BACKGROUND: The existence of a link between inflammation in upper and lower airways is well established. It may therefore be assumed that the nose could be used to study inflammatory events in the lower airways. OBJECTIVE: This study aimed to evaluate a lipopolysaccharide (LPS) nasal challenge model by investigating the effect of the CXCR2 inhibitor AZD8309 on neutrophilic inflammation. METHODS: A

Objectives: Smoking has been associated with higher disease activity and poor response to anti-tumour necrosis factor (anti-TNF) therapy in patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA). We wanted to study the effect of smoking on response to therapy, disease activity measures, and drug survival in RA patients starting their first anti-TNF drug. Methods: In 2005, RA patients in a voluntary rheumatology

Hibernomas are benign tumors with morphological features resembling brown fat. They consistently display cytogenetic rearrangements, typically translocations, involving chromosome band 11q13. Here we demonstrate that these aberrations are associated with concomitant deletions of AIP and MEN1, tumor suppressor genes that are located 3 Mb apart and that underlie the hereditary syndromes pituitary ad

BACKGROUND:: Case and single center reports have documented the feasibility and suggested the effectiveness of endovascular aneurysm repair (EVAR) of ruptured abdominal aortic aneurysms (RAAAs), but the role and value of such treatment remain controversial. OBJECTIVE:: To clarify these we examined a collected experience with use of EVAR for RAAA treatment from 49 centers. METHODS:: Data were obtai

According to Swedish law, the Child and Youth Habilitation Services are obliged to report abuse and neglect of disabled children to the Social Services. Only a small proportion of all children who are suspected of being victims of abuse or neglect are however reported to the Social Services. The aim of this study is to discuss why some cases of abuse and neglect of disabled children are considered

BACKGROUND: We surveyed lymphomas to determine the range of expression of the mantle cell lymphoma-associated SOX11 transcription factor and its relation to cyclin D1. DESIGN AND METHODS: On hundred and seventy-two specimens were immunostained for the SOX11 N and C termini. Cyclin D1 was detected by immunohistochemistry and quantitative reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction; in situ hybr

Prediction of wound healing and major amputation in patients with diabetic foot ulceration is clinically important to stratify risk and target interventions for limb salvage. No consensus exists as to which measure of peripheral artery disease (PAD) can best predict outcomes. To evaluate the prognostic utility of index PAD measures for the prediction of healing and/ or major amputation among patie

In many magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS) applications, one strives to estimate the parameters describing the signal to allow for more precise knowledge of the analyte. Typically, MRS signals are well modelled as a sum of damped sinusoids that has properties that are partly known a priori. FREEK, a recently proposed subspace-based parameter estimation method allows for inclusion of such prior

Shadowing from vehicles can degrade the performance of vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) communication systems significantly. It is thus important to characterize and model the influence of common shadowing objects like cars properly. For multilink systems it is essential to model the joint effects on the different links. However, the multilink shadowing effects in V2V channels are not yet well understood.

This article discusses the self-perceived integration of Swedes permanently residing in Portugal. The knowledge of how EU citizens, particularly Swedes, live and integrate into Portuguese society is limited. The conceptual framework on self-perceived integration takes its points of departure from the concepts of a sense of belonging to society and place, feelings of discomfort and coping tactics.