The aim is to determine how well the rate parameter of the homogeneous model of dissolution can be estimated in dependency on the chosen times to measure the empirical data. The approach is based on the theory of Fisher information. We show that if the probability distribution of the measurement ...

BACKGROUND: The syndrome of exhaustion is currently a medical diagnosis in Sweden. The description of the syndrome largely corresponds to the suggested core component of burnout, that is exhaustion. Karolinska Exhaustion Scale (KES) has been constructed to provide specific assessment of exhaustion in clinical and research settings. AIM: The purpose ...

There is strong evidence of shared acoustic profiles common to the expression of emotions in music and speech, yet relatively limited understanding of the specific psychoacoustic features involved. This study combined a controlled experiment and computational modelling to investigate the perceptual codes associated with the expression of emotion in the ...

We conducted a phase II study of preoperative chemoradiation (CRT) with S-1 plus oxaliplatin in patients with locally advanced rectal cancer. The total radiotherapy dose was 50.4 Gy. Chemotherapy consisted of oxaliplatin 50 mg/m(2) on day 1, 8, 22 and 29, and S-1 80 mg/m(2) /day on day 1-14 and ...

BackgroundVisual symptoms in older people can be complex and inadequately explained by eye pathology alone. Psychological and neurodegenerative processes may manifest as complex visual symptoms, and thus some patients may be poorly served by a purely ophthalmic approach. We have developed a novel multidisciplinary clinic with input from neurology, ophthalmology, ...

Graphene lite: A density of (2.1±0.3) mg cm(-3) , the lowest to date for a graphene framework architecture, is achieved by preparing an ultralight, N-doped, 3D graphene framework (see photo of a block of the material balancing on a dandelion). Its adsorption capacity for oils and organic solvents is much higher ...

Exercise does not seem to benefit patients with depression who are already receiving 'good standard care'.

A molecular thermodynamic model is developed to examine crowding effect on DNA melting. Each pair of nucleotides in double-stranded DNA and each nucleotide in single-stranded DNA are represented by two types of charged Lennard-Jones segments, respectively. Water molecules are mimicked explicitly as spherical particles, embedded in a dielectric continuum. Crowders ...

Abstract MSH6 (mutS homolog 6), one of the five key mismatch repair (MMR) genes, was found to play an important role in conferring resistance to alkylating agents - temozolomide (TMZ) in malignant glioma. This study aims to investigate whether genetic variations in MSH6 gene are associated with the survival outcomes ...

ABSTRACT: BACKGROUND: The histone H3K27 demethylases UTX and JMJD3 are important regulatory factors that modulate gene expression by altering the physical state of chromatin. Previous studies have indicated an abnormal H3K27 methylation status in carcinogenesis. We therefore investigated the expression patterns of UTX and JMJD3 in renal cell carcinoma (RCC) ...

Formaldehyde is ubiquitous in the environment. It is known to be a genotoxic substance. We hypothesized that reactive oxygen species (ROS) and lipid peroxidation are involved in formaldehyde-induced genotoxicity in human lung cancer cell lines A549. To test this hypothesis, we investigated the effects of antioxidant on formaldehyde-induced genotoxicity in ...

Electrical transport properties of (La(1-x)X(x))MnO(3) (X = Ca, Sr), which exhibits the so-called colossal magnetoresistance (CMR) effect, are investigated in the framework of linear response theory combined with first-principles calculation. The calculation is performed by applying the coherent potential approximation and Kubo-Greenwood formula to the KKR Green's function method. In order to ...

ABSTRACT: BACKGROUND: The Visayan Tarictic Hornbill (Penelopides panini) and the Walden's Hornbill (Aceros waldeni) are two threatened hornbill species endemic to the western islands of the Visayas that constitute - between Luzon and Mindanao - the central island group of the Philippine archipelago. In order to evaluate their genetic diversity ...

The conjugation of Eu(3+) -doped coordination polymers constructed from Gd(3+) and isophthalic acid (H(2) IPA) with silica particles is investigated for the production of luminescent microspheres. A series of doping ratio-controlled silica@coordination polymer core-shell spheres is easily synthesized by altering the amounts of metal nodes used in the reactions, where ...

Pomegranate is an ancient fruit that is still part of the diet in the Mediterranean area, the Middle East, and India. Health-promoting effects have long been attributed to this fruit. Modern research corroborates the use of pomegranate as a folk remedy for diabetes and metabolic syndrome, and is responsible for ...

Background and aim Dental professionals need adequate education in tobacco use prevention and cessation skills. The aim of this study was to identify the level of integration of tobacco education in undergraduate curricula of European dental schools.Method In 2009, a total of 197 European dental schools were identified through web-based ...

The arctic-alpine Ranunculus glacialis s. l. is distributed in high-mountain ranges of temperate Europe and in the North, where it displays an extreme disjunction between the North Atlantic Arctic and Beringia. Based on comprehensive sampling and employing plastid and nuclear marker systems, we (i) test whether the European/Beringian disjunction correlates ...

