Introduction: Obese women have increased leptin levels and longer duration of labor compared with normal-weight women. Leptin has an inhibitory effect on myometrial contractility in vitro. Our purpose was to examine whether maternal leptin levels in active labor were associated with the duration of the active phase of labor. Material and methods: This prospective cohort study included 914 women. M

The human genome encodes 13 aquaporin isoforms with characteristic substrate specificity that are expressed at specific locations throughout the body. Of these isoforms, AQPs 1-4 serve important functions in renal water reabsorption. Consequently, specific AQP inhibitors have been proposed as 'aquaretics', a new class of drugs suitable to induce diuresis without concomitant salt wasting. Furthermo

There is growing interest in within-person associations of objectively measured physical and physiological variables with psychological states in daily life. Here we provide a practical guide with SAS code of multilevel modeling for analyzing physical activity data obtained by accelerometer and self-report data from intensive and repeated measures using ecological momentary assessments (EMA). We r

Thrombin-activatable fibrinolysis inhibitor (TAFI) plays a central role in haemostasis, and plasma TAFI concentrations are heritable. Candidate gene studies have identified several variants within the gene encoding TAFI, CPB2, that explain part of the estimated heritability. Here, we describe an exploratory genome-wide association study to identify novel variants within and outside of the CPB2 loc

Amazonia is an environmentally heterogeneous and biologically megadiverse region, and its biodiversity varies considerably over space. However, existing knowledge on Amazonian biodiversity and its environmental determinants stems almost exclusively from studies of macroscopic above-ground organisms, notably vertebrates and trees. In contrast, diversity patterns of most other organisms remain elusi

The present study examines the association between depressive symptoms and inflammatory markers in peripheral artery disease (PAD) to better understand the mechanistic relationship between depression and PAD. A cross-sectional sample of 117 patients with PAD (97% male, 76% Caucasian) was recruited from the San Francisco Veterans Affairs Medical Center. Patients were categorized into three subgroup

The association of markers of myocardial injury and dysfunction with infarct size (IS) and ejection fraction (EF) are well documented. However, limited data are available on the newer high-sensitivity troponin assays and comparison with morphologic and functional assessment with cardiac magnetic resonance imaging. We aimed to examine the associations of high-sensitivity cardiac Troponin-T (hs-cTnT

The surface emissions trap (cTrap), a new device for reducing emissions of volatile organic compounds and particulate matter from surfaces while allowing evaporation of moisture, was used to improve the indoor air quality of a school building with elevated air concentrations of 2-ethyl-1-hexanol. A clear improvement of the perceived air quality was noticed a few days after a cTrap prototype had be

It has previously been shown in short-term interventions that kernel-based whole grain (WG) rye products have beneficial effects on test markers related to obesity and type 2 diabetes (T2D). T2D increases the risk of several severe health issues, including declined cognitive functions. The protein brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) is suggested to be a potential biomarker for neuronal integr

In this paper, we perform a threshold analysis of braided convolutional codes on the additive white Gaussian noise (AWGN) channel. The decoding thresholds are estimated by Monte-Carlo density evolution techniques and compared with approximate thresholds from an erasure channel prediction. The results show that, with spatial coupling, the predicted thresholds are very accurate and quickly approach

De moderna kvinnorna med korta kjolar och ännu kortare hår som jazzade sig igenom 1920-talets nöjesliv är en bild som reproduceras i populärkulturen än idag. Men de moderna kvinnorna sågs i sin samtid inte endast som nöjeslystna kommersiella produkter, utan användes som en arena för att diskutera frågor om nationalitet, rasbiologi, genus, kropp och det moderna samhällets utmaningar. De moderna kvi

Most of the literature accumulated around retail change derive a linear, progressive understanding, typically coined with the term “retail evolution”. Once it is formulated as such, a need for adopting a historical perspective to study present becomes superfluous, because the past is understood as something that is left behind, something incapable of making an impact on the present. In this resear

Membrane cleaning is an integrated part of the daily membrane plant operation in the food and biotech industry. However, the impact of membrane cleaning on the plant operations and economics are often neglected parameters in the development of new applications despite the fact that the cost for membrane cleaning is a dominating membrane operating expenditure apart from electricity. The aim of this

Universitet och högskolor är unika myndigheter i Sverige genom att ha en demokratisk styrning med stark representation från verksamheten. I universitetsstyrelsen finns visserligen mer politiskt tillsatta ledamöter och representanter för det omgivande samhället, men bara ett steg längre ned på fakultetsnivå, som vår egen fakultet, är verksamhets- representationen i det närmaste total. V

The human immune system is very powerful, and if it is directed towards ourselves, it can lead to the very serious so-called autoimmune diseases

In the chiral limit, the D = 6 contribution to the Operator Product Expansion (OPE) of the VV −AA correlator of quark currents only depends on two vacuum condensates, which can be related to hadronic matrix elements associated to CP violation in non-leptonic kaon decays. We use those relations to determine 〈(ππ) I=2 |Q 8 |K〉, using the updated ALEPH spectral functions. Alternatively, we use tho

Safe drinking water is delivered to the consumer through kilometres of pipes. These pipes are lined with biofilm, which is thought to affect water quality by releasing bacteria into the drinking water. This study describes the number of cells released from this biofilm, their cellular characteristics, and their identity as they shaped a drinking water microbiome. Installation of ultrafiltration (