Unstirred suspensions of erythrocytes form stable spherical aggregates of uniform size. The radius of the spheres depends upon the suspending medium and the hematocrit. Erythrocyte suspensions will undergo sedimentation only after these aggregates are formed. Aggregation is a two-step process: first, erythrocytes associate in long chains (rouleau formation). Next, these chains form spheres of u...

PURPOSE Chronic inflammation induces cancer and cancer induces local tissue damage with systemic inflammation. Therefore, the aim of this study is to investigate the potential relationship between the severity of inflammation and prognosis in cancer patients. MATERIALS AND METHODS This study enrolled 220 patients from January 2002 to December 2006 who underwent gastric surgery. We evaluated t...

We present the first detailed microphysical simulations which are performed online within the framework of a global 3-D chemical transport model (CTM) with full chemistry. The model describes the formation and evolution of four types of polar stratospheric cloud (PSC) particles. Aerosol freezing and other relevant microphysical processes are treated in a full explicit way. Each particle type is...

A new three-dimensional air pollution modeling system is described for urban and regional air quality studies. The system includes four major components: a meteorological model, a tracer transport code, a chemical and aerosol microphysical model, and a radiative transfer code. The meteorological model solves the equations of fluid dynamics and thermodynamics over complex terrain and incorporate...

Coral reefs in the central Red Sea are sparsely studied and in situ data on physico-chemical and key biotic variables that provide an important comparative baseline are missing. To address this gap, we simultaneously monitored three reefs along a cross-shelf gradient for an entire year over four seasons, collecting data on currents, temperature, salinity, dissolved oxygen (DO), chlorophyll-a, t...

Mucus glycoproteins from newborn and adult rat small intestine were radiolabelled in vivo with Na2 35SO4 and isolated from mucosal homogenates by using Sepharose 4B column chromatography followed by CsCl-density-gradient centrifugation. Non-covalently bound proteins, lipids and nucleic acids were not detected in the purified glycoproteins. Amino acid, carbohydrate and sulphate compositions were...

Floodplain forests contribute to the maintenance of water quality as a result of various biogeochemical transformations which occur within them. In particular, they can serve as sinks for nutrient run-off from adjacent uplands or as nutrient transformers as water moves downstream. However, little is known about the potential that land management activities may have for alteration of these bioge...