The formation of hierarchical porous protein scaffolds from oil-in-water (o/w) high internal phase emulsions (HIPEs) stabilized by bovine serum albumin (BSA) protein nanoparticles (Pickering HIPE) is reported. The route consists of three principal steps. First, a stable o/w HIPE stabilized by BSA protein nanoparticles is formulated. Next, crosslinking the dispersed ...

MacB is a founding member of the Macrolide Exporter family of transporters belonging to the ATP-Binding Cassette superfamily. These proteins are broadly represented in genomes of both Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria and are implicated in virulence and protection against antibiotics and peptide toxins. MacB transporter functions together with MacA, a ...

AIM: To report a study of the effects of protein-energy malnutrition on the functional recovery of older people with hip fracture who participated in an interdisciplinary intervention. BACKGROUND: It is not clear whether protein-energy malnutrition is associated with worse functional outcomes or it affects the interdisciplinary intervention program on the ...

Activation tagging is a powerful tool for discovering novel genes that are not easily identified by loss-of-function (lof) screening due to genetic redundancy or lethality. Although the current activation tagging system, which involves a viral enhancer sequence, has been used for a decade, alternative methods that allow organ- or tissue-specific ...

In a recent paper (Bhullar and Watchman 2012 Phys. Med. Biol. 57 273-86), the authors comment on data concerning the effective depth of cylindrical ionization chambers in water for clinical proton beams calculated in a previous paper (Palmans 2006 Phys. Med. Biol. 51 3483-501) and propose different results. They present ...

We have examined the effects of crystallization kinetics of poly(3-hexylthiophene) and poly[2,5-bis(3-hexadecylthiophen-2-yl)thieno(3,2-b)thiophene] on microstructure and charge transport. Rapid crystallization increases the density of tie molecules in polythiophenes. As a consequence, ordered regions are better connected resulting in higher charge carrier mobilities. Our results suggest that controlling the crystallization kinetics might ...

We report the case of a patient requiring gamma ventral capsulotomy (GVC), a neurosurgical intervention to address severe refractory obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). GVC involves stereotactic lesions in the ventral anterior limb of the internal capsule and adjacent ventral striatum. This study details the course of an extinction-based behavioral therapy, namely ...

Sjögren's syndrome (SS), an autoimmune, multi-factorial disorder, affects around 5% of females and 0.5% of males in the general population. The dental practitioner has a key role in recognising the clinical features of this condition, organising referral for specialist care and managing the oral health of these patients. In this ...

Around 100 researchers gathered at the eighteenth EMBO Conference on 'The Molecular and Developmental Biology of Drosophila', which took place in Crete in June 2012. Whether deconstructing or integrating at the genetic, cellular or organ level, the talks highlighted the synergy of combining methods, approaches and disciplines in this increasingly ...

The study of parallel evolution facilitates the discovery of common rules of diversification. Here, we examine the repeated evolution of thick lips in Midas cichlid fishes (the Amphilophus citrinellus species complex)-from two Great Lakes and two crater lakes in Nicaragua-to assess whether similar changes in ecology, phenotypic trophic traits and ...

Background  Uveal melanoma is the most common intraocular neoplasm with a high tendency to metastasize predominantly to the liver. Prognostic parameters for progression and overall survival are not well defined. The aim of this study was to assess the value of pretherapeutic serum levels of C-reactive protein (CRP), lactate dehydrogenase, ...

OBJECTIVE: We investigated predictors of emotional (worry) and cognitive (perceived risk) dimensions of fear of recurrence (FOR) and their relationships with psychological well-being in a sample of young and middle-aged adult cancer survivors. METHODS: Eligible participants were survivors between 18 and 55 years old and diagnosed from 1 to 3 years prior. ...

SUMMARY The relevance of spatial variation in the environment and host communities for parasite community composition is poorly documented, creating a need for additional case studies from which general principles can be developed. Avian malaria in southern African waterfowl has not previously been studied. As a first step towards documenting ...

Abstract: Objective. Acute ethanol intoxication has been shown to cause oxidative damage in many organ systems including the brain. Erythropoietin has antioxidant efffects and prevents neuronal damage in the animal model of ischemic brain injury. In this study, we aimed to investigate the effects of darbepoetin alpha, an analogue of ...

ABSTRACT: INTRODUCTION: Cupping is used in various traditional medicine forms to relieve pain in musculoskeletal diseases. The aim of this study was to investigate the effectiveness of cupping in relieving the symptoms of knee osteoarthritis (OA). METHODS: In a two-group, randomized controlled exploratory pilot study patients with a clinically and ...

Noticeable differences between the vibrational (IR and Raman) spectra of neat H2O and D2O ice Ih are observed experimentally. Here we employ our theoretical mixed quantum/classical approach to investigate these differences. We find reasonable agreement between calculated and experimental line shapes at both high and low temperatures. From understanding the ...

What's known on the subject? and What does the study add? The European Association of Urology (EAU) guidelines recommend an inguinal lymph node dissection (ILND) in patients with T1G2-3 squamous cell carcinoma of the penis (SCCP). To date, only four series reported the rates of cancer-specific mortality (CSM) after primary ...

