Male sex development and reproductive function is regulated by androgens acting via the androgen receptor (AR). The AR harbours two polymorphic repeats of CAG and GGN triplets, encoding glutamines and glycines, respectively. Both polymorphisms affect the AR transactivation ability, although the function of the GGN repeat was virtually unknown at the start of this project. Thus, the main purpose wi

The chemical composition of plena, sphalerite and pyrite surfaces has been analysed after dry and wet grinding, and after treatment with water and aqueous solutions of potassium alkylxanthate by means of Diffuse Reflectance Infrared Fourier Transform (DRIFT) spectroscopy. The total metal concentration in the aqueous phase has been determined by means of atomic absorption spectrophotometry. The rea

Versican is a proteoglycan that has many different roles in tissue homeostasis and inflammation. The biochemical structure is comprised of four different types of the core protein with attached glycosaminoglycans that can be sulphated to various extents and has the capacity to regulate differentiation of different cell types, migration, cell adhesion, proliferation, tissue stabilization and inflam

Chronic pain remains a significant challenge for modern health care as its pathologic mechanisms are largely unknown and preclinical animal models suffer from limitations in assessing this complex subjective experience. However, human brain neuroimaging techniques enable the assessment of functional and neurochemical alterations in patients experiencing chronic pain and how these factors may dynam

We discuss meson-meson scattering at next-to-next-to-leading order in the chiral expansion for QCD-like theories with general n degenerate flavours for the cases with a complex, real and pseudo-real representation. i.e. with global symmetry and breaking pattern SU(n)(L) x SU(n)(R) -> SU(n)(V), SU(2n) -> SO(2n) and SU(2n) -> Sp(2n). We obtain fully analytical expressions for all these cases. We dis

Studies have shown a decreasing ventilator-associated pneumonia (VAP) incidence after prophylactic interventions bundles. The use of closed suction systems (CSS) has been suggested beneficial as a prophylactic measure.

Here we evaluated the performance of a large set of serum biomarkers for the prediction of rapid progression of chronic kidney disease (CKD) in patients with type 2 diabetes. We used a case-control design nested within a prospective cohort of patients with baseline eGFR 30-60 ml/min per 1.73 m(2). Within a 3.5-year period of Go-DARTS study patients, 154 had over a 40% eGFR decline and 153 controls

The cross-country correlation between social trust and income equality is well documented, but few studies examine the direction of causality. We show theoretically that by facilitating cooperation, trust may lead to more equal outcomes, while the feedback from inequality to trust is ambiguous. Using a structural equation model estimated on a large country sample, we find that trust has a positive

Contagious yawning is a well-documented phenomenon in humans and has recently attracted much attention from developmental and comparative sciences. The function, development and underlying mechanisms of the phenomenon, however, remain largely unclear. Contagious yawning has been demonstrated in dogs and several non-human primate species, and theoretically and empirically associated with empathy in

Several constitutive models for magnetic shape memory alloys (MSMAs) have been proposed in the literature. The implementation of numerical integration schemes, which allow the prediction of constitutive response for general loading cases and ultimately the incorporation of MSMA response into numerical solution algorithms for fully coupled magneto-mechanical boundary value problems, however, has re

The electric quadrupole (E2) and magnetic octupole (M3) ground-state transitions in Ni-like W46+ have been measured using high-resolution crystal spectroscopy at the LLNL electron-beam ion trap facility. The lines fall in the soft x-ray region near 7.93 angstrom and were originally observed as an unresolved feature in tokamak plasmas. Using flat ammonium dihydrogen phosphate and quartz crystals, t

Objective: The authors sought to clarify the sources of parent-offspring resemblance for drug abuse, alcohol use disorders, and criminal behavior, using a novel genetic-epidemiological design. Method: Using national registries, the authors identified rates of drug abuse, alcohol use disorders, and criminal behavior in 41,360 Swedish individuals born between 1960 and 1990 and raised in triparental

To investigate whether threat to fixation (TTF) at diagnosis increases the risk of central vision loss and glaucoma blindness.

BACKGROUND: The current model of care for individuals with breast cancer focuses on treatment of the disease, followed by ongoing surveillance to detect recurrence. This approach lacks attention to patients' physical and functional well-being. Breast cancer treatment sequelae can lead to physical impairments and functional limitations. Common impairments include pain, fatigue, upper-extremity dy

Neurodegenerative diseases can cause dysfunction of neural structures involved in judgment, executive function, emotional processing, sexual behavior, violence, and self-awareness. Such dysfunctions can lead to antisocial and criminal behavior that appears for the first time in the adult or middle-aged individual or even later in life.