Urinary bladder disturbances are frequent in the elderly population but the responsible mechanisms are poorly understood. This study evaluates the effects of aging on detrusor myogenic contractile responses and the impact of melatonin treatment. The contractility of bladder strips from adult, aged and melatonin-treated guinea pigs was evaluated by isometric tension recordings. Cytoplasmatic calciu

Motivation: Genome-wide gene expression measurements, as currently determined by the microarray technology, can be represented mathematically as points in a high-dimensional gene expression space. Genes interact with each other in regulatory networks, restricting the cellular gene expression profiles to a certain manifold, or surface, in gene expression space. To obtain knowledge about this manifo

Animal models have been used extensively to understand the etiology and pathophysiology of human neurodegenerative diseases, and are an essential component in the development of therapeutic interventions for these disorders. In recent years, technical advances in imaging modalities such as positron emission tomography (PET) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) have allowed the use of these techniq

Purpose. The purpose of this study was to describe the development of the Motivation for Change Questionnaire (MCQ) and to test its intra-patient reliability on musculoskeletal pain patients in interdisciplinary rehabilitation as a basis for use in rehabilitation planning. Method. The MCQ questionnaire was developed from a literature search in the Medline, Cinahl and Psychlit databases concerning

Objective— Myocardial infarction (MI) is sometimes experienced by individuals without any traditional risk factor. This prospective study explored whether incidence of MI in nonsmoking, nondiabetic men with normal blood pressure and serum lipids is related to inflammation-sensitive plasma proteins (ISPs). Methods and Results— Five ISPs ({alpha}1-antitrypsin, haptoglobin, ceruloplasmin, fibrinogen

This paper proposes a Lagrange multiplier (LM) test for the null hypothesis of cointegration that allows for the possibility of multiple structural breaks in both the level and trend of a cointegrated panel regression. The test is general enough to allow for endogenous regressors, serial correlation and an unknown number of breaks that may be located at different dates for different individuals. W

Objectives: The study examined the relation between daily workhours and the occurrence of neck-shoulder or back pain in physically demanding care work. Methods: Unpublished data were obtained from three intervention projects in care institutions. The projects had been conducted independently in Oslo (46 participants, 175 referents before and 158 referents after the intervention), Helsingborg (60

This work describes a mediated amperometric method for simultaneous real-time probing of the NAD(P)H availability in two different phenotypes, fermentative and respiratory, of the phosphoglucose isomerase deletion mutant strain of S. cerevisiae, EBY44 [ENY.WA-1A pgi1-1D::URA3], and its parental strain, ENY.WA-1A. The developed method is based on multichannel detection using microelectrode arrays.

This paper describes and analyses a community of disabled people in Sweden that use an online forum to discuss personal assistance issues. The forum is a community of practice (CoP) that has its roots in everyday living with personal assistance. The contributions to the forum were studied over a 41/2 year period, including a total of 2755 postings from 146 persons. The levels of the CoP learning s

The cerebellar olivo-cortico-nuclear network influencing rubro- and corticospinal tracts via the nucleus interpositus anterior (NIA) is one of the most thoroughly characterized mammalian motor systems involved in limb movement control. Recent findings indicate that climbing fibres innervating the NIA system mediate highly integrated sensorimotor information derived from spinal withdrawal reflex mo

Major histocompatibility complex (MHC) class I chain related gene-A (MIC-A) is associated with type 1 diabetes mellitus (T1DM) in other populations. We tested the association of MIC-A gene polymorphism with T1DM in Swedish Caucasians; if it has an age-dependent association; and if the association has an effect on gender. We studied 635 T1DM patients and 503 matched controls in the age group of 0-3

During the latest several decades, there has been considerable interest in revealing the relationship between El Nino-southern oscillation (ENSO) and hydro-meteorological variables. The oscillation is characterized by a simple index, the southern oscillation index (SOI). However, thus far, there is little evidence for the influence of ENSO in Korea and Japan. The influence of ENSO has also been st

Chronic hypoxia is a clinically important condition known to cause vascular abnormalities. To investigate the cellular mechanisms involved, we kept rings of a rat tail artery for 4 days in hypoxic culture (HC) or normoxic culture (NC) (PO(2) = 14 vs. 110 mmHg) and then measured contractility, oxygen consumption (JO(2)), and lactate production (J(lac)) in oxygenated medium. Compared with fresh ring

Levels of plasma DNA concentrations in cancer patients have been shown to be higher than the plasma DNA concentrations found in healthy subjects. The value of plasma DNA levels for development of neoplastic or pulmonary disease was evaluated in a large prospective study. Plasma samples (n = 1, 184) were analyzed from 776 controls, 359 cases of cancer (lung, bladder, oral cavity, pharynx, larynx, l

Transduced deoxyribonucleoside kinases (dNK) can be used to kill recipient cells in combination with nucleoside prodrugs. The Drosophila melanogaster multisubstrate dNK (Dm-dNK) displays a superior turnover rate and has a great plasticity regarding its substrates. We used directed evolution to create Dm-dNK mutants with increased specificity for several nucleoside analogs (NAs) used as anticancer

Capsule endoscopy (CE) has greatly facilitated the diagnosis of small-bowel lesions in patients with obscure gastrointestinal bleeding [1]. It was recently reported by Hollerbach et al. [2] that endoscopically assisted video capsule endoscopy facilitates the investigation of the small bowel in patients with functional gastric outlet obstruction. Swallowing difficulties, which are not uncommon in e

Intracapsular hip pressure was measured before surgery in 17 patients (18 hips) with coxarthrosis. The results were correlated to pain as registered on a visual analog scale. With the hip in extension, the pressure was 49.5 mmHg (SD, 40.2); in 45 degrees of flexion, it was 21.3 mmHg (SD, 14.6); in extension and inward rotation, it was 105.7 mmHg (SD, 76.0); and in extension and outward rotation, i

The prognosis of HIV-1-infected patients has dramatically improved but progression to liver failure occurs now frequently in subjects coinfected with hepatitis C virus (HCV). This has raised the issue of organ transplantation, but the knowledge about the effect of concomitant antiretroviral and immunosuppressive therapy is limited. The objective of the study was to describe viral and immunological

Reverse micelle formation of the poly(ethylene oxide)/poly(propylene oxide) block-copolymer (EO)(13)(PO)(30)(EO)(13) (L64) in p-xylene was investigated as a function of water content and copolymer content, using small-angle neutron scattering (SANS). PEO/PPO block-copolymers are generally soluble in xylene but without forming aggregates. However, the effective block segregation increases dramatica