ABSTRACT
Neutrinos are elementary particles that carry no electric charge and have little mass. As they interact only weakly with other particles, they can penetrate enormous amounts of matter, and therefore have the potential to directly convey astrophysical information from the edge of the Universe and from deep inside the most cataclysmic high-energy regions. The neutrino's great penetrating power, however, also makes this particle difficult to detect. Underground detectors have observed low-energy neutrinos from the Sun and a nearby supernova, as well as neutrinos generated in the Earth's atmosphere. But the very low fluxes of high-energy neutrinos from cosmic sources can be observed only by much larger, expandable detectors in, for example, deep water or ice. Here we report the detection of upwardly propagating atmospheric neutrinos by the ice-based Antarctic muon and neutrino detector array (AMANDA). These results establish a technology with which to build a kilometre-scale neutrino observatory necessary for astrophysical observations.
ABSTRACT
The diagnostic specificity of a new method to detect obstructive jaundice by determination of lipoprotein X (LP-X) was tested in 144 patients with different kinds of hepatic diseases and compared with the usual chemical "obstructive jaundice specific" tests, such as bilirubin, SGOT, SGPT, alkaline phosphatase, LAP and gamma-GT. The LP-X test was performed by using all-in test kit LP-X Rapidophor" low-voltage electrophoresis of Immuno AG/Wien. The results were correlated with the histological classification of the liver biopsy specimen. In 82% of the histologically verified cases of obstructive jaundice the result of the LP-X test was positive, whilst in 98.5% of the histologically negative cases the result of the LP-X test was negative. Hence, this LP-X method proved superior to chemical methods in providing a clear-cut positive or negative answer to the presence of cholestasis. Furthermore, the LP-X test was suitable for long-term follow-up investigation of patients with obstructive jaundice.
