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- Pfaller, M.A., et al.
(författare)
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Twelve years of fluconazole in clinical practice : Global-trends in species distribution and fluconazole susceptibility of bloodstream isolates of Candida
- 2004
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Ingår i: Clinical Microbiology and Infection. - : Elsevier BV. - 1198-743X .- 1469-0691. ; 10:SUPPL. 1, s. 11-23
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- We determined the species distribution and in-vitro susceptibility of 6082 bloodstream infection (BSI) isolates of Candida spp. collected from 250 medical centres in 32 nations over a 10-year period from 1992 through 2001. The species included 3401 C. albicans, 984 C. glabrata, 796 C. parapsilosis, 585 C. tropicalis, 153 C. krusei, 67 C. lusitaniae, 48 C. guilliermondii, 10 C. famata, 10 C. kefyr, six C. pelliculosa, five C. rugosa, four C. lipolytica, three C. dubliniensis, three C. inconspicua, two C. sake and one isolate each of C. lambica, C. norvegensis and C. zeylanoides. Minimum inhibitory concentration determinations were made using the National Committee for Clinical Laboratory Standards reference broth microdilution method. Variation in the rank order and frequency of the different species of Candida was observed over time and by geographic area. The proportion of BSI due to C. albicans and C. glabrata increased and C. parapsilosis decreased over time in Canada, the USA and Europe. C. glabrata was an infrequent cause of BSI in Latin America and the Asia-Pacific region. Very little variation in fluconazole susceptibility was observed among isolates of C. albicans, C. tropicalis and C. parapsilosis. These species accounted for 78% of all BSI and remained highly susceptible (91-100% susceptible) to fluconazole from 1992 to 2001 irrespective of geographic origin. The prevalence of fluconazole resistance among C. glabrata isolates was variable both over time and among the various countries and regions. Resistance to fluconazole among C. glabrata isolates was greatest in the USA and varied by US census region (range 0-23%). These observations are generally encouraging relative to the sustained usefulness of fluconazole as a systemically active antifungal agent for the treatment of candida BSI. © 2004 Copyright by the European Society of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases.
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- Berggren, Magnus, et al.
(författare)
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Polymer based electrochemical devices for logic functions and paper displays
- 2003
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Konferensbidrag (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Here, we report on devices based on patterned thin films of the conducting polymer system poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene) doped with poly(styrene sulphonic acid) (PEDOT:PSS) combined with patterns of solid electrolyte. The key device functionalities base on the updating of the RedOx state of PEDOT. This results in control of the electronic properties of this conjugated polymer, i.e. the conductivity and optical properties are updated. Based on this we have achieved electric current rectifiers, transistors and display cells. Also, matrix addressed displays will be presented. Electrochemical switching is taking place when the oxidation and reduction potentials are overcome respectively. Therefore, these devices operate at voltage levels less then 2 Volts. Low voltage operation is achieved in devices not requiring any extremely narrow dimensions, as is the case for field effect driven devices. All devices reported can or has been made using standard printing techniques on flexible carriers.
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- Hall, F.G., et al.
(författare)
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The boreal climate.
- 2004
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Ingår i: Vegetation, Water, Humans and Climate. A New Perspective on an Interactive System.. - : Springer Verlag: Berlin-New York. - 3540424008 ; , s. 119-150
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Bokkapitel (refereegranskat)
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- Helczynski, L., et al.
(författare)
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Cross Phase Modulation Induced Pulse Splitting - The Optical Axe
- 2000
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Ingår i: Physica scripta. T. - 0281-1847. ; 84, s. 81-84
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- An analytical as well as numerical analysis is made of the dynamics induced on a weak signal wave pulse by a co-propagating strong pump wave pulse in a nonlinear Kerr medium. Emphasis is given to the situation where the group velocity dispersion and the non-linearity of the signal pulse have opposite signs. In this defocusing situation, it is demonstrated that the pump splits the signal pulse into two frequency shifted pulse fragments which separate in time, asymptotically with constant separation velocity. Explicit analytical predictions for the velocity of separation are obtained and corroborated by numerical simulations.
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- Naumburg, Estelle, et al.
(författare)
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Intrauterine exposure to diagnostic X rays and risk of childhood leukemia subtypes
- 2001
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Ingår i: Radiation Research. - 0033-7587 .- 1938-5404. ; 156, s. 718-
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The relationship between childhood leukemia and prenatal exposure to low-dose ionizing radiation remains debatable. This population-based case-control study investigated the association between prenatal exposure to diagnostic X-ray examinations (for different types of examinations and at different stages of pregnancy) and the risk of childhood lymphatic and myeloid leukemia. All children born and diagnosed with leukemia between 1973-1989 in Sweden (578 lymphatic and 74 myeloid) were selected as cases, and each was matched (by sex and year of birth) to a healthy control child (excluding Down's syndrome). Exposure data were abstracted blindly from all available medical records. Odds ratios (OR) and 95% confidence intervals (CI) were calculated by conditional logistic regression. It was found that prenatal X-ray examinations resulting in direct fetal exposure were not associated with a significant overall increased risk for childhood leukemia (OR = 1.11, 95% CI 0.83-1.47), for lymphatic leukemia (OR = 1.04, 95% CI 0.77-1.40), or for myeloid leukemia (OR = 1.49, 95% CI 0.48-4.72). There was little evidence of a dose response or variation in risk by trimester of exposure or age at diagnosis. Thus X-ray examinations performed during pregnancy in the 1970s and 1980s in Sweden did not affect the risk of childhood leukemia discernibly.
