Let S be a set of points in the plane. What is the minimum possible dilation of all plane graphs that contain S? Even for a set S as simple as five points evenly placed on the circle, this question seems hard to answer; it is not even clear if there exists a lower bound > 1. In this paper we provide the first upper and lower bounds for the embedding problem. 1. Each finite point set can be embedde

In this study we investigated the importance of social network and social support systems outside the workplace and workload and psychological job strain in former work for the prevalence of daily neck and low back pain. The study population (n = 621) comprised a random half of all male residents in Malmo, Sweden, born in 1914, of whom 500 (80.5%) participated. Two of the social network and social

Developing large, complex software products aimed at broad markets involves identifying and maintaining the link between product requirements and the continuous, massive inflow of customers' wishes. The manual linkage performed today is cumbersome, time-consuming, and error-prone. Automating this support through linguistic engineering could save considerable time and improve software quality. This

Smoking is widely considered a risk factor for future fracture. The aim of this study was to quantify this risk on an international basis and to explore the relationship of this risk with age, sex and bone mineral density (BMD). We studied 59,232 men and women (74% female) from ten prospective cohorts comprising EVOS/EPOS, DOES, CaMos, Rochester, Sheffeld, Rotterdam, Kuopio, Hiroshima and two coho

Background: The activity level and subjective knee function after an anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) injury treated without reconstruction have not been well elucidated. Hypothesis: Patients with ACL injury can achieve good knee function and satisfactory long-term activity level when treated by early activity modification combined with rehabilitation. Study Design: Cohort study (prognosis); Level

The evolutionary potential of developmental instability (DI, defined as an individual's inability to buffer its development against random perturbations) as estimated by individual asymmetry (so-called fluctuating asymmetry, small random deviations from perfect symmetry), remains a controversial subject of research. Only if DI is heritable and if it is related with fitness, can evolution be expect

We have compared selfed and outbred offspring from individual plants of the annual plant Nigella degenii to examine patterns of inbreeding depression in two direct components of fitness ( flower number and pollen viability) and a number of morphological or phenological characters for which the optimal phenotype may be habitat specific. Selfing lowered flower number, plant height, flower size, and

The thesis is about the historical transformation of Mekeo society. lt is not about the Mekeo as cultural group but about Mekeo society as part of a larger Papuan world of social reproduction. The analysis is anchored in the study of the regional exhange systems which it traces, temporally, through the different historical circumstances influencing the Mekeo area First the pre-colonial regional s

In this paper, we introduce two computer simulation models to study molecular exchange between aggregates in a colloidal dispersion. The Brownian motion of the colloidal aggregates is simulated as a random walk with a Gaussian distributed step length. In model I, the exchanging molecules are simulated as discrete particles with the exchange process characterized by desorption, molecular diffusion,

GRACILE-syndromet (Fellmans syndrom, MIM 603358) hör till det fi nländska genetiska sjukdomsarvet. Sjukdomen är orsakad av en missens mutation (S78G) i BCS1L, ett protein som fungerar som en “chaperon” eller sammankopplande länk vid bildning av komplex III i andningskedjan. Syndromet uttrycker sig som en grav tillväxthämning redan under fostertiden, och efter födseln utvecklar barnet en uttalad me

Apparent standard Gibbs energy, enthalpy, entropy, and heat capacity data of the interactions of alpha-cyclodextrin (alphaCD) to some n-carboxylates H(CH2)(n)COO- (n = 4 - 6), are determined by isothermal titration microcalorimetry at different temperatures in phosphate buffer, pH 9.0, assuming a 1 : 1 model in dilute solution. Modelling of contributions of the thermodynamic properties of the solu

A bench-scale unit for the development of an enzymatic process for the bioconversion of lignocellulosics to ethanol has been used to study the recycling of waste-water streams to minimize fresh-water requirements and reduce effluent streams. Willow, after impregnation with sulphur dioxide, was steam-pretreated, enzymatically hydrolysed, and the sugars produced were fermented using S. cerevisiae. T

Bisphosphonates bind to bone surfaces and inactivate osteoclasts when they start to resorb the bone. Therefore, immersion of a bone graft in a bisphosphonate solution before implantation may protect it from resorption. We implanted frozen cancellous; bone allografts; into bilateral bone chambers for 6 weeks in 10 rats. One graft in each pair had been immersed in an alendronate solution (1 mg/mL) f