The herbaceous understory forms the richest stratum in temperate broadleaved forests in terms of plant diversity. Understanding the process of understory succession is thus of critical importance for the development of management guidelines for biodiversity restoration in post-agricultural plantation forests. We studied effects of stand age, forest fragmentation, and soil and canopy conditions on

Aims To explore the association of HbA1c and educational level with risk of cardiovascular events and mortality in patients with Type2 diabetes. Methods A cohort of 32871 patients with Type2 diabetes aged 35years and older identified by extracting data from electronic patient records for all patients who had a diagnosis of Type2 diabetes and had glucose-lowering agents prescribed between 1999 and

The past two decades have brought worrying increases in severe Streptococcus pyogenes diseases globally. To investigate and compare the epidemiological patterns of these diseases within Europe, data on severe S. pyogenes infections were collected through an EU FP-5 funded programme (Strep-EURO). Prospective population-based surveillance of severe S. pyogenes infection diagnosed during 2003 and 200

AIM AND OBJECTIVE: To describe the study design of a randomised controlled trial with the aim of comparing two different regimes for children with newly diagnosed type 1 diabetes; hospital-based care and hospital-based home care. BACKGROUND: Procedures for hospital admission and sojourn in connection with diagnose vary greatly worldwide and the existing evidence is insufficient to allow for any c

BACKGROUND: Phthalates may pose a risk for perinatal developmental effects. An important question relates to the choice of suitable biological matrices for assessing exposure during this period. OBJECTIVES: This study was designed to measure the concentrations of phthalate diesters or their metabolites in breast milk, blood or serum, and urine and to evaluate their suitability for assessing perina

While higher intake of fish and lower consumption of red/processed meats have been suggested to play a protective role in the etiology of several cancers, prospective evidence for hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is limited, particularly in Western European populations. The associations of fish and meats with HCC risk were analyzed in the EPIC cohort. Between 1992 and 2010, 191 incident HCC were ide

Background: Family caregivers of relatives with dementia report higher level of psychological distress than other caregivers and report their self-related health as poorer than that of comparison groups. Aims and objectives: The purpose of the study was to examine characteristics of family caregivers and to assess whether income, subjective health, age and relationship were associated with the bur

In several twin studies the relative contribution of genetic factors for personality traits has amounted to figures between 40 and 60%. In the present study we investigated to which degree polymorphisms in the 5-HTT and AP-2 beta genes are implicated in the neural processes involved in the formation of Temperament and Character traits, as estimated by Cloninger's TCI. Considering the background of

OBJECTIVETo investigate associations of maternal gestational weight gain and body composition and their impact on offspring body composition and adipocytokine, glucose, and insulin concentrations at age 4 months.RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODSThis was a prospective study including 31 mother-infant pairs (N = 62). Maternal body composition was assessed using doubly labeled water. Infant body compositio

CD55 is a glycosylphosphatidylinositol-anchored protein, which inhibits complement activation by acting on the complement C3 convertases. CD55 is widely localized in the cholesterol rich regions of the cell plasma membrane termed membrane rafts. CD55 is attached to these specialized regions via a GPI link on the outer leaflet of the plasma membrane. Membrane rafts anchor many important signaling p

Energy-dense diets that are high in fat are associated with a risk of metabolic diseases. The underlying molecular mechanisms could involve epigenetics, as recent data show altered DNA methylation of putative type 2 diabetes candidate genes in response to high-fat diets. We examined the effect of a short-term high-fat overfeeding (HFO) diet on genome-wide DNA methylation patterns in human skeletal

At the end of the summer, drifting filamentous red algae cover shallow bottoms and accumulate in huge cast walls on the open shores of the non-tidal central Baltic Sea. The hypotheses that beach cleaning increases water clarity, decreases the organic content of the sand, and increases the species diversity in the shallow zone closest to the shore, were tested through field investigations and exper

Chicks of obligate brood parasites employ a variety of morphological and behavioral strategies to outcompete nest mates. Elevated competitiveness is favored by natural selection because parasitic chicks are not related to their host parents or nest mates. When chicks of conspecific brood parasites (CBPs) are unrelated to their hosts, they and their parents would also benefit from traits that enhan

Introduction: Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) studies have demonstrated that patients with schizophrenia have thinner brain cortices compared with healthy control subjects. Neurodevelopment is vulnerable to obstetric complications (OCs) such as hypoxia and birth trauma, factors that are also related to increased risk of developing schizophrenia. With the hypothesis that OCs might explain the thin