A sizable fraction of testicular germ cell tumour (TGCT) risk is expected to be explained by heritable factors. Recent genome-wide association studies (GWAS) have successfully identified a number of common SNPs associated with TGCT. It is however, unclear how much common variation there is left to be accounted for by other, yet to be identified, common SNPs and what contribution common genetic var

A quarter of a century has elapsed since the catastrophe at the nuclear power plant in Chernobyl. The radioactive fallout affected all the European countries and most severely the three countries of Belarus, Russia and Ukraine. In the aftermath of this devastating event, the scientific knowledge on the various radiological impacts of such a large scale accident and means to remediate these impacts

Vehicle-to-vehicle (VTV) wireless communications have many envisioned applications in traffic safety and congestion avoidance, but the development of suitable communications systems and standards requires accurate models for the VTV propagation channel. In this paper, we present a new wideband multiple-input-multiple-output (MIMO) model for VTV channels based on extensive MIMO channel measurements

Building owners are encouraged to reduce energy use in order to both contribute to national energy-saving goals and reduce the costs of heating and operation. It is important to choose the most optimal renovation measures available so as to achieve cost-effective energy use while maintaining excellent indoor environments, without sacrificing architectural quality or negatively affecting the enviro

Following myocardial infarction (MI), patients often have unanswered questions about resuming sexual activity. Coronary care nurses can play an important role in counselling. However, this sensitive area is frequently neglected in nursing practice. This article discusses patient and nurse perceptions of such discussions and explores ways to increase nurses' awareness, so that they might offer sexu

Familial renal glycosuria is an inherited disorder resulting in glucose excretion in the urine despite normal blood glucose concentrations. It is most commonly due to mutations in the SLC5A2 gene coding for the glucose transporter SGLT2 in the proximal tubule. Several drugs have been introduced as means to lower glucose in patients with type 2 diabetes targeting SGLT2 resulting in renal glycosuria

Objective: To better understand the seemingly contradictory plasma beta-amyloid (A beta) results in Alzheimer's disease (AD) patients by using a newly developed plasma A beta assay, the INNO-BIA plasma A beta forms, in a multicenter study. Methods: A combined retrospective analysis of plasma A beta isoforms on mild cognitive impairment (MCI) from three large cross-sectional studies involving 643 s

Objective: To locate components and target proteins of relevance for the cAMP and cGMP signaling networks including cAMP and cGMP phosphodiesterases (PDEs), salt-inducible kinases (SIKs), subunits of Na+, K+-ATPases, and aquaporins (AQPs) in the human saccule. Methods: The human saccule was dissected out during the removal of vestibular schwannoma via the translabyrinthine approach and immediately

Sixty genetic loci associated with abdominal obesity, measured by waist circumference (WC) and waist-hip ratio (WHR), have been previously identified, primarily from studies conducted in European-ancestry populations. We conducted a meta-analysis of associations of abdominal obesity with approximately 2.5 million single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) among 53,052 (for WC) and 48,312 (for WHR) ind

In endeavouring to explain the empirical puzzle that the sunk costs of exporting are important, but that, at the same time, trade flows do not, on average, survive for very long, this paper explores the concepts of core and peripheral markets. First, it illustrates that if the importance of sunk costs as well as the expected future returns from exporting are different, depending on whether the exp

Reduction of packaging waste has been a European target for more than 40 years. However, packaging is indispensable for protecting what it carries. In this study, an analysis of the European regulations on packaging and of their resulting effect on recycling performance was performed by means of a literature survey and the national results published in the European Database, Eurostat. Based on the

All guidelines recommend short-acting inhaled beta 2-adrenoceptor agonists as the first-line drugs in acute asthma attacks and inhaled corticosteroids as the drugs of choice when regular daily treatment is needed. Short-acting inhaled beta 2-adrenoceptor agonists are not effective in reducing nocturnal awakenings because of their short duration of action. In addition there has been an intense deba