Objective: To study whether serum levels of tumour necrosis factor-α (TNF-α), free or bound to etanercept, in biological-naïve adults with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) could predict the long-term efficacy of etanercept, measured as drug survival. Method: We identified 145 biological-naïve patients with RA starting treatment with etanercept at the Department of Rheumatology, Skåne University Hospital

During the last few years most work done on the task of image segmentation has been focused on deep learning and Convolutional Neural Networks (CNNs) in particular. CNNs are powerful for modeling complex connections between input and output data but lack the ability to directly model dependent output structures, for instance, enforcing properties such as smoothness and coherence. This drawback mot

In this chapter, we describe the detection of Ebola virus minigenomic mRNA using a nonradioactive Northern hybridization. This protocol comprises all steps beginning with the synthesis of a digoxigenin-labeled riboprobe, harvest of transcribed mRNA from cells transfected with the Ebola virus minigenome system, separation of mRNA species by denaturing RNA gel electrophoresis, transfer of the mRNA t

Ca2+-sensor proteins are generally implicated in insulin release through SNARE interactions. Here, secretagogin, whose expression in human pancreatic islets correlates with their insulin content and the incidence of type 2 diabetes, is shown to orchestrate an unexpectedly distinct mechanism. Single-cell RNA-seq reveals retained expression of the TRP family members in β-cells from diabetic donors.

Succinate:quinone reductases are membrane-bound enzymes that catalyze electron transfer from succinate to quinone. Some enzymes in vivo reduce ubiquinone (exergonic reaction) whereas others reduce menaquinone (endergonic reaction). The succinate:menaquinone reductases all contain two heme groups in the membrane anchor of the enzyme: a proximal heme (heme b(P)) located close to the negative side of

Haem A, a prosthetic group of many respiratory oxidases, is probably synthesized from haem B (protohaem IX) in a pathway in which haem 0 is an intermediate. Possible roles of the Bacillus subtilis ctaA and ctaB gene products in haem 0 and haem A synthesis were studied. Escherichia coli does not contain haem A. The ctaA gene on plasmids in E. coli resulted in haem A accumulation in membranes. The p

Because of remarkable advances in the treatment of preterm birth, physicians increasingly encounter adult patients who were born preterm. However, research now shows that improved early survival may come at the expense of future health risks, including increased respiratory, cardiovascular, and kidney disease, diabetes and metabolic syndrome, and neuropsychiatric disorders. Unfortunately, this kno

Multi-atlas segmentation has become a frequently used tool for medical image segmentation due to its outstanding performance. A computational bottleneck is that all atlas images need to be registered to a new target image. In this paper, we propose an intermediate representation of the whole atlas set – an überatlas – that can be used to speed up the registration process. The representation consis

In this paper, we cast the idea of antithetic sampling, widely used in standard Monte Carlo simulation, into the framework of sequential Monte Carlo methods. We propose a version of the standard auxiliary particle filter where the particles are mutated blockwise in such a way that all particles within each block are, first, offspring of a common ancestor and, second, negatively correlated conditio

The Harmattan is a dry dust-laden continental wind, and in the boreal winter Harmattan dust plumes affects many West African countries, including Ghana. When the Harmattan is strongest the southern part of Ghana is affected by the Inter Tropical Discontinuity (ITD). In this study, we investigate if the ITD functions as a barrier, preventing long transported Harmattan dust to settle south of, and b

Background and aims The simultaneous measurement of many proteins is now possible using multiplex assays. In this pilot study we investigated a total of 124 proteins in plasma from chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) patients with the purpose of identifying proteins that are differently expressed at diagnosis and after tyrosine kinase inhibitor (TKI) treatment initiation. Methods Samples were taken fro

The Transfermium Working Group (TWG) was set up in 1986 under the joint auspices of the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC) and the International Union of Pure and Applied Physics (IUPAP). Its conclusions, duly endorsed by IUPAC and IUPAP, were published in the following three reports: 1. Criteria that must be satisfied for the discovery of a new chemical element to be recognThe Transfermium Working Group (TWG) was set up in 1986 under the joint auspices of the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC) and the International Union of Pure and Applied Physics (IUPAP). Its conclusions, duly endorsed by IUPAC and IUPAP, were published in the following three reports:1. Criteria that must be satisfied for the discovery of a new chemical element to be recogni

Crystals of [Pt{(CH3)2S}4](CF3SO3)2, M(r) = 741.76, and [Pt(C4H8OS)4](CF3SO3)2.H2O, M(r) = 927.93, were prepared by dissolution of platinum(II) hydroxide in solutions of trifluoromethanesulfonic acid in dimethyl sulfide and 1,4-thioxane, respectively. The structures were determined from X-ray intensity data (Mo K-alpha, lambda = 0.7107 angstrom) collected at room temperature with a CAD-4 diffracto