Background: Recent studies have suggested that CD44 and/or CD133 expressing pancreatic cancer cells have potential abilities of self-renewal, tumorigenesis and tumor metastasis. The aim of this study was to investigate whether CD44 and CD133 expressions in primary tumor cells correlate to the survival and clinicopathological findings of pancreatic cancer patients. Methods: Pancreatic head carci...

This case report describes the fabrication of a prosthesis for the rehabilitation of an elderly male patient with a large facial defect after mandibulectomy. After surgical resection, the patient’s defect involved the lower lip and cheek and connected to the oral cavity. The surgeons desired a prosthetic solution to improve speech, mastication, deglutition, and esthetics. An acrylic base (Palap...

Air pollution is an increasing critical issue and the focus of innumerable studies and monitoring activities. In addition to automatic monitoring systems typically used to measure fine dust, ozone, nitrogen oxide and sulfur oxide, the use of bioaccumulation monitors can also be exploited, especially when monitoring large areas. The advantage of biomarkers is the very low costs involved compared...

Continuous discharge from a combined sewer overflow (CSO) into a tidal wetland creek in the New York City urban area was analyzed to assess the extent of water quality degradation during both dry and wet weather. A combination of fecal indicator bacteria (FIB), total suspended solids, and dissolved metals were used to infer the presence of sewage and fecal pollution from the CSO discharge and t...

Background Plasma endothelin concentrations are increased in the acute phase of myocardial infarction and in chronic heart failure. Since endothelin may contribute to hemodynamic deterioration by potent vasoconstrictory and cardiotoxic actions, increased plasma levels may be associated with an unfavorable prognosis after myocardial infarction. Methods and Results We tested the hypothesis that p...

A USGS scientist collects data from an automated sampling system moored in Malibu Lagoon (July 2009). Photograph by John Izbicki, USGS. Each year, over 550 million people visit California’s public beaches. To protect beach-goers from exposure to waterborne disease, California state law requires water-quality monitoring for fecal indicator bacteria (FIB), such as enterococci and Escherichia coli...

This paper uses the latest data from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) to compare the health systems of the thirty member countries in 2000. Total health spending—the distribution of public and private health spending in the OECD countries—is presented and discussed. U.S. public spending as a percentage of GDP (5.8 percent) is virtually identical to public spendin...

We present a catalog of 1888 distinct fundamental-mode RR Lyrae stars detected in the Galactic bulge fields of the second phase of the Optical Gravitational Lensing Experiment (OGLE), covering an area near 11 deg. These stars were selected primarily according to their light curve morphologies. The catalog includes basic parameters of the light curves, significant frequencies detected close to t...

The photochemica l iso tope separation sche mes have renewed the detailed in vestigati ons o f gas phase photophys ics and photochem istry of UF6 . O ne of the schemes is based o n massive multiphoton excitation o f UF6 us ing o ne or more suitab le IR laser frequcncy in 16l-lm region in its ground electronic state. In the present work we have mode lled such Infrared Multiphoton Di ssoc iati on...

Microbial contamination affects a large number of water bodies in the US. Because it is not feasible to directly monitor all pathogens, it is standard practice to monitor fecal indicator bacteria (FIB), such as total and fecal coliforms, Clostridium perfringens, Escherichia coli, and fecal enterococci, in water. Epidemiological studies have established human health standards based on exposure t...