Background and aims: Two Amerindian populations - Shuar women living in the Amazonian rain forest under traditional conditions and urbanized women in a suburb of Lima were studied. The fatty acid composition in plasma lipids and the relationships between fatty acid composition and metabolic variables were studied, as well as in a reference group of Swedish women. Methods and results: Fasting plasm

In semiconductor heterostructures with a type II band alignment, such as GaSb-InAs, conduction can be tuned from electron- to hole-dominated using an electrostatic gate. However, traditional conductance measurements give no direct information on the carrier type, and thus limit the ability to distinguish transport effects originating from the two materials. Here, we employ thermovoltage measuremen

We report on a single-step coating process and the resulting colloidal stability of silica-coated spindle-type hematite nanoparticles (NPs) decorated with a layer of poly-(acrylic acid) (PAA) polyelectrolyte chains that are partially incorporated into the silica shell. The stability of PAA coated NPs as a function of pH and salt concentration in water was compared to bare hematite particles and si

Are serum levels of micro-RNAs miR-155 and miR-146a associated with male fertility, low-grade systemic inflammation (LGSI) and androgens?

Genomic selection is a new technology in which selection decisions are based on direct genomic values (DGVs) or genomic enhanced breeding values (GEBVs). The objective of this study was to evaluate the relations between DGVs and several milk traits important for both the nutritional value and processability of milk. This is a new approach and can be used to increase the knowledge on how genomic se

To assess ecological consequences of bushmeat hunting in African lowland rainforests, we compared paired sites, with high and low hunting pressure, in three areas of southeastern Nigeria. In hunted sites, populations of important seed dispersers-both small and large primates (including the Cross River gorilla, Gorilla gorilla diehli)-were drastically reduced. Large rodents were more abundant in hu

Objective: Negative pressure wound therapy (NPWT) is a recently introduced treatment modality for post-sternotomy mediastinitis. The aim of this study was to compare the mortality rate, the sternal re-infection rate and the length of hospital stay in patients with post-sternotomy mediastinitis after NPWT and conventional treatment. Methods: We retrospectively analysed 118 patients with post-sterno

We propose a method to quantify semantic linguistic maturity (SELMA) based on a high dimensional semantic representation ofwords created from the co-occurrence of words in a large text corpus. The method was applied to oral narratives from 108 children aged 4;0–12;10. By comparing the SELMA measure with maturity ratings made by human raters we found that SELMA predicted the rating of semantic matu

ActiGraph acceleration data are processed through several steps (including bandpass filtering to attenuate unwanted signal frequencies) to generate the activity counts commonly used in physical activity research. We performed three experiments to investigate the effect of sampling frequency on the generation of activity counts. Ideal acceleration signals were produced in the MATLAB software. There

The catalyst layers (CLs) in proton exchange membrane fuel cells (PEMFCs) are porous composites of complex microstructures of the building blocks, i.e., Pt nano-particles, carbonaceous substrates and Nafion ionomers. It is important to understand the factors that control the microstructure formation in the fabrication process. A coarse-grained molecular dynamics (CG-MD) method is employed to inves

PURPOSE: The purpose of this study is to explore the effect of lateral tension as a survival factor for retinal explants in vitro. The central nervous system (CNS) resides in a highly mechanical milieu. However, the importance of biomechanical homeostasis for normal CNS function has not been extensively explored. Diseases in which normal mechanical forces are disrupted, such as retinal detachment

Allergic asthma is characterized by eosinophilic inflammation and airway obstruction. There is also an increased risk of pulmonary infection caused by Streptococcus pneumoniae, in particular during severe asthma where high levels of the glycoprotein, osteopontin (OPN) are present in the airways. Eosinophils can be recruited by chemokines activating the receptor CCR3 including eotaxin-1/CCL11, eota

It is not clear how intake of gluten during infancy affects subsequent risk of celiac disease. We investigated whether gluten intake before 2 years of age increases risk for celiac disease in genetically susceptible children.

Purpose: This multicenter, first-in-human study evaluated safety, tolerability, pharmacokinetics, and pharmacodynamics of BI-505, a human anti-ICAM-1 monoclonal antibody, in advanced relapsed/refractory multiple myeloma patients. Experimental design: BI-505 was given intravenously, every two weeks, at escalating doses from 0.0004 to 20 mg/kg, with extension of therapy until disease progression for

The aim of this study was to assess cardiovascular predictors for all-cause long-term mortality in patients undergoing standard endovascular aneurysm repair (EVAR) for infrarenal abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA). Consecutive patients treated with EVAR (Zenith (R) stent grafts; Cook) between May 1998 and February 2006 were prospectively enrolled in a computerized database, together with retrospectiv

BACKGROUND:: There is a lack of health-related quality of life (HRQOL) studies in Chinese women with cervical cancer. OBJECTIVE:: The objectives of this study were to investigate the HRQOL trajectory in women with cervical cancer in Mainland China in the 9 months following diagnosis and to identify factors that influence HRQOL. METHODS:: Initially, 187 patients with cervical cancer were included i

Desmoplastic fibroma (DFB) is a benign primary bone tumor that usually occurs in adolescents and young adults. The genetic information on DFB is very limited. We here present cytogenetic, fluorescence in situ hybridization and single nucleotide polymorphism array findings in a case that had a rearrangement involving chromosomes 11 and 19 at G-banding analysis. The results showed that the breakpoin

To evaluate the anatomic suitability of the Zenith pivot branch (p-branch) fenestrated device in ruptured abdominal aortic aneurysms (rAAA).

With the current movement towards Net Zero Energy Buildings (Net ZEBs) decisions regarding energy carrier weighting factors will have implications on which technologies could be favoured or disfavoured, and therefore adopted or not adopted, in the building sector of the near future. These implications should be taken into consideration by policy makers when developing legislation and regulations a