Acute rheumatic fever is a serious autoimmune sequela of pharyngitis caused by certain group A streptococci. One mechanism applied by streptococcal strains capable of causing acute rheumatic fever is formation of an autoantigenic complex with human collagen IV. In some geographic regions with a high incidence of acute rheumatic fever pharyngeal carriage of group C and group G streptococci prevails

The concept of a very limited effective period for prophylactic antibiotic action was challenged in a prospective, controlled and randomized study featuring a simplified method for assessing the degree of contamination in the operative field during colorectal surgery. The 226 patients were given 1 g metronidazole IV on induction of anaesthesia and 12 h postoperatively. Following standardized salin

In this study, age and sex differences in diameter and compliance of the common carotid artery (CCA) were evaluated in 119 healthy subjects with a phase-locked echo-tracking system. The diameter and pulsatile diameter changes were measured, and pressure strain elastic modulus (Ep) and stiffness (beta) were calculated and used as the inverse estimate of compliance. The carotid diameter increased mo

The alkaline sphingomyelinase (SMase) was first found in rat intestinal brush border. The important roles of this enzyme in digestion of sphingomyelin and in mucosal cell proliferation have been suggested. In the present work, the distribution of the alkaline SMase in the tissues of human beings and animals have been studied. By assaying the enzyme activity in human biopsy samples, we found that t

We report on the mechanism of growth of mesoporous silica (SBA-15, plane group p6m). In situ studies of the formation using ultrasmall angle X-ray scattering (USAXS) and small-angle X-ray scattering (SAXS) covering length scales from 5 to 10 000 A, complemented with UV-vis and transmission electron microscopy (TEM), provide unique data on particle growth coupled with information regarding the prog

The lecticans are a group of chondroitin sulfate proteoglycans characterized by the presence of C-type lectin domains. Despite the suggestion that their lectin domains interact with carbohydrate ligands, the identity of such ligands has not been elucidated. We previously showed that brevican, a nervous system-specific lectican, binds the surface of B28 glial cells (Yamada, H., Fredette, B., Shitar

Dizziness is a common symptom, and recent research shows that physical activity and specific treatment of vertigo and dizziness are effective. The management of dizzy patients requires assessment and, when appropriate, treatment by a physiotherapist. We have therefore studied how general practitioners (GPs) handle patients with vertigo and dizziness, to find out whether treatment follows current r

We investigate tunable hole quantum dots defined by surface gating Ge/Si core-shell nanowire heterostructures. In single level Coulomb-blockade transport measurements at low temperatures spin doublets are found, which become sequentially filled by holes. Magnetotransport measurements allow us to extract a g factor g;{*} approximately 2 close to the value of a free spin-1/2 particle in the case of

Seedlings of Pinus sylvestris L. were grown in Plexiglas(R) observation chambers in limed (CaCO3, pH 5.0 and 5.9) and untreated (pH 4.1) peat. The seedlings were either colonized by the mycorrhizal fungus Paxillus involutus (Batsch: Fr.) Fr. Or were non-mycorrhizal. After 18 wk in the observation chambers, N-15-labelled organic nitrogen, as lyophilized and ground mycelium of Suillus variegatus (Sw

The soil acidification model SAFE was modified to calculate historical changes in geochemistry and runoff since the last glaciation ended at the Lake Gårdsjön F1 catchment 12 000 B.P. Changes in runoff pH and ANC, soil weathering rate, soil mineralogy, soil texture and base saturation was also calculated. The changes in mineralogy compared favorable to data. Modeled historic weathering rates were

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

The adsorption and the hydrolytic action of purified cellulases of Trichoderma reesei, namely, cellobiohydrolase I (CBH I), endoglucanase II (EG II), and their core proteins, on steam-pretreated willow were compared. The two enzymes differed clearly in their adsorption and hydrolytic behavior. CBH I required the cellulose-binding domain (CBD) for efficient adsorption and hydrolysis, whereas EG II

Haemophilia B, an X-linked recessive bleeding disorder characterized by lack or deficiency of factor IX, has been shown to be caused by any of a variety of DNA abnormalities (partial or total deletions, nonsense or missense mutations). Since in most countries carrier detection is based on factor IX coagulant activity (FIX:C) assay, this study was designed to determine whether carriers' FIX:C value

Data from ice cores suggest that Late-glacial and early Holocene atmospheric CO2 variations were rather conservative, the most important change being a gradual Younger Dryas increase. By contrast, palaeo-CO2 records based on the inverse relationship between CO2 Partial pressure and stomatal frequency of terrestrial plant leaves reflect a more dynamic CO2 evolution, including an abrupt decrease at