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A recent study reported an association between the brain natriuretic peptide (BNP) promoter T-381C polymorphism (rs198389) and protection against type 2 diabetes (T2D). As replication in several studies is mandatory to confirm genetic results, we analyzed the T-381C polymorphism in seven independent case-control cohorts and in 291 T2D-enriched pedigrees totalling 39 557 subjects of European origin
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
The viscoelastic behavior of the two different liquid crystalline lamellar phases and the liquid crystalline cubic phase of the mixed soybean lecithin/DDAB system in water was studied through rheology, with mechanical parameters studied as a function of composition. The swollen or diluted lamellar region is formed by vesicles, and its characteristic flow curve presents two-power law regions separa
Several strains of group G streptococci (GGS) form aggregates when grown in vitro. Aggregating strains interact with fibrinogen, and this study reports the isolation of a novel self-associating and fibrinogen-binding protein of GGS, denoted protein FOG. Sequencing of the fog gene revealed structural similarity with M proteins of both GGS and group A streptococci (GAS). Analogous to GAS, GGS were f
Amphibian larvae often face two major sources of mortality: pond desiccation and predation. Tadpoles of seven anuran species with different preferences for type of breeding habitat, on a hydroperiod scale, were tested for responses to the presence of predators by raising them experimentally in the presence and absence of a separately caged invertebrate predator that was fed on conspecific tadpoles
Future adaptation to changes in the environment depends on the existence of additive genetic variances within populations. Recently, considerable attention has also been given to the non-additive component, which plays an important role in inbreeding depression and bottleneck situations. In this study, I used data from a North Carolina II crossing experiment, analysed with restricted maximum-likel
Chlorophyll biosynthesis is a process involving approximate to 20 different enzymatic steps. Half of these steps are common to the biosynthesis of other tetrapyrroles, such as heme. one of the least understood enzymatic steps is formation of the isocyclic ring, which is a characteristic feature of all (bacterio)chlorophyll molecules. In chloroplasts, formation of the isocyclic ring is an aerobic r
From August 1999 to April 2001, there was an outbreak of severe eczema at a factory manufacturing medical equipment. A glue, mainly based on the isocyanate dicyclohexylmethane-4,4'-diisocyanate (DMDI), was suspected as being the cause of the problem. 16 workers with recent episodes of eczema were patch tested with a standard series, an isocyanate series and work material. The latter consisted of,
In the weedy plant species Allium vineale (wild garlic), individuals may simultaneously produce sexually and asexually derived offspring, by seed and bulbils, respectively. In this study, genetic and genotypic diversity was determined in samples from 14 European A. vineale populations using nuclear (RAPD) and cytoplasmic (PCR-RFLP of cpDNA) markers to investigate the importance of the different re
Up until the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, and probably since the introduction of agriculture to Sweden, the social life, culture, traditions, building patterns and material culture would largely have been based on agricultural practices. And yet, in the archaeological record, agricultural aspects of social life remain elusive and little is known about the organization of farming an
Future anthropogenic climate change is likely to increase the air temperature (T a ) across Europe and increase the frequency, duration and magnitude of severe heat stress events. Heat stress events are generally associated with clear-sky conditions and high T a , which give rise to high radiant heat load, i.e. mean radiant temperature (T mrt ). In urban environments, T mrt is strongly influenced
The successful planning, design and management of a traffic system is impossible without knowledge of how the traffic environment affects the behaviour of road users and how the behaviour is related to the main qualities of the traffic system (e.g. safety, efficiency). Automated video analysis is a promising tool for traffic behaviour research in that it enables collection of micro-level behaviour
Benchmarking is an effective tool to compare the performance of full-scale wastewater treatment plant operation. In this study, 29 wastewater treatment plants from eight countries were surveyed with the aim of developing some key performance indicators, which may be used for benchmarking purposes. The level of utilisation of instrumentation, control and automation (ICA) has also been measured. The
This study was aimed to optimize glucose level at different stages of buffalo in vitro embryo production procedure. Three glucose levels (1.5, 5.6 and 10 mm) along with a control (0 mm) were used at three phases of in vitro fertilisation (IVF) procedure viz. in vitro maturation (IVM), in vitro culture (IVC-I) (12-72 hpi) and IVC-II (72 hpi to 7 dpi). Maturation rate of oocytes was found different
The mutation status of the immunoglobulin heavy chain variable regions (IgVH) has been found to be a good prognostic indicator for B-cell chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) because unmutated VH genes are associated with rapid disease progression and shorter survival time. To study the differences in gene expression between the Ig-unmutated and Ig-mutated CLL subtypes, we performed gene expression
Virtual Reality (VR) has shown great potential in various training applications. In the field of cognitive rehabilitation it has been shown that VR technology can become a useful complement to conventional rehabilitation techniques (e.g. Rizzo et al. (2002), Brown et al. (2002) and Kizony et al. (2002)). An important part of a brain injury patient’s rehabilitation process is practicing instrumenta
The starting point in this thesis is stroke inflicted individuals’ stories about their experience of stroke, relations in everyday life, and their relations and attempts to return to paid work with the objective of gaining a further understanding of what happens when inflicted by illness and/or disability in working age. Furthermore, it aims at understanding how social relations and ruling relatio
OBJECTIVE: European Union (EU) information from research projects, including key findings, should be available on the European Commission's Community Research and Development Information Service (CORDIS) database. We describe the results of the Health Research for Europe (HR4E) project which aimed to synthesize results of health research from the EU's Fifth and Sixth Framework Programmes (FP5 and
