Objectives To describe short-term (up to 12 months) and long-term (up to 7 years) damage in patients with newly diagnosed antineutrophil-cytoplasm antibody-associated vasculitis (AAV). Methods Data were combined from six European Vasculitis Study group trials (n=735). Long-term follow-up (LTFU) data available for patients from four trials (n=535). Damage accrued was quantified by the Vasculitis Da

Objectives: The first consensus report presented by the European Germ Cell Cancer Consensus Group (EGCCCG) in the year 2004 has found widespread approval by many colleagues throughout the world. In November 2006, the group met a second time under the auspices of the Department of Urology of the Amsterdam Medical Center, Amsterdam, The Netherlands. Methods: Medical oncologists, urological surgeons,

Photoinduced electron injection dynamics from CdSe quantum dots to ZnO nanowires is studied by transient absorption and time-resolved terahertz spectroscopy measurements. Ultrafast electron transfer from the CdSe quantum dots to ZnO is proven to be efficient already on a picoseconds time scale (tau = 3-12 ps). The measured kinetics was found to have a two-component character, whose origin is discu

Single-phase liquid-cooling microchannels have received great attention to remove the gradually increased heat loads of heat sinks. Proper changes of the flow path and/or heat transfer surface can result in much better thermal performance of microchannel heat sinks. In this study, a kind of rectangular straight microchannel heat sink with bifurcation flow arrangement has been designed, and the cor

BCL11A and BCL11B are transcriptional regulators important for lymphopoiesis and previously associated with hematopoietic malignancies. Ablation of the mouse Bcl11b locus results in failure to generate double-positive thymocytes, implicating a critical role of Bcl11b in T-cell development. However, BCL11B is also expressed in CD4+ T lymphocytes, both in resting and activated states. Here we show b

Major practical constraints on neural grafting in Parkinson's disease are the shortage of human donor tissue and the great loss of dopamine neurons during the grafting procedure. The vast majority of implanted embryonic dopamine neurons are believed to die within a few days of transplantation surgery, at least in part through apoptosis. We have previously found that survival of nigral grafts in ro

Objectives Cervical cancer is one of the most common forms of cancer among women. Cytological screening and follow-up are potentially effective procedures for preventing the development of – and mortality from – cervical cancer. The purpose of this study was to investigate the screening history of women diagnosed with cervical cancer with the aim of improving the screening programme. Study design

Purpose: To describe the phenotype of an autosomal-dominant corneal dystrophy with an early onset of recurrent corneal erosions and development of subepithelial fibrosis in the cornea, and also to exclude genetic linkage to known corneal dystrophies with autosomal-dominant inheritance and clinical resemblance. Methods: We describe the medical history and clinical findings in individuals from a sev

Varved lake sediments can be used to set multiple environmental proxies within a calendar year time scale. We undertook a systematic survey of lakes in the Province of Varmland, west central Sweden, with the aim of finding continuous varved lake sediment sequences covering the majority of the Holocene. In Fennoscandia, such sediments have previously only been recorded in northern Sweden and in sou

Motivation: In recent years, a range of techniques for analysis and segmentation of array comparative genomic hybridization (aCGH) data have been proposed. For array designs in which clones are of unequal lengths, are unevenly spaced or overlap, the discrete-index view typically adopted by such methods may be questionable or improved. Results: We describe a continuous-index hidden Markov model for

In the last two decades the introduction of mammographic screening in the Western world has increased the number of diagnosed ductal carcinomas in situ (DCIS) considerably. In situ carcinoma of the breast is considered a heterogeneous disease, the natural history of which is not well known. Thus, appropriate treatment needs to be established. For this reason, a randomised trial studying the effect

We present Ar-40/Ar-39 data acquired by infra-red (CO2) laser step-heating of alunite crystals from the large Miocene Colquijirca district in central Peru. Combined with previously published data, our results show that a long (at least 1.3 My) and complex period of magmatic-hydrothermal activity associated with epithermal Au-(Ag) mineralization and base metal, Cordilleran ores took place at Colqui

This article outlines a conceptual model that allows a discussion regarding tourist experiences. Through the notion and deconstruction of the concept experience design it is argued that in order to be able to analyze tourism and develop new innovative strategic approaches to tourism management, dynamic notions of space, time and performance have to be especially attended to. This is done through a

The Canons of Dalby. Three Studies I. When did the brothers in Dalby become Augustinians? There are different opinions among historians about what kind of community Egino founded in Dalby in the late 1060s. Some say it was Benedictine, others say it was a community of canons. Among the latter, some say they were regular canons, others that they were secular, and one distinguished historian has ev

Background: The kidneys are regarded as one of the main dose-limiting organs in the treatment of neuroendocrine tumours with Lu-177-[DOTA(0), Tyr(3)]-octreotate (Lu-177-octreotate), despite the successful use of kidney uptake blocking agents such as lysine and arginine. To avoid renal toxicity but still give each patient as high amount of Lu-177-octreotate as possible, there is a need for methods/

Introduction and purpose In recent years, there has been renewed interest in using unicompartmental knee arthroplasty (UKA). Several studies have reported increasing numbers of UKAs for osteoarthritis in patients who are less than 65 years of age, with low revision rates. To describe and compare the use and outcome of UKA in this age group, we have combined data from the Australian and Swedish kne

Type-2 diabetes (T2D) is a complex disease characterized by insulin resistance in target tissues and impaired insulin release from pancreatic beta cells. As central tissue of glucose homeostasis, the pancreatic islet continues to be an important focus of research to understand the pathophysiology of the disease. The increased access to human pancreatic islets has resulted in improved knowledge of