(1) Experiments were conducted to test the effects of different planting factors, in particular depth and rhizome orientation, on the growth of offsets of the dune grasses Ammophila arenaria (L.) ...Link and Lymus arenarius (L.) Hochst. (2) With Ammophila, planting with the rhizome horizontal produced an increase in horizontal rhizome development and more rapid vegetation cover than planting with the rhizome vertical. Numbers of shoots and leaves were similar in the horizontal and vertical treatments, but vertical plantings produced a tussocky appearance whereas horizontal plantings gave rise to a similar number of tillers strung out in a linear fashion. Rhizome lengths increased with depth of planting although rhizome numbers decreased. Removal from the offset of the tillers and rhizome apex at time of planting reduced shoot production and increased offset mortality. (3) With Lymus, the growth of horizontal rhizomes was unaffected by orientation of the original rhizome segment, but growth was severely reduced at increased planting depths. (4) The results form the basis for an improved planting technique for dune grasses which should be useful in developing more effective sand stabilization programmes.
The LHCb Outer Tracker is a gaseous detector covering an area of 5x6 m2 with 12 double layers of straw tubes. The detector with its services are described together with the commissioning and ...calibration procedures. Based on data of the first LHC running period from 2010 to 2012, the performance of the readout electronics and the single hit resolution and efficiency are presented. The efficiency to detect a hit in the central half of the straw is estimated to be 99.2%, and the position resolution is determined to be approximately 200 um. The Outer Tracker received a dose in the hottest region corresponding to 0.12 C/cm, and no signs of gain deterioration or other ageing effects are observed.
Adrenal responsiveness to Cosyntropin (synthetic ACTH) was investigated in five patients with major depression and five individually matched normal subjects. Three hours following suppression of ...endogenous ACTH secretion with dexamethasone (1 mg orally), the adrenal response to a 10-min infusion of Cosyntropin (0.05 micrograms/kg body weight) was monitored for 2 1/2 hr by plasma cortisol measured at 15-min intervals. The depressed patients had significantly higher baseline plasma cortisol, but not higher baseline ACTH, than the controls. During the 3-hr post-dexamethasone (and prior to Cosyntropin infusion), the depressed patients maintained significantly higher cortisol secretion, but not higher ACTH secretion, than the controls. After Cosyntropin infusion, there were no differences in ACTH and cortisol increases between the two groups. These findings stand in contrast to previous reports of enhanced adrenal responsiveness to the administration of much larger amounts of Cosyntropin in major depression.
The British Columbia (BC) Cervical Cytology Screening Programme (CCSP), implemented since 1955, has resulted in a 75% decrease in both the mortality from and incidence of invasive squamous cervical ...carcinoma. However, despite this effect, the Native Indian population still present an overall mortality rate four times higher than that of the non-Native population. A demonstration project was initiated in four Native Indian Band communities of BC to determine the reasons underlying these findings. The participation patterns to the CCSP were investigated and revealed that the overall percentage of participation to the CCSP among Native Indian women was 30% lower than that of the non-Native population. Reasons for the under-participation to the CCSP were explored. A total of 36 women, 9 in each of the 4 communities, including current users, ex-users and never users, were interviewed. Reasons for not participating in the CCSP were due mainly to (1) the lack of knowledge about the Pap test and about its importance; (2) feelings of embarrassment and shamefulness; (3) lack of continuity of care due to the high turnover of physicians in the Native communities. Based on the study findings, a pilot CCSP clinic will be implemented in each community. In addition to taking cervical smears, this pilot project will include education sessions, notification about the results of the test, and recall for annual check up.
We have searched for signatures of polarization in hadronic jets from ital Zsup 0r arrowital qbar q decays using the jet handedness'' method. The polar angle asymmetry induced by the high SLAC Linear ...Collider electron-beam polarization was used to separate quark jets from antiquark jets, expected to be left and right polarized, respectively. We find no evidence for jet handedness in our global sample or in a sample of light quark jets, and we set upper limits at the 95% C.L. of 0.063 and 0.099, respectively, on the magnitude of the analyzing power of the method proposed by Efremov ital et ital al.
Cisplatin/etoposide/bleomycin (DEB) was given as an outpatient regimen in a novel weekly schedule to 27 patients with recurrent and/or widely metastatic cancer of the head and neck region. Six of ...these patients also received mitomycin (DEB/M) when their disease failed to respond after at least three weekly DEB doses. All but three patients had been treated previously with radiotherapy directed to the primary site and regional nodal disease; four had also received chemotherapy with cisplatin or carboplatin. Before treatment with DEB, 19 patients had distant metastases. Of an intended 12 doses per patient, a mean of 8.2 was achieved. Myelosuppression was the major toxicity, with neutropenia in 45% of patients and significant anemia in 26%. The overall response rate to DEB in 27 patients was 59%, increasing to 70% after the addition of mitomycin. There were two complete and 17 partial responses. The median duration of response was 12 weeks and median survival was 6 months, with 20% of patients surviving 1 year. We conclude that the relatively short survival time together with the significant toxicity of the DEB/M regimen does not warrant its routine use in clinical practice. However, this regimen, or one patterned on it, should be evaluated in combination with radiotherapy as the initial treatment for selected patients with previously untreated head and neck cancer.
Specific TCR V gamma and V delta segments are found to be coordinately used on subpopulations of gamma delta T lymphocytes. The reasons for this phenomenon are unknown, but may include the inability ...of particular chains expressing unique V delta and V gamma segments to physically associate. V delta 2 is typically used together with V gamma 2 on human peripheral blood gamma delta T lymphocytes. To examine whether V delta 2 can be used in conjunction with distinct V gamma segments, a TCR- mutant of the human gamma delta T cell line MOLT-13, which expresses parental TCR gamma (V gamma 1.3) but not TCR-delta protein, was transfected with plasmids containing full-length TCR-delta cDNA using either V delta 2 or V delta 3. TCR reconstitution was successful in both transfectants and resulted in TCR protein and RNA levels similar to that of the parental MOLT-13 cell line. These cell lines could be activated through their receptors as assessed by increases in cytoplasmic free calcium. These studies imply that physical constraints cannot explain the observed chain pairing preferences. Other possible explanations are discussed.
We present a precise measurement of the left-right cross section asymmetry (ital Asub ital Lital R) for ital Z boson production by ital esup +ital esup minus collisions. The measurement was performed ...at a center-of-mass energy of 91.26 GeV with the SLD detector at the SLAC Linear Collider (SLC). The luminosity-weighted average polarization of the SLC electron beam was (63.0plus minus1.1)%. Using a sample of 49 392 ital Z decays, we measure ital Asub ital Lital R to be 0.1628plus minus0.0071(stat)plus minus0.0028(syst) which determines the effective weak mixing angle to be sinsup 2thetasub ital Wsup eff=0.2292plus minus0.0009(stat) plus minus0.0004(syst).
Serum prolactin and blood levels of haloperidol were assessed in schizophrenic patients after single acute oral doses of haloperidol and during fixed dose treatment with this medication. Although ...significant intrapatient correlations between prolactin responses to different doses of haloperidol were found, no statistically significant interpatient relationship between haloperidol dose and prolactin response emerged. There were statistically significant relationships between steady-state plasma and red cell haloperidol levels (measured by radioreceptor or gas liquid chromatographic techniques) and serum prolactin response, but not between blood levels after the acute haloperidol dose and prolactin response.
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