Consumption of fruits and vegetables is associated with a lower overall mortality. The aim of this study was to identify causes of death through which this association is established. More than 450,000 participants from the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition study were included, of which 25,682 were reported deceased after 13 years of follow-up. Information on lifestyle,

Antithrombin III (ATIII) is a key antiproteinase involved in blood coagulation. Previous investigations have shown that ATIII is degraded by Staphylococcus aureus V8 protease, leading to release of heparin binding fragments derived from its D helix. As heparin binding and antimicrobial activity of peptides frequently overlap, we here set out to explore possible antibacterial effects of intact and

Introduction: Polymorphonuclear leukocytes (PMN) are main effector cells in the acute immune response. While the specific role of PMN in systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) and autoimmunity is still unclear, their importance in chronic inflammation is gaining more attention. Here we investigate aspects of function, bone marrow release and activation of PMN in patients with SLE. Methods: The followi

A major problem within forest industry is unwanted browsing on seedlings from mammalian herbivores. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effects of birch bark extracts as repellents towards fallow deer. Birch bark was extracted in a conventional way with ethanol as solvent at ambient temperature and with a new method, liquid CO2 extraction. An analysis of the ethanol-extracted birch bark show

BackgroundThe steroid-receptor coactivator amplified in breast cancer one (AIB1) is implicated to be a prognostic factor, although the results are not unanimous. Recently its effect was suggested to be modified by paired box 2 gene product (PAX2).Patients and methodsUsing immunohistochemistry (IHC) AIB1 and PAX2 were investigated in two cohorts of early breast cancer, including systemically untrea

Enclosed in the Darriwilian (Middle Ordovician) part of the reddish 'orthoceratite limestone' of Baltoscandia is a conspicuous c. 1.5 m thick unit colloquially known as the 'Taljsten' interval. It has a wide geographical distribution in the Baltoscandian paleocontinent but is particularly well exposed in south-central Sweden. The unit is characterized by its deviant gray color and beds with a mass

Abstract in UndeterminedThis paper presents a new and improved bit-serial CORDIC architecture. A detailed description of the bit-serial implementation and its Control Unit is presented. It is shown that the improvement is due to a reduction of registers in the implementation and is made possible by ensuring that the angular path is calculated prior to the corresponding vector paths. In addition, t

Energy is typically a limiting factor for animals during boreal zone winters, when low temperatures increase the cost of thermoregulation at the same times as short day-lengths and snow cover constrain foraging opportunities. Under these circumstances animals use a suite of behavioural and physiological adaptations to avoid overnight starvation. However, it is poorly understood how such strategies

Although extensive research has demonstrated host-retrovirus microevolutionary dynamics, it has been difficult to gain a deeper understanding of the macroevolutionary patterns of host-retrovirus interactions. Here we use recent technological advances to infer broad patterns in retroviral diversity, evolution, and host-virus relationships by using a large-scale phylogenomic approach using endogenou

There is a need for high throughput methods for screening patient samples in the quest for potential biomarkers for diagnostics and patient care. Here, we used a combination of undirected target selection, antibody suspension bead arrays, and heat-induced epitope retrieval to allow for protein profiling of human plasma in a novel and systematic manner. Several antibodies were found to reveal alter

Study design:Observational study.Objectives:Thoraco-abdominal endovascular aortic aneurysm repair (TAEVAR) can be used to treat patients with extensive and complex aortic disease, however, at the risk of spinal cord ischemia (SCI). The aim of this follow-up study was to evaluate the life satisfaction in patients with SCI after TAEVAR.Setting:Among 83 patients undergoing TAEVAR between 2009 and 201

This paper reviews a set of published industrial applications and research studies in order to assess the effectiveness of the systematic engineering design methodology. Effectiveness, which can be considered as the degree to which the final design solution fulfils the design requirements, is one of the critical features of a design methodology. It cannot be concluded upon the reviewed publication

Ketogenic diet is a well-established treatment in children with difficult to treat epilepsy. Very little is known about the long-term effects on vascular atherogenic and biochemical processes of this high-fat and low carbohydrate and protein diet.

The objective of this study was to characterise and evaluate a wild inedible cassava species, Manihot glaziovii as feedstock for bioenergy production. Tubers obtained from 3 different areas in Tanzania were characterised and evaluated for bioethanol and biogas production. These bioenergy carriers were produced both separately and sequentially and their energy values evaluated based on these two ap

Synthesis, solvent-, and guest-controlled self-assembly, and self-sorting of new hydrogen-bonded chiral cavity receptors are reported. The design of the cavity is based on the cyclic self-aggregation of monomers containing the 4H-bonding ureidopyrimidinone motif fused with the bicylo[3.3.1]nonane framework. Selective formation of kinetically inert cyclic tetramers is observed in chloroform, while

Climate change is already contributing to the displacement of millions of people worldwide as extreme weather events become increasingly frequent and intense. Proposals for responding to the phenomenon of climate change-related displacement overwhelmingly rely on the state to act, with limited discussion of the potential to determine and develop the scope of protection through strategic litigation

In this paper, we present a fluorescence activated sorter realized in a continuous flow microfluidic chip. Sorting is achieved by deflecting a focused particle stream with short acoustic bursts (2.5 ms), in a fluorescence activated configuration. The system utilizes two-dimensional acoustic pre-focusing, using a single actuation frequency, to position all particles in the same fluid velocity regim

We performed a multilevel analysis (including individuals, households, census tracts, municipalities and provinces) on a 10% sample (N=230,978) from the Longitudinal Database of the Andalusian Population (LDAP). We aimed to investigate place effects on 8-year individual mortality risk. Moreover, besides calculating association (yielding odds ratios, ORs) between area socio-economic circumstances a

Climate warming will increase the drought exposure of many forests world-wide. It is not well understood how trees adapt their hydraulic architecture to a long-term decrease in water availability. We examined 23 traits characterizing the hydraulic architecture and growth rate of branches and the dependent foliage of mature European beech (Fagus sylvatica) trees along a precipitation gradient (855-