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Recently discovered Sushi domain-containing protein 4 (SUSD4) contains several Sushi or complement control protein domains; therefore, we hypothesized that it may act as complement inhibitor. Two isoforms of human SUSD4, fused to the Fc part of human IgG, were recombinantly expressed in Chinese hamster ovary (CHO) cells. The secreted soluble isoform of SUSD4 (SUSD4b) inhibited the classical and le

1. Many organisms inhabit strongly fluctuating environments but their demography and population dynamics are often analysed using deterministic models and elasticity analysis, where elasticity is defined as the proportional change in population growth rate caused by a proportional change in a vital rate. Deterministic analyses may not necessarily be informative because large variation in a vital r

The aim of the study was to examine the relationship between coping, optimism, psychological and physical well-being. The effectiveness of the different coping strategies and the role of optimism were investigated by analyzing how they predicted psychological and physical well-being. Altogether 136 municipal employees participated in a questionnaire study. The results showed that the most adaptive

Treatment of Parkinson's disease is complicated by a high incidence of L-DOPA-induced dyskinesias (LID). Strategies to prevent the development of LID aim at providing more stable dopaminergic stimulation. We have previously shown that deuterium substitutions in the L-DOPA molecule (D3-L-DOPA) yield dopamine that appears more resistant to enzymatic breakdown. We here investigated the effects of D3-

The breath alcohol concentration (BrAC) standardized to the alveolar water vapour concentration has been shown to closely predict the arterial blood alcohol (ethanol) concentration (ABAC). However, a transient increase in the ABAC/BrAC ratio has been noted, when alcohol is absorbed from the gastrointestinal tract (absorption phase) and the ABAC rapidly rises. We analysed the plot of simultaneously

The field of genetic diversity in protists, particularly phytoplankton, is under expansion. However, little is known regarding variation in genetic diversity within populations over time. The aim of our study was to investigate intrapopulation genetic diversity and genetic differentiation in the freshwater bloom-forming microalga Gonyostomum semen (Raphidophyceae). The study covered a 2-year perio

The free neutral nanoscale NaCl clusters have been produced in a beam and studied with x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. High resolution spectra simultaneously containing cluster and molecular-monomer, featuring in both the valence and core-level Na 2p and Cl 2p regions, have been obtained. Cluster-level energy shifts of around 3 eV toward lower binding energy for Na 2p and approximate to 1 eV tow

Given the evidence that the primary motor cortex (MI) consists of subpopulations of upper motor neurons tuned to different directional parameters of a motor movement, this study hypothesized that novel motor skill training involving either a bidirectional or more complex multidirectional tongue-typing movement should produce distinct training-related features of tongue MI neuroplasticity in humans

Rosengren BI, Sagstad SJ, Karlsen TV, Wiig H. Isolation of interstitial fluid and demonstration of local proinflammatory cytokine production and increased absorptive gradient in chronic peritoneal dialysis. Am J Physiol Renal Physiol 304: F198-F206, 2013. First published November 14, 2012; doi:10.1152/ajprenal.00293.2012.-In peritoneal dialysis (PD) patients, the frequent exposure to "unphysiologi

The present guideline summarizes all aspects of patch testing for the diagnosis of contact allergy in patients suspected of suffering, or having been suffering, from allergic contact dermatitis or other delayed-type hypersensitivity skin and mucosal conditions. Sections with brief descriptions and discussions of different pertinent topics are followed by a highlighted short practical recommendatio

Intraventricular hemorrhage is a common neurologic complication of extremely preterm birth and leads to lifelong neurodevelopmental disabilities. Early bedside detection of intraventricular hemorrhage is crucial to enabling timely interventions. We sought to detect early markers of brain activity that preempt the occurrence of intraventricular hemorrhage in extremely preterm infants during the fir

With an integrated luminosity of 2.47 fb^{-1} recorded by the ATLAS experiment at the LHC, the exclusive decays B_{s}^{0}→J/ψϕ and B_{d}^{0}→J/ψK^{*0} of B mesons produced in pp collisions at sqrt[s]=7 TeV are used to determine the ratio of fragmentation fractions f_{s}/f_{d}. From the observed B_{s}^{0}→J/ψϕ and B_{d}^{0}→J/ψK^{*0} yields, the quantity (f_{s}/f_{d})[B(B_{s}^{0}→J/ψϕ)/B(B_{d}^{0}→

Objective. While the prevalence of radiographic thumb carpometacarpal (CMC1) osteoarthritis (OA) is well-described, little is known about clinically symptomatic disease presenting to physicians for care. We sought to determine the prevalence of doctor-diagnosed CMC1 OA. Methods. Using health care data from Skane in southern Sweden (population 1.24 million), we identified all adults ages >= 20 year

The rotation of water in noble gas matrices has been studied. It is shown that the rotation-translation coupling model of Friedmann and Kimel predicts rotation line spacings, which are close to the experimental observations for H2O, D2O, and HDO, when gas phase rotation constants are used. The model gives intensity estimates in reasonable agreement with the observations for the local oscillator ba

An analysis of social desirability in personality assessment is presented. Starting with the symptoms, Study 1 showed that mean ratings of graded personality items are moderately to strongly linearly related to social desirability (Self deception, Impression formation, and the first PC), suggesting that item popularity may be a useful heuristic tool for identifying items which elicit socially desi

A central question in evolutionary biology concerns the accumulation of reproductive barriers during speciation. However, separating the reproductive barriers that have led to speciation from those that have secondarily accumulated (i.e. after initial divergence) is a widely recognized problem. Ideal candidate species for overcoming this problem are young species, where time for additional barrier

The vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) propagation channel has significant implications on the design and performance of novel communication protocols for vehicular ad hoc networks (VANETs). Extensive research efforts have been made to develop V2V channel models to be implemented in advanced VANET system simulators for performance evaluation. The impact of shadowing caused by other vehicles has, however, la

Abstract in Italian I trends contemporanei nell’adozione corrente di tecnologie educative, insieme alla crescente accettazione e adozione di “apertura” nel senso di accesso aperto e condivisione di risorse, costringono la formazione universitaria a ripensare in modo radicale le proprie strutture e strategie educative. Questo articolo analizza il cambiamento che si sta verificando: dalla focalizzaz

Electroactive polymers (EAP) deform under electric fields. This effect in fact generates various new fields of engineering applications of high technological interest. As an advantage, EAP may undergo deformations much larger than those capable by electroactive ceramics-however, to the price of acting at comparatively low forces. As common for polymers, EAP exhibit time-dependent material behaviou

Biosynthetic nerve grafts are developed in order to complement or replace autologous nerve grafts for peripheral nerve reconstruction. Artificial nerve guides currently approved for clinical use are not widely applied in reconstructive surgery as they still have limitations especially when it comes to critical distance repair. Here we report a comprehensive analysis of fine-tuned chitosan nerve gu