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A prospective study was conducted to evaluate the efficacy and safety of two-portal endoscopic carpal tunnel release. Two hundred and fifty-five consecutive hands (204 patients) were operated on by one surgeon using general or regional anaesthesia in the first 48 hands and local anaesthesia in the following 207 hands. The patients were evaluated preoperatively and 3 and 6 months postoperatively by
We report on the technique and results of percutaneous transhepatic biliary drainage (PTBD) in children with obstructive jaundice. Three patients aged 8 - 15 years were treated, two of them for a benign and one for a malignant stricture. Endoscopic treatment was not possible and all the PTBD procedures were done under general anaesthesia. One of the children was treated with external-internal drai
Bronchoalveolar lavage was performed in 51 patients with sarcoidosis and in 21 healthy nonsmokers. The concentration of fibronectin was significantly higher (p less than 0.001) in lavage fluid from sarcoid patients (median 267 micrograms.l-1) than in that of controls (46 micrograms.l-1). Furthermore, a significantly higher concentration of fibronectin was found in patients with active disease than
Cathelicidins are a family of diverse antimicrobial peptides found in granules of mammalian neutrophils. Cathelicidins are active against a broad range of microbes in different environments. Aside from their antimicrobial activity, cathelicidins possess other biological properties including cytotoxic activity towards mammalian cells. Several studies have shown that the amino acid sequence of cathe
We develop a density-functional theory for polydisperse polymer fluids satisfying the Schulz-Flory distribution. The resulting equations are remarkably simple and quickly solved, the computational effort scaling with the polydispersity index, rather than the average molecular weight. Equilibrium, or "living", polymers enter naturally as very polydisperse samples. We illustrate the importance of po
Critical to the successful application of deep brain stimulation for the treatment Parkinson's disease is the proper selection of patients who will reliably benefit from this procedure and the successful evaluation of the responses obtained. This review will discuss the various factors influencing patient selection and summarize the recommended approach to patient assessment by using the Core Asse
The ionizable amino acid side chains of proteins are usually located at the surface. However, in some proteins an ionizable group is embedded in an apolar internal region. Such buried ionizable groups destabilize the protein and may trigger conformational changes in response to pH variations. Because of the prohibitive energetic cost of transferring a charged group from water to an apolar medium,
To highlight methodological challenges in the design and conduct of randomized trials of surgical interventions and to propose strategies for addressing these challenges. This paper focuses on three broad areas: enrollment; intervention; and assessment including implications for analysis. For each challenge raised in the paper, we propose potential solutions. Enrollment poses challenges in maintai
We study oscillator chains of the form phi(k)=omega(k)+K[Gamma(phi(k-1)-phi(k))+Gamma(phi(k+1)-phi(k))], where phi(k)is an element of[0,2pi) is the phase of oscillator k. In the thermodynamic limit where the number of oscillators goes to infinity, for suitable choices of Gamma(x), we prove that there is a critical coupling strength K-c, above which a stable frequency-entrained state exists, but be
Ultracentrifugation was used as a non-destructive method to separate dough into liquid, gel, gluten, starch and bottom phases. The protein composition in the different phases was investigated for dough prepared from spring wheat (Triticum aestivum L.). The SDS-PAGE, SE-HPLC and RP-HPLC methods were used for the analysis. The wheat protein composition of the liquid and gel phases consisted of album
The aim of the present study was to investigate the pharmacodynamics of moxifloxacin against strains of Streptococcus pyogenes with different susceptibilities to erythromycin by using an in vitro kinetic model simulating human pharmacokinetics of moxifloxacin at oral doses of 400 and 200 mg, respectively. When the different strains of S. pyogenes were exposed to the higher dose, the number of bact
It has recently been shown that damped endogenous dynamics is a common feature in Finnish grouse species; In this paper, we demonstrate that time-variant harvesting may turn damped dynamics to quasi-periodic fluctuations. Exploited populations, e.g. grouse, may therefore fluctuate more than expected if we do not manage to keep the harvest fraction constant over time. However, the harvest fraction
The orchid genus Nigritella constitutes a polyploid complex which is widespread in mountain regions in Europe. Diploid members of the genus have sexual reproduction, whereas polyploid members are characterised by agamospermy. We used allozyme data to estimate levels of variation at different hierarchical levels and to describe the evolution of polyploids. - The variation patterns at allozyme loci
Acute synovitis was induced in rabbit knee joints by intraarticular injection of preformed bovine serum albumin (BSA) -anti BSA immune complexes (ICs). Polymorphonuclear granulocytes (PMNGs) which had migrated into joints injected with ICs were degranulated and contained ICs as revealed by electron microscopy and were activated as revealed by the measurement of chemiluminescence (CL). In contrast,
Random Boolean networks, the Kauffman model, are revisited by means of a novel decimation algorithm, which removes variables that cannot be relevant to the asymptotic dynamics of the system. The major part of the removed variables have the same fixed state in all limit cycles. These variables are denoted as the stable core of the network and their number grows approximately linearly with N, the nu
Coexistence conditions for prewetting and layering at a hard surface in additive hard sphere polymer solutions, where the solvent particles are smaller than the monomers, have been calculated by density functional methods. Various chain lengths and pressures have been investigated. An unexpected finding is that prewetting in these systems may proceed below the bulk critical pressure. We rationaliz
Altered levels of enzymes in the central carbon metabolism in Streptococcus thermophilus increased the exopolysaccharide (EPS) production 3.3 times over that of the parent strain. The influence of enhanced EPS production on the rheological properties of fermented milk is described for engineered strains of S. thermophilus which produce different levels of EPSs.
