The HOVERT (HOrizontal and VERtical Transport of ozone and particulate matter) campaign held in the Berlin Brandenburg area in Eastern Germany from September 2001 to September 2002 allowed to collect a unique data set of the aerosol chemical speciation (daily averages) at traffic, urban and rural sites. These observations are used for a thorough evaluation of the aerosol part in the REMCALGRID ...

The effects of recombinant canine stem cell factor (rcSCF) on hematopoiesis were studied in normal dogs and in dogs given otherwise lethal total body irradiation (TBI) without marrow transplant. Results were compared with previous and concurrent data with recombinant granulocyte colony-stimulating factor (rG-CSF). Four normal dogs received 200 micrograms rcSCF per kilogram body weight daily eit...

Carbon monoxide (CO) is an important reactive trace gas in the atmosphere, while its sources and sinks in the biosphere are poorly understood. Soils are generally considered as a sink of CO due to microbial oxidation processes, while emissions of CO have been reported from a wide range of soil–plant systems. We measured CO fluxes using the micrometeorological eddy covariance method from a bioen...

Retinal ganglion cell (RGC) degeneration occurs in numerous retinal diseases leading to blindness, either as a primary process like in glaucoma, or secondary to photoreceptor loss. However, no commercial drug is yet directly targeting RGCs for their neuroprotection. In the 70s, taurine, a small sulfonic acid provided by nutrition, was found to be essential for the survival of photoreceptors, bu...

Gravitational wave experiments will play a key role in the investigation of the frontiers of cosmology and the structure of fundamental fields at high energies, by either setting stringent upper limits on, or by detecting the primordial gravitational wave background produced in the early-Universe. Here we discuss the impact of space-borne laser interferometric detectors operating in the low-fre...

To bridge the gap between case studies and highly opportur ities and government investment), asset aggregate cross-country analyses of c vil unrest, inequality (social tension), the presence of cash crops Deininlger uses data from Uganda to explore (expropriable wealth), and lower levels of human capital deterniinants of civil strife (as contrasted to theft and (ability to take advantage of opp...

Compelling evidence now exists that type 2 diabetes can be prevented or delayed in subjects with impaired glucose tolerance (IGT) (2-h oral glucose tolerance test [OGTT] 140–199 mg/dl) (1–4), a group at great risk for subsequent diabetes and cardiovascular disease (5,6). This evidence has held consistently across different populations, in different countries, among men and women, and in all age...

The formation of a topographically ordered map in the retinotectal system, independent of neural activity, has long been thought to rely on the matching of molecular cues between the innervating retinal ganglion cell (RCG) axons and their targets in the tectum [1, 2]. EphA receptors are expressed in a decreasing gradient along the naso-temporal axis of the retina while their ephrin A ligands in...

BACKGROUND Glaucoma is an optic neuropathy characterized by retinal ganglion cells (RGC) loss and retinal nerve fiber layer (RNFL) injury: this results in functional and morphological changes. The first can be observed by Standard Automated Perimetry (SAP), the second by Optic Coherence Tomography (OCT) that measures the RNFL and ganglion cell complex (GCC) thicknesses. Nevertheless, diagnosis ...

Nature of the problem Many congenital cardiac malformations result in a heart with only one effective ventricle. In most of these there is a second ventricle present, but it is too small to sustain cardiac output making construction of a biventricular circulation impossible. These hearts may be classified according to the atrioven-tricular connection. There are two possibilities: the atria are ...