Vitamin D, parathyroid hormone (PTH) and calcium in blood are correlated with each other. Previous studies have suggested vitamin D to have anti-proliferative effects on tumor cells, whereas PTH may have carcinogenic effects. A cancer disease may influence calcium levels in blood, but less is known about calcium and its potential effect on cancer risk and survival. The aim of this study was to exa

In Laos (Southeastern Asia), Late Paleozoic sediments were identified by early French explorations across Indochina during the late 19th century (Pavie missions), but little work was undertaken to characterize the sedimentological and stratigraphical context until now. From detailed sedimentological and paleontological studies, we propose an interpretation of the depositional environment and of th

The present investigation examined motivation for parenting and some of its correlates in parents and children. The data came from samples of 151 first-time mothers of infants, 153 mothers of middle school children, and 260 mothers and fathers of high school children. Parents provided self-report data about their motivation in their parenting role as well as reports of role satisfaction, parental

A search for direct production of supersymmetric gauginos and sleptons in final states with two and three leptons is presented. The two lepton analysis uses 4.7 fb(-1) of proton-proton collision data at root s = 7 TeV, while the three lepton analysis uses 13 fb(-1) at root s = 8 TeV. All data were recorded by the ATLAS detector at the Large Hadron Collider. The results are interpreted in the pheno

The Gram-positive bacterium Aerococcus urinae can cause infectious endocarditis (IE) in older persons. Biofilm formation and platelet aggregation is believed to contribute to bacterial virulence in IE. Five A. urinae isolates from human blood were shown to form biofilms in vitro and biofilm formation was enhanced by the presence of human plasma. Four of the A. urinae isolates caused platelet aggre

Decoding transcriptional effects of experimental tissue-tissue or cell-cell interactions is important; for example, to better understand tumor-stroma interactions after transplantation of human cells into mouse (xenografting). Transcriptome analysis of intermixed human and mouse cells has, however, frequently relied on the need to separate the two cell populations prior to transcriptome analysis,

Consumption of oats has long been known to lower plasma total and low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol levels, an effect usually attributed to the soluble fibers β-glucans. On the basis of this cholesterol-lowering effect, oats are ascribed cardiovascular health-promoting properties. However, besides cholesterol levels, effects of oats on parameters relating to atherosclerosis development hav

We examined inter-and intraobserver reproducibility and concordance between histological diagnosis and independently collected clinical findings in a large series of patients with the major subtypes of myeloproliferative neoplasms (MPNs) and controls. Seven hematopathologists reviewed 272 bone marrow biopsies including 43 controls. Diagnoses were determined according to the 2008 criteria of the Wo

The results of a dedicated search for pair production of scalar partners of charm quarks are reported. The search is based on an integrated luminosity of 20.3 fb(-1) of pp collisions at root s = 8 TeV recorded with the ATLAS detector at the LHC. The search is performed using events with large missing transverse momentum and at least two jets, where the two leading jets are each tagged as originati

Engaging old users in the exploration of future product concepts can be challenging. It is of great value to find ways to actively involve them in the design of novel technologies intended for them, particularly when they have no prior experience of the technology in question. One obstacle in this process is that many old people do not identify themselves as being old or they think that it (the te

Introduction: Five different molecular subtypes of breast cancer have been identified through gene expression profiling. Each subtype has a characteristic expression pattern suggested to partly depend on cellular origin. We aimed to investigate whether the molecular subtypes also display distinct methylation profiles. Methods: We analysed methylation status of 807 cancer-related genes in 189 fresh

A variety of analyses, including fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH), quantitative PCR (qPCR) and array CGH (aCGH), have been performed on a series of chordomas from 181 patients. Twelve of 181 (7%) tumours displayed amplification of the T locus and an additional two cases showed focal amplification; 70/181 (39%) tumours were polysomic for chromosome 6, and 8/181 (4.5%) primary tumours showe

The Ikaros project started in 2001 with the aim of developing an open infrastructure for system-level brain modeling. The system has developed into a general tool for cognitive modeling as well as robot control. Here we describe the main parts of the Ikaros system and how it has been used to implement various cognitive systems and to control a number of different robots ranging from robot arms and

Results from case-control and prospective studies suggest a moderate positive association between obesity and height and differentiated thyroid carcinoma (TC). Little is known on the relationship between other measures of adiposity and differentiated TC risk. Here, we present the results of a study on body size and risk of differentiated TC based on a large European prospective study (EPIC). Durin

Study design:Observational study.Objectives:Thoraco-abdominal endovascular aortic aneurysm repair (TAEVAR) can be used to treat patients with extensive and complex aortic disease, however, at the risk of spinal cord ischemia (SCI). The aim of this follow-up study was to evaluate the life satisfaction in patients with SCI after TAEVAR.Setting:Among 83 patients undergoing TAEVAR between 2009 and 201

The transcription factor interferon regulatory factor-8 (IRF8) is highly expressed in myeloid progenitors, while most myeloid leukemias show low or absent expression. Loss of IRF8 in mice leads to a myeloproliferative disorder, indicating a tumor-suppressive role of IRF8. The Wilms tumor gene 1 (WT1) protein represses the IRF8-promoter. The zinc finger protein ZNF224 can act as a transcriptional c

According to a standard account of incomparability, two value bearers are incomparable if it is false that there holds a positive value relation between them. Due to the vagueness of the comparative predicates it may also be indeterminate as to which relation that holds - for each relation it is neither true nor false that it holds. John Broome has argued that indeterminacy cannot coexist with inc

Purpose. In anesthetized patients, electro-acupuncture (EA) has been found to reduce sevoflurane-induced suppression of cranial and spinal motor responses to surgery without influencing the level of anesthesia. The underlying mechanisms are unclear. In the present study, blood samples were analyzed to evaluate if the increased clinical motor responses to surgery in patients subjected to EA under s

Recent work on low-rank matrix factorization has focused on the missing data problem and robustness to outliers and therefore the problem has often been studied under the $L_1$-norm. However, due to the non-convexity of the problem, most algorithms are sensitive to initialization and tend to get stuck in a local optimum. In this paper, we present a new theoretical framework aimed at achieving opt