The activity of titania based copper and platinum monolithic catalysts in the reduction of nitrogen oxides was studied with exhaust gases from a Diesel engine injecting fuel as reductant. Combining both catalysts, a two-stage system was designed, studying the influence of the copper catalysts composition on its performance with synthetic gas mixtures. The influence of reactants concentration and o

The diagnosis of acute otitis media (AOM) is often difficult, depending heavily on the experience and skills of the examiner. However, it is important to identify episodes of AOM that involve the risk of complications and to treat these episodes appropriately. The present study was performed in order to evaluate the use of a rapid antigen assay for Streptococcus pneumoniae, the Binax NOW test, as

he objective for this study was to investigate whether the adaptation of postural control was similar during galvanic vestibular stimulation and during vibratory proprioceptivestimulation of the calf muscles. Healthy subjects were tested during erect stance with eyes open or closed. An analysis method designed to consider the adaptive adjustments was used to evaluate the motion dynamics and the ev

In Lake Washington, juvenile sockeye salmon (Oncorhynchus nerka) strongly prefer Daphnia over other prey, switching uniformly to Daphnia when the threshold abundance of 0.4 Daphnia L-1 is achieved. Using long-term Lake Washington data (1978-2001) and fry trap data (1992-2001) from a major tributary, we examined the following: (i) factors that predict Daphnia pulicaria and Daphnia thorata increase

By studying the responses to the last expulsion for "apostasy" from the Swedish National Church in 1858, this article examines how an international Protestant identity was constructed in mid-nineteenth-century Europe. It is the argument of this study that a comprehensive identity - including both evangelicals and theological progressives - could be built around the notion of religious liberty. The

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Abstract is not available

The mouthparts of the spiny lobster Panulirus argus hold primarily two types of setae-simple setae and cuspidate setae. Mechanosensory neurons from these setae were examined by electrophysiological recordings. The population of simple setae contained two types of mechanosensory neurons: displacement-sensitive neurons, which responded to deflection at the setal base; and bend-sensitive neurons, whi

Urinary cotinine (U-cotinine) as a biomarker of environmental tobacco smoke exposure was evaluated in 14 children (age 4-11 y) and in 7 adults who were exposed to environmental tobacco smoke at an air nicotine level of 110 mg/m3 for 2 h in a bus. Nicotine in air and U-cotinine were measured by gas chromatography/mass spectrometry before, during, and after the experiment. U-cotinine rose rapidly to

The content of low molecular weight carbohydrates (LMWC, glucose, fructose, sucrose, raffinose, stachyose and verbascose) was investigated in 29 cultivars of vining peas after blanching and freezing. The peas were harvested at about the same degree of ripeness. There was a positive correlation between the amount of raffinose, stachyose and sorbitol, while a high content of verbascose only could be

This paper presents a digital hardware implementation of a novel wavelet-based event detector suitable for the next generation of cardiac pacemakers. Significant power savings are achieved by introducing a second operation mode that shuts down 2/3 of the hardware for long time periods when the pacemaker patient is not exposed to noise, while not degrading performance. Due to a 0.13-mu m CMOS techn

AMP-activated protein kinase (AMPK) is a key molecular regulator of cellular metabolism, and its activity is induced by both metformin and thiazolidinedione antidiabetic medications. It has therefore been proposed both as a putative agent in the pathophysiology of type 2 diabetes and as a valid target for therapeutic intervention. Thus, the genes that encode the various AMPK subunits are intriguin