At the time of writing, the Italian Parliament is debating a new law that would make it legal to practice an unproven stem cell treatment in public hospitals. The treatment, offered by a private non-medical organization, may not be safe, lacks a rationale, and violates current national laws and European regulations. This case raises multiple concerns, most prominently the urgent need to protect pa

BACKGROUND: Surveys are a common way to measure annoyance due to road traffic noise, but the method has some draw-backs. Survey context, question wording and answer alternatives could affect participation and answers and could have implications when comparing studies and/or performing pooled analyses. The aim of this study was to investigate the difference in annoyance reporting due to road traffi

Individual and trophic efficiencies of size-structured communities are derived from mechanistically based principles at the individual level. The derivations are relevant for communities with a size-based trophic structure, i.e. where trophic level is strongly correlated with individual size as in many aquatic systems. The derivations are used to link Lindeman's trophic theory and trophic theory b

Chromosome numbers are listed for 413 species of angiosperms from the Aegean Islands, based on collections and counts by Runemark and co-workers. Name, chromosome number and collection details (incl. geographical coordinates) are listed for each species. In almost all cases vouchers are at LD.

The effect of a new developed process for biogas boosting was studied at a municipal wastewater treatment plant in industrial scale over the period of three years. After pre-selection studies in the lab and short industrial setups, four hydrolytic enzymes and sodium citrate were combined and tested for a two-year period. The year 2007 was picked as reference year. In February 2008, the dosage was

Rapporten ger inledningsvis en kort bakgrund och sammanfattning av de uppföljnings- och dokumentationsprojekt som genomförts vid byggandendet av sveriges högsta moderna bostadshus i trä - kv. Limnologen. De delprojekt som genomförts behandlar plan- och projekteringsprocessen, träbyggandets klimatpåverkan, montage- och logistik, stomresning, akustik, svikt, vibrationer, deformationsmätningar, sluta

BackgroundDuring bacterial infections of the airways, a Th1-profiled inflammation promotes the production of several host defense proteins and peptides with antibacterial activities including -defensins, ELR-negative CXC chemokines, and the cathelicidin LL-37. These are downregulated by Th2 cytokines of the allergic response. Instead, the eosinophil-recruiting chemokines eotaxin-1/CCL11, eotaxin-2

Coherence in optics and transport is investigated for quantum cascade lasers. While coherence provides oscillations in the gain recovery if the tunnel coupling surpasses the broadening, incoherent hopping transport can fail in the opposite case. (C) 2008 Optical Society of America

Protection of the environment in times of armed conflict has traditionally been viewed through the lens of the laws of armed conflict or international humanitarian law. However, protection of the environment in relation to armed conflict encompasses consideration of other areas of law. The articles in this special issue explore the gaps and possible solutions for addresing the deficiencies of the

The aim of this multicenter study was to investigate whether a computer-assisted diagnosis (CAD) system could improve performance and reduce interobserver variation in bone-scan interpretations of the presence or absence of bone metastases. Methods: The whole-body bone scans (anterior and posterior views) of 59 patients with breast or prostate cancer who had undergone scintigraphy for suspected bo

Hypoxic preconditioning is thought to rely on gene products regulated by hypoxia-inducible factor (HIF)-1. Here, we show that the HIF-1 target gene cyclin-dependent kinase inhibitor 1, p21(WAF1/CIP1), is essential for neuroprotection by hypoxic/aglycemic or erythropoietin preconditioning using wild-type and p21(WAF1/CIP1)-deficient neurons. Furthermore, overexpression of wild-type p21(WAF1/CIP1) o

Neutron-deficient nuclei with N = 126 have been populated following projectile fragmentation of a U-238 beam with energy 1 GeV/A. The decay of several previously reported isomers has been measured. This will allow us to calculate high-spin isomeric ratios and compare them with model calculations to allow a better understanding of the reaction mechanism.

The main function of erythropoietin (EPO) is in hematopoiesis where EPO stimulates increased proliferation, survival and differentiation of erythrocytic precursors in response to hypoxia. The EPO effect is mediated via binding to the EPO receptor (EPOR), which induces activation of different intracellular signaling pathways. Recombinant human EPO (rhEPO) is also used in treatment of cancer patient

A search for a Standard Model Higgs boson decaying via H -> ZZ -> l(+)l(-) nu(nu) over bar, where l represents electrons or muons, is presented. It is based on proton-proton collision data at root s = 7 TeV, collected by the ATLAS experiment at the LHC during 2011 and corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 4.7 fb(-1). The data agree with the expected Standard Model backgrounds. Upper limits

Nanowires were grown by means of a novel aerosol-based method called Aerotaxy. Here an aerosol of Au catalyst nanoparticles in N-2 is mixed with MOVPE precursors in a flow-through reactor at atmospheric pressure, whereby nanowires are produced continuously in high concentrations. We demonstrate the possibility of in situ doping of the NWs and the realization of well-controlled p-type GaAs nanowire