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OBJECTIVE: To study the relationship between individual health beliefs and risk factors for coronary heart disease. DESIGN: Health beliefs indices, formed by factorial analysis of ratings of statements on health related matters in a questionnaire, were related to risk factors for coronary heart disease, assessed with physical examinations and self reports of medical history and habits. SETTING: An

Mucosal Toll-like receptors (TLRs) respond to pathogens, but remain inert to the indigenous flora, suggesting that the TLRs can receive pathogen-specific signals. For example, TLR4 signalling is activated in CD14-negative epithelial cells by P-fimbriated, uropathogenic Escherichia coli, but not by lipopolysaccharide. The fimbriae use glycosphingolipids as recognition receptors and there is release

This paper uses a census of Russian manufacturing firms to study the relationship between exports and productivity at the firm level. The period studied, 1996–2002, implies that the results are affected by the Russian financial crisis of 1998. Exporters are shown to be more productive and larger than non-exporters, seemingly an effect of more productive firms self-selecting into the export market,

Helicobacter pylori infection is associated with chronic gastritis, peptic ulcer disease, gastric adenocarcinoma and MALT lymphoma. Mice with H. pylori infection develop severe gastritis and atrophic changes in their stomachs after 6 months. We followed H. pylori -infected animals for 13 months to find out whether dysplasia, carcinoma or lymphoma developed. Six-week-old C57BL/6 mice were infected

The hydrochloride salts of 5-aminolevulinic acid (ALA) and its methyl ester (m-ALA), respectively, were dissolved in a lipid sponge phase comprising monoolein, propylene glycol and aqueous buffer at concentrations of approximately 0.25% and 16% w/w m-ALA. The iontophoretic and passive delivery of ALA and m-ALA from this formulation through porcine skin in vitro were measured and compared to formul

Objective: The precision of sound frequency discrimination in newborn infants in the 250-4000-Hz frequency range was determined using the neonatal electrophysiological mismatch response (MMR), the infant equivalent of adult mismatch negativity (MMN). Methods: The electroencephalogram (EEG) was recorded in I 1 full-term sleeping newborn infants mostly in active sleep (67 % of the time). Pure tones

A follow-up study was performed to investigate the stability of IQ measures in a group of dyslexic teenagers and young adults. Earlier research had shown contradictory results. The 65 subjects, 12 years old on the average at first test, were retested after a mean interval of six and a half years. There was a significant relative decrease in verbal IQ (VIQ), which was interpreted as either an effec

In this study, two numerical methods are used to predict the load-bearing capacity of multiple steel-timber dowel joints loaded parallel to the grain. The aim was to show the possibility and the advantages of using numerical methods when designing multiple dowel-type joints.

The results showed a good correlation to experimental results taken from the literature and to traditional joint ca

The only published VC data from the Ordovician of China are from the Lower and Upper Ordovician, and only the latter records include a significant excursion, namely the Hirnantian excursion (HICE). Our recent chemostratigraphic work on the Upper Ordovician (Sandbian-Katian) Pagoda and Yanwashan formations at several localities oil the Yangtze Platform and Chiangnan (Jiangnan) slope belt has result

The macroscopic-microscopic method to calculate nuclear masses is extended into the high-spin regime in order to calculate the nuclear binding energy as a function of proton number, neutron number and angular momentum. We describe the method and exemplify it on recent experimental data.

A wide divergence has been detected in the telomeric sequences among budding yeast species. Despite their length and homogeneity differences, all these yeast telomeric sequences show a conserved core which closely matches the consensus RAP1-binding sequence. We demonstrate that the RAP1 protein binds this sequence core, without involving the diverged sequences outside the core. in Saccharomyces ca

OBJECTIVE: to explore Sudanese midwives' motives for and perceptions and experiences of re-infibulation after birth and to elucidate its context and determinants. DESIGN: triangulation of methods, using observational techniques and open-ended interviews. SETTING AND PARTICIPANTS: two government hospitals in Khartoum/Omdurman, Sudan, for the observations and in-depth interviews with 17 midwives. FI

Purpose. This article describes an ex vivo method to recondition and transplant rejected donor lungs. Description. A 19-year-old man was brain dead after a traffic accident. A roentgenogram showed bilateral lung contusion. He had ongoing intratracheal bleeding. After optimizing ventilator treatment and suctioning the airways, PaO2 was 9 kPa (67.5 mm Hg) on FiO(2) = 0.7. The lungs were rejected by

In an acute liver injury model we compared the effects of different Lactobacillus and Bifidobacterium strains on bacterial translocation, intestinal load of Enterobacteriaceae and the extent of liver injury. This was an experimental study carried out in an university hospital in Sweden. Sprague-Dawley rats were divided into six groups: liver injury control and five groups of liver injury with admi

Clavulanic acid is a beta-lactamase inhibitor used in therapeutic combinations with the penicillin-type antibiotics. During the fermentation leading to clavulanic acid, a succinyl L-tyrosine by-product is unavoidably formed. Occasionally, the amount of this by-product is found to be as high as 2% of the product even after standard purification operations. To further remove this impurity, we prepar

BACKGROUND: In the last 15 y there has been a tremendous increase in the number of studies on pediatric obesity looking at epidemiology, health-related risks, etiology, methodology and treatment. During the early 1990s, the European Childhood Obesity Group (ECOG) was born as a group of scientists' expert in the field of pediatric obesity. ECOG this year celebrates the approach to early maturity wi