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Background and Purpose - Warfarin prevents stroke in atrial fibrillation (AF); however, concerns regarding international normalized ratio control and hemorrhage limit its use in the elderly. The oral direct thrombin inhibitors (DTIs) are potential alternatives to warfarin, offering fixed dosing without drug and dietary interactions and the need for international normalized ratio monitoring. Althou

Objective: The insulin responsive adiponutrin (PNPLA3 or ADPN) gene shows association with obesity and in vitro adipocyte lipolysis. This study aimed to replicate the association between PNPLA3 variants and obesity, and to investigate their effect on insulin resistance and beta-cell function. Methods: rs738409 (Met148Ile) and rs2072907 (C to G) were genotyped using TaqMan allelic discrimination as

Platelet-derived growth factor-B (PDGFB) is necessary for normal cardiovascular development, but the relative importance of different cellular sources of PDGFB has not been established. Using Cre-lox techniques, we show here that genetic ablation of Pdgfb in endothelial cells leads to impaired recruitment of pericytes to blood vessels. The endothelium-restricted Pdgfb knockout mutants also develop

OBJECTIVES: The aim of this study was to evaluate the applicability of total plasma protein adducts (TPPA) of 2 sensitizing low-molecular-weight allergens, hexahydrophthalic anhydride (HHPA) and methylhexahydrophthalic anhydride (MHHPA), as biomarkers of long-term exposure. METHODS: Urine samples from occupationally exposed workers were analyzed for the levels of urinary metabolites of HHPA and MH

We studied host selection and exploitation, two crucial aspects of parasite ecology, in Achrysocharoides parasitoid wasps, which show remarkable host specificity and unusual offspring sex allocation. We estimated a molecular phylogeny of 15 Achrysocharoides species and compared this with host (plant and insect) phylogenies. This tri-trophic phylogenetic comparison provides no evidence for cospecia

The scope of this work is a new methodology to correct conventional near-infrared (NIR) data for scattering effects. The technique aims at measuring the absorption coefficient of the samples rather than the total attenuation measured in conventional NIR spectroscopy. The main advantage of this is that the absorption coefficient is independent of the path length of the light inside the sample and t

Background and purpose: The purpose of this work was a comparison of realistic IMRT plans based on the same CT-image data set and a common predefined set of dose objectives for the planning target volume and the organs at risk. This work was part of the larger European QUASIMODO IMRT verification project. Materials and methods: Eleven IMRT. plans were produced by nine different European groups, ea

The temporal confinement of high harmonic generation (HHG) via modulation of the polarization of the fundamental pulse is studied in both temporal and spectral domains. In the temporal domain, a collinear cross-correlation setup using a 40 fs IR pump for the HHG and a 9 fs IR pulse to probe the generated emission is used to measure the XUV pulse duration. The observed temporal confinement is found

The surface pressure–molecular area (–A) relationship for spread layers of the high molecular-weight glutenin subunit 1Dx5, a 58 kDa peptide derived from the central repetitive domain of the subunit, and an -gliadin fraction was measured by means of a surface film balance (Langmuir trough). The aqueous phase was a 10 mM acetate buffer, pH 4.0, either with or without 100 mM NaCl. Subunit 1Dx5 gener

Cytokines direct the differentiation of naive CD4(+) T cells into either IFN-gamma-producing T(h)1 cells or IL-4-producing T(h)2 cells. In this study, we analyzed the activation of signal transducer and activator of transcription (STAT)1, STAT3 and STAT5 (together with STAT4 and STAT6), and the expression of the recently identified suppressor of cytokine signalling (SOCS) proteins, in differentiat

The present study involves the synthesis of sulfonated poly(3-ethyl-3-(hydroxymethyl)oxetane), sPTMPO, by end-capping the hydroxy-groups in the PTMPO with 1,4-butane sultone. A series of the polymer with different degrees of substitution was investigated. Furthermore, the subsequent use of the sulfonated PTMPO as the acidic component in proton conducting membranes was explored. The membranes were

The formation of acrylamide in potato crisps was fitted by empirical mathematical models. Potato slices were fried under the same experimental conditions for different times. Besides the content of precursors in the raw potato slices, acrylamide and water content in the potato crisps were quantified after predetermined times (2-6 min). The temperature developments in the surrounding oil and outer

A series of resonant Auger-electron spectra excited at selected photon energies across the O 1s -> Rydberg resonances in O-2 has been measured. Applying a spectator-electron shake relaxation model originally introduced for atomic resonant Auger-electron spectra, and using, to a large extent, the assignments for the core-excited resonances available from the literature, many of the observed spectat

Ro 25-1553 is a metabolically stable analogue of endogenous vasoactive intestinal polypeptide (VIP). This compound is a potent bronchodilator in vitro as well as in vivo. Moreover, Ro 25-1553 has been shown to be highly selective of the VPAC2 receptor. We assessed the effect of Ro 25-1553 on isolated human bronchi and pulmonary arteries in vitro. Macroscopically normal human airways and pulmonary

Hagopian WA, Erlich H, Lernmark Å, Rewers M, Ziegler AG, Simell O, Akolkar B, Vogt Jr R, Blair A, Ilonen J, Krischer J, She J, and the TEDDY Study Group. The Environmental Determinants of Diabetes in the Young (TEDDY): genetic criteria and international diabetes risk screening of 421 000 infants. Aims: The Environmental Determinants of Diabetes in the Young (TEDDY) study seeks to identify environm

BACKGROUND: Different generic quality of life instruments such as the Nottingham Health Profile (NHP) and the Short Form 36 Health Survey (SF-36) have revealed conflicting results in patients with chronic lower limb ischaemia in psychometric attributes in short-term evaluations. The aim of this study was to compare the NHP and the SF-36 regarding internal consistency reliability, validity, respons

Like the other dialects spoken in the Salentine peninsula, the dialect from Gallipoli, Gallipolino, presents a limited use of infinitival clauses. Instead of several infinitival constructions as in standard Italian, we find some finite constructions introduced by two different complementizers: ka and ku. Traditionally, the phenomenon of the double complementation system in Southern Italian dialect

Background Germline mutations in the BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes are associated with increased risks of breast and ovarian cancers. Although several common variants have been associated with breast cancer susceptibility in mutation carriers, none have been associated with ovarian cancer susceptibility. A genome-wide association study recently identified an association between the rare allele of the sing