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Objective. To investigate the relative importance of shared etiologies for rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and ischemic heart disease (IHD) in terms of the well-known increased risk of HID in patients with RA, by assessing the occurrence of IHD up until the time of the onset of the first symptoms of RA. Methods. We assessed the prevalence of a history of IHD, myocardial infarction (MI), and angina pecto

Very large collisions in the asteroid belt could lead temporarily to a substantial increase in the rate of impacts of meteorites on Earth. Orbital simulations predict that fragments from such events may arrive considerably faster than the typical transit times of meteorites falling today, because in some large impacts part of the debris is transferred directly into a resonant orbit with Jupiter(1,

Background and aims: While mechanical parameters (breaking strength, bursting pressure) are used to measure colonic anastomotic healing, reported values are inconsistent. This study developed a novel approach to study colonic anastomotic repair and compared it with mechanical methods. Methods and materials: We created standardized four- and eight-suture colonic anastomoses and performed contrast e

BACKGROUND: Tumor growth and invasiveness occur through infiltration of tumor cells into the host cells and by angiogenesis, which is modulated by proteinases and antiproteinases released from tumor cells that carry out tissue remodelling. A number of studies have revealed variations in the plasma levels of serine proteases and their inhibitors among tumor types. PATIENTS AND METHODS: By immunolog

The distensibility of elastic arteries has been extensively studied, while studies of muscular arteries are sparse. The influences of age and gender on the mechanical properties of the common femoral artery (CFA) were studied. The pulsatile diameter changes of the CFA were noninvasively measured using echo-tracking sonography in 173 healthy volunteers (95 females, 78 males, range 7-81 years). In c

The aim of this study was to examine if endothelin ETB receptor-mediated contraction occurred in isolated segments of rat coronary arteries during organ culture. Presence of contractile endothelin ETB receptors was studied by measuring the change in isometric tension in rings of left anterior descending coronary arteries isolated from hearts of rats as response to application of the selective endo

We study a class of model prototype hybrid systems comprised of a microscopic Arrhenius surface process describing adsorption/desorption and/or surface diffusion of particles coupled to an ordinary differential equation displaying bifurcations triggered by the microscopic process. The models proposed here are caricatures of realistic systems arising in diverse applications ranging from surface pro

A new matrix product is defined and its properties are investigated. The commutatuion matrix which flips a left direct product of two matrices into a right direct one is derived as a composition of two identity matrices. The communication matrix is a special case of the direct product permuting matrices defined in this paper which are matrix representations of the permutation operators on tensor s

Certain structures of heparan sulfate (HS) inhibit cell proliferation of fibroblasts. Whether this inhibition is dependent on inhibition of mitogenic signaling pathways or nuclear translocation of HS is unknown. In this study we investigated possible mechanism(s) and structural requirements by which antiproliferative glycosaminoglycans exert their effects on mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAP k

In recent years evidence has emerged that the amount of isoprene emitted from a leaf is affected by the CO2 growth environment. Many - though not all - laboratory experiments indicate that emissions increase significantly at below-ambient CO2 concentrations and decrease when concentrations are raised to above-ambient. A small number of process-based leaf isoprene emission models can reproduce this

The strains in matrix and hydrides around a fatigue crack tip grown in situ in a single-edge notched specimen of hydrided Zircaloy-4 have been determined using synchrotron X-ray diffraction at various stages of loading. The hydride phase shows proportionally larger strains at full load compared to the matrix strain. The residual strains of the matrix ahead of the crack tip reveal the reverse plast

Atypical lipomatous tumor (ALT) is an intermediate malignant mesenchymal tumor that is characterized by supernumerary ring chromosomes and/or giant rod-shaped marker chromosomes (RGMC). Fluorescence in situ hybridization ( FISH) and molecular genetic analyses have disclosed that the RGMCs always contain amplified sequences from the long arm of chromosome 12. Typically, RGMCs are the sole clonal ch

Two cooking liquors and a black liquor were fractionated by ultrafiltration. The liquors were withdrawn from different stages in a kraft pulp mill employing continuous digestion. The ultrafiltration was performed at 90 degrees C with two ceramic membranes with cut-offs of 5 kDa and 15 kDa. Only small differences in membrane performance were observed when concentrating the three liquors to 90% volu

Purpose To investigate whether previously observed correlations between tumor karyotype and risk of metastases could be reproduced in an independent set of high-grade soft tissue sarcomas (STSs). Patients and Methods In a previous study on high-grade STSs with clonal chromosome aberrations, we identified a number of cytogenetic variables, besides tumor grade and size, that were associated with sig

The vehicle ingress and egress are important issues for the automotive industry, both for minimizing assembly work load and for maximizing end-users’ comfort. Digital human modeling tools are used for evaluating and visualizing these issues. The assembler and end-user are more or less performing the very same entering task if the vehicles have identical geometrical prerequisites. The major differe

Variations in total heart volume (atria plus ventricles) during a cardiac cycle affect efficiency of cardiac pumping. The goals of this study were to confirm the presence, extent, and contributors of total heart volume variation during the cardiac cycle in healthy volunteers with the use of MRI. Eight healthy volunteers were examined by MRI at rest. Changes in total cardiac volume throughout the c

An algorithm is presented in which the Colour-Dipole Cascade Model as implemented in the Ariadne program is corrected to match the fixed order tree-level matrix elements for e e(+) --> n jets. The result is a full parton level generator for e e(+) annihilation where the generated states are correct on tree-level to fixed order in alpha(s) and to all orders with modified leading logarithmic (MLLA)

Although colour polymorphisms in adult organisms of many taxa are often adaptive in the context of sexual selection or predation, genetic correlations between colour and other phenotypic traits expressed early in ontogeny could also play an important role in polymorphic systems. We studied phenotypic and genetic variation in development time among female colour morphs in the polymorphic damselfly

Objectives: To estimate the dietary intakes of heterocyclic amines (HCAs), to examine the intakes in relation to socio-economics, lifestyle and other dietary factors and to compare the classification of subjects by intake of HCA versus intake of meat and fish. Design: Cross-sectional analysis within the Malmo Diet and Cancer (MDC) cohort. Data were obtained from a modified diet history, a structur