Changes in serum cartilage oligomeric matrix protein (COMP) were studied during a 6-month period from initiation of treatment of rheumatoid arthritis patients with either infliximab or etanercept, to elucidate whether the favourable results of tissue protection reported in clinical trials are corroborated by changing levels of circulating COMP. Rheumatoid arthritis patients commencing treatment wi

This paper describes a method, utilizing acoustic force manipulation of suspended particles, in which particles in a laminar flow microchannel are continuously translated from one medium to another with virtually no mixing of the two media. During the study, 5-mum polyamide spheres suspended in distilled water, spiked (contaminated) with Evans blue, were switched over to clean distilled water. Mor

We have studied the biosynthesis of mucins in organ cultures of human colon using isopycnic density-gradient centrifugation following pulse labelling with [35S]sulphate and [3H]-D-glucosamine. A high-density [35S]sulphate labelled component, of larger size than MUC2 monomers, appeared in the tissue and also in the medium. It was not degraded by reduction, trypsin digestion, digestion with chondroi

The hottest developments in the fields of cancer research, neuroscience, genomics and proteomics, anti-virals and more, with a pick of the key research papers in these areas.

Excited states in neutron-deficient mass A similar to 60 nuclei were studied by means of several heavy-ion fusion-evaporation reactions. The G(AMMASPHERE) array in conjunction with ancillary detector systems such as MICROBALL and neutron detectors allowed for the identification of well deformed rotational structures in the second well of nuclei in the direct vicinity of the doubly-magic isotope Ni

Objective. C1q deficiency is the strongest risk factor known for the development of systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), since almost all humans with a genetic deficiency of C1q develop this disease. Low C1q serum concentration is also a typical finding in SLE during flares, emphasizing the involvement of C1q in SLE pathogenesis. Recent studies have revealed that C1q has a regulatory effect on Toll

Iron deficiency (ID) and anaemia are common in patients with chronic heart failure (CHF). The presence of anaemia is associated with increased morbidity and mortality in CHF, and ID is a major reason for the development of anaemia. Preliminary studies using intravenous (i.v.) iron supplementation alone in patients with CHF and ID have shown improvements in symptom status. FAIR-HF (Clinical Trials.

Glucocorticoids have a well-known clinical effect on brain edema and intracranial hypertension, but the mechanism of action is still poorly understood. In the present report the effect of beta-methasone on choroid plexus transport and CSF formation was studied. Following 5 days of daily treatment with betamethasone the CSF production rate in rabbits was reduced by 43% as measured by ventriculo-cis

In this article, we show evidence for the assembly of ordered 3-dimensional aggregates of 5-nm gold particles in toluene, 1-octanol, n-decane, and chloroform. The use of plunge-freezing allows to freeze the solution containing the aggregates at a rate which does not allow reorganisation of the particles during sample preparation. The samples were then observed using cryo-transmission electron micr

Background: The proven benefit of integrating cervical cancer screening programme into HIV care has led to its adoption as a standard of care. However this is not operational in most HIV clinics in Nigeria. Of the various reasons given for non-implementation, none is backed by scientific evidence. This study was conducted to assess the willingness and acceptability of cervical cancer screening amo

An outbreak of suspected contact dermatitis among subway construction workers was suspected to be due to a new bisphenol A/F-based epoxy resin system (ERS). The construction workers used ERSs during the insertion of iron bars into concrete walls. The objective of the study was to determine the components (if any) of the ERS responsible for the contact allergy. Patch testing was performed on 20 of

We study the dynamics of highly excited states in acetylene initiated by an ultrashort vacuum ultraviolet laser pulse. Electronic states lying in the 4s-3d Rydberg region are excited with one femtosecond pulse, and the dynamic development of the states is monitored by a second short pulse which ionizes the system. We show that even for femtosecond pulses where the bandwidth of the exciting pulse c

This study has evaluated the sampling density for creation of high-resolution digital elevation models (DEMs) for precision agriculture purposes. The relationships between yield and topographical factors were investigated in a study area located in the central Sweden province of Dalarna. The DEM data sampling was carried out with a RTK-GPS system. A dense sampling scheme was employed and data was

In this paper, we study a regular rooted coloured tree with random labels assigned to its edges, where the distribution of the label assigned to an edge depends on the colours of its endpoints. We obtain some new results relevant to this model and also show how our model generalizes many other probabilistic models, including random walk in random environment on trees, recursive distributional equa

Electrokinetic measurements such as electrophoresis may show an inversion of the effective surface charge of colloidal particle called overcharging. This phenomenon has been studied by various theoretical approaches but up to now very few attempts of confrontation between theory and experiment have been conducted. In this work we report electrophoretic measurements as well as Monte Carlo simulatio

Pressurized hot liquid water and steam were used to investigate the possibilities of extracting insecticides (carbofuran, carbosulfan, and imidacloprid) from contaminated process dust remaining from seed-pellet production. Extraction temperature was the most important parameter in influencing the extraction efficiency and rate of extraction, while varying the pressure had no profound effect. A cle