Mucosal pathogens trigger a local innate host response by activating epithelial cells. Bacterial adherence and Toll-like receptor 4 (TLR4) signaling have been implicated as key events in this process. This study addressed the molecular basis of the epithelial response to gram-negative infection in the human urinary tract. Mucosal biopsies were obtained from kidneys, ureters, and bladders of patien

Albatrosses and sea turtles are known to perform extremely long-distance journeys between disparate feeding areas and breeding sites located on small, isolated, oceanic islands or at specific coastal sites. These oceanic journeys, performed mainly over or through apparently featureless mediums, indicate impressive navigational abilities, and the sensory mechanisms used are still largely unknown. T

Films of a commercial poly (ether urethane), Pellethane 2363-80AE, were prepared through solvent casting from dimethyl formamide. The films were grafted with poly (ethylene glycol) (PEG) by a two-step procedure. In the first step, the film surfaces were treated with hexamethylene diisocyanate in toluene in the presence of triethylamine as a catalyst. In the second step, PEG 1500 was allowed to rea

Fragmentation of the SF6 molecule upon F 1s excitation has been studied by resonant photoemission. The F atomiclike Auger line exhibits the characteristic Doppler profile that depends on the direction of the photoelectron momentum relative to the polarization vector of the radiation as well as on the photon energy. The measured Doppler profiles are analyzed by the model simulation that takes accou

Study Design. A randomized controlled comparative trial with an 8-month follow-up period was conducted. Objective. To compare the effect of the McKenzie treatment method with that of intensive dynamic strengthening training in patients with subacute of chronic low back pain. Summary of Backround Data. Randomized studies indicate that the efficacy of the McKenzie method in the treatment of patients

We studied prospectively the change over ten years in mortality, walking ability and place of residence after a hip fracture in 753 patients in Japan. We compared the deaths observed in these patients with those expected in the general population, matched for age, gender and calender year at the time of fracture. The survival rate decreased dramatically for two years after the event and the mortal

We investigated the species richness of vascular plants at the scale of 5 3 5 km in the Swedish province of Harjedalen, and the relationship between richness and environment. Environmental variables included geographical, altitudinal, topographical, bedrock, soil type, and land-cover descriptors. The species richness was subdivided into groups of species with similar life-form, i.e. trees, dwarf s

The basic precondition for color vision is the presence of at least two receptor types with different spectral sensitivities. The sensitivity of a receptor is mostly defined by the opsin-based visual pigment expressed in it. We show here, through behavioral experiments, that the nymphalid butterfly Heliconius erato, although it expresses short and medium wavelength opsins and only one long wavelen

The strategies of development in rural territories in the provinces of Jujuy, Misiones and Salta in Argentina provide the objects of study in this analysis. These three cases reveal that there has been a process of consolidation of grass-roots organization since 1990, which seems to have strengthened the historically marginalized sectors of the population. New kinds of relationships between the st

Eight patients with colloid cysts of the third ventricle were examined with CT and MR. In six, surgical resection was performed and the material was subjected to histologic evaluation; the concentrations of trace elements were determined by particle-induced X-ray emission. Stereotaxic aspiration was performed in two. The investigation showed that colloid cysts are often iso- or hypodense relative

The Pegomya terminalis species group is redefined on the basis of the characteristic, exceptionally long and apically strongly depressed female oviscapt. A North American species has once been reared from horsetail (Equisetum sp.), and it is believed that all the species in this group as larvae feed on this unusual diet. The present paper reviews the known Palaearctic species with an identificatio

We consider the following problem from swarm robotics: given one or more "awake" robots in some metric space M, wake up a set of "asleep" robots. A robot awakens a sleeping robot by moving to the sleeping robot's position. When a robot awakens, it is available to assist in awakening other slumbering robots. We investigate offline and online versions of this problem and give a 2-competitive strateg

BB rats develop various organ-specific autoimmune diseases, e.g. autoimmune diabetes and thyroiditis and have proven important to dissect genetic factors that govern autoimmune disease development. The lymphopenia (lyp) gene (iddm2) is linked to autoimmune disease development and is a major genetic difference between diabetes-resistant (DR) and diabetes-prone (DP) BB rats. To study the effects of

Aims/hypothesis Genetic and epidemiological studies suggest an association between gestational diabetes mellitus and type 2 diabetes. Both are polygenic multifactorial disorders characterised by beta cell dysfunction and insulin resistance. Our aim was to investigate whether common genetic variants that have previously been associated with type 2 diabetes or related phenotypes would also confer ri

Key design features of high performance houses are investigated for improving energy efficiency in cold climates. Reference dwellings with typical constructions and system designs are compared with high performance houses using the best technology available. The dwellings used for reference are a multi-family apartment building and a single-family detached house, designed according to a mix of Nor

The Jonkoping Anorthositic Suite (JAS) in S. Sweden has characteristics typical for (Proterozoic) massif-type anorthosites. The interstitial liquid of these plagioclase-porphyritic rocks solidified at 1,455 +/- A 6 Ma, as determined by U-Pb isotope analysis of baddeleyite. The JAS developed during a regional 1.47-1.44 event in Fennoscandia that generated widespread mafic magmatism (basalts, and di

The purpose of this study is to investigate propagation patterns in intracardiac signals recorded during atrial fibrillation (AF) using an approach based on partial directed coherence (PDC), which evaluates directional coupling between multiple signals in the frequency domain. The PDC is evaluated at the dominant frequency of AF signals and tested for significance using a surrogate data procedure

This paper provides an analysis of the EU ETS harmonised benchmark-based allocation procedures by comparing two energy-intensive sectors with activities in three Member States (MS); the cement industry (CEI) and the pulp and paper industry (PPI) in UK, Sweden and France. Results show that the new procedures are better suited for the homogenous CEI, for which allocation is to decrease in a consiste

Autoantibodies are highly characteristic of primary Sjögren's syndrome (pSS) and represent important tools to study its pathogenesis. Nonetheless, thus far no systematic investigations have assessed the presence of autoantibodies before diagnosis. We analysed how early and in which order these appear, how predictive they are for pSS and if they identify disease subsets.

A generic search for anomalous production of events with at least three charged leptons is presented. The data sample consists of pp collisions at TeV collected in 2012 by the ATLAS experiment at the CERN Large Hadron Collider, and corresponds to an integrated luminosity of 20.3 fb(-1). Events are required to have at least three selected lepton candidates, at least two of which must be electrons o