Context. The benchmark open cluster M 67 is known to have solar metallicity and an age similar to that of the Sun. It thus provides us with a great opportunity to study the properties of solar twins, as well as the evolution of Sun-like stars. Aims. Previous spectroscopic studies of M 67 reported possible subtle changes in stellar surface abundances throughout the stellar evolutionary phase, namel

We perform a comprehensive analysis of the most distinctive and important phenomenological implications of the recently proposed mechanism of sequential loop generation of strong hierarchies in the Standard Model (SM) fermion mass spectra. This mechanism is consistently realized at the level of renormalizable interactions in an extended variant of the Inert Higgs Doublet model, possessing the addi

Nests play a critical role for offspring development across the animal kingdom. Nest quality may contribute to the builder's extended phenotype and serve as an ornament during mate choice. We examined male and female nest choice in the common goby (Pomatoschistus microps), a benthic fish with male-only parental care where females deposit eggs in male-built nests. Using prebuilt nest models, we ind

Context. Although there have been numerous studies of chemical abundances in the Galactic bulge, the central two degrees have been relatively unexplored due to the heavy and variable interstellar extinction, extreme stellar crowding, and the presence of complex foreground disk stellar populations. Aims. In this paper we discuss the metallicity distribution function, vertical and radial gradients,

Embedded microcontrollers are often programmed in plain C and lack support for multithreading and real-time scheduling. This can make it very cumbersome to implement multirate feedback control applications. We have developed the TINYREALTIME kernel for the Atmel ATmegaSL AYR to show that it is feasible to use high-precision, deadlinebased scheduling even in a tiny 8-bit processor with 1 KB of RAM.

Frequent land-use changes in urban areas require an efficient and dynamic approach to reform and update detailed plans by re-arrangement of surrounding land-uses in case of change in one or several urban land-uses. However, re-arrangement of land-uses is problematic, since a variety of conflicting criteria must be considered and satisfied. This paper proposes and examines a two-step approach to re

We study the finite-size scaling of moments of the magnetization in the low-temperature phase of the two-dimensional Is Ising model.

Background Reliable epidemiological data for portal vein thrombosis are lacking. Aims To investigate the incidence, prevalence and survival rates for patients with portal vein thrombosis. Methods Retrospective multicentre study of all patients registered with the diagnosis of portal vein thrombosis between 1995 and 2004. Results A total of 173 patients (median age 57 years, 93 men) with portal vei

We investigated inflammatory biomarkers in plasma and in circulating monocytes obtained from patients with Crohn's disease and healthy individuals. Additionally, we assessed the effects of atorvastatin, 10 μM, ex vivo on monocytes cultured for 18 hours from the same subjects. Plasma and blood monocytes from eight patients with active Crohn's disease and eight healthy individuals were analyzed by e

Objective: To investigate the ability of statins to activate the nuclear receptor peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor gamma (PPAR-γ) in primary human monocytes in culture. Materials and methods: Human peripheral monocytes were incubated with atorvastatin (0.1-10 μmol/1) for up to 24 hours. PPAR-γ expression was analysed by electrophoretic mobility shift assay. Pro-inflammatory cytokines wer

There is experimental evidence that pravastatin, which is designed to inhibit the rate-limiting enzyme of cholesterol synthesis, can affect cell metabolism and proliferation. We therefore studied the effects of pravastatin on the generation of inflammatory mediators in non-stimulated and stimulated primary human monocytes in vitro. In our experimental model, pravastatin induced a dose-dependent in

Background: Patients with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) may be at increased risk of having venous thromboembolism. Methods: Medical records from 1253 IBD patients attending hospital care during the years 1987-97 were studied. These patients were recruited from a population of 340,000 inhabitants. Patients with verified venous thrombosis were characterized clinically, and blood samples were exam

Background and Aim: An abnormal immune response to intestinal bacteria has been observed in Crohn's disease (CD). Clostridium difficile infection incidence and severity are increased in CD, but reports on the humoral response have provided conflicting results. We aimed to shed light on the possible role of C. difficile in CD pathogenesis by paying attention to the influence of immunomodulatory tre