Purpose: The purpose of this study was to construct a new clinical tool for establishing levels of indications for cataract surgery, and to validate this tool. Methods: Teams from nine eye clinics reached an agreement about the need to develop a clinical tool for setting levels of indications for cataract surgery and about the items that should be included in the tool. The tool was to be called 'N

Fasting glucose and insulin are intermediate traits for type 2 diabetes. Here we explore the role of coding variation on these traits by analysis of variants on the HumanExome BeadChip in 60,564 non-diabetic individuals and in 16,491 T2D cases and 81,877 controls. We identify a novel association of a low-frequency nonsynonymous SNV in GLP1R (A316T; rs10305492; MAF=1.4%) with lower FG (β=-0.09±0.01

Traditional measures for improved traffic safety need to be complemented by modern technologies in the struggle to reduce the consequences of traffic accidents all over the world. This thesis introduces the Loyal Speed Adaptation (LSA) function based on recent developments in the area of Intelligent Transport Sys-tems to support the vehicle drivers in not using inappropriate or excessive speeds, w

The superfamily of cyclic nucleotide phosphodiesterases is comprised of 11 gene families. By hydrolyzing cAMP and cGMP, PDEs are major determinants in the regulation of intracellular concentrations of cyclic nucleotides and cyclic nucleotide-dependent signaling pathways. Two PDE3 subfamilies, PDE3A and PDE3B, have been described. PDE3A and PDE3B hydrolyze cAMP and cGMP with high affinity in a mutu

Insulin signaling to the brain is important not only for metabolic homeostasis but also for higher brain functions such as cognition. GABA (c-aminobutyric acid) decreases neuronal excitability by activating GABA(A) channels that generate phasic and tonic currents. The level of tonic inhibition in neurons varies. In the hippocampus, interneurons and dentate gyrus granule cells normally have signifi

Objective: The aim of the present study was to map out what kind of psychotropic drugs are prescribed for elderly residents in assisted-living homes and how they relate to age, sex, form of living, psychiatric diagnosis, care needs and mental health status, and to identify factors of importance for their use; and to study the indication for treatment and the evaluation of the effects of treatment.

Objective. Development of ascites in patients with liver cirrhosis is an ominous sign with a poor outcome. A liver transplantation must be considered, and it then becomes important to know if there are any factors indicating a worsened prognosis. Material and methods. We used official registers for a follow-up study of at least 5 years considering the prognosis of 155 prospectively recruited in-pa

Soil phosphorus (P) composition changes with ecosystem development, leading to changes in P bioavailability and ecosystem properties. Little is known, however, about how soil P transformations proceed with ecosystem development in boreal regions. We used 1-dimensional P-31 and 2-dimensional H-1, P-31 correlation nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy to characterise soil organic P transform

Pathologic aggregation of beta-amyloid (A beta) peptide and the axonal microtubule-associated protein tau protein are hallmarks of Alzheimer's disease (AD). Evidence supports that A beta peptide accumulation precedes microtubule-related pathology, although the link between A beta and tau remains unclear. We previously provided evidence for early co-localization of A beta 42 peptides and hyperphosp

OBJECTIVE: Patients with non-muscle-invasive bladder cancer are traditionally followed by repeat cystoscopy and urine cytology. A fluorescence in situ hybridisation technique called UroVysion((R)) (UV) is now available for clinical diagnosis of urothelial cancer cells. The aim of the present study was to compare UV analysis with routine follow-up methods. METHODS: We studied an unselected cohort o

Background It might be that early intestinal colonization by bacteria in westernized infants fails to give rise to sufficient immune stimulation to support maturation of regulatory immune mechanisms. Objective The purpose of the present study was to characterize the very early infantile microbiota by using a culture-independent approach and to relate the colonization pattern to development of at

OBJECTIVE: The purpose of the study was to determine the prevalence and factors associated with injury in professional ballet and modern dancers, and assess if dancers are reporting their injuries and explore reasons for not reporting injuries. DESIGN: Cross-sectional study. SETTING: Participants were recruited from nine professional ballet and modern dance companies in Canada, Denmark, Israel,

A simple and fast method is presented to be used for example in studies on the relationship between serum levels of persistent organic pollutants and type 2 diabetes mellitus. Method is based on liquid-liquid extraction and gas chromatography coupled with high.-resolution mass spectrometry. In the sample pretreatment special attention was paid to minimize the number of sample manipulation steps an