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This article explores whether the impact of marital status on the risk of preterm birth varies in relation to marital practices in the population, defined by the proportion of out-of-marriage births. Data come from a case–control study of the determinants of preterm birth in 16 European countries (5456 cases and 8234 controls). There is a significantly elevated risk of preterm birth associated wit

Circling behaviour in unilateral 6-OHDA-lesioned rats is interpreted as being opposite in direction to the side of the brain with highest striatal dopaminergic activation. Ipsiversive rotation indicates an action on the intact striatum, while contraversive rotation demonstrates an effect on dopamine receptors in the denervated striatum and is taken as predictive of symptomatic benefit in Parkinson

We have investigated the dissolution of a natural oxide layer on a Nb(110) surface upon heating, combining x-ray reflectivity, grazing incidence diffuse scattering, and core-level spectroscopy. The natural oxide reduces after heating to 145 degrees C partially from Nb2O5 to NbO2, and an enrichment in subsurface interstitial oxygen by similar to 70% in a depth of 100 A is observed. After heating to

Both reduction in tidal volume (VT) and alveolar recruitment may be important to limit ventilator-associated lung injury during mechanical ventilation of patients with the acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS). The aim of this study was to assess the risk of alveolar derecruitment associated with VT reduction from 10 to 6 ml/kg. Whether this VT-related derecruitment could be reversed, either

By changing the three-dimensional structure, a protein can attain new functions, distinct from those of the native protein. Amyloid-forming proteins are one example, in which conformational change may lead to fibril formation and, in many cases, neurodegenerative disease. We have proposed that partial unfolding provides a mechanism to generate new and useful functional variants from a given polype

In this study, the signal cascade transducing carbachol stimulation into c-fos expression in SH-SY5Y neuroblastoma cells was investigated. 1,2-Diacylglycerol formation and c-fos expression were mediated via stimulation of muscarinic M1 receptors and the first 5 min of receptor stimulation were critical for these events. Application of 1,2-dioctanoylglycerol induced c-fos expression and this, as we

Solid state quantum computer hardware may be based on rare-earth-ion-doped crystals. The qubits can be encoded as nuclear spin states of an ensemble of, e.g., Pr3+ ions, randomly doped into a Y2SiO5 crystal. Two such qubits can control each other through the dipole blockade effect, and transfers between the two qubit states can be done at a high fidelity, despite the strongly inhomogeneous nature

Purpose To test the value of serum CA-125 measurements alone or as part of a multimodal strategy to distinguish between malignant and benign ovarian tumors before surgery based on a large prospective multicenter study (International Ovarian Tumor Analysis). Patients and Methods Patients with at least one persistent ovarian mass preoperatively underwent transvaginal ultrasonography using gray scale

We discuss the recent discovery by Oppenheimer et al. of old, cool white dwarf stars, which may be the first direct detection of Galactic halo dark matter. We argue here that the contribution of more mundane white dwarfs of the stellar halo and thick disc would contribute sufficiently to explain the new high velocity white dwarfs without invoking putative white dwarfs of the dark halo. This by no

The nonobese diabetic ( NOD) Nss1 and Idd5 loci have been associated with sialadenitis development in mice. In this study the NOD Nss1 and Idd5 loci were backcrossed onto the healthy control strain B10. Q by using the speed congenic breeding strategy, resulting in three congenic strains: B10. Q. Nss1, B10. Q. Nss1/Idd5 heterozygous and B10. Q. Nss1/Idd5 homozygous. We investigated the effects of t

A method to determine the internal stress state across the grain of glued laminated wood (glulam), as well as the experimental equipment for measuring released deformation are described in this paper. The internal stress state is calculated from measured released deformations, which are measured by a contact free method based on a digital camera technique. Nondestructive measurement of the modulus

The ribosome has a distinct lateral protuberance called the stalk; in eukaryotes it is formed by the acidic ribosomal P-proteins which are organized as a pentameric entity described as P0-(P1-P2)(2). Bilateral interactions between P0 and P1/P2 proteins have been studied extensively, however, the region on P0 responsible for the binding of P1/P2 proteins has not been precisely defined. Here we repo

Huntington's disease (HD) is a hereditary neurodegenerative disorder caused by a CAG repeat expansion in the HD gene. Excitotoxic cell damage by excessive stimulation of glutamate receptors has been hypothesized to contribute to the pathogenesis of HD. Transgenic mouse models of HD have shown variable sensitivity to excitotoxicity. The models differ in the genetic background, the type and length o

Event-related potentials (ERPs) were recorded from 13 scalp sites during the performance of an associative recall task. At study, subjects were presented with a series of word pairs and were required to incorporate the two members of each pair into a sentence. At test, the first members of each pair were presented intermixed with an equal number of unstudied items. Subjects were required to discri

Ferric uptake regulator (Fur) and Fur-like proteins form an important family of transcriptional regulators in many bacterial species. In this work we have characterized a Fur-like protein, the peroxide regulator PerR, in an M1 serotype of Streptococcus pyogenes. To determine the role of PerR in S. pyogenes, we inactivated the gene by allelic replacement. PerR-deficient bacteria showed 48% reductio