Expression of human leukocyte antigen (HLA) class II molecules on islet endothelial cells is a central vascular event in the pathogenesis of Type 1 diabetes. Previous studies demonstrated the ability of other vascular endothelial cells to express HLA and thereby to process islet autoantigens on their surface. We investigated whether the HLA-DQ2/8 genotype, which confers the highest risk for Type 1

This article analyses existing small-scale wind farms located in India as hypothetical projects implemented under the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM). It addresses them from three different viewpoints (sustainable development, financial feasibility and institutional conditions), focusing mostly on identifying the smallest capacities and lowest performances at which these cases may become attract

The purpose of this article is to examine the effects of European integration on the location of investments by Swedish multinational corporations (MNCs). Evidence is presented about the extent to which European integration has attracted investment by Swedish MNCs, and whether foreign direct investment (FDI) is being undertaken at the expense of home country investment. In the empirical analysis,

This paper focuses on the use of material planning methods to control material flow to inventories of purchased items. The first sub-objective is to evaluate the perceived planning performance of material planning methods used to control material flows in different inventory types in manufacturing and distribution companies. The second sub-objective is to evaluate the difference in perceived plann

Directional selection was relatively frequent, and in some instances intense, during a three-year study of a pheasant population. The pheasant is a polygynous species. In addition to weight, tarsus length and wing length, which were studied in both sexes, three beak characters were measured in females, and tail and spur length in males. Both univariate and multivariate techniques were used to esti

Measurements of concentration of sensitizers for photodynamic therapy can provide important information in the dosimetry planning and can also give input to the optimal time for treatment. There has been skepticism towards fluorescence techniques for this purpose, as the signal depends on the fluorescence yield and optical properties of the tissue. Absorption based techniques, lack on the other ha

Study Design. A retrospective study. Objective. To evaluate the reliability of computed tomography (CT) with low radiation dose in the assessment of implant status in patients with adolescent idiopathic scoliosis (AIS). Summary of Background Data. The use of all-pedicle screw construct in scoliosis corrective surgery continues to gain increasing popularity since their introduction 1994 although th

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 theory of parental investment and brood sex ratio manipulation predicts that parents should invest in the more costly sex during conditions when resources are abundant. In the polygynous great reed warbler, Acrocephalus arundinaceus. females of primary harem status have more resources for nestling provisioning than secondary females, because polygynous males predominantly assist the primary fe

Background and Purpose: The purpose of this study was to determine which leads in the standard 12-lead electrocardiogram (ECG) are the best for detecting acute coronary syndrome (ACS) among chest pain patients in the emergency department. Methods: Neural network classifiers were used to determine the predictive capability of individual leads and combinations of leads from 862 ECCs from chest pain

The study extends a previous investigation on the use of oral decongestants during pregnancy with another 1 000 women (1 017 infants) who reported the use of such drugs in early pregnancy and 1 125 women (1 145 infants) who had such drugs prescribed later in pregnancy. The results on the beneficial delivery outcome after late use of the drugs with a reduced rate of preterm birth and low birth weig

This study describes the effects of acute ethanol exposure on the mRNA levels of c-jun,junB and junD in the human neuroblastoma SH-SY5Y cell line. An acute exposure to 100 mM ethanol did not influence the basal and phorbol ester-induced expression of c-jun and junB, whereas the basal mRNA level of junD was attenuated by 30%. This effect was dose- and time-dependent with maximal inhibition being de

Neutrophil migration to infected mucosal sites involves a series of complex interactions with molecules in the lamina propria and at the epithelial barrier. Much attention has focussed on the vascular compartment and endothelial cells, but less is known about the molecular determinants of neutrophil behavior in the periphery. We have studied urinary tract infections (UTIs) to determine the events

Intestinal alkaline sphingomyelinase (SMase) has physiological roles in the digestion of sphingomyelin (SM) and clinical implications in colonic carcinogenesis. In the present work, the enzyme from rat has been purified 1,589-fold with 11% recovery by elution of the intestine with bile salt, precipitation of the proteins by acetone, and several types of chromatographies. Its molecular mass was 58

The difficulty of obtaining pedigrees for wild populations has hampered the possibility of demonstrating inbreeding depression in nature. In a small, naturally restored, wild population of grey wolves in Scandinavia, founded in 1983, we constructed a pedigree for 24 of the 28 breeding pairs established in the period 1983-2002. Ancestry for the breeding animals was determined through a combination

Objective: To gain insight into the effects of duration of type 2 diabetes on insulin secretion in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus. Methods: C-peptide concentrations were measured every 2 years before and after intravenous injection of 1 mg of glucagon in 89 patients with type 2 diabetes (51 men and 38 women) as part of the Rochester Diabetic Neuropathy Study in those subjects who particip

This paper describes new methods for fast correlation attacks on stream ciphers, based on techniques used for constructing and decoding the by now famous turbo codes. The proposed algorithm consists of two parts, a preprocessing part and a decoding part. The preprocessing part identifies several parallel convolutional codes, embedded in the code generated by the LFSR, all sharing the same informat