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Introduction. Anti-neutrophil cytoplasmic antibodies specific for bactericidal/permeability-increasing protein (BPI-ANCA) are frequent in CF patients and mainly develop in response to infection with Pseudomonas aeruginosa. It is not known to what extent BPI-ANCA correlates to prognosis. Objectives. To evaluate the prognostic value of IgA-BPI-ANCA, measured at the beginning of the study, for transp

In the framework of the multiconfiguration Dirac-Hartree-Fock method, we investigate the transition properties of four excited states in the 2p(5)3s configuration of neutral neon. The electron correlation effects are taken into account systematically by using the active space approach. The effect of higher-order correlation on fine structures is shown. We also study the influence of the Breit inte

pH, salinity and nutrient conditions are major determinants of microbial biomass, activity and community composition; all being hypothesized to favour bacterial over fungal activity. Soils from Pravaranagar (India), having high nutrient content and high pH (pH(w) 7.4-8.8), with sometimes increased salinity, were thus expected to have high bacterial/fungal ratios. Twelve soils were characterized fo

Frequent use of pornography has not been sufficiently studied before. In a Swedish survey 2015 male students aged 18 years participated. A group of frequent users of pornography (N = 200, 10.5%) were studied with respect to background and psychosocial correlates. The frequent users had a more positive attitude to pornography, were more often “turned on” viewing pornography and viewed more often ad

Creatinine-based equations to estimate glomerular filtration rate (GFR) are increasingly used in radiological practice and in studies on contrast medium-induced acute kidney injury (CIAKI). Their use is recommended in guidelines and contrast medium textbooks to identify patients at risk of CIAKI or nephrogenic systemic fibrosis. There is also an increased interest in cystatin C-based equations. Ad

In this paper we consider a one-warehouse N-retailer inventory system characterized by access to real-time point-of-sale data, and a time based dispatching and shipment consolidation policy at the warehouse. More precisely, inventory is reviewed continuously, while a consolidated shipment (for example, a truck) to all retailers is dispatched from the warehouse at regular time intervals. The focus

BACKGROUND: -Ethnic differences in cardiac arrhythmia incidence have been reported, with a particularly high incidence of sudden cardiac death (SCD) and low incidence of atrial fibrillation in individuals of African ancestry. We tested the hypotheses that African ancestry and common genetic variants are associated with prolonged duration of cardiac repolarization, a central pathophysiological dete

Since the end of the Cold War, Western powers have frequently used sanctions to fight declining levels of democracy and human rights violations abroad. However, some of the world’s most repressive autocracies have never been subjected to sanctions, while other more competitive authoritarian regimes have been exposed to repeated sanction episodes. In this article, we concentrate on the cost–benefit

This work presents an event-based control structure using the generalized predictive control (GPC) algorithm with actuator deadband. The main objective of this work is to limit the number of controlled system updates. In this approach, the controlled process is sampled with a constant sampling time and is updated in an asynchronous way that depends on the obtained control signal value. To achieve

This work presents an x-ray absorption measurement by use of ionizing radiation generated by a femtosecond pulsed laser source. The spectrometer was a microcalorimetric array whose pixels are capable of accurately measuring energies of individual radiation quanta. An isotropic continuum x-ray spectrum in the few-keV range was generated from a laser plasma source with a water-jet target. X rays wer

The causative microorganisms dictate the type of MDSC generated in sepsis patients, and a large proportion of PMN-MDSCs in gram-positive sepsis includes immunosuppressive myeloid blasts. MDSCs constitute a heterogeneous population of immature myeloid cells that potently suppress immune responses. They were identified originally in cancer patients and have since been reported to occur also in chron

This paper is a methodological ethnography aiming to highlight the difficulties in using conventional methods in connection with an explorative philosophy; Deleuze and Guattari’s. Taking an empirical point of departure in conversations about the future with students in upper secondary school, the struggle to find a scientifically valid label through the focus group interview is outlined. However,

The aim was to study possible associations between smoking habits and self-reported clinical features in a large population-based cohort of patients with psoriatic arthritis (PsA). All subjects with PsA who had sought health care in the period 2003-2007 were identified using a regional health-care register. In 2009, all those identified who were 18 years of age or more (n = 2,003) were sent a ques

In order to understand the initial partonic state in proton-nucleus and electron-nucleus collisions, we investigate the total, inelastic, and (quasi-)elastic cross sections in pA and gamma-A collisions, as these observables are insensitive to possible collective effects in the final state interactions. We used as a tool the DIPSY dipole model, which is based on BFKL dynamics including non-leading

Quinones are essential components in most cell and organelle bioenergetic processes both for direct electron and/or proton transfer reactions but also as means to regulate various bioenergetic processes by sensing cell redox states. To understand how quinones interact with proteins, it is important to have tools for identifying and characterizing quinone binding sites. In this work three different

Parkinson disease (PD) is associated with a clinical course of variable duration, severity, and a combination of motor and non-motor features. Recent PD research has focused primarily on etiology rather than clinical progression and long-term outcomes. For the PD patient, caregivers, and clinicians, information on expected clinical progression and long-term outcomes is of great importance. Today,

This study was undertaken to determine whether the production of melatonin, a hormone regulating sleep in relation to the light/dark cycle, is altered in Huntington's disease. We analyzed the circadian rhythm of melatonin in a 24-hour study of cohorts of control, premanifest, and stage II/III Huntington's disease subjects. The mean and acrophase melatonin concentrations were significantly reduced

At present, it is difficult to determine whether glycemic index (GI) is an important tool in the prevention of lifestyle diseases, and long-term studies investigating GI with diets matched in macronutrient composition, fiber content, energy content, and energy density are still scarce. We investigated the effects of 2 high-carbohydrate (55%) diets with low GI (LGI; 79) or high GI (HGI; 103) on pos

We explored the management of Dupuytren's disease (DD) using a surgeon survey and patient chart review.