social services

Potentially high human exposures to nanometer sized airborne particles occur due to welding and other thermal processes in industrial environments. Detailed field measurements of physical and chemical particle characteristics were performed in three work-shops in Sweden. Measurements were performed both in the plume 5-20 cm above the welding point and in the background air (more than 5 m away from

The influence of temperature and salt concentration on the properties of solid polymer electrolytes based on lithium bis(trifluoromethylsulfonyl)imide (LiTFSI) complexed by combshaped polyethers has been studied. The combshaped polyethers consisted of styrenic backbone polymers carrying pendant poly(ethylene oxide) (PEO) or poly(ethylene oxide-co-propylene oxide) (PEOPO) side chains terminated by

Immunomodulatory effects of various factor VIII and factor IX clotting factor concentrates (CFCs) and of albumin were evaluated by a sensitive assay measuring the incorporation of 3H-thymidine in phytohaemagglutinin-stimulated lymphocytes in the presence of monodansylthiacadaverine. In contrast to previous findings by others, we found lymphocyte transformation to be inhibited by all plasma-derived

We report on cross-sectional scanning tunnelling microscopy (XSTM) measurements on vertically stacked InAs quantum dots in InP barriers. We have investigated two-, five- and tenfold stacked quantum dot structures,grown by low-pressure metal-organic vapour phase epitaxy. The XSTM images reveal that the quantum dots are generally vertically well aligned, and have a truncated pyramidal shape in agree

Retirement from active life often leads to decreased finances and reduced social contact, which may increase ischaemic heart disease (IHD) risk in individuals. We examined whether income evolution during the decade before retirement has an impact on subsequent IHD, and explored the mediating effect of common risk factors and social support from different sources (marriage/cohabitation, support fro

One hundred sixty knees in 141 patients with the Primary Porous-Coated Anatomic prosthesis (Howmedica, Rutherford, NJ) were evaluated after a follow-up period of 5.6 years (range, 1–10 years). One hundred six knees were in the latest follow-up evaluation, including clinical examination and a defined standing radiograph with a follow-up period of 6.3 years (range, 3–10 years). Survivorship analysis

Using different sources of human embryonic stem cells for research raises different ethical problems. Experimenting on embryos created for in vitro fertilization but left unused, or embryos, created specially for research raise ethical questions. In the first case – whether using “spare” human embryos for research means a lack of respect for the beginning of human life, and in the second – whether

Solutions to non-linear least squares problems play an essential role in structure and motion problems in computer vision. The predominant approach for solving these problems is a Newton like scheme which uses the: hessian of the function to iteratively find a, local solution. Although fast, this strategy inevitably leeds to issues with poor local minima, and missed global minima. In this paper ra

A wide set of biochemical and spirometrical parameters was applied to a group of 41 welders. The obtained parameters were analyzed by the pattern recognition method: principal-components analysis (PCA) and mutual contribution analysis (MCA). The aim of the investigation was to find out which of 23 parameters had an influence on the pulmonological indices of COPD. It was found that PCA gave a subst

OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to evaluate the quality of life within a sample of cervical cancer survivors. STUDY DESIGN: In this study, 46 cervical cancer survivors at clinical stage I or II and one survivor at stage 0, were evaluated. Two control groups were selected from an ongoing cohort study, in which 527 women were postmenopausal and 344 women were postmenopausal with HRT. All contro

We examine pair correlation functions resulting from self-consistent and non self-consistent implementations of the GW approximation for the electron gas. Having obtained these, we can shed more light on the fact that the self-consistent scheme generates good ground state energies but unphysical spectral properties.