Background Evidence suggests that mental health literacy among the public is low, and stigmatizing attitudes are widespread. So far the effects of anti-stigma campaigns are small, and studies demonstrate that negative attitudes have been quite stable through recent decades. Aims To investigate the relationships between mental health literacy, experience of mental illness and stigmatizing attitudes

A key recovery attack on the stream cipher Achterbahn-128/80, a cipher in the second phase of eSTREAM, is given. The key observation is a high dependency between some input bits to the Boolean combining function generating the keystream. It results in the first known attacks on both the 128-bit and the 80-bit variants of the cipher. The number of keystream bits required in the attacks is less than

Microaggregate-poor erythrocyte concentrate with 3% dextran-60 as a plasma substitute was compared with microaggregate-poor whole blood for replacement of intra-operative blood loss. Their blood volume-conserving effects were studied by sequential blood volume determination with radioactive technetium (99mTc) in 19 patients undergoing total hip arthroplasty. Pre-operatively there was no difference

BACKGROUND: Technical developments in the management of atrial arrhythmias revived interest into the detailed knowledge of atrial anatomy. The atrial septum (AS), known for its complex structure, has been particularly difficult to study, and our knowledge of the muscular bundles providing routes for intra-atrial and interatrial conduction within the AS remains limited. OBJECTIVE: The purpose of th

Clear cell adenocarcinoma of the female urethra is a rare tumour of unknown origin. Here, we report 4 patients with such malignancy and argue for proper identification of the disease entity and radical surgery based on the available literature.

In this case-control study, interview data on smoking habits were available for 179 de novo cases (116 with cytogenetic data) of acute myeloid leukemia (AML) or myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS). Smoking habits were compared with a pooled set of population controls and hospital controls (diagnosed with malignant melanoma). Each pack-year of smoking increased the risk of MDS with 1.3% (95% CI 0.1-2.6

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the prevalence of impaired gastric emptying (IGE) and its relation to autonomic nervous dysfunction (AD), functional bowel syndrome, and inflammatory and serological variables in patients with primary Sjögren's syndrome (pSS). METHODS: Twenty-eight patients with pSS according to the American-European Consensus Criteria were included in the study. Gastric emptying was eval

From a longitudinal prospective study, 160 women with spontaneous menopause and without steroid medication were followed during the transition from pre- to postmenopause. After 12 years 152 women were still participating in the study. Blood samples were drawn every 6 months until 1 year after the menopause and every 12 months thereafter. Measurements of bone mineral density (BMD) on the forearm we

Previous work on intact thylakoid membranes showed that transient formation of a zeaxanthin radical cation was correlated with regulation of photosynthetic light-harvesting via energy-dependent quenching. A molecular mechanism for such quenching was proposed to involve charge transfer within a chlorophyll-zeaxanthin heterodimer. Using near infrared (880 - 1100 nm) transient absorption spectroscopy

Lymphangiogenesis, the generation of new lymphatic vessels, plays important roles in cancer metastasis. Outstanding progress during the past decade has dramatically increased the novel knowledge and insights of the mechanisms underlying the generation of new lymphatic vessels, the roles of transcription factors and lymphangiogenic growth factors during physiological development and pathological pr

OBJECTIVES: Oxygen (O2) is a cornerstone in the treatment of critically ill patients, and the guidelines prescribe 10-15 l of O2/min even to those who are initially normoxic. Studies using indirect or invasive methods suggest, however, that supplemental O2 may have negative cardiovascular effects. The aim of this study was to test the hypothesis, using noninvasive cardiac magnetic resonance imagin

Protein elicits a stronger early (30 min) glucose-dependent insulinotropic polypeptide (GIP) response than fat ingestion in lean individuals, with no difference in glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1). We assessed the incretin hormone response to protein versus fat ingestion in obesity. Equicaloric (8 kcal/kg) fat (olive oil) or protein (whey protein) was ingested by non-diabetic obese male volunteers

To review the ethical and regulatory issues related to the research on human-animal entities at various stages. Review of scientific publications, laws and ethical guidelines in this field up through September 2008. The article presents the overall picture of the research on human-animal entities in Europe, including the public opinion and the country-specific regulations and guidelines regarding

Telomere length alterations are known to cause genomic instability and influence clinical course in several tumor types, but have been little investigated in neuroblastoma (NB), one of the most common childhood tumors. In the present study, telomere-dependent chromosomal instability and telomere length were determined in six NB cell lines and fifty tumor biopsies. The alternative lengthening of te

Cell-penetrating peptides (CPPs) are widely used to deliver macromolecular cargoes to intracellular sites of action. Many CPPs have been demonstrated to rely on cell surface heparan sulfate proteoglycans (HSPGs) for efficient cellular entry and delivery. In this chapter, we describe methods for the study of PG involvement in CPP uptake. We provide descriptions of how to determine whether uptake of

Whole chromosome gain is the most common type of gross genomic abnormality observed in human tumors. It is particularly frequent in lympho-haematopoietic and embryonic neoplasms, where trisomies and tetrasomies are typically present together with few or no other cytogenetic imbalances, resulting in hyperdiploid chromosome numbers. Despite the high prevalence of whole chromosome gains in neoplastic

Orthostatic hypotension (OH) is associated with increased total mortality but contribution of specific death causes has not been thoroughly explored. In this prospective study, authors followed up 32,068 individuals without baseline history of cancer or cardiovascular disease (69% men; mean age, 46 years; range, 26-61 years) over a period of 24 years. Hazard ratios (HRs) for total and cause-specif