Background Peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) from persons with contact allergy to nickel react in vitro predominantly with nickel-induced CD4+ T cell-mediated production of both T-cell type 1 and 2 cytokines. Objectives The aim of the present study was to investigate if the contact allergen parthenolide, a sesquiterpene lactone of lipophilic character, elicits an immune response which diff

In two consecutive years, seedlings of Norway spruce (Picea abies) were planted in a 50-yr-old Norway spruce forest in limed (3.8 tons CaCO3 ha-1) and control plots. After 6 months they were harvested and the mycorrhizal status of the roots was analysed. Six types of mycorrhiza were distinguished. Three decreased after liming, two increased and one was not affected consistently by the liming. The

The major histocompatibility complex (Mhc) encodes for highly variable molecules, responsible for foreign antigen recognition and subsequent activation of immune responses in hosts. Mhc polymorphism should hence be related to pathogen resistance and immune activity, with individuals that carry either a higher diversity of Mhc alleles or one specific Mhc allele exhibiting a stronger immune response

Antiviral therapy in hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection is limited by haematological side-effects, especially thrombocytopenia and leucopenia. The pancytopenia associated with liver cirrhosis has multifactorial causes, but hypersplenism seems to be a major contributor, especially regarding thrombocytopenia. The use of PSE as a 'Pretreatment' in order to make more patients with HCV-induced cirrhosis

Until recently fish welfare attracted little attention, but international and national legislation and standards of fish welfare are now emerging and an overview of these developments is presented in this study. Whereas animal welfare legislation is based on public morality, animal ethics does not automatically accept public morality as normative and elaborates arguments regarding the way humans s

Parenthood is often considered a major factor behind gender differences in time allocation, especially between paid work and housework. This article investigates the impact of parenthood on men's and women's daily time use in Sweden and how it changed over the 1990s. The analysis is made using time diary data from the Multinational Time Use Survey (MTUS; N = 13,729) and multivariate Tobit regressi

Objective To evaluate the association between objectively measured daily Study design Cross-sectional, observational, study of 248 children aged 7.9 to 11.1 years. Abdominal fat mass and total body fat mass were measured by dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry. Daily physical activity was assessed by accelerometers for 4 days. Results Total body fat expressed as a percentage of body mass was inversely

Experimental results are presented concerning tension perpendicular to grain in glulam sections where internal stresses induced by climate changes are present. The results reveal that moisture induced internal stresses may affect the tension capacity both in a positive and a negative way compared to reference specimens, free from moisture gradients. The tension capacity is reduced during moistenin

The recent article by de Souza, Lorenzini and Rizzatti J. A. V. de Souza, F. Lorenzini, and M. R. Rizatti, J. Appl. Phys. 104, 034701 2008 in this journal needs corrections and clarifications on several points. The model used by them is not suitable for the study of erythema. © 2009 American Institute of Physics. DOI: 10.1063/1.3124649

The aim of this study was to investigate the involvement of calmodulin in phospholipase D activation in SH-SY5Y cells. Cells prelabelled with [3H]-palmitic acid were incubated with calmodulin antagonists and/or other compounds. Phosphatidylethanol, a specific marker for phospholipase D activity, and phosphatidic acid were analysed. The calmodulin antagonists, calmidazolium and trifluoperazine, ind

In order to produce CO2 for stable isotope analyses (delta(18)O and delta(13)C), carbonate samples are commonly digested in phosphoric acid. The acid recipe here presented is based on phase shifting crystalline orthophosphoric acid of pro-analysis quality to a liquid state through heating, followed by pre-vacuum treatment during a start-up procedure before mass analyses for common acid bath prepar

It is important to compare different contrast media used in bone cement according to their ability to attenuate X-rays and thereby produce image contrast between bone cement and its surroundings in clinical applications. The radiopacity of bone cement is often evaluated by making radiographs of cement in air at an X-ray tube voltage of 40 kV. We have developed a method for ranking contrast media i

This study investigated the feasibility and effects of organ bath to be used for detection of bronchial function of non-heart-beating donor (NHBD) lung after 1-h warm ischemia. Sixteen Swedish pigs were divided into two groups randomly: heart-beating donor (HBD) group and NHBD with 1-h warm ischemia (NHBD-1 h) group. The bronchial rings whose lengths and inner diameters were both 1.5 mm were obtai

Adult patients with acute lymphoblastic leukaemia ( ALL) have been treated according to national protocols in Sweden since 1986. Stem cell transplantation (SCT) has been recommended in first remission for patients with risk factors for relapse, and for standard risk patients only after relapse. In this retrospective study, the results of autologous and allogeneic SCT in these populations were eval

Human calbindin D-28k is a Ca2+ binding protein that has been implicated in the protection of cells against apoptosis. In this study, the structural and functional significance of the five cysteine residues present in this protein have been investigated through a series of cystein e-to-serine mutations. The mutants were studied under relevant physiological redox potentials in which conformational

A second species of the hitherto monotypic genus Microdonophagus Schauff is described as Microdonophagus levis sp. nov. The species is described from material collected at La Selva Biological Research Station in Costa Rica. Unlike the previously described species, Microdonophagus woodleyi Schauff, it is described from females only and the biology is not known. The addition of a second species of M