Introduction A recent genome-wide association study in European systemic sclerosis (SSc) patients identified three loci (PSORS1C1, TNIP1 and RHOB) as novel genetic risk factors for the disease. The aim of this study was to replicate the previously mentioned findings in a large multicentre independent SSc cohort of Caucasian ancestry. Methods 4389 SSc patients and 7611 healthy controls from differe

Studies on beta cell metabolism are often conducted in rodent beta cell lines due to the lack of stable human beta cell lines. Recently, a human cell line, EndoC-βH1, was generated. Here we investigate stimulus-secretion coupling in this cell line, and compare it with that in the rat beta cell line, INS-1 832/13, and human islets.

The learning parity with noise (LPN) problem has recently proved to be of great importance in cryptology. A special and very useful case is the Ring-LPN problem, which typically provides improved efficiency in the constructed cryptographic primitive. We present a new algorithm for solving the Ring-LPN problem in the case when the polynomial used is reducible. It greatly outperforms the previous al

BACKGROUND: Certain immune-mediated diseases (IMDs), such as rheumatoid arthritis and systemic lupus erythematosus, have been linked to cardiovascular disorders. We examined whether there is an association between 32 different IMDs and risk of subsequent hospitalization for coronary heart disease (CHD) related to coronary atherosclerosis in a nationwide follow up study in Sweden. METHODS AND FIND

Obese and/or diabetic patients have elevated levels of free fatty acids and increased susceptibility to gastrointestinal symptoms. Since the enteric nervous system is pivotal in regulating gastrointestinal functions alterations or neuropathy in the enteric neurons are suspected to occur in these conditions. Lipid induced intestinal changes, in particular on enteric neurons, were investigated in vi

ApolipoproteinA-I (ApoA-I) is the major protein component of high-density lipoprotein (HDL), and is critical for maintenance of cholesterol homeostasis. During reverse cholesterol transport, HDL transitions between an array of subclasses, differing in size and composition. This process requires ApoA-I to adapt to changes in the shape of the HDL particle, transiting from an apolipoprotein to a myri

A proactive strategy to respond effectively to health impacts related to climate variability, particularly within vulnerable populations, is of vital importance. Such a strategy can be attained if health officials have a deep understanding of how climate variability affects human health and if the resources available for the health care sector are sufficient. This study assessed the perceptions an

The cranking model is used to describe rotational bands. We investigate the approach of using diabatic configurations and minimizing the particle-number projected energy in a mesh of both lambda, Delta and deformation parameters. We use the method to interpret recent experimental data in Gd-142 and conclude that for the highest spin states observed (I approximate to 30), the nucleus is triaxial an

More than 100 loci have been identified for age at menarche by genome-wide association studies; however, collectively these explain only similar to 3% of the trait variance. Here we test two overlooked sources of variation in 192,974 European ancestry women: low-frequency proteincoding variants and X-chromosome variants. Five missense/nonsense variants (in ALMS1/LAMB2/TNRC6A/TACR3/PRKAG1) are asso

The fabrication of cost-effective, rapid and specific paper based point-of-care (POC) diagnostics based on the principles of bio-recognition is currently at the vanguard of biomedical research, as it is playing a key role in early diagnosis and treatment, resulting in the inhibition of infection and reducing the mortality rate. In the present report, we demonstrate that biomolecules can be directl

In economic geography, geographical proximity has been identified as a key driver of M&A activity. In this context, little attention has yet been drawn to the effect of industrial relatedness, which refers to the similarity and complementarity of business activities. We examine 1,855 domestic M&A deals announced between 2002 and 2008 in the Netherlands, and we assess the extent to which ge

This article describes the process of professionalisation in the field of social control in Sweden. The aim is to analyse how the state by legislation created the profession of social workers for local social services and thus for social control by public administration. We show how organisations for social work have developed and played an important role since the 19th century and that social inv

The main function of Erythropoietin (EPO) and its receptor (EPOR) is the stimulation of erythropoiesis. Therefore, recombinant human EPO (rhEPO) is used to treat anemia in cancer patients, but some studies have reported that rhEPO treatment might promote tumor progression. Additionally, EPOR expression has been detected in various cancer forms. Here, we confirm EPOR expression in several breast ca

Patients with diabetes mellitus (DM) have high platelet reactivity and are at increased risk of ischaemic events and bleeding post-acute coronary syndromes (ACS). In the PLATelet inhibition and patient Outcomes (PLATO) trial, ticagrelor reduced the primary composite endpoint of cardiovascular death, myocardial infarction, or stroke, but with similar rates of major bleeding compared with clopidogre

Starting in the story about Lot and the visiting angels in Genesis 19, I reflect in this article on the relation between guest and host. What are the demands and requirements from both sides? Perhaps one is more restricted than is often thought, restricted by expectations from the other and by expectations from people around. Also, perhaps the roles may change, the host being treated as guest for

Background Primary Sjogren's syndrome (pSS) is characterised by a chronic inflammation of exocrine glands. Salivary gland infiltrates, however, do not correlate well with disease symptoms, and a primary role for the salivary gland parenchyma in disease development has been suggested. Specifically, dysfunction of exocrine pathways involving the muscarinic receptor 3 (CHRM3) has been indicated. Obje

III-V semiconductor heterostructures are important components of many solid-state optoelectronic devices, but the ability to control and tune the electrical and optical properties of these structures in conventional device geometries is fundamentally limited by the bulk dimensionality and the inability to accommodate lattice-mismatched material combinations. Here we demonstrate how semiconductor n

A systematic study of the odd-intrinsic parity sector of QCD is presented. We briefly describe different applications including pi(0) -> gamma gamma decay, muonic g -2 factor and test of new holographic conjectures.