Vitamin D receptor (VDR) genotype was determined in 66 Japanese patients with primary hyperparathyroidism (pHPT). In contrast to previous report showing an association between VDR genotype bb and the development of pHPT in a Swedish population, we did not find any differences in the frequencies of the VDR genotypes between pHPT and the control. The bone mineral density in the radius was signifi...

Cleaning is an effective way to lower the bacterial burden (BB) on surfaces and minimize the infection risk to patients. However, BB can quickly return. Copper, when used to surface hospital bed rails, was found to consistently limit surface BB before and after cleaning through its continuous antimicrobial activity.

BB-CLASS is an ANSI C computer program that uses the Beta-B inomial model (and its extensions) for CLASS ification consistency and accuracy. It is intended to provide results for both the Hanson and Brennan (1990) and Livingston and Lewis (1995) procedures, although BB-CLASS has some capabilities that slightly extend these procedures. Both Macintosh and PC versions of BB-CLASS are available.

Creatine kinase isoenzyme BB (CK-BB) is found in the serum of patients with various types of cancer. Using both radioimmunoassay and agarose electrophoresis, we found abnormal amounts of this isoenzyme in the serum of 15 of 17 patients with untreated prostatic carcinoma. Among patients with other types of adenocarcinomas and metastatic disease, serum CK-BB was increased in most of those who wer...

CONTEXT AND OBJECTIVE Bordetella bronchiseptica (BB) is a Gram-negative coccobacillus responsible for respiratory diseases in dogs, cats and rabbits. Reports on its development in humans are rare. However, in immunosuppressed patients, especially in those with the immunodeficiency virus (HIV), BB can cause severe pulmonary infections. We report on two cases of pneumonia caused by BB in HIV-posi...

[1] The impact of aerosols on regional air quality and climate necessitates improved understanding of their emission and microphysical properties. The size distributions of black carbon (BC) and light scattering particles (LSP) were measured with a single particle soot photometer on board the NASA DC-8 aircraft during the ARCTAS mission 2008. Air sampling was made in the air plumes of both urba...

During vascular development, endothelial platelet-derived growth factor B (PDGF-B) is critical for pericyte recruitment. Deletion of the conserved C-terminal heparin-binding motif impairs PDGF-BB retention and pericyte recruitment in vivo, suggesting a potential role for heparan sulfate (HS) in PDGF-BB function during vascular development. We studied the participation of HS chains in pericyte r...

Activation of vascular smooth muscle cells (SMCs) by platelet-derived growth factor (PDGF) is a seminal event in the initiation and progression of the atherosclerotic lesion and may contribute to atherosclerotic plaque instability with plaque rupture and thrombus formation. Tissue factor (TF), a prothrombotic molecule expressed by various cell types within atherosclerotic plaques, is thought to...

Background—Current guidelines emphasize the need for optimal medical therapy before implantation of cardiac devices (implantable cardioverter-defibrillator, cardiac resynchronization therapy). Our objective was to evaluate use of -blockers (BB) among patients with heart failure undergoing a cardiac device procedure. Methods and Results—We used a large, multistate, managed-care database (January...

Strong and fast ‘‘bang-bang’’ ~BB! pulses have been recently proposed as a means for reducing decoherence in a quantum system. So far theoretical analysis of the BB technique relied on model Hamiltonians. Here we introduce a method for empirically determining the set of required BB pulses, that relies on quantum process tomography. In this manner an experimenter may tailor his or her BB pulses ...