An association between low serum vitamin D levels and poorer melanoma survival has been reported. We have studied inheritance of a polymorphism of the GC gene, rs2282679, coding for the vitamin D-binding protein, which is associated with lower serum levels of vitamin D, in a meta-analysis of 3137 melanoma patients. The aim was to investigate evidence for a causal relationship between vitamin D and

INTRODUCTION: Children and adolescents are encouraged to maintain a habitually active lifestyle because of the known health benefits associated with regular physical activity, but there are some reports that a high level of activity may be associated with increased fracture risk. This prospective controlled exercise intervention study in pre-pubertal children evaluated if a school-based exercise i

The yeast pathogen Candida glabrata is the second most frequent cause of Candida infections. However, from the phylogenetic point of view, C. glabrata is much closer to Saccharomyces cerevisiae than to Candida albicans. Apparently, this yeast has relatively recently changed its life style and become a successful opportunistic pathogen. Recently, several C. glabrata sister-species, among them clini

Between X-ray tubes and large-scale synchrotron sources, a large gap in performance exists with respect to the monochromaticity and brilliance of the X-ray beam. However, due to their size and cost, large-scale synchrotrons are not available for more routine applications in small and medium-sized academic or industrial laboratories. This gap could be closed by laser-driven compact synchrotron ligh

We have prepared a model catalytic system by depositing Pd onto a TiO2(110) surface held at similar to 720 K. Scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) reveals well-defined Pd nanocrystals consisting of (111) top facets with {111} and {100} side facets. The Pd nanocrystals go down to about 10 nm in width and 1.3 nm in height. Top facets can be imaged with atomic resolution, indicating the absence of TiO

Purpose: To evaluate how children with spina bifida (SB) participate in school-related activities and to explore if their motor and process skills in task performance were related to their level of active participation in school. Method: Fifty children from a geographical cohort of children with SB (aged 6-14 years) and their teachers rated the children's frequency of participation in school-relat

A novel method for two-dimensional fluorescence lifetime imaging is presented. The technique is demonstrated on averaged planar laser-induced fluorescence (PLIF) signals recorded in a flame. Although demonstrated on averaged images, the concept applies equally well to single-shot images. Formaldehyde was probed through pico-second excitation at 355 nm in a rich methane/oxygen flame (Phi = 2.6). Im

This paper aims to develop a framework for an integrated empirical and normative policy analysis practicable for evaluating environmental and forest sub-policies regarding their contribution to democratic policy-making. For this reason Habermas meta-model on deliberative democracy is translated to the policy level by merging it with the Policy Arrangement Approach (PAA) of Arts and Van Tatenhove.

Chronic hyperglycemia leads to pancreatic beta-cell dysfunction characterized by diminished glucose-stimulated insulin secretion (GSIS), but the precise cellular processes involved are largely unknown. Here we show that pancreatic beta-cells chronically exposed to a high glucose level displayed substantially increased amounts of stress fibers compared with beta-cells cultured at a low glucose leve

The internal dosimetry computer program internal dose assessment by computer (IDAC) for calculations of absorbed doses to organs and tissues as well as effective doses to patients from examinations with radiopharmaceuticals has been developed. The new version, IDAC2.0, incorporates the International Commission on Radiation Protection (ICRP)/ICRU computational adult male and female voxel phantoms a

Individuals with diabetes mellitus are advised to achieve a healthy weight to prevent complications. However, fat mass distribution has hardly been investigated as a risk factor for diabetes complications. The authors studied associations between body mass index, waist circumference, waist/hip ratio, and waist/height ratio and mortality among individuals with diabetes mellitus. Within the European

Semiconducting carbon nanotubes (CNTs) have several properties that are advantageous for field effect transistors such as high mobility, good electrostatics due to their small diameter allowing for aggressive gate length scaling and capability to withstand high current densities. However, in spite of the exceptional performance of single transistors only a few simple circuits and logic gates using

This is a review of Brett M. Frischmann's "Infrastructure : the social value of shared resources" (2012). It is a rich book that neither ducks from challenging the disciplinary boundaries of economic theory nor from complex issues of spillover effects or hard-to-measure externalitites. Frischmann’s contribution includes the grand task of comparing and analysing the very much different types of inf

Advances in laboratory techniques have led to a rapidly increasing use of biomarkers in epidemiological studies. Biomarkers of internal dose, early biological change, susceptibility and clinical outcomes are used as proxies for investigating the interactions between external and/or endogenous agent.; and the body components or processes. The need for improved reporting of scientific research led t

High levels of insulin-like growth factor-1 (IGF-1) have been associated with increased risk of developing several types of cancer including breast cancer. A set of nine haplotype tagging SNPs (htSNPs) in the IGF1 gene were associated with IGF-1 levels and prostate cancer in a Swedish population. We aimed to study the nine htSNPs in three haplotype blocks (block1: rs855211, rs35765, rs2162679; blo

Optogenetics is an emerging powerful tool to investigate workings of the nervous system. However, the use of low tissue penetrating visible light limits its therapeutic potential. Employing deep penetrating near-infrared (NIR) light for optogenetics would be beneficial but it cannot be used directly. This issue can be tackled with upconversion nanoparticles (UCNs) acting as nanotransducers emittin

We performed fine mapping of 39 established type 2 diabetes (T2D) loci in 27,206 cases and 57,574 controls of European ancestry. We identified 49 distinct association signals at these loci, including five mapping in or near KCNQ1. 'Credible sets' of the variants most likely to drive each distinct signal mapped predominantly to noncoding sequence, implying that association with T2D is mediated thro