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OBJECTIVE: Previous experiments have shown that addition of fragmented fibronectin can induce cartilage chondrolysis. In this study we investigated the fate of the collagen- and cell-binding molecules Cartilage oligomeric matrix protein (COMP) and chondroadherin. DESIGN: Equine articular cartilage explants were stimulated with the C-terminal and the N-terminal heparin-binding fragments of fibronec

Major practical constraints on neural grafting in Parkinson's disease are the shortage of human donor tissue and the great loss of dopamine neurons during the grafting procedure. The vast majority of implanted embryonic dopamine neurons are believed to die within a few days of transplantation surgery, at least in part through apoptosis. We have previously found that survival of nigral grafts in ro

High-resolution palaeoecological proxies of pollen, macrofossils and diatoms from an isolation lake provide a long-term record of the Holocene landscape history and shoreline displacement on the Biskopsmala Peninsula in central Blekinge, SE Sweden. During the Preboreal/Boreal transition, the peninsula was sparsely vegetated by woodlands, along with lateglacial dwarf shrub/steppe communities. The l

I give a very short introduction to chiral perturbation theory and an overview of the next-to-next-to-leading order three-flavour calculations done. I discuss those relevant for an improvement in the accuracy of the measurement of V_us in more detail. One major conclusion is that all needed p⁶ low energy constants can be obtained from experiment via the scalar form-factor in K

Most of the Nordic region was ice-covered during the last (Weichselian) glaciation. During the postglacial period, plant and animal species recolonized the region from several directions and the geographic structuring of genetic variation within Nordic species may still contain a historic component that reflects patterns of postglacial immigration. The present investigation of 69 populations of Si

Interleukin-6 (IL6) is a growth and survival factor in human prostate cancer (PCa) cells with aggressive phenotypes and has been implicated in the progression of hormone refractory PCas. In the present study, we characterized the IL6-triggered PI3K/Akt and MAPK/Erk signaling. We identified the A-type cyclin, cyclin A1 as an important downstream target of PI3K/Akt. Treatment of cells with PI3K inhi

Sulfate adsorption is an important process when modeling the dynamics of recovery from acidification. In the dynamic soil chemistry model SAFE sulfate adsorption is modeled by a pH and sulfate concentration dependent isotherm. This isotherm has been parameterized by fitting it to data from batch experiments on soil samples using multiple linear regression. The soil samples were from the B-horizon

Objectives Cervical cancer is one of the most common forms of cancer among women. Cytological screening and follow-up are potentially effective procedures for preventing the development of – and mortality from – cervical cancer. The purpose of this study was to investigate the screening history of women diagnosed with cervical cancer with the aim of improving the screening programme. Study design

Replications are commonly considered to be important contributions to investigate the generality of empirical studies. By replicating an original study it may be shown that the results are either valid or invalid in another context, outside the specific environment in which the original study was launched. The results of the replicated study show how much confidence we could possibly have in the o

An extensive set of proxy-data was acquired from eastern and central Denmark in order to study the dynamic behaviour of the southwestern margin of the last Scandinavian Ice Sheet. We examine the last three glacier advances of the Late Weichselian: the Main advance from central Sweden, representing the maximum ice extent at this time (c. 21-20 ka BP), and the two succeeding Baltic advances (c. 18-1

In an accompanying paper (Am. J. Epidemiol. 2002;155:1066-73), the authors describe the design of a large multicenter study being carried out in three West African countries for investigation of the roles of environmental and host-related factors in the development of tuberculosis. In this paper, the authors review some evidence that host genetic factors play a role in susceptibility to tuberculos

Three approaches to trend analysis of water quality time series are discussed: (1) seasonal model, with a test for trend based on ranks of observations, with observations assumed to be m dependent; (2) transfer function noise model, in which covariate series may be included by means of transfer functions, with the remaining noise modeled as a seasonal autoregressive moving average process; and (3)

tRNA is the adaptor in the translation process. The ribosome has three sites for tRNA, the: A-, P-, and E-sites. The tRNAs bridge between the ribosomal subunits with the decoding site and the mRNA on the small or 30S subunit and the peptidyl transfer site on the large or 50S subunit. The possibility that, translation release factors could mimic tRNA has been discussed for a long time, since their

Changes in understory biomass, forest floor carbon (C) stock and vegetation composition were studied in six age-classes of Siberian larch (Larix sibirica) and two age-classes of native birch (Betula pubescens) in Iceland. The ground vegetation was less in the larch during the thicket stage and in the old-growth birch compared to a treeless pasture. Understory biomass was strongly related to canopy

Caudate nucleus dopamine (DA) D-2 receptors were studied in patients with vascular dementia (VaD) and in a control group using [H-3]raclopride as a radioligand. There was no significant difference in the number of DA D-2 receptors in the VaD group as compared with controls. The binding affinity was significantly lower in the VaD group. When the VaD group was subdivided into subjects with or withou

In order to systematically and visually understand well-known but qualitative and complex relationships between synoptic fields and heavy rainfall events in Kyushu Islands, southwestern Japan, during the BAIU season, these synoptic fields were classified using the Self-Organizing Map (SOM), which can convert complex non-linear features into simple two-dimensional relationships. It was assumed that

This paper presents a new method of studying mould activity as a function of water activity by measuring the heat produced by the fungal metabolism. During a measurement a small sample (<1 g) of a moulded substrate is moved between a humidity generator, where it is conditioned to a certain water activity, and a microcalorimeter, where the heat production rate is measured. This is repeated for diff

Objective Surgical abortion in Lithuania is governed by a 1994 ministerial decree that made it legal for any woman 16 or older. This article seeks to determine the key demographic factors in Lithuanian attitudes towards medical abortion, which is currently not legal. Methods A random sample of the adult population was asked if they supported medical abortion. The dependent variable of attitude tow