The year 2007 was an extraordinary year for the U.S. patent system. In a response to far-reaching proposals for significant changes in substantive and procedural patent law, the House of Representatives adopted the 2007 Patent Reform Act in September, heating up the debate over crucial issues that are now being discussed in the U.S. Senate.(1) Moreover, the U.S. Supreme Court also turned its atten

Objective. To investigate 1 functional (rs17266594) and 2 potentially functional (rs10516487 and rs3733197) BANK1 variants, which were previously identified as systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) susceptibility markers, to test whether they are associated with rheumatoid arthritis (RA). Methods. Four different cohorts were included in the study: 1,080 RA patients and 1,368 healthy controls from Spa

The degree of immunoreactive connexin43 (C x 43) in rat lung was evaluated during the development of radiation-induced pulmonary fibrosis in rat by a double immunofluorescence technique using polyclonal antisera to Cx43 and monoclonal antibodies to cytokeratins on cryostat sections. In normal rat lungs, Cx43 was detected in pneumocytes type II and I, in large blood vessel endothelia, in peribronch

The focus of the present paper is a late posterior negative slow wave (LPN) that has frequently been reported in event-related potential (ERP) studies of memory. An overview of these studies suggests that two broad classes of experimental conditions tend to elicit this component: (a) item recognition tasks associated with enhanced action monitoring demands arising from response conflict and (b) me

Background: Electroconvulsive seizure (ECS)-treatment, a model for electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) has been shown to induce proliferation of endothelial cells in the dentate gyrus (DG) of adult rats. Here we quantified the net angiogenic response after hypoxia a known inducer of aniogenesis. Therefore we also examined the effect of oxygenation on ECS-induced proliferation of endothelial cells. Met

A numerical method for the transient moisture flow in porous cellulosic materials like paper and wood is presented. The derivation of the model is based on mass conservation for a mixture containing a vapour phase and an adsorbed water phase embedded in a porous solid material. The principle of virtual moisture concentrations in conjunction with a consistent linearization procedure is used to prod

BACKGROUND: Earlier studies have found that transthyretin (TTR) is reduced in cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) from patients with major depressive disorder and that levels correlate negatively with suicidal ideation. The purpose of this study was to examine CSF-TTR in a cohort of suicide attempters with different psychiatric diagnoses and to further assess the relationship between CSF-TTR and suicidal be

This paper presents finite element analyses of the tensile behaviour of elementary fibres of flax and hemp, focusing on the non-linear tensile behaviour of the fibres and the relationship between the stiffness and the diameter of the fibre. The non-linear tensile behaviour is modelled by introducing dislocations in the helical structure of the cellulose fibrils and assuming that the hemicellulose

BACKGROUND: Valid assessments of health-related Quality of Life (HRQL) are increasingly important in chronic, incurable conditions, such as chronic heart failure (CHF). AIMS: To evaluate the psychometric properties of a Swedish version of the Kansas City Cardiomyopathy Questionnaire (KCCQ) in hospitalized patients with decompensated CHF. METHOD AND RESULTS: The KCCQ and SF-36 were administered to

Sequential serum samples from four plasma donors (designated A, B, C, and D) at a Chinese blood bank with hepatitis C transmission problems were studied from 1994 to 1997. The samples were examined for antibodies to HCV, for HCV viremia by PCR and HCV genotyping. Co- and superinfections were studied by direct sequencing of the 5'-NCR, core, and HVR-1 regions, using low and high genotype-specific p

We propose a comprehensive protocol for the performance assessment of photon migration instruments. The protocol has been developed within the European Thematic Network MEDPHOT (optical methods for medical diagnosis and monitoring of diseases) and is based on five criteria: accuracy, linearity, noise, stability, and reproducibility. This protocol was applied to a total of 8 instruments with a set

Plants from a population of Scabiosa canescens, a locally rare species with a narrow ecological amplitude, were raised under uniform growth conditions to examine the phenotypic effects of one generation selfing and outcrossing. Particular attention was given to direct components of fitness (seedling biomass, rosette leaf number, head number, flower number per head), but two morphological character

We present a fast algorithm for the calculation of elastostatic fields in locally isotropic composites. The method uses an integral equation approach due to Sherman, combined with the fast multipole method and an adaptive quadrature technique. Accurate solutions can be obtained with inclusions of arbitrary shape at a cost roughly proportional to the number of points needed to resolve the interface

Abstract in UndeterminedThe amount of fat of a bird is a fundamental metric commonly used by avian biologists in studies of migration, winter energy management and condition. The methods used for estimating fat content range from simply measuring body mass and subtracting the estimated lean mass, visual scoring of subcutaneous fat deposits, to destructive extraction using a Soxhlet apparatus. We u

AIMS: To determine the basal pharmacokinetics, lung uptake and plasma cortisol suppression for two commonly prescribed inhaled corticosteroids. METHODS: Twenty-one subjects (13 healthy and 8 mild asthmatic patients) received fluticasone propionate via a chlorofluorocarbon-propelled pressurized metered-dose inhaler (pMDI) (healthy subjects only) and Diskus and budesonide via Turbuhaler, 1000 microg

PURPOSE: Vagus nerve stimulation (VNS) is reported to reduce the frequency of seizures in children and adults without causing serious side effects. However, clinical observation of swallowing difficulties in 2 children treated with VNS made further investigation necessary. METHODS: Seven patients aged 4-18 years and treated with VNS for 6-14 months were investigated with videoradiography during ba

A powerful alternative to glucose oxidase as anode material in implantable biofuel cells is presented: Cellobiose dehydrogenase (CDH) from the ascomycete Myriococcum thermophilum (MtCDH) catalyzes the electrochemical oxidation of glucose, lactose, and cellobiose over a broad pH range. Current densities of more than 1 mA . cm(-2) can be reached when MtCDH is wired to an Os redox polymer in the pres