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EPIC-Heart is the cardiovascular component of the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition ( EPIC), a multi-centre prospective cohort study investigating the relationship between nutrition and major chronic disease outcomes. Its objective is to advance understanding about the separate and combined influences of lifestyle ( especially dietary), environmental, metabolic and genet

The brightness discrimination ability of a mate harbor seal was investigated at an ambient illumination of 0.9 lx. The visual stimuli consisted of circular gray discs that were presented on a black background on a TFT monitor. Eight standard intensities were tested against sets of lower comparison intensities. In accordance with Weber's law we observed a constant gain of the just noticeable intens

Background: Impairment of sinus ostial function is considered an important factor in the pathophysiology of sinus disease. The use of the decongestants such as alpha2-agonists is thought to improve sinus ostial function. Previous studies have shown an effect of alpha2-agonists on maxillary sinus ostial function only when administered in nasal bellows, but not as a nasal spray or nasal drops. The e

Purpose. To describe activity level, operationalized as ADL capacity and performance of occupations, and occupational balance, operationalized as time use and satisfaction with occupations, in women with limited systemic sclerosis, and to investigate the relationship between these occupational factors and disease characteristics, demographic variables and well-being. Method. Forty-four women of w

Aims/hypothesis: The HLA class II DQB1*0602 allele confers strong dominant protection against type 1 diabetes but protection is not absolute. The aim of this study was to identify markers within the HLA region that differentiate DQB1*0602 haplotypes and show different associations with disease risk. Methods: We defined alleles at eight microsatellite markers spanning the HLA region in a case-contr

The present study aimed to explore secondary school students' needs in relation to sexual and reproductive health in order to inform efforts to improve the quality of health services available to young people. The study involved data collection from 716 11-22-year-old students in four secondary schools in an urban area in Zambia. Students completed a questionnaire and were invited to write down an

Stamp fabrication for nanoimprinting can be significantly simplified, when specialized crosslinking polymers are applied to pattern definition. The polymer patterns can be used as stamps themselves. Two possibilities are reported: (1) An e-beam sensitive resist was developed, which enables the fabrication of polymer-on-silicon stamps. Patterns with a feature size of 70 nm could be created. (2) Ful

Objective: The aim was to translate, test, and describe aspects of reliability and validity of the Fatigue Severity Scale (FSS) in Swedish (FSS-Swe) in patients with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE). Methods: Patients with stable SLE, low or moderate disease activity, and low organ damage were included. Forward and back translations of the FSS were performed. Construct validity was tested with 3

When the bacillus Calmette-Guerin (BCG) vaccine was introduced in the 1920s, it was suggested that BCG occasionally had nonspecific beneficial effects on mortality beyond the specific protection against tuberculosis. Considering that BCG has since then become the most used vaccine in the world, surprisingly few studies have been undertaken into the effect of BCG on general mortality and morbidity.

We have previously described the efficient guidance and unidirectional sliding of actin filaments along nanosized tracks with adsorbed heavy meromyosin (HMM; myosin II motor fragment). In those experiments, the tracks were functionalized with trimethylchlorosilane (TMCS) by chemical vapor deposition (CVD) and surrounded by hydrophilic areas. Here we first show, using in vitro motility assays on no

Development of artificial neural network (ANN) models using real plant data for the prediction of fresh steam properties from a brown coal-fired boiler of a Slovenian power plant is reported. Input parameters for this prediction were selected from a large number of available parameters. Initial selection was made on a basis of expert knowledge and previous experience. However, the final set of inp

The concept of a fair and optimal allocation was recently introduced by Sun and Yang [Sun, N., Yang, Z., 2003. A general strategy proof fair allocation mechanism. Economics Letters 81, 73-79]. This note states some basic properties of fair and optimal allocations and provides a simple algorithm for identifying them. (C) 2007 Elsevier B.V. All fights reserved.

Recent studies have shown that ethanol exposure of reaggregation cultures of fetal rat brain cells causes an increased activity and amount of catalase, and also an increased activity of the oligodendrocyte marker enzyme 2',3'-cyclic nucleotide 3'-phosphodiesterase (CNP). In the present study, reaggregation cultures were grown in the presence of 40 mM ethanol during 17 days, corresponding to a peri

A method for purification of recombinant apolipoprotein A1 in aqueous two-phase systems has been studied. A mutant of apolipoprotein A-I, the Milano variant, was expressed in E. coli. Phase systems containing ethylene oxide (EO)-propylene oxide (PO) random copolymers have been used. These polymers are thermoseparating and have the ability to separate into one water-rich and one polymer-rich phase

cAMP stimulation and Rho kinase inhibition are shown to decrease microvascular permeability during noninflammatory conditions, most likely by decreasing contractility of actomyosin filaments in the endothelial cell, but their effects on permeability during inflammatory conditions are not clarified. The objective of this in vivo study, performed on the autoperfused and denervated calf muscle of the

The influence of the reaction conditions on the enantioselectivity of reactions catalysed by lipases or hydroxynitrile leases (HNLs) in organic solvents was investigated. The lipases catalysed kinetic resolution of chiral secondary alcohol, or chiral carboxylic acids and the HNLs catalysed asymmetric addition of hydrogen cyanide to aldehydes. The temperature effects on enantioselectivity, were stu