Aims/hypothesis: Mice that are deficient for complement factor 3 (C3) have shown resistance to weight gain, despite increased food intake. Cross-sectional studies of humans have reported correlations between C3 and obesity. This longitudinal study explored whether C3 predicts a large weight gain in middle-aged men. Methods: Plasma concentrations of C3 and complement factor 4 (C4) were measured in

Sensitization and binding of a large footprint pyrene chromophore to planar (sapphire) and colloidal metal oxide films (TiO2 and ZrO2) is investigated. The model compound combines a 1-pyrenyl-ethynylenephenylene unit with a new adamantane-tripodal linker that binds to the surface. The linker design, combining a large footprint (2 nm2) of the tripodal linker with the meta position of the COOH ancho

The antenatal clinics in the catchment area of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, University Hospital, Lund, were divided into a study group and a control group. At the study antenatal clinics during a 15-month period 1,004 pregnant women received a written and verbal information that a routine ultrasound examination during gestational week 18 should be considered as a prenatal diagnosti

The Swedish Tundra Northwest Expedition of 1999 visited 17 sites throughout the Canadian Arctic. At 12 sites that were intensively sampled we estimated the standing crop of plants and the densities of herbivores and predators with an array of trapping, visual surveys, and faecal-pellet transects. We developed a trophic-balance model using ECOPATH to integrate these observations and determine the f

Asthma is a chronic inflammatory disease affecting over 300 million people worldwide. The common association with allergic rhinitis and the presence of proinflammatory cells and mediators in the circulation of patients qualify asthma as a systemic disease. This characteristic and the fact that the gold-standard therapy for persistent asthma, inhaled corticosteroids, cannot suppress all components

BACKGROUND: Little information exists on the effects of drugs with cardiovascular action in hypothermia, and some findings have indicated paradoxic effects of dopamine in this setting. As we have not found any data on the electrophysiologic and contractile effects of dopamine on the heart in hypothermia, we decided to study this in pig myocardium, since pigs have a cardiovascular system more simil

We present photon correlation measurements performed on a device based on single InP quantum dots. The device consists of a 400 nm thick membrane containing a low density of quantum dots on a metal mirror. Measurements done under continuous excitation reveal a very pronounced antibunching dip while measurements done under pulsed excitation enable the generation of single photons on demand at the o

ag arbetar för närvarande på ett projekt om relationer mellan film och lyrik. Detta är ett tämligen outforskat område, inte minst vad gäller fenomenet ”den filmatiserade diktsamlingen”. vanligtvis diskuteras och undersöks prosaberättelsens relation till filmmediet, och mer sällan lyrikens dito. I mitt paper kommer jag att behandla två aspekter: poesi på/i film, samt filmanknytningar i lyrik. Mitt

Methods and compositions for producing lipid-based cubic phase nanoparticles were first discovered in the 1990s. Since then a number of studies have been presented, but little is known about how to control key properties such as particle size, morphology, and stability of cubic phase dispersions. In the present work we give examples of how these properties can be tuned by composition and processin

Objective: To evaluate if maternal glucose level and growth of the fetus were related to placental vascular impedance in pregnancy complicated by gestational diabetes mellitus. Material and methods: A retrospective study of 146 gestational diabetic women of which 117 needed insulin therapy. Glycosylated hemoglobin (HbA(1c)) was evaluated as well as umbilical and uterine artery Doppler velocimetry.

A number of studies have shown activation of the immune system throughout various stages of atherosclerosis. Recent observations have suggested that activation of immune responses may promote atherosclerosis on one hand by inducing and perpetuating arterial inflammation, whereas on the other hand, selective activation of certain immune functions may inhibit atherosclerosis and arterial inflammatio

Objectives: In severe hay fever, some patients are strongly affected despite the use of first-line therapy and are therefore treated with an intramuscular injection of systemic corticosteroid (i.m. SCS) in some countries. The aim of this paper was to explore the efficacy and side effects of a single i.m. SCS injection in hay fever in adults. Data sources: PubMed, EMBASE, Cochrane Library. Method

The dioecious weed Silene latifolia Poiret is thought to have spread northwards through Europe from separate southern source populations and shows a pronounced east–west pattern of differentiation in seed morphology. We used crossing experiments to investigate whether patterns of interfertility in S. latifolia are consistent with a scenario of ongoing speciation (reflected by outbreeding depressio

Carbonyl 13C relaxation experiments to study protein backbone dynamics have recently been developed. However, the effect of three-bond 13C-13C couplings on transverse relaxation measurements appears not to have been considered, and the potential to detect and quantify motions on the millisecond to microsecond time scale has not been fully explored. The present paper addresses these two issues. Sim

The aim of this article is to explain norm change regarding gender and development in the EU. I trace the policy process from initiation to implementation to clarify how new norms were introduced and spread. The article combines a constructivist approach to norm diffusion with a negotiation perspective. Constructivist accounts underline the role of norm entrepreneurs and how they persuade others t

Species evolutionary relationships have traditionally been defined by sequence similarities of phylogenetic marker molecules, recently followed by whole-genome phylogenies based on gene order, average ortholog similarity or gene content. Here, we introduce genome conservation—a novel metric of evolutionary distances between species that simultaneously takes into account, both gene content and sequ