Objective: Two patients who suffered acute failure of their St Jude Medical Masters aortic valve prostheses due to leaflet arrest that were unrelated to suture material are presented. It was hypothesized that the valves failed because force applied to bear upon the valve annulus caused the hinge mechanism to become restricted or to arrest. Methods: A study was designed to measure the force that wo

Chk1 kinase coordinates cell cycle progression and preserves genome integrity. Here, we show that chemical or genetic ablation of human Chk1 triggered supraphysiological accumulation of the S phase-promoting Cdc25A phosphatase, prevented ionizing radiation (IR)-induced degradation of Cdc25A, and caused radioresistant DNA synthesis (RDS). The basal turnover of Cdc25A operating in unperturbed S phas

Catalytic metal sites in enzymes frequently have second-sphere carboxylate groups that neutralize the charge of the site and share protons with first-sphere ligands. This gives rise to an ambiguity concerning the position of this proton, which has turned out to be hard to settle with experimental, as well as theoretical, methods. We study three such proton-transfer reactions in two proteins and sh

The purpose of this study was to propose and evaluate different methods for measuring and reporting exchange gains and losses on corporate monetary items. Focusing on the Swedish experience, the empirical validity of three laws/monetary relationships from economic theory were examined for currencies in the Swedish 'basket' for the period 1974–1981. The basic overall finding of the study was that a

Emission source functions are extracted from correlation functions constructed from charged pions produced at midrapidity in Au+Au collisions at s(NN)=200 GeV. The source parameters extracted from these functions at low k(T) give first indications of a long tail for the pion emission source. The source extension cannot be explained solely by simple kinematic considerations. The possible role of a

Aim: To investigate the prevalence of high levels of sperm DNA damage among men from infertile couples with both normal and abnormal standard semen parameters. Methods: A total of 350 men from infertile couples were assessed. Standard semen analysis and sperm chromatin structure assay (SCSA) were carried out. Results: Ninety-seven men (28% of the whole study group) had a DNA fragmentation index (D

Multiple cardiac rhabdomyomas are frequently associated with tuberous sclerosis. However, very few cardiac malformations have been described with tuberous sclerosis. We report an unusual case of tuberous sclerosis with cerebral and renal lesions associated with dextrotransposition of the great arteries, pulmonary atresia, patent ductus arteriosus, multiple ventricular septal defects, and parachute

The progeny of spontaneous interspecific hybrid sporophytes of Sphagnum were used to analyse the inheritance of cytoplasmic DNA. The analysis showed that only the female parent donated chloroplasts and mitochondria in Sphagnum hybrids. Thus, this is the first study demonstrating maternal cytoplasmic inheritance in a nonvascular land plant. This finding has important implications for phylogenetic r

Entanglement dynamics in representative examples of Markov open quantum systems with qualitatively different dynamics are studied. Rings of qubits with thermal or dephasing local environment are used to study the qualitative properties of the entanglement dynamics depending on the interqubit interaction, type of environment and the initial state. It is demonstrated that the effect of the local env

In many gel applications the swelling and shrinking kinetics are very important, e.g. in controlled/slow release, where the kinetics determine the rate of out-diffusion of the active component, and in gel extraction where the gel is swollen and shrunk several times. In this study swelling kinetics of poly(N-isopropylacrylamide) gel (NiPAAm gel) was determined by monitoring the swelling process usi

BACKGROUND/AIM: Vasopressin and oxytocin are closely related peptides, and both exert effects on the gastrointestinal function. In the present study, we wanted to map the expression of vasopressin receptor mRNAs (V1a, V1b/V3, and V2) in nontumorous tissue biopsy specimens of human gastrointestinal tract and surrounding tissues. METHODS: Total and polyA+ RNAs were isolated from human tissue biopsy

This study was performed to evaluate the alterations of glomerular filtration barrier characteristics following acute renal ischemia-reperfusion (I/R). Ischemia was induced in anesthetized rats by unilateral renal artery occlusion for either 20 or 60 min, followed by reperfusion during 20 or 60 min, respectively, with the contralateral kidney serving as control. Sieving coefficients (theta) were o

This study is a long-term follow-up of a previously published study that used the internet in the rehabilitation of people on long-term sick leave owing to chronic pain and/or burnout. The follow-up was to assess the effects over time of this kind of rehabilitation. The goals of the first study were to improve the participants' health and work capacity. Sixty people were randomly assigned to eithe

To investigate the potential role of neutrophils in initiation of immune responses to mycobacteria, we have characterized the response of human neutrophils to infection with Mycobacterium bovis bacille Calmette Guerin, the BCG vaccine. BCG induced transcription and secretion of the chemokine CXCL8, by signalling through Toll-like receptors TLR2 and TLR4, in conjunction with the adaptor protein mye

The Kernel Density Estimator (KDE) is a versatile nonparametric technique with very good theoretical properties. It is used to obtain "smoothed histograms," which allows several distributions to be presented and analyzed more easily on one graph, and direct combination into average distributions. The application of the KDE method as a visual aid for the analysis of distributions of muscle fiber ar

The compaction of DNA by a cationic surfactant both in the bulk and adsorbed on the surface of latex particles was followed for the first time by SANS. In the bulk, a decrease in the overall size of the DNA coil in the presence of the cationic surfactant was observed at a negative-to-positive charge ratio far below the phase separation region, at a negative-to-positive charge ratio of 18. Addition

Dysthymia and major depressive disorder (MDD) are both risk diagnoses for suicidal behaviour. The aim of the present study was to identify clinical differences between these disorders, with a special reference to dysthymia. We studied suicidal behaviour, comorbidity and psychiatric symptoms of inpatient suicide attempters with dysthymia and MDD. We used DSM III-R diagnostics, the Suicide Assessmen