Cutaneous and systemic hypersensitivity reactions to implanted metals are challenging to evaluate and treat. Although they are uncommon, they do exist, and require appropriate and complete evaluation. This review summarizes the evidence regarding evaluation tools, especially patch and lymphocyte transformation tests, for hypersensitivity reactions to implanted metal devices. Patch test evaluation

Leaf-cutting ants combine large-scale herbivory with fungus farming to sustain advanced societies. Their stratified colonies are major evolutionary achievements and serious agricultural pests, but the crucial adaptations that allowed this mutualism to become the prime herbivorous component of neotropical ecosystems has remained elusive. Here we show how coevolutionary adaptation of a specific enzy

Although fear of falling (FOF) is common in people with Parkinson's disease (PD), there is a lack of research investigating potential predictors of FOF. This study explored the impact of motor, nonmotor, and demographic factors as well as complications of drug therapy on FOF among people with PD. Postal survey data (including the Falls Efficacy Scale, FES) from 154 nondemented people with PD were

Treatment for follicular lymphoma (FL) improved with rituximab. In Sweden, first-line rituximab was gradually introduced between 2003 and 2007, with regional differences. The first national guidelines for FL were published in November 2007, recommending rituximab in first-line therapy. Using the population-based Swedish Lymphoma Registry, 2641 patients diagnosed with FL from 2000 through 2010 were

Pancreatic cancer is commonly detected at advanced stages when the tumor is no longer amenable to surgical resection. Therefore, finding biomarkers for early stage disease is urgent. Here, we show that high-definition mass spectrometry (HDMS(E)) can be used to identify serum protein alterations associated with early stage pancreatic cancer.

The objective of the present study was to develop an experimental model suitable for studying the effects of a nonhemorrhagic soft tissue trauma on plasma volume (PV) and microvascular permeability. Anesthetized Sprague-Dawley rats were exposed to a sham procedure or a laparotomy followed by a standardized trauma to the abdominal rectus muscle. We evaluated the effects of trauma on transcapillary

The purpose of the study was to investigate and compare the effect of two cooling garments with phase change material (PCM) and ventilation on thermal comfort. Eight female university students (age 24±1 years; height 162±4 cm; body weight 54±4 kg) exercised on a treadmill in an environment of 32 oC with 50 % relative humidity. Tests in three conditions were carried out after moderate exercise with

The fluorescence interference contrast (FLIC) effect prevents the use of fluorescence techniques to probe the continuity and fluidity of supported lipid bilayers on reflective materials due to a lack of detectable fluorescence. Here we show that adding nanostructures onto reflective surfaces to locally confer a certain distance between the deposited fluorophores and the reflecting surface enables

Little is known about the neural correlates of within-person variability in cognitive performance. We investigated associations between regional brain volumes and trial-to-trial, block-to-block, and day-to-day variability in choice-reaction time, and episodic and working memory accuracy. Healthy younger (n=25) and older (n=18) adults underwent 101 daily assessments of cognitive performance, and th

The aim of the current study was to provide updated time-path equations for risk factors of type-2-diabetes-related cardiovascular complications for application in risk calculators and health economic models. Observational data from the Swedish National Diabetes Register were analysed using Generalized Method of Moments estimation for dynamic panel models (N = 5,043, aged 25-70 years at diagnosis

Intermittent bursts of electrical activity are a ubiquitous signature of very early brain activity. Previous studies have largely focused on assessing the amplitudes of these transient cortical bursts or the intervals between them. Recent advances in basic neuroscience have identified the presence of scale-free 'avalanche' processes in bursting patterns of cortical activity in other clinical conte

The aim of this study was to investigate how patients perceive information and their health-related quality of life 1 month after discharge for colorectal cancer surgery. The aim was also to compare these results with the first 2 weeks at home and to identify factors related to the perception of information. One hundred patients from three surgical clinics in the south of Sweden were included in t

Twenty years ago, Hales and Barker along with their co-workers published some of their pioneering papers proposing the 'thrifty phenotype hypothesis' in Diabetologia (4;35:595-601 and 3;36:62-67). Their postulate that fetal programming could represent an important player in the origin of type 2 diabetes, the metabolic syndrome and cardiovascular disease (CVD) was met with great scepticism. More re

In this paper, a large scale molecular dynamic method for reconstruction of the catalyst layers (CLs) in proton exchange membrane fuel cells is developed as a systematic technique to provide an insight into the self-organized phenomena and the microscopic structure. The proposed Coarse-Grained (CG) method is developed and applied to the step formation process, which follows the preparation of the

Humans and most vertebrates have duplex retinae with multiple cone types for colour vision in bright light, and one single rod type for achromatic vision in dim light. Instead of comparing signals from multiple spectral types of photoreceptors, such species use one highly sensitive receptor type thus improving the signal-to-noise ratio at night. However, the nocturnal hawkmoth Deilephila elpenor,

Neurofibromatosis-Noonan syndrome (NFNS) is a rare condition with clinical features of both neurofibromatosis type 1 (NF1) and Noonan syndrome (NS). All three syndromes belong to the RASopathies, which are caused by dysregulation of the RAS-MAPK pathway. The major gene involved in NFNS is NF1, but co-occurring NF1 and PTPN11 mutations in NFNS have been reported. Knowledge about possible involvemen

Carcinogenic aromatic amines derived from hair dyes have recently received new attention. One of these is ortho (o)-toluidine, which is classified as carcinogenic to humans.

This article presents the developments of an ongoing research aimed at modelling the influence of fissuring on the behaviour of clays. In particular, it recalls the main results of an extensive laboratory investigation on a fissured bentonite clay from the south of Italy and presents the data of a new investigation on the evolution with shearing of the strain fields developing within the clay, res

A [(18)F]Fluoride water target was constructed for a Scanditronix MC 17 cyclotron, without a beam line, with a typical wide beam of ∼30×5mm(2). Niobium was used as target chamber material. One hour irradiation with 45μA protons yields about 110GBq [(18)F]Fluoride. The saturation yield is 8.0±0.6GBq/μA (EOB). The FDG yield is 60±5% (EOS) with a TracerLab MX (G.E. Healthcare). More than 100GBq FDG i