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Individual aspects of social capital have been shown to have significant associations with health outcomes. However, research has seldom tested different elements of social capital simultaneously, whilst also adjusting for other well-known health determinants over time. This longitudinal individual-level study investigates how temporal changes in social capital, together with changes in material c

Rationale, aims and objectives Studies have challenged the validity and underlying measurement model of the physical and mental component summary scores of the 36-item Short-Form Health Survey in, for example the elderly and people with neurological disorders. However, it is unclear to what extent these observations translate to physical and mental component summary scores derived from the 12-item

As a response against serious infection, there is often a need to produce more leukocytes to defend the organism against the infectious agent. In this issue of Cell Stem Cell, Goodell and colleagues (Feng et al., 2008) find a link between regulators of host defense and hematopoietic stem cells.

BACKGROUND: We previously observed that allergen-exposed mice exhibit remodeling of large bronchial-associated blood vessels. The aim of the study was to examine whether vascular remodeling occurs also in vessels where a spill-over effect of bronchial remodeling molecules is less likely. METHODS: We used an established mouse model of allergic airway inflammation, where an allergic airway inflammat

Paralysis of the orbicularis oculi muscle in patients with a facial nerve injury causes functional and cosmetic disabilities including inability to close the eyelid. This complication is often treated by implanting a gold weight in the upper eyelid, which, however, is not without side effects. Four patients are described who, after lid loading with a gold implant, acquired an inflammatory reaction

The outcome of management of diabetic foot ulcers remains a challenge and there remains continuing uncertainty concerning optimal approaches to management. It is for these reasons that in 2008 and 2012 the International Working Group of the Diabetic Foot (IWGDF) working group on wound healing published systematic reviews of the evidence to inform protocols for routine care and to highlight areas w

The aim was to perform a bibliometric study, and compare the quantity of publications on schizophrenia with the total medical literature in Medline during 57 years, 1950-2006. The annual additions of literature to Medline are continually increasing and form the Medline growth curve. Comparisons of the number of publications on schizophrenia, or any other disease, to this curve, may be used to esti

Congenital disorders of glycosylation (CDG) arise from pathogenic mutations in over one hundred genes leading to impaired protein or lipid glycosylation. ALG1 encodes a β1,4 mannosyltransferase that catalyzes the addition of the first of nine mannose moieties to form a dolichol-lipid linked oligosaccharide intermediate (DLO) required for proper N-linked glycosylation. ALG1 mutations cause a rare a

Association of nanoparticles with blood coagulation proteins may influence the natural balance between pro-and anticoagulant pathways. We investigated whether polystyrene nanoparticles, when added to human plasma, affected the generation of thrombin in plasma. Amine-modified nanoparticles were found to decrease the thrombin formation due to binding of factor VII and IX to the nanoparticles, which

In this paper we address the tracking problem for a class of non-holonomic chained-form control systems. We present a simple solution for both the state feedback and the dynamic output feedback problem. The proposed controllers are linear and render the tracking error dynamics globally 𝒦-exponentially stable. We also deal with both control problems under input saturation. Application of t

An efficient method is proposed for the evaluation of the absorption and the transport scattering coefficients from a time-resolved reflectance or transmittance distribution. The procedure is based on a library of Monte Carlo simulations and is fast enough to be used in a nonlinear fitting algorithm. Tests performed against both Monte Carlo simulations and experimental measurements on tissue phant

The influence of two different concentrations of iv naloxone infusion on the analgesia and adverse effects of epidural morphine were compared in a double-blind, placebo-controlled study. Forty-five patients undergoing gallbladder surgery were provided postoperative analgesia by 4 mg epidural morphine; they then received an iv infusion over a 12-h period consisting of either 5 micrograms X kg-1 X h

Introduction Angiotensin-receptor blockers may exert favourable anti-arrhythmic effects in atrial fibrillation (AF), but their mechanisms are not fully understood. In this study, we tested the hypotheses that (i) candesartan reduces atrial fibrillatory rate and (ii) fibrillatory rate and its response to candesartan are related with the outcome of cardioversion. For this purpose, a post hoc subanal

We monitored gastrin release in response to locally applied candidate messengers in intact conscious rats. Earlier studies have been performed on anaesthetized animals, isolated pieces of antrum, or purified preparations of gastrin cells. In this study we created an experimental situation to resemble physiological conditions, using reverse microdialysis to administer regulatory peptides and amines

Adjuvant pelvic radiotherapy has the potential to eradicate micrometastases within the irradiated field but has not resulted in survival improvements in randomized studies. This illustrates the need for systemic therapy. Chemotherapy, mainly with anthracyclines, platinum compounds, and taxanes, renders high response rates although this unfortunately translates in only modest improvements in progre

Aim. The aim of this study was to investigate the role of two candidate gene polymorphisms for insulin resistance and lipid levels in obese children and adolescents. Methods. Two markers of insulin resistance and lipid levels, Pro12Ala in peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor-gamma2 (PPARG) and G276T in adiponectin (ADIPOQ), were genotyped in 285 obese children and adolescents. As the apolipo

A possible downstream effect of high in-hospital bed occupancy is that patients in the emergency department (ED) who would benefit from in-hospital care are denied admission. The present study aimed at evaluating this hypothesis through investigating associations between in-hospital bed occupancy at the time of presentation in the ED and the probability for unplanned 72-hour (72-h) revisits to the

Structural flexibility is an essential attribute, without which few proteins could carry out their biological functions. Much information about protein flexibility has come from x-ray crystallography, in the form of atomic mean-square displacements (AMSDs) or B factors. Profiles showing the AMSD variation along the polypeptide chain are usually interpreted in dynamical terms but are ultimately gov

The t(5;12) translocation, associated with chronic myelomonocytic leukemia, generates a novel gene encoding a protein, TEL-PDGF beta R, composed of the 154 amino-terminal amino acids of the transcription factor TEL and the transmembrane and intracellular part of the PDGF beta-receptor (PDGF beta R). TEL also occurs as a tumor-associated fusion partner for the tyrosine kinases c-ABL, JAK2 and TRK-C