Deterioration of olfaction and gustation as a consequence of total laryngectomy.

Introduction: After total laryngectomy the absence of a nasal airflow results in a decrease in olfaction and perception of flavors.

Materials And Methods: Odor perception was assessed in 63 laryngectomized patients with two different olfactory tests. The methods used by patients to smell were observed during olfactory testing.

A meta-analysis of residual disease and survival in stage III and IV carcinoma of the ovary.

Unlabelled: A meta-analysis of retrospective studies was performed to determine the value of cytoreductive surgery separately for Stage III and IV ovarian cancer.

Design: A literature search and personal communications were used to identify studies reporting patient numbers and survival data at 2 years and/or 5 years in patients with no residual, < = 2 cm and > 2 cm residual disease after surgery for Stage III and IV ovarian cancer. An odds ratio (OR) with 95% confidence intervals was performed on the data using the Cochran-Mantel-Haeszel procedure.

Electric permittivity and dielectric dispersion of low-molecular weight DNA at low ionic strength.

The dielectric properties of sonicated calf-thymus DNA (MW approximately 3 X 10(5) g mol-1) have been investigated in a frequency range between a few kHz and 100 MHz. Two samples, sonicated in a different way were used after proper characterization including light-scattering, viscometry and contour length distribution by electron microscopy. Dielectric measurements were performed at several concentrations between 10(-4) and 3 X 10(-3) monomol 1-1 and 22 degrees C.

Electro-optical studies on synthetic polyelectrolytes. IV. Electric polarizability and conformation of poly-N-methyl-2-vinylpyridinium bromide in aqueous solution.

Measurements of the relaxation time on aqueous solutions of the title polyelectrolyte as a function of the concentration and of the molecular weight show that its conformation at very high dilution can be better accounted for by a weakly bending rod or wormlike chain model, with persistence length ranging from 200 to 400 A. The analysis of the field strength dependence of the electric birefringence yields electric polarizability values which increase sharply with the dilution and are not significantly dependent upon the molecular weight. This has been tentatively interpreted on the basis of the theories derived by Oosawa and by Mandel and Van der Touw.