OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to investigate any association between vaginal carriage of Mycoplasma hominis and genital signs and symptoms, other microbial findings, and some risk behavior factors in women with and without bacterial vaginosis. STUDY DESIGN: Women who had attended two family planning clinics and a youth clinic for contraceptive advice were divided depending on the result of

The neotropical, freshwater copepod Notodiaptomus iheringi decreased the growth of small colonies in cyanobacteria-dominated plankton, indicating that they can be efficiently ingested and that they may represent an important food source for this copepod in reservoirs dominated by cyanobacteria. Cultured, colonial, toxic Microcystis aeruginosa was not affected, indicating that toxicity may cause a

The recent interest in photodynamic therapy of human prostate cancer is accompanied by a need for techniques for in vivo monitoring of optical and physiological characteristics. We propose time-of-flight (TOF) spectroscopy in combination with Monte Carlo evaluation as a reliable optical technique for quantitative assessment of absorption, scattering, hemoglobin content and tissue oxygenation in th

Nanofiltration (NF) has attracted increasing attention during recent years due to the development of new applications. The advantage of NF compared with reverse osmosis (RO) and ultrafiltration (UF) is that it is possible to separate organic substances from some types of salts. It is, furthermore, also possible to separate different kinds of salts due to the negatively charged groups on the membra

In a unifying way, the doorway mechanism explains spectral properties in a rich variety of open mesoscopic quantum systems, ranging from atoms to nuclei. A distinct state and a background of other states couple to each other which sensitively affects the strength function. The recently measured superscars in the barrier billiard provide an ideal model for an in-depth investigation of this mechanis

The inlet geometry of the combustion chamber of a Helmholtz type pulse combustor was changed by altering the position of a stagnation plate, or flame holder, near the inlet. Three different flame fielder positions were studied. The operating characteristics in terms of time resolved pressure and heat release, time averaged tail pipe temperature and concentrations of O2 and NOx in the outlet decoup

Ocean waves exhibit more or less a Gaussian distribution for the instantaneous water surface height, and there is a need to develop simple models for generation of the characteristic non-Gaussian statistics, namely the asymmetric distributions of water surface height and wave slope. We argue that a simple class of non-linear oscillators can reproduce some of the characteristic features of random w

Objectives. Only a little research has focused on the evaluation of female sexual function. With sexual stimulation, the clitoris becomes engorged with blood and tumescent. Nevertheless, only little is known about the significance of the cyclic nucleotide-mediated signal transduction in the control of this process. We sought to elucidate the presence of the phosphodiesterase (PDE) isoenzymes 3, 4,

From the half-angle substitution of trigonometric terms in the Ernst equation, rational approximations of the flip angle dependence of the FLASH signal can be derived. Even the rational function of the lowest order was in good agreement with the experiment for flip angles up to 20°. Three-dimensional maps of the signal amplitude and longitudinal relaxation rates in human brain were obtained from e

Background: Terlipressin has been suggested as the ideal drug to treat anesthesia-induced hypotension in patients under long-term renin-angiotensin system inhibitor treatment for arterial hypertension. The authors compared the effects of terlipressin and norepinephrine on systemic hemodynamic parameters and gastric mucosal perfusion using a laser Doppler flowmetry technique in patients treated wit

The sensory innervation of intracranial vessels originates in the trigeminal ganglion with calcitonin gene-related peptide (CGRP), substance P (SP) and pituitary adenylate cyclase activating peptide (PACAP) as frequent neuronal messengers. The present study was designed to study the expression of these neuropeptides (a) in primary culture of adult rat trigeminal ganglion neuronal cells and (b) in

Multiple sclerosis (MS) and other T cell-mediated autoimmune diseases develop in individuals carrying a complex susceptibility trait, probably following exposure to various environmental triggers. Owing to the presumed weak influence of single genes on disease predisposition and the recognized genetic heterogeneity of autoimmune disorders in humans, candidate gene searches in MS have been difficul

INTRODUCTION: The development of PIH is associated with a defective trophoblast invasion and conversion of spiral arteries into low-resistance uteroplacental arteries. Hypertension may then be a compensatory response to a defective uteroplacental perfusion. Similar mechanisms may operate in IUGR. AIM: To compare uterine artery Doppler blood flow measurements with placental bed histology. The hypot

Twenty-four children (aged 5 months to 18 years) who were admitted to a university hospital were observed for a total of 135 hours with the aim of describing their degree of participation in decisions concerning their own care. Grading of their participation was made by using a 5-point scale. An assessment was also made of what was considered as optimal participation in each situation. The results

Electric field gradients at the oxygen and hydrogen nuclei of water have been calculated using high level ab initio methods. Systematic studies of basis set truncation errors have been carried out at the Hartree-Fock and coupled cluster singles and doubles (CCSD) levels using extended correlation consistent basis sets with up to 398 basis functions. Correlation effects are investigated using a hie

Postural adaptability and responses elicited by vibratory stimulation to the calf muscles recorded on a force platform with eyes open or closed were analyzed in 39 patients suffering from Postural Phobic Vertigo (PPV) (17 men and 22 women, mean age 49 years) and 24 healthy subjects (14 men, 10 women, mean age 38 years). The vibration induced increased body sway in both groups, but the adaptation p