Objectives: To study the association between late organ damage in patients with primary systemic vasculitis (PSV) and cigarette smoking. PSV included Wegener's granulomatosis (WG), microscopic polyangiitis (MPA), Churg-Strauss syndrome (CSS), and polyarteritis nodosa (PAN). Methods: The pattern and extent of organ damage according to the Vasculitis Damage Index (VDI) were analysed for 86 prevalent

Proteins contribute to a major part of the organic nitrogen (N) in forest soils. This N is mobilized and becomes available to trees as a result of the depolymerizing activities of symbiotic ectomycorrhizal fungi. The mechanisms by which these fungi depolymerize proteins and assimilate the released N are poorly characterized. Biochemical analysis and transcriptome profiling were performed to examin

Background: The majority of human cancers arise from cells unable to maintain genomic stability. Recent prospective studies indicated that enhanced chromosomal aberrations (CAs) frequencies are predictive of gastrointestinal and lung cancers. However, studies on incident cancer patients are lacking; thus, we investigated chromosomal damage in newly diagnosed cancer patients and healthy individuals

In this article, we attempt to develop a meta-language for a relational approach to urban walking that is able to account for walking as a mutable, embodied, materially heterogeneous and distributed activity. Following the perspective on walking as developed in a series of articles by Jennie Middleton, we develop a notion of the walker as a socio-technical assemblage. By recognising walking as an

Immobilization of Escherichia coli cells containing a ω-transaminase was carried out by flocculation with chitosan and the preparation was used in asymmetric synthesis of (S)-4'-cyano-α-methylbenzylamine, recycled in five consecutive batches. Chitosans with different molecular weights and degrees of acetylation were compared and effects of varying the chitosan properties, cell concentration and ra

Learning is widespread in nature, occurring in most animal taxa and in several different ecological contexts and, thus, might play a key role in evolutionary processes. Here, we review the accumulating empirical evidence for the involvement of learning in mate choice and the consequences for sexual selection and reproductive isolation. We distinguish two broad categories: learned mate preferences

Cumulative evidence in brains and cultured neurons of Alzheimer's disease (AD) transgenic mouse models, as well as in human postmortem AD brains, highlights that age-related increases in β-amyloid peptide (Aβ), particularly in endosomes near synapses, are involved in early synapse dysfunction. Our immunoelectron microscopy and high-resolution immunofluorescence microscopy studies show that this ea

Copeptin has shown association with development of chronic kidney disease (CKD) in people with diabetes. Early detection of individuals having the highest risk could help avoid this complication. Therefore we decided to study copeptin concentrations and estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) retrospectively in people with newly diagnosed diabetes.

Importance: Although increased risk for schizophrenia among immigrants is well established, knowledge of the broader spectrum of psychiatric disorders associated with a foreign migration background is lacking. Objective: To examine the full range of psychiatric disorders associated with any type of foreign migration background among persons residing in Denmark, including foreign-born adoptees, fir

The paper compares direct and indirect model reference adaptive controllers (MRAC) with the L-1 adaptive controller. The architectures of the closed-loop systems are first compared in a simple setting that clarifies the similarities and differences of the controllers. The indirect MRAC and the L-1 controller have identical state predictors, but they differ in the computation of the control signal,

We report the measurement of a new observable of jet quenching in central Pb-Pb collisions at root s(NN) = 2.76 TeV, based on the semi-inclusive rate of charged jets recoiling from a high transverse momentum (high-p T) charged hadron trigger. Jets are measured using collinear-safe jet reconstruction with infrared cutoff for jet constituents of 0.15 GeV, for jet resolution parameters R = 0.2, 0.4 a

Conventional anion-exchange membranes based on aromatic polymers with cationic groups placed in benzylic positions on the polymer backbone normally suffer from poor alkaline stability and limited OH− conductivity. However, recently it has been shown that both the conductivity and alkaline stability of anion-exchange membranes can be significantly enhanced by instead placing the cationic groups on

H2SO4 vapor is important for the nucleation of atmospheric aerosols and the growth of ultrafine particles to cloud condensation nuclei (CCN) sizes with important roles in the global aerosol budget and hence planetary radiative forcing. Recent studies have found that reactions of stabilized Criegee intermediates (CIs, formed from the ozonolysis of alkenes) with SO2 may be an important source of H2S

To meet urgent needs for solving serious worldwide drug-resistance problems, a sensitive label-free capacitive sensor developed in our group was investigated as a tool to be applied in the field of antibiotic resistance genotyping, for instance the detection of ampicillin resistance gene (ampR). Proof-of-concept data demonstrated its detection sensitivity of pico-molar without any signal amplifica

Inferential models have long been used to determine pollutant dry deposition to ecosystems from measurements of air concentrations and as part of national and regional atmospheric chemistry and transport models, and yet models still suffer very large uncertainties. An inferential network of 55 sites throughout Europe for atmospheric reactive nitrogen (N-r) was established in 2007, providing ambien

Candida albicans binds and utilizes human complement inhibitors, such as C4b-binding protein (C4BP), Factor H, and FHL-1 for immune evasion. Here, we identify Candida pH-regulated antigen 1 (Pra1) as the first fungal C4BP-binding protein. Recombinant Pra1 binds C4BP, as shown by ELISA and isothermal titration calorimetry, and the Pra1-C4BP interaction is ionic in nature. The Pra1 binding domains w

Recently, a novel mutation in exon 24 of DNAJC13 gene (p.Asn855Ser, rs387907571) has been reported to cause autosomal dominant Parkinson's disease (PD) in a multi-incident Mennonite family.