Objectives: The characteristic clinical symptoms of collagenous colitis are non-bloody diarrhoea, urgency and abdominal pain. Treatment is aimed at reducing the symptom burden and the disease impact on patients' health-related quality of life. The objective of this study was to analyse health-related quality of life in patients with collagenous colitis. Methods: In a cross-sectional, postal HRQL s

BACKGROUND: Insulin-like growth factors (IGFs) and their binding proteins (BPs) regulate cell differentiation, proliferation and apoptosis, and may have a role in the aetiology of various cancers. Information on their role in pancreatic cancer is limited and was examined here in a case-control study nested within the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition. METHODS: Serum conc

The bacteria Staphylococcus aureus is part of the normal bacterial flora and produces a repertoire of enterotoxins which can cause food poisoning and toxic shock and might contribute to the pathogenesis of inflammatory diseases. These enterotoxins directly cross-link the T cell receptor with MHC class II, activating large amounts of T cells and are therefore called superantigens. It was recently d

The effect of deglycosylation of pyranose dehydrogenase (PDH) obtained from Agaricus meleagris (Am) and recombinantly expressed in Pichia pastoris on its electrocatalytic activity was investigated. Glycosylated (gAmPDH) and deglycosylated PDH (dgAmPDH) were immobilised on spectrographic graphite (G) simultaneously with an osmium redox polymer (Os-RP) using poly(ethylene glycol)(400) diglycidyl eth

Purpose – The rapid proliferation of mobile context aware applications has resulted in an increased research interest towards developing specialized context data management strategies for mobile entities. The purpose of this paper is to aim to develop a new way to model mobile entities and manage their contexts accordingly. Design/methodology/approach – This paper proposes the concept of “Mobile

By having phenotypically plastic traits, many organisms optimize their fitness in response to fluctuating threats. Freshwater snails with translucent shells, e.g. snails from the Radix genus, differ considerably in their mantle pigmentation patterns, with snails from the same water body ranging from being completely dark pigmented to having only a few dark patterns. These pigmentation differences

Objective: In this study the activation of HMGA2 and overexpression by FGF1-driven stimulation of adipose tissue derived stem cells (ADSCs) in adipose tissue tumors were analyzed. In addition, the expression of HMGA2 and PPAR-gamma mRNA were quantified in canine subcutaneous abdominal adipose tissue from normal and overweight purebred dogs. Design and Methods: ADSCs and adipose tissue explants sti

Thermal radiation is the dominating form of heat transfer in several combustion technologies that combust solid fuels, such as pulverized coal combustion and fixed bed combustion. The thermal radiation originates from the hot combustion gases and particles. For accurate modelling of thermal radiation in these environments the selection of the radiative transport model and radiative property model

Data on the potential effect of obesity and diabetes mellitus on survival after liver resection due to colorectal cancer (CRC) metastases are very limited.

Understanding and control of spin degrees of freedom on the surfaces of topological materials are key to future applications as well as for realizing novel physics such as the axion electrodynamics associated with time-reversal (TR) symmetry breaking on the surface. We experimentally demonstrate magnetically induced spin reorientation phenomena simultaneous with a Dirac-metal to gapped-insulator t

OBJECTIVE/BACKGROUND: There is limited information regarding outcome in patients not available for revascularisation. Our aim was to identify factors related to ulcer healing in diabetic patients with severe peripheral arterial disease who were not available for revascularisation. METHODS: Diabetic patients with a foot ulcer, consecutively presenting at a multidisciplinary foot centre with systoli

In this paper we show that the long-run stock and bond volatility and the long-run stock-bond correlation depend on macroeconomic uncertainty. We use the mixed data sampling (MIDAS) econometric approach. The findings are in accordance with the flight-to-quality phenomenon when macroeconomic uncertainty is high. (C) 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Aluminum foams are favorable in modern thermal engineering applications because of the high thermal conductivity and the large specific surface area. The present study aims to investigate an application of porous aluminum foam by using the local thermal equilibrium (LTE) and local thermal nonequilibrium (LTNE) heat transfer models. Three-dimensional simulations of laminar flow (porous foam zone),

Aims/hypothesis The role of biomarkers of subclinical inflammation in the early deterioration of glycaemia before type 2 diabetes is largely unknown. We hypothesised that increased levels of circulating proinflammatory biomarkers and decreased circulating adiponectin would be associated with 7 year increases of HbA(1c) in non-diabetic individuals. Methods This study was based on individuals who pa

The hygroscopic growth of the atmospheric aerosol is a critical parameter for quantifying the anthropogenic radiative forcing. Until now, there has been a lack of long term measurements due to limitations in instrumental techniques. In this work, for the first time the seasonal variation of the hygroscopic properties of a continental background aerosol has been described, based on more than two ye

Tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-alpha) has been implicated in the pathogenesis of asthma, and neutralization of TNF-alpha is an effective therapy for inflammatory diseases. The present study tested the idea that a TNF-alpha antibody, infliximab, may be useful in the management of asthma. E3 rats were immunized with ovalbumin (OVA)/alum and received infliximab intra-peritoneally. Two weeks later,

The performance of the current quantum dot (QD) solar cells is limited by several deficiencies. One of them is the existence of surface traps, especially hole traps, which are blocking the hole injection into the electrolyte. The trapping can be efficiently suppressed by growing a shell of wider band gap material around the core dot. Optimum parameters of such a shell layer for photovoltaic applic

The aim of this study was to investigate the groundwater chemistry with special concern to metal pollution in selected communities in the Wassa West district, Ghana. In this mining area, 40 ground water samples, mainly from drilled wells, were collected. The groundwaters have generally from neutral to acidic pH values and their Eh values indicate oxidising conditions. The dominating ions are calci

Staphylococcus aureus strains producing the bacteriophage-encoded staphylococcal enterotoxin A (SEA) were divided into two groups, high- and low-SEA-producing strains, based on the amount of SEA produced. After growth under favorable conditions in batch cultures, ten of the 21 strains tested produced more than 1,000 ng/ml SEA and nine strains produced less than 10 ng/ml SEA; two enterotoxigenic st