it is now agreed that 10-25% of infertile men with azoospermia have submicroscopic deletions of the y chromosome long ann (yq), consistent with the proposed location of the azoospermia locus (azf) in yq 11.23. however, it is not known whether yq microdeletions are unique to men with azoospermia or whether they are also observed in infertile men with less severe defects of spermatogenesis (oligo...

Encroachment of tall grasses and shrubs in coastal dunes has resulted in loss of vegetation heterogeneity. This is expected to have negative effects on animal diversity. To counteract encroachment and develop structural heterogeneity grazing is a widely used management practice. Here, we aim to functionally interpret changes in vegetation composition and configuration following grazing manageme...

It is well established that the bacterium Thiobacillus thiooxidans is capable of growing in very strong mineral acid solutions and of producing, from elementary sulfur, sulfuric acid solutions more concentrated than 1 N and a reaction considerably below pH 1. This organism had been considered unique in its tolerance to acid until Starkey and Waksman (1943) demonstrated that certain fungi, Acont...

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Hemophilia, a common congenital coagulation disorder, is classified as hemophilia A (HA) and hemophilia B (HB), which result from a deficiency or dysfunction of coagulation factor VIII (FVIII) and factor IX (FIX), respectively. HA is known to be caused by heterogeneous mutations of the FVIII gene (F8), such as inversions, substitutions, deletions, insertions, etc. F8 (NM_000132.3) is located on...

bling times in metastatic malignant melanoma of the uvea: tumor progression before and after treatment. Ophthalmology. 2000;107(8):1443-1449. 8. Clarke M, Collins R, Darby S, et al. Effects of radiotherapy and of differences in the extent of surgery for early breast cancer on local recurrence and 15-year survival: an overview of the randomised trials. Lancet. 2005;366(9503):2087-2106. 9. Presch...

To the Editor: Cell-free fetal DNA in the maternal circulation holds great potential for noninvasive prenatal diagnosis (1, 2). However, the manual isolation of cell-free DNA from plasma can be a time-consuming process, and current techniques involving spin columns usually require multiple reloadings of the columns with sample material, increasing the risk of contamination (3–5). Use of an auto...

Background, aim and scope In 2005, a comprehensive comparison of life cycle impact assessment toxicity characterisation models was initiated by the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP)–Society for Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry (SETAC) Life Cycle Initiative, directly involving the model developers of CalTOX, IMPACT 2002, USES-LCA, BETR, EDIP, WATSON and EcoSense. In this paper, we ...

A dual-pump, electronic-resonance-enhanced (ERE) coherent anti-Stokes Raman scattering (CARS) technique for the measurement of minor species concentrations has been demonstrated. The frequency difference between a visible Raman pump beam and Stokes beam is tuned to a vibrational Q-branch Raman resonance of the nitric oxide (NO) molecule to create a Raman polarization in the medium. The second p...