One of the most important tasks in quantitative pathology is to elaborate methods which help to In a previous investigation we found that the frac-tal dimension (based on the Minkowski–Bouligand method extended to three dimensions) of nuclear chro-matin was not a prognostic factor in patients with acute precursor B lymphoblastic leukemia [1]. When looking at the log–log plots (area versus ε) co...

background and aim: an important criterion for success assessment of implant-supported prostheses is marginal fit. vertical and horizontal discrepancy can result in loosening of the prosthetic screw, crestal bone resorption, peri-implantitis and loss of osseointegration. despite careful attention to waxing, investing, and casting, marginal discrepancies are inevitable. the aim of this study was...

background :cytotoxic t lymphocyte-associated antigen-4 (ctla-4) is an important negative regulator of t-cell responses. the -1722tc polymorphism of the ctla-4 gene may be associated with systemic lupus erythematosus (sle) risk, but related results from previous studies have been inconsistent. we carried out a meta-analysis to assess this association more precisely.   methods : a systematic sea...

  Background :Cytotoxic T lymphocyte-associated antigen-4 (CTLA-4) is an important negative regulator of T-cell responses. The -1722TC polymorphism of the CTLA-4 gene may be associated with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) risk, but related results from previous studies have been inconsistent. We carried out a meta-analysis to assess this association more precisely.   Methods : A systematic s...

anandamide is an endogenous ligand for cannabinoid receptors and has endothelial protective effect against ischemic preconditioning. the purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of cannabinoids on reperfusion injury due to testicular torsion-detorsion (t/d). a total of 36 adult male sprague-dawley rats were divided into 6 groups. testicular ischemia was achieved by twisting the righ...

BACKGROUND There is debate over using tenofovir or zidovudine alongside lamivudine in second-line antiretroviral therapy (ART) following stavudine failure. We analysed outcomes in cohorts from South Africa, Zambia and Zimbabwe METHODS Patients aged ≥16 years who switched from a first-line regimen including stavudine to a ritonavir-boosted lopinavir-based second-line regimen with lamivudine or...

PURPOSE Previous studies have shown that a specific 9-mer amino acid epitope (designated CAP-1) of the human "self" tumor-associated carcinoembryonic antigen can be used to stimulate CD8+ T cells from peripheral blood mononuclear cells of carcinoma patients vaccinated with pox vector-based carcinoembryonic antigen vaccines. A T-cell receptor agonist epitope of CAP-1 (designated CAP1-6D) has bee...

We study an on-line bin packing problem. A xed number n of bins, possibly of diierent sizes, are given. The items arrive on-line, and the goal is to pack as many items as possible. It is known that there exists a legal packing of the whole sequence in the n bins. We consider fair algorithms that reject an item, only if it does not t in the empty space of any bin. We show that the competitive ra...