Regulating the choice between neural stem cell maintenance versus differentiation determines growth and size of the developing brain. Here we identify TGF-beta signaling as a crucial factor controlling these processes. At early developmental stages, TGF-beta signal activity is localized close to the ventricular surface of the neuroepithelium. In the midbrain, but not in the forebrain, Tgfbr2 ablat

Background: In recent years an increase of the incidence of nosocomial outbreaks caused by noroviruses has been observed throughout Sweden, with high peaks noted in the winter seasons 2002/2003 and 2004/2005, respectively. Objectives: To phylogenetically characterize norovirus strains causing nosocomial outbreaks from 1997 to 2005 and estimate the impact of norovirus-like disease on the Swedish he

Human dignity is grounded in basic human attributes such as life and self-respect. When people cannot stand up for themselves they may lose their dignity towards themselves and others. The aim of this study was to elucidate if dignity remains intact for family members during care procedures in a children's hospital. A qualitative approach was adopted, using open non-participation observation. The

BACKGROUND: In animals, we have previously done successful lung transplantations using organs from non-heart-beating donors. We have also developed an ex-vivo system of assessing the function of such organs before transplantation. The next stage was to try the technique in human beings. Bearing in mind the sensitive ethical issues involved, our first aim was to find out what procedures would be ac

The short-term (i.e., days) and long-term (i.e., months) effects of adaptation to posturography examinations were investigated in 12 normal subjects who were repeatedly examined for five consecutive days and again after 90 days. The examinations were conducted both with eyes open and closed, and the perturbations were evoked by a pseudorandomly applied vibration stimulation to the calf muscles. Th

The increased bronchial production of leukotriene C4 (LTC4) in asthma is assumed to derive from infiltrating eosinophils expressing LTC4-synthase (LTC4S). Multicolor immunohistofluorescence examination of bronchial cryosections from 30 treated, untreated, or bronchial antigen-provoked aspirin-tolerant individuals with asthma and nine control subjects revealed that the dominating LTC4S-expressing c

The recent decline in the Baltic cod Gadus morhua L. has been accompanied by an increase in population variability. Small population size, poor recruitment, and high population variability may be factors contributing to their imminent (commercial) extinction. Here we show that variable harvest rate, rather than variable recruitment, is the plausible cause of the increased variance in Baltic cod st

Purpose. The purpose was to evaluate the health-related quality of life (HRQL) of patients with pharyngeal carcinoma at diagnosis and after 1 and 5 years in relation to tumor location and treatment modality in a prospective multi-center study. Methods. Eighty-nine patients with pharyngeal carcinoma (mean age, 60.0 years; 76% men) were evaluated using the European Organization for Research and Trea

Leaf area index (LAI) of boreal ecosystems were estimated with optical instruments at the Laxemar and the Forsmark investigation areas in Sweden. The aim was to study the relationship between LAI and the normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) from Landsat-5 and SPOT and evaluate the applicability of the MODIS (Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer) LAI product for small boreal regio

At the University Hospital of Malmo, Sweden, standardized trauma charts were used for registration of all jaw fractures from 1972 to 1976. During the year 2005 the aim was to interview all patients treated non-surgically for unilateral mandibular condylar fractures during this period. In total, 49 patients with unilateral condylar fractures were treated non-surgically in 1972-1976. Of these, 23 pa

Bone disease is an important feature of multiple myeloma, and hypercalcaemia is a frequent complication of this disease. We examined the association between serum calcium and quality of life (QOL) scores of 686 multiple myeloma patients at the time of diagnosis. Data from two Nordic studies using the EORTC QLQ-C30 questionnaire were analysed by means of linear regression analysis and a curve fitti

Phobic postural vertigo patients might rely more on proprioceptive than visual cues to regulate stance. We tested 14 phobic postural vertigo patients and 24 healthy subjects with posturography during quiet stance and periods of vibratory proprioceptive calf muscle stimulation, both with eyes open and closed. During quiet stance phobic postural vertigo patients showed higher torque variance than he

This article presents data from an on-going project comparing L1 and L2 acquisition of Swedish syntax. Within the L1 group, normal as well as specifically language impaired (SLI) children are included; the L2 group consists of pre-school immigrant children. The analyses of the data are made within a second language acquisition perspective with a focus on word order. One basic issue within second l

[Context and motivation] In market-driven software development it is crucial, but challenging, to find the right balance among competing quality requirements (QR). [Problem] In order to identify the unique challenges associated with the selection, trade-off, and management of quality requirements an interview study is performed. [Results] This paper describes how QR are handled in practice. Data i

Time-resolved spectroscopy is a powerful technique permitting the separation of the scattering properties from the chemical absorption properties of a sample. The reduced scattering coefficient and the absorption coefficient are usually obtained by fitting diffusion or Monte Carlo models to the measured data using numerical optimization techniques. However, these methods do not take the spectral d

P>Studies have shown that familial risk contributes to aetiology of lymphomas. Using large population registries from Sweden, we evaluated risk of lymphoma subtypes among first-degree relatives of 2668 follicular lymphoma (FL) patients, 2517 diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL) patients, and 6963 Hodgkin lymphoma (HL) patients compared to first-degree relatives of controls. Relatives were at the

Background: The importance of early life conditions and current conditions for mortality in later life was assessed using historical data from four rural parishes in southern Sweden. Both demographic and economic data are valid. Methods: Longitudinal demographic and socioeconomic data for individuals and household socioeconomic data from parish registers were combined with local area data on food

If u is a sufficiently smooth maximal plurisubharmonic function such that the complex Hessian of u has constant rank, it is known that there exists a foliation by complex manifolds, such that u is harmonic along the leaves of the foliation. In this paper, we show a partial analogue of this result for maximal plurisubharmonic functions that are merely continuous, without the assumption on the compl