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- Oxelman, Bengt, et al.
(författare)
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RPB2 gene phylogeny in flowering plants, with particular emphasis on asterids.
- 2004
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Ingår i: Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution. ; 32:2, s. 462-479
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Two, apparently functional, paralogues of the RPB2 gene, which encodes the second largest subunit of RNA polymerase II, are shown to be present in two major groups of asterid plants. Although all other land plants surveyed so far have been found to have only one of these two copies, the RPB2 gene phylogeny inferred from the 3' half of the gene for 35 angiosperm taxa and six other land plants indicates that the duplication of the RPB2 gene occurred earlier than the time for origin of the asterid group, probably near the origin of "core eudicots." The d copy is present in all plants which are unambiguously assigned to the core eudicots, whereas the I copy is retained only in the lamiid clade, Ericales, and Escallonia, all belonging to the asterid group of plants. Both parsimony and likelihood analyses of sequences from the 3' half of the gene give strong bootstrap support for these conclusions. There is no support for monophyly of the taxa having both copies. Thus, numerous losses of one of the copies must be inferred. Structurally, both paralogues appear functional, and transcription is demonstrated for both copies. In the lamiid group, the d copy has lost introns 18-23. The well supported phylogenetic relationships implied by the RPB2 gene phylogeny are largely congruent with well supported phylogenetic hypotheses based on other sequence data. However, Ilex, usually assigned to the campanuliid clade, is instead supported as being a member of the lamiid clade, both from sequence data and the presence of an I copy as well as the loss of introns 18-23 in the d copy. Escallonia, supported as a member of the campanuliid clade both by RPB2-d-sequences and previously published DNA sequence data, has all the introns 18-23 in its d copy, as do all other members studied from the campanuliid group. We used the Markov Chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) approach of the MrBayes program to implement Maximum Likelihood bootstrapping. Under the same model of evolution, bootstrapping frequencies are significantly lower than the Bayesian posterior probabilities inferred from the MCMC chain.PMID: 15223030 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]
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- Pavlenko, Tatjana, et al.
(författare)
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Towards the optimal feature selection in high-dimensional Bayesian network classifiers
- 2004
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Ingår i: SOFT METHODOLOGY AND RANDOM INFORMATION SYSTEMS. - : SPRINGER-VERLAG BERLIN. - 3540222642 ; , s. 613-620
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Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- We focus on Bayesian network (BN) classifiers and formalize the feature selection from a perspective of improving classification accuracy. To exploring the effect of high-dimensionality we apply the growing dimension asymptotics. We modify the weighted BN by introducing inclusion-exclusion factors which eliminate the features whose separation score do not exceed a given threshold. We establish the asymptotic optimal threshold and demonstrate that the proposed selection technique carries improvements over classification accuracy.
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- Rozema, J, et al.
(författare)
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The role of UV-B radiation in aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems—an experimental and functional analysis of the evolution of UV-absorbing compounds
- 2002
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Ingår i: Journal of Photochemistry and Photobiology, B: Biology. - 1011-1344. ; 66:1, s. 2-12
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- We analysed and compared the functioning of UV-B screening pigments in plants from marine, fresh water and terrestrial ecosystems, along the evolutionary line of cyanobacteria, unicellular algae, primitive multicellular algae, charophycean algae, lichens, mosses and higher plants, including amphibious macrophytes. Lichens were also included in the study. We were interested in the following key aspects: (a) does the water column function effectively as an ‘external UV-B filter’?; (b) do aquatic plants need less ‘internal UV-B screening’ than terrestrial plants?; (c) what role does UV screening play in protecting the various plant groups from UV-B damage, such as the formation of thymine dimers?; and (d) since early land ‘plants’ (such as the predecessors of present-day cyanobacteria, lichens and mosses) experienced higher UV-B fluxes than higher plants, which evolved later, are primitive aquatic and land organisms (cyanobacteria, algae, lichens, mosses) better adapted to present-day levels of UV-B than higher plants? Furthermore, polychromatic action spectra for the induction of UV screening pigments of aquatic organisms have been determined. This is relevant for translating ‘physical’ radiation measurements of solar UV-B into ‘biological’ and ‘ecological’ effects. From the action spectra, radiation amplification factors (RAFs) have been calculated. These action spectra allow us to determine any mitigating or antagonistic effects in the ecosystems and therefore qualify the damage prediction for the ecosystems under study. We summarize and