The characteristic off periods that develop over time in subjects with Parkinson's disease (PD) on chronic levodopa therapy are usually considered to be motor complications but more recently the important contribution of non-motor off and non-motor fluctuations has also been acknowledged. Early-morning off (EMO) periods in PD patients are known to be a cause of significant disability, in addition

We report a simple, handy and affordable optical approach for precise number-of-layers determination of graphene on SiC based on monitoring the power of the laser beam reflected from the sample (reflectance mapping) in a slightly modified micro-Raman setup. Reflectance mapping is compatible with simultaneous Raman mapping. We find experimentally that the reflectance of graphene on SiC normalized t

Streptococcus pyogenes is a significant bacterial pathogen in the human population. The importance of virulence factors for the survival and colonization of S. pyogenes is well established, and many of these factors are exposed to the extracellular environment enabling bacterial interactions with the host. In the present study we quantitatively analyzed and compared S. pyogenes proteins in the gro

Although temporal heterogeneity is a well-accepted driver of biodiversity, effects of interannual variation in land-use intensity (LUI) have not been addressed yet. Additionally, responses to land use can differ greatly among different organisms; therefore, overall effects of land-use on total local biodiversity are hardly known. To test for effects of LUI (quantified as the combined intensity of

Self-harm, particularly in the form of non-suicidal self-injury, has been identified as an increasing problem among adolescents and young adults. Treatment effects on self-harm have been studied in a number of RCTs, although only some treatments show consistently positive effects. Dialectical Behaviour Therapy (DBT) is the most empirically studied treatment so far. A comparison with other treatmen

Aim: To explore whether the self-reported psychological distress among men with prostate cancer was to the extent that it required psychiatric treatment. Methods: PCBaSe Sweden, a merged database based on the National Prostate Cancer Register including 97% of all prostate cancers registered as well as age-matched controls. We calculated relative risks and 95% confidence intervals to compare risks

Despite the favorable prognosis of childhood acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL), a substantial subset of patients relapses. Since this occurs not only in the high risk but also in the standard/intermediate groups, the presently used risk stratification is suboptimal. The underlying mechanisms for treatment failure include presence of genetic changes causing insensitivity to the therapy administere

The Green Revolution combined advancements in breeding and agricultural practice, and provided food security to millions of people. Daily food supply is still a major issue in many parts of the world and is further challenged by future climate change. Fortunately, life science research is currently making huge progress, and the development of future crop plants will be explored. Today, plant breed

Abundances and distributions of species are usually associated. This implies that as a species declines in abundance so does the number of sites it occupies. Conversely, when there is an increase in a species' range size, it is usually followed by an increase in population size (Gaston etal. ). This ecological phenomenon, also known as the abundance-occupancy relationship (AOR), is well documented

This paper introduces a suite of tests for linear and general non- linear serial dependence. The problem is complex as the number of variations of realistic non-linear alternatives is very large. The alternative model is dened in terms of penalized truncated polynomial splines, making the approximation capable of accurately approximating a large class of linear and non-linear processes. The asympt

Local treatment of metastases such as metastasectomy or radiotherapy remains controversial in the treatment of metastatic renal cell carcinoma. To investigate the benefits and harms of various local treatments, we did a systematic review of all types of comparative studies on local treatment of metastases from renal cell carcinoma in any organ. Interventions included metastasectomy, radiotherapy m

Background: The aim was to identify maternal risk factors in women giving birth to girls with Turner syndrome (TS) and to describe the characteristics of newborns with TS. Methods: The Swedish Genetic Turner Register was cross-linked with the Swedish Medical Birth Register. Between 1973 and 2005, 494 children with TS were born. Maternal age, parity, height, smoking habits and neonatal characterist

Mucins are of great interest owing their involvement in physiological and pathological processes in the airways. A method which allows accurate quantification of such proteins in sputum samples may be helpful for research in this field. A liquid chromatographic single reaction monitoring (SRM) method was developed for the quantification of two mucins, MUC5AC and MUC5B, in induced sputum samples. S

Lipase-(Lipozyme TL IM) catalyzed interesterification of triacylglycerols was studied at water activities (a(w)) from 0.22 to 0.8. The substrates trilaurin (LLL) and 1,3-palmitin-2-olein (POP) were used in equimolar amounts to facilitate separate measurements of the interesterification in the sn-1,3 positions and changes in the fatty acid (FA) composition in the sn-2 position. The reaction at a(w)

Two new benzochromenes, (6,6-dimethyl-2-methoxy-6H-benzo[c]chromen-9-yl)methanol (1), and 2-methoxy-6,6-dimethyl-6H-benzo[c]chromen-9-carbaldehyde (2), together with several already known metabolites, were isolated from the root extract of Bourreria pulchra (Boraginaceae). The structures of 1 and 2 were established on the basis of their spectroscopic data. Both were assayed for in vitro antiprotoz