Severe alpha1-antitrypsin (AAT) deficiency predisposes to emphysema development. Highly variable rates of decline in lung function are reported in PiZZ individuals. The annual decline in forced expiratory volume in one second (FEV1; delta FEV1) was analysed in relation to smoking status in a cohort of 608 adult PiZZ individuals included in the Swedish national AAT deficiency register. Delta FEV1 w

BACKGROUND: Extracorporeal immunoadsorption (ECAT) is a method of reducing activity in radiosensitive organs by removing excess monoclonal antibodies (MAbs) from the blood. Previously, the authors experimentally evaluated ECAT based on the avidin-biotin concept after intravenous administration of radioimmunoconjugates. The aim of the current study was to determine whether ECAT could be used to red

The increasing availability of human pluripotent stem cells provides new prospects for neural-replacement strategies and disease-related basic research. With almost unlimited potential for self-renewal, the use of human embryonic stem cells (ESCs) bypasses the restricted supply and expandability of primary cells that has been a major bottleneck in previous neural transplantation approaches. Transl

Mammals have four deoxyribonucleoside kinases, the cytoplasmic (TK1) and mitochondrial (TK2) thymidine kinases, and the deoxycytidine (dCK) and deoxyguanosine (dGK) kinases, which salvage the precursors for nucleic acids synthesis. In addition to the native deoxyribonucleoside substrates, the kinases can phosphorylate and thereby activate a variety of anti-cancer and antiviral prodrugs. Recently,

Protein S expresses cofactor activity for activated protein C (APC) by enhancing the APC-catalyzed proteolysis at R-306 in factor Va. It is generally accepted that only free protein S is active and that complex formation with C4b-binding protein (C4BP) inhibits the APC-cofactor activity of protein S. However, the present study shows that protein S-C4BP expresses APC-cofactor activity and stimulate

The influence of molecular characteristics on the mutual interaction between peptides and nonionic surfactants has been investigated by studying the effects of surfactants on amphiphilic, random copolymers of alpha-L-amino acids containing lysine residues as the hydrophilic parts. The hydrophobic residues were either phenylalanine or tyrosine. The peptide-surfactant interactions were studied by me

Study objective: This didactical essay is directed to readers disposed to approach multilevel regression analysis (MLRA) in a more conceptual than mathematical way. However, it specifically develops an epidemiological vision on multilevel analysis with particular emphasis on measures of health variation (for example, intraclass correlation). Such measures have been underused in the literature as c

Ultrasound examinations of 563 patients with right upper quadrant pain and a clinical suspicion of acute cholecystitis were reviewed. In 31 patients, a tender, dilated gall-bladder with a thick (more than 4 mm) partly hypoechoic wall without any detectable calculi was found on the emergency examination. This was interpreted as due to acute acalculous cholecystitis. None of the patients was critica

The effects of electrode thickness, electrolyte filling and current collector geometry on the performance of MCFC cathodes are investigated by using a steady state mathematical model. A two-dimensional pseudo-homogeneous model for the three-phase system in the cathode is used, which includes the polarisation curves from the heterogeneous agglomerate model[1] as local source functions. The model ta

Arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) fungi depend on a C supply from the plant host and simultaneously provide phosphorus to the colonized plant. We therefore evaluated the influence of external P on C allocation in monoxenic Daucus carota-Glomus intraradices cultures in an AM symbiosis. Fungal hyphae proliferated from a solid minimal medium containing colonized roots into a C-free liquid minimal medium wi

Relapsing fever is a rapidly progressive and severe septic disease caused by certain Borrelia spirochetes. The disease is divided into two forms, i.e., epidemic relapsing fever, caused by Borrelia recurrentis and transmitted by lice, and the endemic form, caused by several Borrelia species, such as B. duttonii, and transmitted by soft-bodied ticks. The spirochetes enter the bloodstream by the vect

This paper illustrates the potential for reducing future electricity demand for air distribution in commercial buildings in Sweden. We have developed a general, quantitative, scenario-based framework to describe electricity demand for air distribution and to analyze how governmental and utility-sponsored policy measures affect electricity demand. The results suggest that higher electricity prices

This paper presents a new simple distinguishing attack that can be applied on stream ciphers constructed from filter generators or similar structures. We demonstrate the effectiveness by describing key recovery attacks on the stream cipher LILI-128. One attack on LILI-128 requires 247 bits of keystream and a computational complexity of roughly 253. This is a significant improvement compared to oth

Most previous studies of leukotriene B-4 (LTB4) pharmacology using primary leukocyte cultures and myeloid cell lines do not differentiate between leukotriene BLT1 and BLT1 receptor activation because both receptors are often expressed by these cells. Here we show that in HeLa cells expressing BLT1 but not BLT2 receptors, BLT1 receptor activation resulted in IP3 mediated calcium release from intrac

Tumor hypoxia is associated with cancer invasiveness, metastasis and treatment failure. Recent data suggest that the major target for endocrine treatment in breast cancer, ER alpha, is downregulated during hypoxia, but the mechanism behind this remains unknown. MAPK signaling as well as ER alpha regulation has earlier been independently linked to hypoxia and we now demonstrate HIF-1 alpha and ERK1

We present palaeomagnetic inclinations from Late Cretaceous-Early Tertiary deep-water carbonates obtained during ODP Leg 192 drilling at the Ontong Java Plateau (OJP) for the following periods: magnetochrons C33n (73.6-79.1 Ma), C32 (71.1-73.6 Ma), C27r-C31n (61.3-68.7 Ma) and C25-C26 (55.9-60.9 Ma). Compaction-induced inclination shallowing is considered to be negligible for the OJP sediments exa

Men with prostate cancer (n=25) were interviewed, focusing on experiences of micturition problems, indwelling catheter treatment and sexual life consequences. Narrations were found to be practical and technical descriptions rather than emotional, and experiences were described with reduction and negligence regarding personal well-being and the impact of problems. Phenomenological-hermeneutic analy

The prevalence of dementia disorders, cobalamin and/or folate deficiency as well as gastritis increases with age. To investigate whether there is an association between these conditions, plasma homocysteine (Hcy), serum methylmalonic acid, serum cobalamin and blood folate concentrations were measured. Gastritis was indirectly diagnosed by measuring serum antibodies against H,K-ATPase, HELICOBACTER