Introduction: This study was aimed to determine the association between PSA levels and biomarkers of subclinical systemic inflammation based on data from 119 middle-aged healthy men from the general population. Materials and Methods: Serum levels of PSA and biomarkers of systemic inflammation (CRP and fibrinogen) were measured. Demographic data were also collected. Subjects were divided into two g

Butterfly eyes are random mosaics built of three ommatidia types, each with a different set of photoreceptors and pigments. What defines the combined features in each ommatidium? A new study has solved the puzzle.

This article presents per capita GDP and income distribution estimates for preindustrial Poland. It is based on a social table for the Voivodeship of Cracow in 1578. Our evidence indicates that income in Poland was distributed more equally than in contemporary Holland. However, the extraction rate was much higher than in the North Sea area. Furthermore, income inequality in the countryside of the

Objective The objectives of this study were to measure socio-economic inequalities in self-reported health (SRH) and healthcare visits and to identify factors contributing to health inequalities among older people aged 50-plus years. Study design This study is based on a population-based, cross-sectional survey. Methods We accessed data of 7150 older adults from the World Health Organization's Stu

Given the current scale of global displacement, in particular from Syria, and the rising death toll of individuals crossing the Mediterranean, the European Union has emphatically stressed the need to work on an effective asylum and immigration policy, through more robust forms of cooperation between Member States. Following the Agenda on Migration in May 2015, a set of new measures and proposals t

This paper examines how governance structures found in the trucking industry impact the coordination between a forwarder and its carriers, including three cases: no forwarder coordination (direct contracting with shippers), investor-owned coordination (price-only contract), and carrier-cooperative coordination (revenue-sharing contract). The carriers are engaged in a Cournot competition, where the

Post-quantum cryptography for resisting possible attacks from malicious quantum adversaries has become one of the key topics in recent cryptographic research. Its ultimate goal is to search for efficient and secure primitives replacing the factoring- and discrete log-based schemes in service that will be broken in polynomial time by Shor’s algorithm. It is now an urgent task to complete this repla

Odonata (dragonflies and damselflies) present an unparalleled insect model to integrate evolutionary genomics with ecology for the study of insect evolution. Key features of Odonata include their ancient phylogenetic position, extensive phenotypic and ecological diversity, several unique evolutionary innovations, ease of study in the wild and usefulness as bioindicators for freshwater ecosystems w

This article focuses on the El Sistema programme, which started up in Sweden in 2010 with the objective to deal with segregation problems typical for Swedish urban areas. The purpose of the article is to examine how promoting integration through music and music education is constructed within El Sistema as a way to help children growing up in multi-ethnic suburbs participate in Swedish society. Th

In this paper we have investigated the dynamics of photo-generated charge carriers in a series of aerotaxy-grown GaAs nanowires (NWs) with different levels of Zn doping. Time-resolved photo-induced luminescence and transient absorption have been employed to investigate radiative (band edge transition) and non-radiative charge recombination processes, respectively. We find that the photo-luminescen

PURPOSE: To describe clinical, optical coherence tomography (OCT) and fundus autofluorescence (FAF) findings in patients with intraocular tumors and determine if OCT and FAF could be helpful in the differential diagnosis and management of different choroidal tumors.METHODS: Forty-nine patients with untreated, macular, midperipheral, and extrapapillary intraocular tumors were included. All patients

The most important goals for the field of immuno-oncology are to improve the response rate and increase the number of tumor indications that respond to immunotherapy, without increasing adverse side effects. One approach to achieve these goals is to use tumor-directed immunotherapy, i.e., to focus the immune activation to the most relevant part of the immune system. This may improve anti-tumor eff

Background: Thyroid function has been associated with breast cancer risk, and breast cancer cell growth and proliferation. It is not clear whether thyroid function affects prognosis following breast cancer but, if so, this could have an important clinical impact. The present study analysed prospectively collected measurements of free tri-iodothyronine (T3), free thyroxine (T4), thyroid-stimulating

A fully integrated remote antenna unit (RAU) intended for fiber-fed distributed multiple-input multiple-output systems is presented. The circuit is designed for narrowband (60 MHz) time-division duplex systems, where an IF over fiber approach is chosen to facilitate the use of low-cost optical components and integrated photodetectors. A novel antenna switch control scheme is introduced, which enab

Purpose: Cis-acting regulatory SNPs resulting in differential allelic expression (DAE) may, in part, explain the underlying phenotypic variation associated with many complex diseases. To investigate whether common variants associated with DAE were involved in breast cancer susceptibility among BRCA1 and BRCA2 mutation carriers, a list of 175 genes was developed based of their involvement in cancer

Background: There is an urgent need to improve patient safety in the area of medication treatment among the elderly. The aim of this study was to explore which improvement needs and strengths, relating to medication safety, arise from a multi-professional intervention in primary care and further to describe and follow up on the agreements for change that were established within the intervention. M

Background: Sweden offers a unique opportunity to researchers to construct comprehensive databases that encompass a wide variety of healthcare related data. Statistics Sweden and the National Board of Health and Welfare collect individual level data for all Swedish residents that ranges from medical diagnoses to socioeconomic information. In addition to the information collected by governmental ag

Recently we reported a method for estimating the spontaneous curvatures of lipids from temperature-dependent changes in the lattice parameter of inverse hexagonal liquid crystal phases of binary lipid mixtures. This method makes use of 1,2-dioleoyl-sn-glycerol-3-phosphoethanolamine (DOPE) as a host lipid, which preferentially forms an inverse hexagonal phase to which a guest lipid of unknown spont

Background: T1D and AITD are autoimmune disorders commonly occurring in the same family and even in the same individual. The genetic contribution to these disorders is complex making uncovering of susceptibility genes very challenging. The general aim of this study was to identify loci and genes contributing to T1D/AITD susceptibility. Our strategy was to perform linkage and association studies in