Sugarcane bagasse is a potential lignocellulosic feedstock for ethanol production, since it is cheap, readily available, and has a high carbohydrate content. In this work, bagasse was subjected to steam explosion pretreatment with different impregnation conditions. Three parallel pretreatments were carried out, one without any impregnation, a second with sulfur dioxide, and a third with sulfuric a

Monte Carlo simulation has been used to produce projections from a voxel-based brain phantom, simulating a 99mTc-HMPAO single photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) brain investigation. For comparison, projections free from the effects of attenuation and scattering were also simulated, giving ideal transaxial images after reconstruction. Three methods of attenuation correction were studied: (

Background Iron deficiency in children is a major worldwide nutritional problem. An oat beverage was developed for 1- to 3-year-old children and different treatments were used to improve the iron bioavailability. Aim of the study To investigate the effects of citric acid addition, phytase treatment and supplementation with different iron compounds on non-heme iron absorption in human from a minera

Monthly averages of ecosystem respiration (ER), gross primary production (GPP) and net ecosystem exchange (NEE) over Scandinavian forest sites were estimated using regression models driven by air temperature (AT), absorbed photosynthetically active radiation (APAR) and vegetation indices. The models were constructed and evaluated using satellite data from Terra/MODIS and measured data collected at

Gliomas in the form of astrocytomas, anaplastic astrocytomas and glioblastomas are the most common brain tumors in humans. Early detection of these cancers is crucial for successful treatment. Proteomics promises the discovery of biomarkers and tumor markers for early detection and diagnosis. In the current study, a differential gel electrophoresis technology coupled with matrix-assisted laser des

SUMMARY Absence or reduced activity of coagulation factor IX (FIX) causes the severe bleeding disorder hemophilia B. FIX contains an N-terminal Gla domain followed by two epidermal growth factor (EGF)-like domains and a serine protease domain. In this study the epitope of monoclonal antibody AW, which is directed against the C-terminal part of the first EGF domain in human FIX, was defined and the

BACKGROUND The Medtronic EnPulse (TM) pacemaker incorporates the new atrial capture management (ACM) algorithm to automatically measure atrial capture thresholds and subsequently manage atrial pacing outputs. OBJECTIVES The purpose of this study was to evaluate the clinical performance of ACM. METHODS Two hundred patients with an indication for a dual-chamber pacemaker underwent implantation. ACM

This paper investigates how variability in partial foraging preferences for patch types can be used as a behavioral indicator of the energetic value of that patch type, and of overall food availability in the territory. The species studied was the lesser spotted woodpecker (Dendrocopos minor) and the patch types it uses are four groups of tree species (oak Quercus robur, birch Betula pendula, B. p

The diffusional characteristics for poly(N-isopropylacrylamide) (NiPAAm) gel have been investigated. This gel is a critical gel which means that small changes in the environment influence the gel volume considerably. The effective diffusion coefficients for the solutes glucose and insulin were determined in batch experiments with the solutes diffusing out from small cylindrical gel bodies with dia

The behavior of mixtures of a cationic polyelectrolyte of intermediate charge density (31%) and anionic surfactant both in bulk and at a negatively charged solid surface has been investigated. The polyelectrolyte employed was a random copolymer of the neutral acrylamide and cationic [3-(2-methylpropionamido)propyl]trimethylammonium chloride, and the surfactant was sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS). Mea

The objective of this study was to compare the safety and efficacy of carboplatin plus epirubicin and paclitaxel (TEC) to carboplatin and paclitaxel (TC), in the treatment of epithelial ovarian, peritoneal, or tubal carcinoma.. Between March 1999 and August 2001, 887 patients were randomized to receive six to nine cycles of paclitaxel (175 mg/m(2), 3 h intravenously) followed by carboplatin (AUC 5

We describe a fully automated particle-enhanced turbidimetric assay for cystatin C in undiluted serum and EDTA-plasma. The throughput is 90 samples per hour and urgent samples can be analyzed in 7 min. The assay range (0.4-14.1 mg/L) covers the concentration range in health and disease. The within- and between-run imprecision is 0.9% and 2.2%, respectively. Analytical recovery of additions of reco

Normally, contractual conceptions of intergenerational justice regard the responsibility held by each generation as symmetrical. This article argues that the late modern society has created an asymmetry because of its unprecendented instrumental and destructive capacity. Historically unique risks such as thermonuclear destruction, global ecological deprivation, and resource depletion all point at

Quick clay has been involved in most serious, large clay slides in Sweden, Norway, and Canada. This paper describes geotechnical and geophysical methods that can be used to locate and map the extent of quick clay formations. Surface resistivity measurements and four different sounding methods have been tested. The results have been compared with sensitivities determined using fall-cone tests. The

Background Postoperative policies of "wait-and-see" and radiotherapy for low-grade glioma are poorly defined. A trial in the mid 1980s established the radiation dose. In 1986 the EORTC Radiotherapy and Brain Tumor Groups initiated a prospective trial to compare early radiotherapy with delayed radiotherapy. An interim analysis has been reported. We now present the long-term results. Methods After s

A phenomenological thermodynamic approach used for describing elasto-plasticity coupled with isotropic damage is considered. Using this approach it was recently shown by the authors that certain unwanted features exist in the plasticity-induced damage theories. This paper gives a suggestion on how to solve these issues. Based on physical arguments a simple modification of the postulate of strain e

Antibody-based microarrays are a new powerful proteomic technology that can be used to generate rapid and detailed expression profiles of defined sets of protein analytes in complex samples as well as high-resolution portraits of entire proteomes. Miniaturized micro- and nanoarrays can be printed with numerous antibodies carrying the desired specificities. Multiplexed and ultra-sensitive assays, s