The systemic vasculitides are multisystem disorders with considerable mortality and morbidity and frequent relapses. In the absence of reliable serological markers, accurate clinical tools are required to assess disease activity and damage for treatment decisions, and for the performance of clinical trials. This article reviews and summarises the development and use of disease assessment tools for

In many bird species, floaters are present on the breeding grounds in one or more years before they breed. There is increasing evidence that they have specific home ranges in which they search for information about current and future breeding opportunities. We investigated the role of prospecting in a migratory European starling (Sturnus vulgaris) population. Radio-tracking showed that male starli

The production fractions of charged and neutral b-hadrons in b-quark events from Z(0) decays have been measured with the DELPHI detector at LEP. An algorithm has been developed, based on a neural network, to estimate the charge of the weakly-decaying b-hadron by distinguishing its decay products from particles produced at the primary vertex. From the data taken in the years 1994 and 1995, the frac

The achievement of a sustainable society is ultimately an educational enterprise. E-learning has a role to play in this endeavour, as it permits global access to environmental education, independent of time and place,once the courses are available on the Internet. Besides reaching new target groups not able to attend higher education on campus, e-learning may potentially be a more resource efficie

Minimizing the use of energy is a central task in sustainable building. Minimizing the use of natural resources and maximizing the recycling potential are other important tasks to take into consideration. In low-energy buildings, the embodied energy accounts for a considerable part of the total energy use of the building. Therefore, it is also imperative to pay attention to the choice of building

Background There have been few studies evaluating patient-reported quality of life outcomes after hip revision with impaction bone grafting. Patients and methods The inclusion criteria were aseptic loosening after primary arthroplasty performed for osteoarthrosis, and first-time revision with impacted morselized allograft bone and cemented Exeter stem. During a 4-year period, 35 patients were elig

An n-type InAs/InAsP heterostructure nanowire field-effect transistor has been fabricated and compared with a homogeneous InAs field-effect transistor. For the same device geometry, by introduction of the heterostructure, the threshold voltage is shifted 4 V, the maximum current on-off ratio is enhanced by a factor of 10 000, and the subthreshold swing is lowered by a factor 4 compared to the homo

We report on experimental transition probabilities for thirteenforbidden [Fe II] lines originating from three different metastable FeIi levels. Radiative lifetimes have been measured of two metastablestates by applying a laser probing technique on a stored ion beam.Branching ratios for the radiative decay channels, i.e. M1 and E2transitions, are derived from observed intensity ratios of forbiddenl

Background and aim Scandinavian Quality Register for Thyroid and Parathyroid Surgery is an on-line web-based database with the aim to improve the quality of thyroid and parathyroid surgery. Preliminary data from surgery for primary hyperparathyroidism are reported here. Materials and methods Fifteen departments registered 806 operations, with 639 women (79.7%) and 167 men. The median age of the pa

Objecives: To examine the short-term effect of nicotine on bone healing and osseointegration. Material and methods: Sixteen female rabbits were divided into two groups. The test group was exposed to nicotine tartrate for 8 weeks and the control group was exposed to placebo. Nicotine or placebo was administered via a miniosmotic pump and plasma cotinine levels were measured weekly. The pump deliver

This thesis is concerned with modeling of the cracking process in reinforced concrete due to imposed deformations. Cracking is investigated both at early ages, during hydration, and at mature age when the final properties of the concrete are reached. One of the most important material characteristics of the concrete at early ages, the Young’s modulus is determined by means of a dynamic method call

Green, blue, violet and ultraviolet upconversion luminescence is reported at room temperature in a YAG: 10.5% Er3+ crystal pumped by one-colour (647 nm) and two-colour (647 + 618 nm) laser excitation. The upconversion mechanism was studied by means of time-resolved luminescence spectroscopy and the energy flow pathways are described. Based on the results it appears that energy transfer upconversio