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A system of three dipole-coupled spins exhibits a surprisingly intricate relaxation behavior. Following Hubbard's pioneering 1958 study, many authors have investigated different aspects of this problem. Nevertheless, on revisiting this classic relaxation problem, we obtain several new results, some of which are at variance with conventional wisdom. Most notably from a fundamental point of view, we

We sought to identify novel pharmacogenetic markers associated with cardiovascular outcomes in patients with hypertension on antihypertensive therapy. We genotyped a 1:4 case:control cohort (n=1345) on the Illumina HumanCVD Beadchip from the INternational VErapamil SR-Trandolapril STudy (INVEST), where participants were randomized to a -blocker strategy or a calcium channel blocker strategy. Genom

Recognition of asthma as a heterogeneous disease revealed different potential molecular targets and urged the development of targeted, customized treatment modalities. Evidence was provided for different inflammatory subsets of asthma and more recently, further refined to T helper (Th)2-high and Th2-low subphenotypes with different responsiveness to standard and targeted pharmacotherapy. Given the

Atypical haemolytic uraemic syndrome (aHUS) is associated with dysfunction of the alternative pathway of complement. Disease activity subsides as renal failure progresses but recurs upon renal transplantation, indicating that viable renal tissue contributes to disease activity. We present evidence of cerebrovascular occlusive disease indicating that vascular injury may occur in the absence of kidn

The locus encompassing the corticosteroidogenic genes CYP11B2 and CYP11B1 is of potential importance in essential hypertension. We analyzed the association of polymorphisms at this locus with risk of essential hypertension, using 2 white case-control collections for discovery (n = 3340) and confirmation (n = 2929). Single-marker and haplotype analyses were performed, with the CYP11B2 Intron 2 Conv

In the present study, we were able to produce composites of wheat gluten (WG) protein and a novel genetically modified potato starch (MPS) with attractive mechanical and gas barrier properties using extrusion. Characterization of the MPS revealed an altered chain length distribution of the amylopectin fraction and slightly increased amylose content compared to wild type potato starch. WG and MPS o

Motivation: The question of how to best use information from known associated variants when conducting disease association studies has yet to be answered. Some studies compute a marginal P-value for each Several Nucleotide Polymorphisms independently, ignoring previously discovered variants. Other studies include known variants as covariates in logistic regression, but a weakness of this standard

Human fear is important in wildlife management, but self-reported fear provides only partial information about fear reactions. Thus, eye movements, skin conductance, and changes in heart rate were assessed during picture viewing, visual search, and implicit evaluation tasks. Pictures of bears, wolves, moose, and hares were presented to participants who self-reported as fearful of bears (n = 8), fe

Background: The impact of fire on carbon cycling in tropical forests is potentially large, but remains poorly quantified, particularly in the locality of the transition forests that mark the boundaries between humid forests and savannas. Aims: To present the first comprehensive description of the impact of repeated low intensity, understorey fire on carbon cycling in a semi-deciduous, seasonally d

Introduction In early-stage atherosclerosis, the luminal surface of the arterial wall becomes rough because of detachment of endothelial cells and degeneration of the internal elastic layer. Therefore, it would be useful if minute luminal surface roughness of the carotid arterial wall, which occurs in the early stage of atherosclerosis, could be measured noninvasively with ultrasound. The injured

The amount of carbon (C) stored in soil is an important regulator for the global climate and soil fertility and is the balance between formation and decomposition of soil organic matter (SOM). Decomposition of SOM can be powerfully affected by labile carbon (C) supplements in, for example, the rhizosphere. A stimulation of SOM mineralisation induced by labile C additions is termed priming', and th

A search has been performed for pair production of heavy vectorlike down-type (B) quarks. The analysis explores the lepton-plus-jets final state, characterized by events with one isolated charged lepton (electron or muon), significant missing transverse momentum, and multiple jets. One or more jets are required to be tagged as arising from b quarks, and at least one pair of jets must be tagged as

Introduction: Cartilage oligomeric matrix protein (COMP) is found at elevated concentrations in sera of patients with joint diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and osteoarthritis (OA). We recently showed that COMP activates complement via the alternative pathway and that COMP-C3b complexes are present in sera of RA patients, but not in healthy controls. We now set out to elaborate on the in

Apolipoprotein B (ApoB) of low-density lipoprotein (LDL) causes endothelial dysfunction in the initial stage of atherogenesis. The present study was designed to explore the underlying molecular mechanisms involved. Rat mesenteric arteries were organ cultured in the presence of different concentrations of ApoB or LDL. Vasodilation induced by acetylcholine was monitored by a sensitive myograph. Nitr

Parasites may influence the outcome of interspecific competition between closely related host species through lower parasite virulence in the host with which they share the longer evolutionary history. We tested this idea by comparing the prevalence of avian malaria (Haemosporidia) lineages and their association with survival in pied and collared flycatchers (Ficedula hypoleuca and F. albicollis)

Despite the unprecedented interest in organic-inorganic metal halide perovskite solar cells, quantitative information on the charge transfer dynamics into selective electrodes is still lacking. In this paper, we report the time scales and mechanisms of electron and hole injection and recombination dynamics at organic PCBM and Spiro-OMeTAD electrode interfaces. On the one hand, hole transfer is com

A search is reported for the pair production of a new quark b' with at least one b' decaying to a Z boson and a bottom quark. The data, corresponding to 2.0 fb(-1) of integrated luminosity, were collected from pp collisions at root s = 7 TeV with the ATLAS detector at the CERN Large Hadron Collider. Using events with a b-tagged jet and a Z boson reconstructed from opposite-charge electrons, the ma

Binding of HIV to C-type lectin receptors may either result in enhanced trans-infection of T cells or virus degradation. We have investigated the efficacy of HIV-1 utilization of Dendritic Cell-Specific Intercellular adhesion molecule-3-Grabbing Non-integrin (DC-SIGN), a C-type lectin receptor, in the setting of intrauterine or intrapartum mother-to-child transmission. Viruses isolated from HIV-1

Bacterial colonization of the lower respiratory tract is frequently seen in COPD and may cause exacerbations leading to deterioration of the disease. An important part of the innate lung immunity is antimicrobial peptides, not least the cathelicidin hCAP-18/LL-37. Peptidylarginine deiminases (PADI) posttranslationally modifies proteins by converting cationic peptidylarginine residues to neutral pe