A new continuum model for the growth of a single species biofilm is proposed. The geometry of the biofilm is described by the interface between the biomass and the surrounding liquid. Nutrient transport is given by the solution of a semi-linear Poisson equation. In this model we study the morphology of a chemotactic bacterial colony, which grows in the direction of increasing nutrient concentra...

A typical steady state bulk pH of about 5 was established in a nitrifying fluidized bed with chalk as the only buffer agent. In spite of the low pH, high rate nitrification was observed with the nitrification kinetic parameters in the chalk reactor similar to those of biological reactors operating at pH>7. Various methods were used to determine the reasons for high rate nitrification at such lo...

INTRODUCTION In combination with multivariate pattern analysis algorithms such as Support Vector Machines (SVM) [1] or Support Vector Regression (SVR) [2], functional connectivity offers a powerful tool for brain classification. With this approach, several groups have successfully identified and predicted brain characteristics using resting-state MRI data [35]. Specifically, Dosenbach et al. ha...

BACKGROUND AND AIMS Primary sclerosing cholangitis (PSC) is a chronic cholestatic liver disease of unknown aetiology. Abnormalities in immune regulation and genetic associations suggest that PSC is an immune mediated disease. Several polymorphisms within the tumour necrosis factor alpha (TNF-alpha) and interleukin 10 (IL-10) promoter genes have been described which influence expression of these...

BACKGROUND Administrative data are increasingly being used to assess outcomes in kidney transplant recipients. OBJECTIVE To assess the validity of transplant data in healthcare administrative databases compared to the reference standard of information collected directly from transplant centres. DESIGN Retrospective cohort study. SETTING One of three major transplant centres in Ontario (To...

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A Novel Image Matching Approach for Word Spotting Muhammad Ismail Shah Word spotting has been adopted and used by various researchers as a complementary technique to Optical Character Recognition for document analysis and retrieval. The various applications of word spotting include document indexing, image retrieval and information filtering. The important factors in word spotting techniques ar...

The F508del mutation, the most frequent in cystic fibrosis (CF), impairs the maturation of the CFTR chloride channel. The F508del defect can be partially overcome at low temperature (27°C) or with pharmacological correctors. However, the efficacy of correctors on the mutant protein appears to be dependent on the cell expression system. We have used a bronchial epithelial cell line, CFBE41o-, to...

OBJECTIVES To investigate a large cohort of children with juvenile dermatomyositis (JDM), and those with JDM-scleroderma (JDM-SSc) overlap, using detailed serological analysis, HLA class II genotyping and clinical characterization. METHODS Children (114) with JDM were recruited, and clinical data collected, through the JDM National Registry and Repository (UK and Ireland). Sera were assayed f...