Allergic asthma is characterized by eosinophilic inflammation and airway obstruction. There is also an increased risk of pulmonary infection caused by Streptococcus pneumoniae, in particular during severe asthma where high levels of the glycoprotein, osteopontin (OPN) are present in the airways. Eosinophils can be recruited by chemokines activating the receptor CCR3 including eotaxin-1/CCL11, eota

It is not clear how intake of gluten during infancy affects subsequent risk of celiac disease. We investigated whether gluten intake before 2 years of age increases risk for celiac disease in genetically susceptible children.

Purpose: This multicenter, first-in-human study evaluated safety, tolerability, pharmacokinetics, and pharmacodynamics of BI-505, a human anti-ICAM-1 monoclonal antibody, in advanced relapsed/refractory multiple myeloma patients. Experimental design: BI-505 was given intravenously, every two weeks, at escalating doses from 0.0004 to 20 mg/kg, with extension of therapy until disease progression for

The aim of this study was to assess cardiovascular predictors for all-cause long-term mortality in patients undergoing standard endovascular aneurysm repair (EVAR) for infrarenal abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA). Consecutive patients treated with EVAR (Zenith (R) stent grafts; Cook) between May 1998 and February 2006 were prospectively enrolled in a computerized database, together with retrospectiv

BACKGROUND:: There is a lack of health-related quality of life (HRQOL) studies in Chinese women with cervical cancer. OBJECTIVE:: The objectives of this study were to investigate the HRQOL trajectory in women with cervical cancer in Mainland China in the 9 months following diagnosis and to identify factors that influence HRQOL. METHODS:: Initially, 187 patients with cervical cancer were included i

Desmoplastic fibroma (DFB) is a benign primary bone tumor that usually occurs in adolescents and young adults. The genetic information on DFB is very limited. We here present cytogenetic, fluorescence in situ hybridization and single nucleotide polymorphism array findings in a case that had a rearrangement involving chromosomes 11 and 19 at G-banding analysis. The results showed that the breakpoin

To evaluate the anatomic suitability of the Zenith pivot branch (p-branch) fenestrated device in ruptured abdominal aortic aneurysms (rAAA).

With the current movement towards Net Zero Energy Buildings (Net ZEBs) decisions regarding energy carrier weighting factors will have implications on which technologies could be favoured or disfavoured, and therefore adopted or not adopted, in the building sector of the near future. These implications should be taken into consideration by policy makers when developing legislation and regulations a

PillCam colon capsule endoscopy (CCE) is an innovative noninvasive, and painless ingestible capsule technique that allows exploration of the colon without the need for sedation and gas insufflation. Although it is already available in European and other countries, the clinical indications for CCE as well as the reporting and work-up of detected findings have not yet been standardized. The aim of t

Whether loci that influence fasting glucose (FG) and fasting insulin (FI) levels, as identified by genome-wide association studies, modify associations of diet with FG or FI is unknown. We utilized data from 15 US and European cohort studies comprising 51,289 persons without diabetes to test whether genotype and diet interact to influence FG or FI concentration. We constructed a diet score using s

The aim of this study is to evaluate the diurnal variation of the variability and irregularity of the heart rate (HR) in patients with permanent atrial fibrillation (AF), with and without rate-control drugs. Thirty-eight patients with permanent AF were part of an investigator-blind cross-over study, comparing diltiazem, verapamil, metoprolol, and carvedilol. We analyzed five Holter recordings per

Background: Research in the last decades has clearly pointed to the important role of language and communicative level when trying to understand developmental trajectories in children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD). Aims: The purpose of this longitudinal study was to investigate whether (1) core language skills, measured as expressive vocabulary and grammar, and/or (2) pre-linguistic social-

Large open and closed source organizations like Google, Facebook and Mozilla are migrating their products towards rapid releases. While this allows faster time-to-market and user f eedback, it also implies less time for testing and bug fixing. Since initial research results indeed show that rapid releases fix proportionally less reported bugs than traditional releases, this paper investigates the

Background: Several attempts to increase the locoregional control in locally advanced lung cancer including concurrent chemotherapy, accelerated fractionation and dose escalation have been made during the last years. As the EGFR directed antibody cetuximab has shown activity concurrent with radiotherapy in squamous cell carcinoma of the head and neck, as well as in stage IV NSCLC combined with che

Reduction of energy use in buildings is an important measure to achieve climate change mitigation. It is essential to minimize heat losses when designing and building energy efficient buildings. For an energy-efficient building in a cold climate, a large part of the space heating demand is caused by transmission losses through the building envelope. Therefore, calculations of these must be carried

The Gram-positive bacterium Streptococcus pneumoniae is a major human pathogen that causes infections ranging from acute otitis media to life-threatening invasive disease. Pneumococci have evolved several strategies to circumvent the host immune response, in particular the complement attack. The pneumococcal glycolytic enzyme phosphoglycerate kinase (PGK) is both secreted and bound to the bacteria

This study was performed to investigate the impact of acute hyperglycemia (HG) on the permeability of the normal glomerular filtration barrier in vivo. In anaesthetized Wistar rats (250-280g), the left ureter was catheterized for urine collection, while simultaneously blood access was achieved. Rats received an intravenous (i.v.) infusion of either 1) hypertonic glucose to maintain blood glucose a