Arsenic enrichment of groundwater in the Red River (Song Hong) delta in Vietnam was discovered in 1998. Several studies performed in this area found concentrations of As exceeding the WHO-guideline of 10 lg/L. This study focuses on an area south of Hanoi city, Nam Du, where a new well field came into operation in 2004. The new well field is situated on the bank along the Red River in order to faci

Intraventricular 192 IgG-saporin was used to induce a selective lesion of basal forebrain cholinergic neurons in rats. When subjected to 40 rapid hippocampal kindling stimulations with 5-min intervals, these animals exhibited increased number of generalized seizures and a higher mean seizure grade in response to the first five stimulations, and required fewer stimuli to develop focal behavioural s

The near-field characteristics of a turbulent jet with moderate swirl generated by a fully developed, axially rotating pipe flow are investigated with LDV, time-resolved stereoscopic PIV measurements, as well as with large-eddy simulations. Large-scale vortical structures in either double, triple or even quadruple-helix configuration are found at the pipe exit but rapidly break down or amalgamate

The two-neutron halo nucleus (14)Be has been investigated in a kinematically complete measurement of the fragments ((12)Be and neutrons) produced in dissociation at 35 MeV/nucleon on C and Pb targets. Two-neutron removal cross sections, neutron angular distributions, and invariant mass spectra were measured, and the contributions from electromagnetic dissociation (EMD) were deduced. Comparison wit

Purpose: The choice of treatment for squamous cell carcinoma of the head and neck (SCCHN) is still primarily based on the tumor-node-metastasis classification. However, it is reasonable to believe that biological profiles of SCCHN may be independently associated with response to therapy. The aim of the present study was to examine genetic changes and gene expression profiles that might correlate w

The aim of this study was to establish guidelines for US assessment of the talo-crural, the talo-navicular and the calcaneo-cuboid joints during the first year of life, which could serve as a reference while studying foot deformities. The feet of 54 healthy children were examined at birth and at the age of 4, 7 and 12 months by using three easily defined and reproducible US projections. With a med

Gene expression data from microarray experiments have been studied using several statistical models. Significance Analysis of Microarrays (SAM), for example, has proved to be useful in analyzing microarray data. In the spirit of the SAM procedures, we develop permutation based rank-tests for generalized Wilcoxon ranksum test for two-group comparisons of replicated microarray data. Also, for microa

For a large class of vorticities we prove that a steady periodic deep-water wave must be symmetric if its profile is monotone between crests and troughs.

In adipocytes, protein kinase B (PKB) has been suggested to be the enzyme that phosphorylates phosphodiesterase 3B (PDE3B), a key enzyme in insulin's antilipolytic signalling pathway. In order to screen for PKB phosphatases, adipocyte homogenates were fractionated using ion-exchange chromatography and analysed for PKB phosphatase activities. PKB phosphatase activity eluted as one main peak, which

Musculoskeletal conditions are an increasingly common problem across the globe due to increased longevity and increased exposure to risk factors such as obesity and lack of physical activity. The increase is predicted to be greatest in developing countries, and there is thus an urgent need for the implementation of strategies and policies that will prevent and control these conditions. The ideal i

AIMS: To investigate the association between political trust in the Riksdag (the national parliament in Sweden) and having purchased illegal liquor during the past 12 months. METHODS: The 2004 public health survey in Skåne is a cross-sectional postal questionnaire study answered by 27,757 respondents aged 18-80 with a 59% response rate. A logistic regression model was used to investigate the assoc

In recent work, the concentration index has been widely used as a measure of income-related health inequality. The purpose of this note is to illustrate two different methods for decomposing the overall health concentration index using data collected from a Short Form (SF-36) survey of the general Australian population conducted in 1995. For simplicity, we focus on the physical functioning scale o

Background: The aim of the present study was to evaluate the future cumulative risk of prostate cancer in relation to levels of prostate-specific antigen (PSA) in blood and to determine whether this information could be used to individualize the PSA testing interval. Methods: The study included 5855 of 9972 men (aged 50-66 years) who accepted an invitation to participate in a prospective, randomiz

Electron transfer (ET) in sulphite oxidase (SOx), a heme- and molybdopterin cofactor-containing enzyme, was studied spectroelectrochemically using capillary gold electrode modified with aldrithiol. Direct electron exchange between SOx and the surface of modified gold was observed, with a formal potential of -115 mV vs. AgAgCl, KClsat at pH 7.0. This value agreed well with that previously reported

We investigated the in vivo effects of two novel calcitonin gene-related peptide (CGRP) binding molecules in the genuine closed cranial window model in the rat. The RNA-Spiegelmer (NOX-C89) and the monoclonal CGRP antibody are CGRP scavengers and might be used as an alternative to CGRP-receptor antagonists in the treatment of migraine. Rats were anaesthetized and a closed cranial window establishe

A Slepian model for the local behaviour near the level upcrossings of a chi²-process with dependent Gaussian components is presented. In case of independent components, this model is shown to take on a rather simple form, thereby simplifying earlier results by Aronowich and Adler. The Slepian model is applied to the envelope of a stationary Gaussian process and used to approximate the probabilit