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Novel adjuvants and antigen-delivery systems with immunomodulatory properties that shift the allergenic Th2 response towards a Th1 or regulatory T cell response are desired for allergen-specific immunotherapy. This study demonstrates that 200-nm sized biodegradable poly(gamma-glutamic acid) (gamma-PGA) nanoparticles (NPs) are activators of human monocyte-derived dendritic cells (MoDCs). gamma-PGA

Diamond-Blackfan anemia is a congenital erythroid hypoplasia caused by functional haploinsufficiency of genes encoding ribosomal proteins. Mutations involving the ribosomal protein S19 gene are detected in 25 % of patients. Enforced expression of ribosomal protein S19 improves the overall proliferative capacity, erythroid colony-forming potential and erythroid differentiation of hematopoietic prog

Irish peat soils are extensive, covering approximately 14-20% of the national land area. They contain between 53% and 62% of the national soil organic carbon stock. Montane blanket bog covers approximately 25% or 242650ha of the total peatland area in Ireland and is the dominant peatland type covering the upland area of Wicklow. Blanket bogs are very sensitive systems and have experienced much dis

Insomnia and short and long sleep durations have all been linked to cardiovascular disease. Male gender and low socioeconomic status are also related to cardiovascular disease, but it is unclear whether these two factors modify the impact of poor sleep on cardiovascular disease incidence.

Family history of stroke is an established risk factor for stroke. We evaluated whether family history of stroke predisposed to certain stroke subtypes and whether it differed by sex in young patients with stroke.

A combined two-cell reaction system containing Gluconobacter oxydans and Ralstonia eutropha was evaluated with regard to asymmetric ketone reduction using H(2) as the reductant. Whole cells permeabilized by EDTA/toluene were used, and synthesis was performed in a biphasic aqueous/organic reaction medium. The two-cell system was compared with a system in which G. oxydans alone was used for both ket

It is important that any patient with a urinary diversion can accept the psychological impact alongside the surgical and physical aspects. However, there are currently no validated methods or instruments available to allow direct measurement of this phenomenon in these patients. Health-related quality of life (HRQoL) is often high following different types of urinary diversion - this may suggest a

Using kilometric arrays of air Cherenkov telescopes at short wavelengths, intensity interferometry may increase the spatial resolution achieved in optical astronomy by an order of magnitude, enabling images of rapidly rotating hot stars with structures in their circumstellar disks and winds, or mapping out patterns of nonradial pulsations across stellar surfaces. Intensity interferometry (once pio

We investigate the survival performance of new technology-based firms (NTBFs) over the business cycle and compare them against other entrepreneurial firms. Our data comprise the entire population of entrepreneurial firms entering the Swedish economy from 1991 to 2002, which we follow until 2007. Discrete-time duration models are employed to investigate whether the business cycle impacts differentl

This Letter describes a model-independent search for the production of new resonant states in photon + jet events in 2.11 fb(-1) of proton-proton collisions at root s = 7 TeV. We compare the photon + jet mass distribution to a background model derived from data and find consistency with the background-only hypothesis. Given the lack of evidence for a signal, we set 95% credibility level limits on

The rationale for long-term prophylaxis in more severe forms of von Willebrand's disease (VWD) is obvious, as mucosal bleeding and haemophilia-like joint bleeds resulting in chronic morbidity may occur. However, the experience with prophylactic treatment in this group is scanty. An international VWD Prophylaxis Network (VWD PN) was established in 2006. The VWD PN will investigate prophylaxis with

Chondrosarcoma is a malignant bone tumor that is often resistant to chemotherapy and radiotherapy. We applied high resolution oligonucleotide array comparative genomic hybridization to 46 tumor specimens from 44 patients with chondrosarcoma and identified several genes with potential importance for the development of chondrosarcoma. Several homozygous deletions were detected. The tumor suppressor

The dielectric procperties of MSWI bottom ash as a function of volumetric water content (VWC) are reported in this paper. The objective was to aid the development of microwave based non-invasive emission monitoring and control system for various bottom ash applications. The dielectric measurements were made, on a 1.5-year-old bottom ash, with an electrical network analyzer in microwave range (300

Eight novel microsatellite markers were developed for Hieracium s.s. (excluding Pilosella) using a modified FIASCO protocol, and two out of nine microsatellites that were originally developed for Pilosella officinarum were optimised for Hieracium s.s.. All ten microsatellites consistently amplified loci from a wide range of representatives from north and central European species of various section

During the last decade, the ecological theory of adaptive radiation, and its corollary "ecological speciation", has been a major research theme in evolutionary biology. Briefly, this theory states that speciation is mainly or largely the result of divergent selection, arising from niche differences between populations or incipient species. Reproductive isolation evolves either as a result of direc

O-Mannosylation is an important protein modification in brain. During the last years, a few mammalian proteins have been identified as targets of the protein-O-mannosyltransferases 1 and 2. However, these still cannot explain the high content of O-mannosyl glycans in brain and the strong brain involvement of congenital muscular dystrophies caused by POMT mutations (Walker-Warburg syndrome, dystrog

The development of new techniques for detection and characterization of transient myocardial ischemia has benefited considerably from the STAFF database, acquired in patients receiving elective prolonged percutaneous transluminal coronary angiography. The present article reviews a range of techniques developed and/or evaluated on the ECG signals of this database, including techniques for exploring

Predicting the effects of amino acid substitutions on protein stability provides invaluable information for protein design, the assignment of biological function, and for understanding disease-associated variations. To understand the effects of substitutions, computational models are preferred to time-consuming and expensive experimental methods. Several methods have been proposed for this task in

Consultants are known to work extreme hours. We show empirically how consultants fantasize about off-work activities, which are impossible to realize with their work schedule. These fantasies are, however, not obstructing their work, but important to justify the extreme hours and sustain desire for work. We draw on Lacan's notion of desire as the Other's desire and analyze the consultants' desire

We argue that leadership promotion in China’s political elite relies on homophily for signals of trustworthiness and future cooperative behavior more than on economic performance. We first point to the limitation of the economic performance argument from within the framework of China’s specific M-form state structure, and then we proffer a sociological explanation for why higher-level elites in Ch