The Interagency Monitoring of Protected Visual Environments (IMPROVE) protocols for reconstructing ambient light extinction from measured aerosol species is the basis for evaluating compliance under the Regional Haze Rule. We review the assumptions involved in computing reconstructed light extinction using the IMPROVE protocol. This review includes examining the biases in the measurements of ae...

BACKGROUND In recent years some studies have shown that metabolic syndrome (MS) is associated with inflammation, indicated by high-sensitivity C-reactive protein (hsCRP), but there have been few population-based studies, especially in Japan. METHODS AND RESULTS The study subjects were 2,191 men and women examined between 1992 and 1995 with the necessary data to ascertain MS as part of the Jic...

The authors studied the association between incidence of primary cardiac arrest and daily measures of fine particulate matter (</=2.5 micro m) using a case-crossover study of 1,206 Washington State out-of-hospital cardiac arrests (1985-1994) among persons with (n = 774) and without (n = 432) clinically recognized heart disease. The authors compared particulate matter levels on the day of the ca...

We have developed an accurate procedure for measurement of plasma fibrinogen. Turbidity resulting from heating (56#{176}C, 20 mm) plasma diluted with a new “zwitterionic” buffered-saline reagent (pH 5.6) is nephelometrically measured (600 nm). We evaluated the method both by confirming the accuracy of its prestandardization and calibration on a new clinical nephelometer, and by comparative stan...

A fully mechanized immunonephelometric method is described for the rapid and specific determination of apolipoprotein A-II in serum. The method utilizes commercially available sheep antiserum against human apolipoprotein A-II. Nephelometry was performed with the Behring Nephelometer Analyzer (BNA). A single determination can be performed in 12 minutes, requiring 10 microliters sample volume. Th...

A total of 120 Limulus amoebocyte lysate (LAL) determinations were made on plasma obtained from normal, healthy human blood donors. Results demonstrated a mean endotoxin level in blood of 0.02 to 1.57 pg/ml. The amount of Escherichia coli endotoxin added to human plasma samples can be quantitated by both nephelometry and turbidimetry. Endotoxin-spiked samples were shown to be significantly diff...