Objective We describe disease activity, damage, and the accrual of key autoantibodies in an inception systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) cohort. Methods. The Systemic Lupus International Collaborating Clinics (SLICC) International Research Network, comprising 27 centers from 11 countries, has followed an inception cohort of SLE patients yearly according to a standardized protocol. Of these patient

γ-tubulin is an important cell division regulator that arranges microtubule assembly and mitotic spindle formation. Cytosolic γ-tubulin nucleates α- and β-tubulin in a growing microtubule by forming the ring-shaped protein complex γTuRC. Nuclear γ-tubulin also regulates S-phase progression by moderating the activities of E2Fs. The mechanism that regulates localization of γ-tubulin is currently unk

This study describes a method to obtain a certain humidity level by a certain drying treatment. This treatment was applied on cement based materials in order to identify the critical moisture level above which ion transport can occur. The drying is performed in two steps, first in one direction to reach a certain moisture level and then in the opposite direction to identify if ions can move at thi

Abstract Objective. Periodontal ligament (PDL) cells produce IL-6 upon stimulation with inflammation promoters, but the signaling pathways involved have not been characterized. This study investigates underlying mechanisms behind regulation of PDL cell IL-6 production by E. coli and P. gingivalis LPS. Materials and methods: Human PDL cells, endothelial cells and monocytes were stimulated with E. c

Executive and attention dysfunctions are common in very preterm children. We studied their involuntary attention process by using behavioral measurements and auditory event-related potentials (AERP) with a distraction paradigm at age five years. The active task was to distinguish between two animal sounds. As an irrelevant feature the sounds were presented from frequent (standard) or infrequent (d

Many proteins contain intrinsically disordered regions, which may be crucial for function, but on the other hand be related to the pathogenicity of variants. Prediction programs have been developed to detect disordered regions from sequences and used to predict the consequences of variants, although their performance for this task has not been assessed. We tested the performance of protein disorde

To describe the prevalence of, risk factors for, and prognostic importance of gastrointestinal (GI) bleeding and use of acid suppressants in acutely ill adult intensive care patients. We included adults without GI bleeding who were acutely admitted to the intensive care unit (ICU) during a 7-day period. The primary outcome was clinically important GI bleeding in ICU, and the analyses included esti

Lysosomal glucocerebrosidase (GBA1) deficiency is causative for Gaucher disease. Not all individuals with GBA1 mutations develop neurological involvement raising the possibility that other factors may provide compensatory protection. One factor may be the activity of the non-lysosomal beta-glucosidase (GBA2) which exhibits catalytic activity towards glucosylceramide and is reported to be highly ex

Organic semiconductors usually demonstrate crystal structure dependent electronic properties, and through precise control of film structure, the performance of novel organic electronic devices can be greatly improved. Understanding the crystal structure dependent charge-transfer mechanism thus becomes critical. In this work, we have prepared amorphous titanyl phthalocyanine films by vacuum molecul

This study compared the life situation of visitors of day centers (DC) for people with mental illness (N = 93) with a comparison group (N = 82) in respect of sociodemographic and clinical characteristics, care consumption, well-being and everyday activities. The response rate was 49%, and those who declined are believed to be those with the most severe psychiatric disabilities. Most individuals we

Background: Most current knowledge on kidney concentrations of nephrotoxic metals like cadmium (Cd), mercury (Hg), or lead (Pb) comes from autopsy studies. Assessment of metal concentrations in kidney biopsies from living subjects can be combined with information about exposure sources like smoking, diet, and occupation supplied by the biopsied subjects themselves. Objectives: To determine kidney

Global vegetation models require the photosynthetic parameters, maximum carboxylation capacity (V(cm)), and quantum yield (alpha) to parameterize their plant functional types (PFTs). The purpose of this work is to determine how much the scaling of the parameters from leaf to ecosystem level through a seasonally varying leaf area index (LAI) explains the parameter variation within and between PFTs.

Two multiblock copoly(arylene ether sulfone)s with similar block lengths and ion exchange capacities (IECs) were prepared by a coupling reaction between a non-sulfonated precursor block and a highly sulfonated precursor block containing either fully disulfonated diarylsulfone or fully tetrasulfonated tetraaryldisulfone segments. The latter two precursor blocks were sulfonated via lithiation-sulfin

Bjursten, Henrik, Per Ederoth, Engilbert Sigurdsson, Magnus Gottfredsson, Ingvar Syk, Orri Einarsson, and Tomas Gudbjartsson. S100B profiles and cognitive function at high altitude. High Alt. Med. Biol. 11:31-38, 2010.-Exposure to high altitude can lead to acute mountain sickness (AMS) and high altitude cerebral edema (HACE). In this study we investigated the effect of high altitude on neurocognit

One-way endobronchial valves (EBVs) have been shown to relieve symptoms of emphysema, particularly in patients without collateral ventilation (CV) between the target and adjacent lobes. In this study, we investigated the ability of the bronchoscopic Chartis (TM) Pulmonary Assessment System to predict treatment response by determining the presence of CV. 80 EBV patients underwent a pre-treatment Ch

Genome-wide association studies (GWASs) have identified many SNPs underlying variations in plasma-lipid levels. We explore whether additional loci associated with plasma-lipid phenotypes, such as high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C), low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C), total cholesterol (TC), and triglycerides (TGs), can be identified by a dense gene-centric approach. Our meta-ana

Glial cell line derived neurotrophic factor (GDNF) has great potential to treat Parkinson's disease (PD). However, constitutive expression of GDNF can over time lead to side effects. Therefore, it would be useful to regulate GDNF expression. Recently, a new gene inducible system using destabilizing domains (DD) from E. coil dihydrofolate reductase (DHFR) has been developed and characterized. The a

Purpose: Eddy current induced velocity offsets are of concern for accuracy in cardiovascular magnetic resonance (CMR) volume flow quantification. However, currently known theoretical aspects of eddy current behavior have not led to effective guidelines for the optimization of flow quantification sequences. This study is aimed at identifying correlations between protocol parameters and the resultin

Sung in Christian liturgies from the earliest period, biblical Odes—a set of songs excerpted from the biblical and apocryphal books—were central to emerging Christian practices and texts, yet their significance as textual witnesses has rarely been studied. Overlooked by text critics and editors, the Odes have largely been omitted from contemporary critical editions of the biblical books, including