Summary The serum resistance of the common respiratory pathogen Moraxella catarrhalis is mainly dependent on ubiquitous surface proteins (Usp) A1 and A2 that interact with complement factor 3 (C3) and complement inhibitor C4b binding protein (C4BP) preventing the alternative and classical pathways of the complement system respectively. UspA2 also has the capacity to attract vitronectin that in tur

A well functioning societal response to crises is benefited by individuals having adequate skills and knowledge. From a municipal perspective this requires the creation of a learning organization. The objective of this study is to determine whether individual municipal employees, who have the responsibility for preparedness planning, reason and act in ways that promote learning about crises and pr

Type 1 diabetes (T1D) is an autoimmune disease caused by the T cell-mediated destruction of the pancreatic insulin-producing beta cells. Currently there are no widely accepted and standardized assays available to analyse the function of autoreactive T cells involved in T1D. The development of such an assay would greatly aid efforts to understand the pathogenesis of T1D and is also urgently require

ABSTRACT Reports of three cases in which patients' pain was previously inadequately treated prior to referral and how it was addressed in a pain clinic are presented. The impact of polypharmacy on medication adherence, fear of opioids among patients and staff, and of stoicism in pain patients is discussed.

Dyslexia has been shown to affect postural control. The aim of the present study was to investigate the difference in postural stability measured as torque variance in an adult dyslexic group (n=14, determined using the Adult Dyslexia Checklist (ADCL) and nonsense word repetition test) and an adult non-dyslexic group (n=39) on a firm surface and on a foam block and with eyes open and eyes closed.

The increasing test application times required for testing system-on-chips (SOCs) is a problem that leads to higher costs. For modular core based SOCs it is possibly to employ a concurrent test scheme in order to lower the test application times. To allow each core to be tested as a separate unit, a wrapper is inserted for each core, the scan chains at each core are configured into a fixed number

Mercury concentrations in air and in condensed steam coming from fumarolic activity at the Solfatara crater (Phlegraean Fields - Italy) were determined. In the condensed steam, mercury was found mainly associated as Hg-S complexes and showed a flux in the range from 0.9 to 4.5 g day(-1). Using the point monitor technique, high values (up to 690 ng m(-3)) of atmospheric mercury levels were observed

Increased plasma concentrations of small LDL particles denote an atherogenic lipoprotein phenotype (ALP) that is correlated with increased circulating TAG and reduced HDL-cholesterol. Principal component analyses of subfraction concentrations have previously been used in the Swedish population-based Malmö Diet and Cancer (MDC) cohort to identify three independent components, one pattern representi

Endovascular aneurysm repair (EVAR) offers a minimally invasive treatment to patients with improved short-term and similar mid-term results compared to conventional, open repair (OR). EVAR is preferred by patients due to the reduction of surgical trauma. Approximately 20% of patients have aneurysm neck morphology which is inadequate for a standard stent graft and requires the endograft to cross vi

Background: There is a paucity of research on the effects of interactive feedback methods and sustained assessment strategies in formative assessment of students in the workplace. Aims: To investigate the outcome of long-term use of an assessment tool. Methods: Retrospective analysis of summarised assessment tools from 3 years of 464 final-year students in general practice. Quantitative data were

Chebyshev polynomial techniques for solution of singular integral equations leading to square root singularities at the ends of the interval of integration are studied. It is shown that the results are less accurate when a singularity, albeit a weak one, appears between the interval ends. Typical examples are problems involving kinked cracks. Some attempts to improve the accuracy are discussed.

Many reports on living kidney donation describe rapid recovery. In our experience rehabilitation is rather slow. This study aimed to explore self-reported health status among living donors (LDs) three to four weeks and six months post-donation with a longitudinal design. In this study. LDs (n = 112) reported their physical and mental health by responding to a questionnaire before surgery, after th

BACKGROUND: The incidence of acute cardiovascular and cerebrovascular events in patients treated for complicated or uncomplicated peptic ulcer disease (PUD) has not been ascertained completely. METHOD: All patients with in-hospital treatment due to PUD between 1987 and 2007, who did not have any past history of acute or chronic cardiovascular or cerebrovascular disease, were identified through the

Treatment with docetaxel is the standard of care as first line chemotherapy in castration resistant prostate cancer. Due to serious side effects from the commercially available Taxotere formulation, we aimed to develop a safe and effective nanoparticle formulation of docetaxel. Liquid crystal nanoparticles (LCNPs), based on phosphatidyl choline, glycerol dioleate and polysorbate 80 dispersed in ex

In the adult mammalian brain, neurogenesis from neural stem/progenitor cells continues in two regions: the subgranular zone in the dentate gyrus and the subventricular zone lining the lateral ventricles. The generated neuroblasts migrate to their appropriate location and differentiate to mature granule cells and olfactory bulb interneurons, respectively. Following injury such as stroke, neuroblast

INTRODUCTION: Hyperactivity of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA)-axis is a common finding in major depressive disorder. Similar studies on suicide attempters are less abundant, and the results are divergent. The main aim of the present study was to investigate HPA-axis parameters by the time of a suicide attempt and at follow-up in search for associations between HPA-axis function and suici

OBJECTIVES: The purpose of this study was to assess the effect of persistent organochlorine compounds through the dietary intake of fatty fish from the Baltic Sea on human fertility. METHODS: Information on time to pregnancy, subfertility, and infertility was collected retrospectively by self-administered questionnaires in 2 cohorts of fishermen's wives from the Swedish east (by the Baltic Sea) an