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Relatives of cancer patients are at an increased risk of the same (concordant) cancer but whether they are at a risk for different (discordant) cancers is largely unknown - beyond well characterized hereditary cancer syndromes - but would be of major scientific and clinical interest. We therefore decided to resolve the issue by analyzing familial risks when family members were diagnosed with any d
The current view of type 1 diabetes (T1D) is that it is an immune-mediated disease where lymphocytes infiltrate the pancreatic islets, promote killing of beta cells and cause overt diabetes. Although tissue resident immune cells have been demonstrated in several organs, the composition of lymphocytes in human healthy pancreatic islets have been scarcely studied. Here we aimed to investigate the ph
Background: CD14, a receptor for lipopolysaccharides (LPS), is found in both a membrane-bound form (mCD14) and a soluble form (sCD14). It is suggested that sCD14 is mainly released from blood monocytes by serine protease-mediated shedding. Because alpha(1)-antitrypsin (AAT), an inhibitor of serine proteases, has been shown to regulate CD14 expression in human monocytes in vitro, we sought to inves
Although the potential negative effects of increased ultraviolet-B (UV-B) radiation on early life stages of aquatic organisms are widely recognized, possible synergistic effects with other stressors have seldom been studied outside the laboratory. We investigated the effects of UV-B radiation and pH on hatchability and early development of moor frog Rana arvalis eggs in the field and in laboratory
The aim of this study was to investigate the possible role of STAT4 gene in the genetic predisposition to systemic sclerosis (SSc) susceptibility or clinical phenotype. A total of 1317 SSc patients [896 with limited cutaneous SSc (lcSSc) and 421 with diffuse cutaneous SSc (dcSSc)] and 3113 healthy controls, from an initial case-control set of Spanish Caucasian ancestry and five independent cohorts
The Environmental Determinants of Diabetes in the Young (TEDDY) study prospectively follows 8,677 children enrolled from birth, who carry HLA-susceptibility genotypes for development of islet autoantibodies (IA) and type 1 diabetes (T1D). During the median follow-up time of 57 months, 350 children developed at least one persistent IA (GADA, IA-2A or mIAA) and 84 of them progressed to T1D. We genot
Forest leaf area index (LAI), is an important variable in carbon balance models. However, understory vegetation is a recognized problem that limits the accuracy of sate I lite-estimated forest LAI. A canopy reflectance model was used to investigate the impact of the understory vegetation on LAI estimated from reflectance values estimated from satellite sensor data. Reflectance spectra were produce
Objectives This study investigated the association between cancer of the extrahepatic biliary tract and exposure to endocrine-disrupting compounds. Methods Altogether 183 men with histologically confirmed carcinoma of the extrahepatic biliary tract and 1938 matched controls were interviewed between 1995 and 1997 in the frame of an international multicenter case-control study in six European countr
Objective: The aim of this study was to construct a rating scale to predict long-term outcome on the basis of clinical and sociodemographic characteristics in patients with symptoms of psychosis who seek psychiatric help for the first time. Method: Patients (N = 153) experiencing their first episode of psychosis (DSM-IV schizophrenia, schizophreniform disorder, schizoaffective disorder, brief psyc
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
