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The composition of the gut microbiota can vary widely between individual mice of the same batch and thereby affect the resulting outcome in experimental studies. Therefore, an efficient method is needed to equalize the gut microbiota prior to the start of critical experiments. In order to minimize variations in gut microbiota between animals and provide the animals with a Gram-negative flora expos

Constructing and updating an internal model of verticality is fundamental for maintaining an erect posture and facilitating visuo-spatial processing. The judgment of the visual vertical (VV) has been intensively studied in psychophysical investigations and relies mainly on the integration of visual and vestibular signals, although a contribution of postural and somatosensory signals has been repor

Alzheimer's disease (AD) and age-related cataract, disorders characterized by protein aggregation causing late-onset disease, both involve oxidative stress. We hypothesize that common variants of NFE2L2 and KEAP1, the genes encoding the main regulators of the Nrf2 system, an important defence system against oxidative stress, may influence risk of AD and/or age-related cataract. This case-control s

Obestatin is a 23-amino acid peptide encoded by the ghrelin gene. We have investigated the effect of obestatin on intestinal contractility in rats ranging from the suckling period till adolescence. Duodenal and middle jejunum whole-thickness preparations from neonatal and adult rats were studied in an organ bath, for isometric recording under treatment with obestatin (1 mu mol L-1) in the presence

The role of amount and type of dietary fat consumption in the aetiology of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is poorly understood, despite suggestive biological plausibility. The associations of total fat, fat subtypes and fat sources with HCC incidence were investigated in the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition (EPIC) cohort, which includes 191 incident HCC cases diagnosed

Objectives: The benefits of PSA (prostate specific antigen)-testing in prostate cancer remain controversial with a consequential need for validation of additional biomarkers. We used highly standardized reverse-transcription (RT)-PCR assays to compare transcript levels of 10 candidate cancer marker genes - BMP6, FGF-8b, KLK2, KLK3, KLK4, KLK15, MSMB, PCA3, PSCA and Trpm8 - in carefully ascertained

Compassion may be directed at a broad range of targets. The present study investigated interrelations among other-directed compassion, self-compassion and environmental compassion in early adolescence (age 12-14; N = 256) and examined how the different manifestations of compassion related to age and sex during this age period. Dispositional compassion directed at different targets was assessed thr

We hypothesized that priming of the skin with ultraviolet radiation (UVR) before being injured would enhance wound healing. Four groups, each comprising 20 immunocompetent hairless mice, were exposed to simulated solar irradiation in escalating UVR doses; 0 SED (standard erythema dose) = control, 1 SED, 3 SED and 5 SED. Twenty-four h after UV irradiation, inflammation was quantified by skin reflec

In a series of smog chamber experiments, the cloud condensation nuclei (CCN) activity of secondary organic aerosol (SOA) generated from ozonolysis of beta-caryophyllene was characterized by determining the CCN derived hygroscopicity parameter, kappa(CCN), from experimental data. Two types of CCN counters, operating at different temperatures, were used. The effect of semi-volatile organic compounds

Ancestral background, specifically African descent, confers higher risk for development of inhibitory antibodies to factor VIII (FVIII) in haemophilia A. It has been suggested that differences in the distribution of FVIII gene (F8) haplotypes, and mismatch between endogenous F8 haplotypes and those comprising products used for treatment could contribute to risk. Data from the Hemophilia Inhibitor

1. State space models are starting to replace more simple time series models in analyses of temporal dynamics of populations that are not perfectly censused. By simultaneously modelling both the dynamics and the observations, consistent estimates of population dynamical parameters may be obtained. For many data sets, the distribution of observation errors is unknown and error models typically chos

Background Coordination of breathing and swallowing is essential for airway protection and dyscoordination may cause morbidity and mortality. Methods Using a recently developed technique for high accuracy respiratory measurements of airflow during swallowing, we investigated the effects of body position (upright vs left lateral), bolus type (spontaneously swallowed saliva vs water), and respirator

Females often base their mate selection on multiple male traits. Different cues may be weighted differently in mating decisions, and play different roles such as indicating species identity or condition. The ontogeny of preferences for each cue can differ, which may offer a proximate explanation for the differential female evaluation of multimodal traits of males. We investigated whether female pr

Background: Research in the last decades has clearly pointed to the important role of language and communicative level when trying to understand developmental trajectories in children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD). Aims: The purpose of this longitudinal study was to investigate whether (1) core language skills, measured as expressive vocabulary and grammar, and/or (2) pre-linguistic social-

This article investigates the extent to which merger and acquisition (M&A) activity contributed to the spatial clustering of the Dutch banking industry in Amsterdam. This analysis is based on a unique database of all banks in the Netherlands that existed in the period 1850-1993. We found that spatial clustering of the Dutch banking industry was not driven by the fact that banks performed bette

Over the last decades, many liberal democracies have experienced a tension between the education system’s expressed requirement to foster citizenship norms and the liberal (sub-) ideal of norm neutrality. This dilemma has been accentuated by, on the one hand, increased ethnical and cultural diversity, and, on the other hand, liberalization of society in general and the schooling system in particul

Human disturbance can be a severe problem for some animal species. Behavioural ecology theory predicts that sensitivity to mortality risks, and thereby to disturbance, will be related to life-history characteristics. Long-lived species with low reproductive rates are expected to have a high cost of predation and therefore avoid risks strongly. In this paper we quantify the effect of roads on the A

Protein G, a bacterial cell-wall protein with high affinity for the constant region of IgG (IgGFc) antibodies, contains homologous repeats responsible for the interaction with IgGFc. A synthetic peptide corresponding to an 11-amino acid-long sequence in the COOH-terminal region of the repeats was found to bind to IgGFc and block the interaction with protein G. Moreover, two other IgGFc-binding bac

Background: Identifying individuals at high risk of developing Alzheimer's disease (AD) is important for future therapeutic strategies, and there is a clinical need for diagnostic biomarkers to identify incipient AD. Objective: The aim of the present study was to investigate if the AD-associated A beta peptide pattern recently found in cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) could discriminate between patients

We used satellite-tracking data from repeated journeys between Europe and West Africa by the same osprey, Pandion haliaetus, individuals to test whether the timing of migration differs between spring and autumn and whether landmarks and stopover goal areas are important for navigation. The timing of migration varied more in autumn than in spring, owing to significant differences between individual