Risk of type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) differs according to ethnicity. Levels of apolipoprotein M (ApoM) have been shown to be decreased in T2DM. However, its role in different ethnicities is not known. We examined the differences in plasma ApoM levels in Swedish residents born in Iraq (Iraqis) and Sweden (Swedes) in relation to T2DM and insulin resistance (IR).

High interstitial fluid pressure (IFP) in colorectal cancer metastases may decrease the uptake and, thus, the effects of anti-tumor drugs. Imatinib, a selective inhibitor of PDGF receptors, and anakinra, an interleukin-1 receptor antagonist, respectively, increase drug uptake and/or decrease IFP in preclinical models of carcinoma. Drug-induced decrease in IFP in human metastases has not been objec

To review and update the evidence on predictors of poor outcome (death, persistent vegetative state or severe neurological disability) in adult comatose survivors of cardiac arrest, either treated or not treated with controlled temperature, to identify knowledge gaps and to suggest a reliable prognostication strategy. GRADE-based systematic review followed by expert consensus achieved using Web-ba

Fertility rates have dramatically decreased in the last two decades, especially in men. It has been described that environmental factors as well as life habits may affect semen quality. In this paper we use artificial intelligence techniques in order to predict semen characteristics resulting from environmental factors, life habits, and health status, with these techniques constituting a possible

Purpose: To evaluate adjuvant chemotherapy and interpolated accelerated radiotherapy (RT) for adult patients with high-risk soft tissue sarcoma in the extremities or trunk wall. Methods and Materials: High-risk soft tissue sarcoma was defined as high-grade malignancy and at least two of the following criteria: size >= 8 cm, vascular invasion, or necrosis. Six cycles of doxorubicin and ifosfamide w

Chronic GVHD (cGVHD) associated bronchiolitis obliterans syndrome (BOS) is a serious complication after allo-SCT, and lung transplantation (LTx) may be the ultimate treatment option. To evaluate this treatment, data on all patients with LTx after allo-SCT ever performed in Sweden, Norway, Denmark and Finland were recorded and compared with survival data from the Scandiatransplant registry. In tota

Sex pheromone components are produced in specialized glands of female moths via well-characterized biosynthetic pathways, where a Fatty Acyl Reductase (FAR) is often essential for producing the specific ratio of the different pheromone components. The subcellular localization and membrane topology of FARs is important for understanding how pheromones are synthesized and exported to the exterior fo

Successful establishment and range expansion of non-native species often require rapid accommodation of novel environments. Here, we use common-garden experiments to demonstrate parallel adaptive evolutionary response to a cool climate in populations of wall lizards (Podarcis muralis) introduced from southern Europe into England. Low soil temperatures in the introduced range delay hatching, which

Investigation of nonlamellar nanoparticles formed by dispersion of self-assembled lipid liquid crystalline phases is stimulated by their many potential applications in science and technology; resulting from their unique solubilizing, encapsulating, and space-dividing nature. Understanding the interfacial behavior of lipid liquid crystalline nanoparticles (LCNPs) at surfaces can facilitate the expl

The roof dual bound for quadratic unconstrained binary optimization is the basis for several methods for efficiently computing the solution to many hard combinatorial problems. It works by constructing the tightest possible lower-bounding submodular function, and instead of minimizing the original objective function, the relaxation is minimized. However, for higher-order problems the technique has

Osteoarthritis is the most common form of arthritis and is a major cause of pain and disability in the elderly. To search for sequence variants that confer risk of osteoarthritis of the hand, we carried out a genome-wide association study (GWAS) in subjects with severe hand osteoarthritis, using variants identified through the whole-genome sequencing of 2,230 Icelanders. We found two significantly

A recent genome-wide association study revealed a variant (rs2431697) in an intergenic region, between the pituitary tumor-transforming 1 (PTTG1) and microRNA (miR-146a) genes, associated with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) susceptibility. Here, we analyzed with a case-control design this variant and other candidate polymorphisms in this region together with expression analysis in order to cla

This article documents the addition of 142 microsatellite marker loci to the Molecular Ecology Resources database. Loci were developed for the following species: Agriophyllum squarrosum, Amazilia cyanocephala, Batillaria attramentaria, Fungal strain CTeY1 (Ascomycota), Gadopsis marmoratus, Juniperus phoenicea subsp. turbinata, Liriomyza sativae, Lupinus polyphyllus, Metschnikowia reukaufii, Puccin

This paper employs a conditional asset-pricing model based on the optimal orthogonal portfolio approach to construct a factor portfolio that embodies all the latent factors important for pricing a given set of test assets. The advantage of this portfolio to the anomaly related mimicking portfolios is its ability to separate out the components of average return that are not related to the return co

We show that if R is a, not necessarily unital, ring graded by a semigroup G equipped with an idempotent e such that G is cancellative at e, the nonzero elements of eGe form a hypercentral group and R-e has a nonzero idempotent f, then R is simple if and only if it is graded simple and the center of the corner subring fR(eGe)f is a field. This is a generalization of a result of Jespers' on the sim

Repeated injury of the airway epithelium caused by hyperpnoea of poorly conditioned air has been proposed as a key factor in the pathogenesis of exercise-induced bronchoconstriction (EIB) in athletes. In animals, the short-acting beta(2)-agonist terbutaline has been shown to reduce dry airflow-induced bronchoconstriction and the associated shedding of airway epithelial cells. Our aim was to test t

Huntington's disease (HD) is an autosomal inherited neurological disease caused by a CAG-repeat expansion in the first exon of huntingtin gene encoding for the huntingtin protein (Htt). In HD, there is an accumulation of intracellular aggregates of mutant Htt that negatively influence cellular functions. The aggregates contain ubiquitin, and part of the HD pathophysiology could result from an imba

A three-dimensional computational fluid dynamics (CFD) approach based on the finite element method (FEM) is used to investigate a solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC). Governing equations for heat, gas-phase species, electron, ion and momentum transport are implemented and coupled to kinetics describing electrochemical as well as internal reforming reactions. The model cell design is based on a cell from