Background: End-stage kidney disease overwhelms health services in Central America. We determined prevalences of decreased kidney function in distinct populations in the most affected region of Nicaragua. Study Design: Cross-sectional survey. Setting & Participants: Total populations aged 20-60 years of 5 villages in Northwest Nicaragua: mining/subsistence farming (elevation, 100-300 m above s

P>The effects of drought on the Amazon rainforest are potentially large but remain poorly understood. Here, carbon (C) cycling after 5 yr of a large-scale through-fall exclusion (TFE) experiment excluding about 50% of incident rainfall from an eastern Amazon rainforest was compared with a nearby control plot. Principal C stocks and fluxes were intensively measured in 2005. Additional minor compone

BackgroundHeart failure is an established risk factor for poor outcomes in patients undergoing non-cardiac surgery, yet risk stratification remains a clinical challenge. We developed an index for 30-day mortality risk prediction in this particular group. Methods and resultsAll individuals with heart failure undergoing non-cardiac surgery between October 23 2004 and October 31 2011 were included fr

Rett syndrome (RTT) is an X-linked genetic disorder and a major cause of intellectual disability in girls. Mutations in the methyl-CpG binding protein 2 (MECP2) gene are the primary cause of the disorder. Despite the dominant neurological phenotypes, MECP2 is expressed ubiquitously throughout the body and a number of peripheral phenotypes such as scoliosis, reduced bone mineral density and skeleta

Benthic foraminiferal tests are widely used for paleoceanographic reconstructions from a range of different environments with varying dissolved oxygen concentrations in the bottom water. There is ample evidence that foraminifera can live in anoxic sediments. For some species, this is explained by a switch to facultative anaerobic metabolism (i.e. denitrification). Here we show for the first time t

The four-kallikrein panel and the Prostate Health Index (PHI) have been shown to improve prediction of prostate cancer (PCa) compared with prostate-specific antigen (PSA). No comparison of the four-kallikrein panel and PHI has been presented.

We have recently shown in both herpesviruses and phages that packaged viral DNA creates a pressure of tens of atmospheres pushing against the interior capsid wall. For the first time, using differential scanning microcalorimetry, we directly measure the energy powering the release of pressurized DNA from the capsid. Furthermore, using a new calorimetric assay to accurately determine the temperatur

Objective: Prospective study of attention, executive functions, and mentalizing abilities in a representative sample of teenage-onset anorexia nervosa (AN). Method: A total of 51 AN cases recruited after community screening were contrasted with 51 matched comparison cases 18 years after AN onset. Neuropsychological tests had been done at 21, 24, and 32 years (18 years after AN onset). Results: The

In the carbonate-siliciclastic strata of West Gondwana (e. g. in the Montagne Noire, France), the aftermath of the mid Languedocian (mid Cambrian) regression is characterized by a late Languedocian major turnover of trilobite families and a Furongian-early Tremadocian radiation related to the stepwise immigration of trilobite invaders from East Gondwana under persistent transgressive conditions. T

We report on the synthesis and characterization of fluorescent halogen substituted anthracene-bridge-aniline (ABA) supermolecules that undergo structural reorganization on photoexcitation to form transient complexes. The syntheses were achieved in high yields on a large scale and the molecular structures were confirmed by single crystal X-ray diffraction. The photophysics of the ABA supermolecules

The oceans mediate the response of global climate to natural and anthropogenic forcings. Yet for the past 2,000 years - a key interval for understanding the present and future climate response to these forcings - global sea surface temperature changes and the underlying driving mechanisms are poorly constrained. Here we present a global synthesis of sea surface temperatures for the Common Era (CE)

To study how patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) self-report their experience of disease-related symptoms (fatigue, morning stiffness, pain) and their ability to cope with everyday life (capacity) using a nurse-led structured follow-up during the first year after starting treatment with tumour necrosis factor alpha (TNF-alpha) inhibitors.

While the distinction between manufacturing and services becomes increasingly blurred to some observers, we find, using a panel of Swedish firms, clear evidence that foreign sales (exports) are more important than domestic sales for stimulating R&D. This is particularly clear for manufacturing and this importance of foreign sales has increased over time, simultaneous to an opening up of the Sw

In telecommunication networks based on the current Ethernet technology, routing of traffic demands is based on multiple spanning trees: the network operator configures different routing spanning trees and assigns each demand to be routed in one of the selected spanning trees. A major optimization issue in this solution is the combined determination of (i) a set of appropriate spanning trees, and (

Abstract in Undetermined An operator identity satisfied by the shift operator in a class of standard weighted Bergman spaces is studied. We show that subject to a pureness condition this operator identity characterizes the associated Bergman shift operator up to unitary equivalence allowing for a general multiplicity. The analysis of the general case makes contact with the class of n-isometries st

Abstract The tick-borne bacterium 'Candidatus Neoehrlichia mikurensis' has recently been recognized as a human pathogen in Europe and appears to be the second most common pathogenic bacterium in Ixodes ricinus ticks in central Europe, second to Borrelia afzelii. Here, we investigate the prevalence of 'Candidatus N. mikurensis' in host-seeking ticks in southern Sweden and the rate of co-infection w

The pathophysiological process in amyloid disorders usually involves the transformation of a functional monomeric protein via potentially toxic oligomers into amyloid fibrils. The structure and properties of the intermediary oligomers have been difficult to study due to their instability and dynamic equilibrium with smaller and larger species. In hereditary cystatin C amyloid angiopathy, a cystati

Matrix assisted laser desorption/ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometry (MALDI-TOF MS) is currently changing the clinical routine for identification of microbial pathogens. One important application is the rapid identification of bacteria for the diagnosis of bloodstream infections (BSI). A novel approach based on acoustic trapping and an integrated selective enrichment target (ISET) microchi

Preventing creaming or sedimentation by the addition of thickeners is an important industrial challenge. We study the effect of the addition of a "free" nonadsorbing polymer (xanthan gum) on the stability against creaming of sterically stabilized O/W emulsions. Therefore, we analyze our samples using microscopy and rheological measurements. At low xanthan concentrations, the emulsions cream. Howev