BACKGROUND: Limited data exists of tracking and changes in accelerometer measured physical activity in children. METHODS: Physical activity was assessed by accelerometers for four days in 167 children (boys n=90, girls n=77), aged 9.8±0.6 years. Follow-up measurement was made 2.0±0.1 yrs later (range 1.9-2.1 yrs). General physical activity (GPA) was defined as mean count/minute. Minutes of inact

BackgroundTreatment of acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) in children is largely based on extrapolated knowledge obtained from adults and which varies between different hospitals. This study explores ventilation treatment strategies for children with ARDS in the Nordic countries, and compares these with international practice. MethodsIn October 2012, a questionnaire covering ventilation tr

Mesenchymal stromal cells (MSC) are increasingly used as an investigative therapeutic product for immune disorders and degenerative disease. Typically, MSC are isolated from human tissue, expanded in culture and cryopreserved until usage. The safety and efficacy of MSC therapy will depend on the phenotypical and functional characteristics of MSC. The freeze-thawing procedure may change these chara

OBJECTIVE: The overall objective was to unfold the phenomenon of interrater agreement: to identify potential sources of variation in agreement data and to explore how they can be statistically accounted for. The ultimate aim was to propose recommendations for in-depth examination of agreement to improve the reliability of assessment instruments. STUDY DESIGN AND SETTING: Using a sample where 1

The vegetation history of the Faroe Islands has been investigated in numerous studies all broadly showing that the early-Holocene vegetation of the islands largely consisted of fellfield with gravely and rocky soils formed under a continental climate which shifted to an oceanic climate around 10,000 cal yr BP when grasses, sedges and finally shrubs began to dominant the islands. Here we present da

Many bacterial pathogens interfere with the contact system (kallikrein kinin system) in human plasma. Activation of this system has two consequences: cleavage of high-molecular-mass kininogen (HK) resulting in release of the potent proinflammatory peptide bradykinin, and initiation of the intrinsic pathway of coagulation. In this study, two species of the Gram-negative anaerobic commensal organism

Label-free quantification using precursor-based intensities is a versatile workflow for large-scale proteomics studies. The method requires extensive computational analysis and is therefore in need of robust quality control during the data mining stage. We present a new label-free data analysis workflow integrated into a multi-user software platform. A novel adaptive alignment algorithm has been d

Several gene expression-based prognostic signatures have been described in neuroblastoma, but none have successfully been applied in the clinic. Here we have developed a clinically applicable prognostic gene signature, both with regards to number of genes and analysis platform. Importantly, it does not require comparison between patients and is applicable amongst high-risk patients. The signature

Terpenoids in plants are important sources for drug discovery. In this study, we extracted damsin and coronopilin, two sesquiterpene lactones, from Ambrosia arborescens and examined their anticancer effects on cell cultures. Damsin and coronopilin inhibited cell proliferation, DNA biosynthesis and formation of cytoplasmic DNA histone complexes in Caco-2 cells, with damsin being more potent than co

Cystatin C is suggested to be involved in neurodegeneration and the development of Alzheimer's disease (AD) by binding to soluble amyloid-beta (A beta) peptides. Studies of cystatin C levels in cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) in relation to risk of AD are conflicting and relations between cystatin C, A beta(42), and tau levels in CSF in AD, mild cognitive impairment (MCI), and healthy controls are unkno

The aim of this study was to demonstrate a new automatic brain segmentation method in magnetic resonance imaging (MRI).

Poly(d,l-lactide-co-glycolide) (PLG) is the most frequently used biodegradable polymer in the controlled release of an encapsulated drug. The purpose of this work was to explain the surprisingly slow diffusion through this polymer, and locate the major source of mass transport resistance. Diffusion of human growth hormone (hGH) and glucose through PLG films was undetectable (using a diffusion cell

Proteoglycans (PGs) are macromolecules that consist of long linear polysaccharides, glycosaminoglycan (GAG) chains, covalently attached to a core protein by the carbohydrate xylose. The biosynthesis of GAG chains is initiated by xylosylation of the core protein followed by galactosylation by the galactosyltransferase β4GalT7. Some β-d-xylosides, such as 2-naphthyl β-d-xylopyranoside, can induce GA

The worldwide incidence of gastric adenocarcinoma (GC) is lower in women than in men. Furthermore, cancer patients treated with estrogens have been reported to have a lower subsequent risk of GC. The authors conducted a prospective analysis of menstrual and reproductive factors, exogenous hormone use, and GC in 335,216 women from the European Prospective Investigation Into Cancer and Nutrition, a

Eutrophication of the Baltic Sea has in Sweden led to the initiation of government schemes aiming to increase wetland areas in agricultural regions and thereby reduce nutrient transport to the sea. Landowners play a significant role as providers of this ecosystem service and are currently offered subsidies to cover their costs for constructing and maintaining wetlands. We undertook a grounded theo

Background Several trials evaluating the effect of prostate-specific antigen (PSA) testing on prostate-cancer mortality have shown conflicting results. We updated prostate-cancer mortality in the European Randomized Study of Screening for Prostate Cancer with 2 additional years of follow-up. Methods The study involved 182,160 men between the ages of 50 and 74 years at entry, with a predefined core

Ternary nanowires (NWs) often exhibit varying material composition along the NW growth axis because of different diffusion properties of the precursor molecules. This constitutes a problem for optoelectronic devices for which a homogeneous material composition is most often of importance. Especially, ternary GaInP NWs grown under a constant Ga-In precursor ratio typically show inhomogeneous materi

Background: Acquired hemophilia A (AHA) is a rare autoimmune disease caused by autoantibodies against coagulation factor VIII and characterized by spontaneous hemorrhage in patients with no previous family or personal history of bleeding. Although data on several AHA cohorts have been collected, limited information is available on the optimal management of AHA. Objectives: The European Acquired He

Abundant peptides and proteins containing arginine (Arg) and lysine (Lys) amino acids can apparently permeate cell membranes with ease. However, the mechanisms by which these peptides and proteins succeed in traversing the free energy barrier imposed by cell membranes remain largely unestablished. Precise thermodynamic studies (both theoretical and experimental) on the interactions of Arg and Lys