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Blood group antigens may be used as receptors by pathogens when infecting their hosts. Different blood groups therefore can be disease susceptibility factors. Thus, pathogens may have exerted a selection pressure on the evolution of blood group diversity. One aim of our study was to identify red blood cell (RBC) membrane structures that are bound by the common human pathogen. Streptococcus pyogene
Background: Stress myocardial perfusion scintigraphy (MPS) is widely regarded as a useful imaging modality for diagnosing patients with suspected ischemic heart disease. Current European guidelines recommend stress study to be performed first since rest study can be omitted if stress study is interpreted as normal. Thus, a rest study should only be performed in patients with equivocal or abnormal
Background: The objective of this study was to explore the prognostic value of the Bone Scan Index (BSI) obtained at the time of diagnosis in a group of high-risk prostate cancer patients receiving primary hormonal therapy. Methods: This was a retrospective study based on 130 consecutive prostate cancer patients at high risk, based on clinical stage (T2c/T3/T4), Gleason score (8 to 10) and prostat
Effective material parameters for diffusion and elastic deformation are calculatedfor porous materials using a continuum theory-based superposition procedure. The theory that is limited to two-dimensional cases, requires that the pores are sufficiently sparse. The methodleads to simple manual calculations that can be performed by, e.g. hospital staff at clinicaldiagnoses of bone deceases that invo
Resource management is an essential building block of any modern computer and communication network. In this thesis, the results of our research in the following two tracks are summarized in four papers. The first track includes three papers and covers modeling, prediction and control for multi-tier computing systems. In the first paper, a NARX-based multi-step-ahead response time predictor for si
Background It is important that referring physicians and other treating clinicians properly understand the final reports from diagnostic tests. The aim of the study was to investigate whether referring physicians interpret a final report for a myocardial perfusion scintigraphy (MPS) test in the same way that the reading nuclear medicine physician intended. Methods After viewing final reports conta
Purpose: The aim of this study was to compare the diagnostic performance of the three software packages 4DMSPECT (4DM), Emory Cardiac Toolbox (ECTb), and Cedars Quantitative Perfusion SPECT (QPS) for quantification of myocardial perfusion scintigram (MPS) using a large group of consecutive patients. Methods: We studied 1,052 consecutive patients who underwent 2-day stress/rest 99mTc-sestamibi MPS
Hypertension is a dominating risk factor for cardiovascular disease. To characterize the genomic response to hypertension, we administered vehicle or angiotensin II to mice and performed gene expression analyses. AngII treatment resulted in a robust increase in blood pressure and altered expression of 235 genes in the aorta, including Gucy1a3 and Gucy1b3 which encode subunits of soluble guanylyl c
Studies of predator-mediated selection on behaviour are critical for our understanding of the evolution and maintenance of behavioural diversity in natural populations. Consistent individual differences in prey behaviour, especially in the propensity to take risks ("boldness"), are widespread in the animal kingdom. Theory predicts that individual behavioural types differ in a cost-benefit trade-of
Mitochondrial disorders are among the most prevalent inborn errors of metabolism but largely lack treatments and have poor outcomes. High-fat, low-carbohydrate ketogenic diets (KDs) have shown beneficial effects in mouse models of mitochondrial myopathies, with induction of mitochondrial biogenesis as the suggested main mechanism. We fed KD to mice with respiratory chain complex III (CIII) deficie
Several known breast cancer susceptibility genes encode proteins involved in DNA damage response (DDR) and are characterized by rare loss-of-function mutations. However, these explain less than half of the familial cases. To identify novel susceptibility factors, 39 rare truncating mutations, identified in 189 Northern Finnish hereditary breast cancer patients in parallel sequencing of 796 DDR gen
Previous studies about the trends and sources of PV soft cost reduction have only offered a limited understanding of systemic aspects that drive this development. Drawing on concepts of sectoral innovation system theory, this study analyzes the evolution of the German PV sectoral system since the early 1990s, focusing specifically on key processes associated with the deployment of building-sited P
Metabolic syndrome is associated with cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) and prediabetes. Metabolic syndrome is a cluster of interrelated clinical disorders. Difficulties in regulating glucose levels in blood are implicated in many of these disorders. Lactate, another energy metabolite, is produced under anaerobic conditions and can be used to monitor the balance between aerob
The uncoupling proteins (UCPs) leak protons across the inner mitochondrial membrane, thus uncoupling the proton gradient from ATP synthesis. The main known physiological role for this is heat generation by UCP1 in brown adipose tissue. However, UCPs are also believed to be important for protection against reactive oxygen species, fine-tuning of metabolism and have been suggested to be involved in
The atmospheric organic aerosol is a tremendously complex system in terms of chemical content. Models generally treat the mixtures as ideal, something which has been questioned owing to model-measurement discrepancies. We used an oxidation flow reactor to produce secondary organic aerosol (SOA) mixtures containing oxidation products of biogenic (α-pinene, myrcene and isoprene) and anthropogenic (m
We study parametrised families of piecewise expanding interval mappings Ta : [0,1] → [0,1] with absolutely continuous invariant measures μa and give sufficient conditions for a point X(a) to be typical with respect to (Ta; μa) for almost all parameters a. This is similar to a result by D. Schnellmann, but with different assumptions.
Low-frequency noise measurements were performed on high-performance InGaAs nanowire MOSFETs. 1/f noise measurements show number fluctuations, rather than mobility fluctuations, as the dominant noise source. The minimum equivalent input gate voltage noise reported here is 80 μm2μV2/Hz, among the lowest values for III-V FETs, and showing the feasibility of a high-quality, low trap density, high-k ga
Design and properties are reported for a novel type of multi-channel isothermal microcalorimeter. It is equipped with 48 calorimetric units (channels) and is primarily intended for use as a monitor of the activity of living cells, tissues and small animals. Calorimetric vessels are positioned in a holder with the format of a 48-well microtiter plate. At most, 47 samples can be measured simultaneou