discuss the main results based on three years of research of four European research groups. The central theme of the work was the investigation of the effectiveness of the various screening compounds from the different species studied in order to gain some perspective of the evolutionary adaptations from lower to higher plant forms. The induction of mycosporine-like amino acids (MAAs) was studied in the marine dinoflagellate Gyrodinium dorsum, the green algal species Prasiola stipitata and in the cyanobacterium Anabaena sp. While visible (400–700 nm) and long wavelength UV-A (315–400 nm) showed only a slight effect, MAAs were effectively induced by UV-B (280–315 nm). The growth of the lower land organisms studied, i.e. the lichens Cladina portentosa, Cladina foliacaea and Cladonia arbuscula, and the club moss Lycopodiumannotinum, was not significantly reduced when grown under elevated UV-B radiation (simulating 15% ozone depletion). The growth in length of the moss Tortula ruralis was reduced under elevated UV-B. Of the aquatic plants investigated the charophytes Chara aspera showed decreased longitudinal growth under elevated UV-B. In the ‘aquatic higher plants’ studied, Ceratophyllum demersum, Batrachium trichophyllum and Potamogeton alpinus, there was no such depressed growth with enhanced UV-B. In Chara aspera, neither MAAs nor flavonoids could be detected. Of the terrestrial higher plants studied, Fagopyrum esculentum, Deschampsia antarctica, Vicia faba, Calamagrostis epigejos and Carex arenaria, the growth of the first species was depressed with enhanced UV-B, in the second species length growth was decreased, but the shoot number was increased, and in the latter two species of a dune grassland there was no reduced growth with enhanced UV-B. In the dune grassland species studied outdoors, at least five different flavonoids appeared in shoot tissue. Some of the flavonoids in the monocot species, which were identified and quantified with HPLC, included orientin, luteolin, tricin and apigenin. A greenhouse study with Vicia faba showed that two flavonoids (aglycones) respond particularly to enhanced UV-B. Of these, quercetin is UV-B inducible and mainly located in epidermal cells, while kaempferol occurs constitutively. In addition to its UV-screening function, quercetin may also act as an antioxidant. Polychromatic action spectra were determined for induction of the UV-absorbing pigments in three photosynthetic organisms, representing very different taxonomic groups and different habitats. In ultraviolet photobiology, action spectra mainly serve two purposes: (1) identification of the molecular species involved in light absorption; and (2) calculation of radiation amplification factors for assessing the effect of ozone depletion. Radiation amplification factors (RAFs) were calculated from the action spectra. In a somewhat simplified way, RAF can be defined as the percent increase of radiation damage for a 1% depletion of the ozone layer. Central European summer conditions were used in the calculations, but it has been shown that RAF values are not critically dependent on latitude or season. If only the ultraviolet spectral region is considered, the RAF values obtained are 0.7 for the green alga Prasiola stipitata, 0.4 for the dinoflagellate Gyrodinium dorsum, and 1.0 for the cyanobacterium Anabaena sp. In the case of P. stipitata, however, the effect of visible light (PAR, photosynthetically active radiation, 400–700 nm) is sufficient to lower the RAF to about 0.4, while the PAR effect for G. dorsum is negligible. RAFs for some damage processes, such as for DNA damage (RAF=2.1 if protective effects or photorepair are not considered [1]), are higher than those above. Our interpretation of this is that if the ozone layer is depleted, increased damaging radiation could overrule increased synthesis of protective pigments. In addition to investigating the functional effectiveness of the different screening compounds, direct UV effects on a number of key processes were also studied in order to gain further insight into the ability of the organisms to withstand enhanced UV-B radiation. To this end, the temperature-dependent repair of cyclobutane dimers (CPD) and (6–4) photoproducts induced by enhanced UV-B was studied in Nicotiana tabacum, and the UV-B induction of CPD was studied in the lichen Cladonia arbuscula [2]. Also, photosynthesis and motility were monitored and the response related to the potential function of the screening compounds of the specific organism.
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- Skalin, J., et al.
(författare)
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A nonlinear time series model of El Niño
- 2001
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Ingår i: Environmental modelling & software : with environment data news. - : Elsevier Ltd. - 1873-6726 .- 1364-8152. ; 16:2, s. 139-146
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- A smooth transition autoregressive model is estimated for the Southern Oscillation Index, an index commonly used as a measure of El Niño events. Using standard measures there is no indication of nonstationarity in the index. A logistic smooth transition autoregressive model describes the most turbulent periods in the data (these correspond to El Niño events) better than a linear autoregressive model. The estimated nonlinear model passes a battery of diagnostic tests. A generalised impulse response function indicates local instability, but as deterministic extrapolation from the estimated model converges, the nonlinear model may still be useful for forecasting the El Niño Southern Oscillation a few months ahead.
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