PURPOSE. To determine whether smokers have a reduced capacity for increased retinal blood flow velocity in darkness. METHODS. The peak systolic flow velocities (V-S) and end diastolic flow velocities (V-D) were measured by ultrasound ( i.e., color Doppler equipment), in light and darkness in the ophthalmic and central retinal arteries in 20 cigarette smokers and 20 matched nonsmokers. The resistiv

Fuel ethanol can be produced from lignocellulosics by an enzymatic process consisting of steam pretreatment, enzymatic hydrolysis, fermentation and ethanol refining. This thesis deals with the steam pretreatment step in the enzymatic process used for ethanol production from softwood, which is an abundant lignocellulosic raw material in the Northern hemisphere.Steam pretreatment is an effective met

The development of inhibitory antibodies to factor (F) VIII and FIX continues to be a major challenge in the treatment of patients with hemophilia. In patients with low-responding inhibitors, it is usually possible to saturate the inhibitor with the deficient factor and to achieve hemostasis, but in patients with high-responding inhibitors, two major tasks have to be considered. One is how to trea

Abstract is not available

Catalytic properties and thermal stability were studied for samples of mesoporous ceria with different BET specific surface area. The catalytic conversion of carbon monoxide to carbon dioxide and how thermal treatments of the catalysts influence the catalytic properties have been investigated. The materials were studied by transmission electron microscopy and by conversion profile measurements of

The foggy sky above a white ice-cover and a dark water surface (permanent polynya or temporary lead) is white and dark gray, phenomena called the "ice-sky" and the "water-sky," respectively. Captains of icebreaker ships used to search for not-directly-visible open waters remotely on the basis of the water sky. Animals depending on open waters in the Arctic region may also detect not-directly-visib

A formalism for the calculations of electron transport in multiterminal quantum systems is presented. The systems are described by tight-binding Hamiltonians. It is shown that by exploiting real-space Green's functions, a problem of the electron transport in a multiterminal system can be reformulated into a problem of the electron transport in an effective two-terminal system and can then be treat

Background Subjective evaluation of gray-scale and Doppler ultrasound findings (i. e., pattern recognition) by an experienced examiner and preoperative serum levels of CA-125 can both discriminate benign from malignant adnexal ( i. e., ovarian, paraovarian, or tubal) masses. We compared the diagnostic performance of these methods in a large multicenter study. Methods In a prospective multicenter s

Type 2 or non-insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus (NIDDM) is the most common form of diabetes worldwide, affecting approximately 4% of the world's adult population. It is multifactorial in origin with both genetic and environmental factors contributing to its development. A genome-wide screen for type 2 diabetes genes carried out in Mexican Americans localized a susceptibility gene, designated NID

This thesis is an investigation of the potential of holographic laser interferometry for the study of diffusion of both small solutes and macromolecules. An investigation on the importance of errors due to light deflection in refarctive index gradients showed that the magnitude of the refractive index gradients were negligible for the system investigated. The holographic interferometry technique r

Dissemination of risk information is ubiquitous in contemporary society. We explore how individuals react in everyday life to health-risk information, based on what they report in personal interviews. Health-risk information was without exception recognized as unstable and inconsistent. This conformity, however, did not extend to the narratives regarding how health-risk information should be handl

We investigate the interplay between electronic and nuclear relaxation of the core-excited NO3 anion in solid LiNO3 and NaNO3 by means of the high-resolution X-ray absorption and resonant Auger spectroscopy. It is shown how the relative energy distances between the potential energy surfaces of the intermediate and final states can be mapped using the information on the dispersion of individual par

Glycobiology is the world of sugars: how they are made, what they look like, and what they do. Despite the importance of glycan structures in life, knowledge has been hampered due to their inherent complexity. Lectins are nature's way to decipher the intricate code held by glycans, which makes them important players in both normal and pathological physiology. A key to the understanding of lectins