Brought to light: Ag(2) S-Ag hybrid nanotubes were synthesized by rapid microwave-assisted sulfidation of Ag(2) CO(3) nanorods. The relative amounts of Ag(2) S and Ag in the hybrid structure can be controlled easily by varying the concentration of the sulfur precursor. The optimized Ag(2) S-Ag hybrid structure has superior photocatalytic ...

We report how the three-dimensional structure of subcutaneous injections of soluble insulin can be visualized by x-ray computed tomography using an iodine based contrast agent. The injections investigated are performed ex vivo in porcine adipose tissue. Full tomography scans carried out at a laboratory x-ray source with a total acquisition ...

A highly tunable design for obtaining double resonance substrates to be used in surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy is proposed. Tandem truncated nanocones composed of Au-SiO(2) -Au layers are designed, simulated and fabricated to obtain resonances at laser excitation and Stokes frequencies. Surface-enhanced Raman scattering experiments are conducted to compare the enhancements ...

SUMMARY Physical habitat structure can influence the distribution and abundance of organisms. In rivers, stream drift, a common process originating from the unidirectional water flow, favours the displacement and downstream dispersion of invertebrates. This process could also generate a gradient in infection levels, leading to decreasing numbers of parasites per ...

Fur (ferric uptake regulator) is the master regulator of iron homeostasis in many bacteria, but how it responds specifically to Fe(II) in vivo is not clear. Biochemical analyses of Bacillus subtilis Fur (BsFur) reveal that in addition to Fe(II), both Zn(II) and Mn(II) allosterically activate BsFur-DNA binding. Dimeric BsFur co-purifies ...

We have recently synthesized atomically flat semiconductor colloidal nanoplatelets with quasi 2D geometry. Here, we show that core/shell nanoplatelets can be obtained with a 2D geometry that is conserved. The epitaxial growth of the shell semiconductor is performed at room temperature. We report the detailed synthesis of CdSe/CdS and CdSe/CdZnS ...

AIM: To identify physician and visit characteristics affecting adherence to guidelines recommending delayed antibiotic therapy for acute otitis media (AOM). METHODS: We used physician visit data from an Israeli health maintenance organization to identify children ages 0-15 diagnosed with AOM. We defined early antibiotic treatment as purchase, within 3 days ...

PurposeTo describe the incidence, features, management, and risk factors of post-intravitreal anti-VEGF endophthalmitis (PIAE) in patients undergoing treatment for exudative age-related macular degeneration in the United Kingdom.MethodsProspective observational case control study. Forty-seven cases of PIAE were identified through the British Ophthalmological Surveillance Unit from January 2009 to March 2010. Data ...

SUMMARY Endogenous transplacental transmission (EnTT) of Neospora caninum is the most common route of infection in cattle and occurs as a consequence of a reactivation of N. caninum infection that may lead to abortion or to the birth of congenitally infected calves. The reactivation of N. caninum infection was studied ...

In situations of hypoxia, glutamate excitotoxicity induces neuronal death. The release of extracellular adenosine is also triggered and is accompanied by an increase of the stress mediator, corticotrophin-releasing factor (CRF). Adenosine A(2A) receptors contribute to glutamate excitoxicity and their blockade is effective in stress-induced neuronal deficits, but the involvement of ...

AIMS: The purpose of this study was to evaluate the antimicrobial efficacy of five different proteases belonging to two different families on S. aureus and S. epidermidis strains. METHODS AND RESULTS: We used three serine proteases and two metalloproteases in single species biofilm formation assays and in human cell invasion ...

Aim  To assess global and regional brain matter variations associated with XYY syndrome by comparison with Klinefelter syndrome and typical development. Methods  We used two conceptually distinct voxel-based magnetic resonance imaging methods to examine brain structure in young males with XYY syndrome: (1) volumetric comparison to assess global grey and ...

Although it is recognised that a gluten-free diet has many social implications for coeliac disease patients, not much is known about how such patients actually manage these implications in their everyday interactions. This article examines how dietary restrictions are treated by patients and their families. Data from recorded mealtime conversations ...

Dumbbell-like Pt(48) Pd(52) -Fe(3) O(4) nanoparticles are synthesized and functionalized with oleylamine-polyethyleneglycol to serve as an efficient catalyst for H(2) O(2) reduction and tetramethylbenzidine (TMB) oxidation in biological solutions. The Pt(48) Pd(52) -Fe(3) O(4) /TMB kit is even more active than the natural enzyme for H(2) O(2) detection with a ...

Populations that maintain phenotypic divergence in sympatry typically show a mosaic pattern of genomic divergence, requiring a corresponding mosaic of genomic isolation (reduced gene flow). However, mechanisms that could produce the genomic isolation required for divergence-with-gene-flow have barely been explored, apart from the traditional localized effects of selection and reduced ...

There is evidence that knowledge about space will reflect the details of how that space is experienced and how people interact with it. In two experiments we demonstrate that memory for items is spatially structured after their locations were learnt in a desktop virtual environment (DVE). The structure was measured ...