The European Mediterranean region is governed by a characteristic climate of summer drought that is likely to increase in duration and intensity under predicted climate change. However, large-scale network analyses investigating spatial aspects of pre-instrumental drought variability for this biogeographic zone are still scarce. In this study we introduce 54 mid- to high-elevation tree-ring width

Abstract Objectives. To analyse costs and consequences of changing physical activity behaviour due to the "Physical Activity on Prescription" (PAP) programme. Design. A randomized controlled trial with a four-month intervention, with comparison between intervention and control group. Intervention. The PAP programme, with exercise twice a week, education, and motivational counselling. Subjects. 525

Aim: With fast track surgery and shorter hospital stay, discharge from hospital after cancer surgery is becoming more challenging for the individual patient. The aim of this study was to explore how patients perceive information after surgery for colorectal cancer, what their information needs are and to determine factors affecting received information. Method: One hundred patients filled in the q

The extracellular matrix provides a solid scaffold and signals to cells through extracellular matrix receptors. The cell-matrix interactions are crucial for normal biological processes and when disrupted they may lead to pathological processes. In particular, the biological importance of extracellular matrix-cell membrane-cytoskeleton interactions in skeletal muscle is accentuated by the number of

The interaction between UV-B irradiation and cutaneous human papillomaviruses (HPV) has been suggested to be of relevance for the development of non-melanoma skin cancers. We investigated the activity within the upstream regulatory region (URR) of the HPV types 8, 38, 92, 93 and 96, as well as their responsiveness to UV-B irradiation and cellular differentiation. Promoter activities were higher in

Knowledge concerning professionals involved in dementia care throughout its trajectory is sparse; the focus has mainly been on nursing-home care and less on home care, diagnosis and treatment of the disease and its complications despite the fact that home care is the most prominent type of care. The aim of this study was to explore and describe professional care providers involved in dementia care

Cardio-cerebrovascular diseases are key factors causing recipient the death after kidney transplantation (KT). Hypertriglyceridemia (HTG), a complication commonly occurring among KT patients, is a major risk factor for cardio-cerebrovascular diseases. The objective of this study was to examine the correlation between peripheral CD14+CD16++ monocytes in KT patients and blood lipids as well as facto

Endometrial cancer generally has a good prognosis because most cases are diagnosed in stage I. It is possible to identify subgroups of patients with early stage endometrial cancer with a poor prognosis. Despite a traditional generous use of adjuvant radiotherapy those patients have less than an 80% 5-year overall survival. In this group there is a need for an effective systemic adjuvant therapy. T

Dyskinesia seen in the off-state, referred as graft-induced dyskinesia (GID), has emerged as a serious complication induced by dopamine (DA) cell transplantation in parkinsonian patients. Although the mechanism underlying the appearance of GID is unknown, in a recent clinical study the partial 5-HT(1A) agonist buspirone was found to markedly reduce GID in three grafted patients, who showed signifi

Patient safety is an important global issue. While it is well known that patients can suffer from adverse events in nursing care, there is a lack of knowledge as to how they experience them.

BACKGROUND:: Microvascular injury and epithelial barrier dysfunction are rate-limiting aspects in radiation enteropathy. This study examined the role of p38 mitogen-activated protein kinase (p38 MAPK) signalling in radiation-induced colitis in an experimental model. METHODS:: The p38 MAPK inhibitor SB239063 was administered to mice immediately before exposure to 20 Gy radiation. Leucocyte- and pla

The objective of this study was to investigate the possible association between mitochondrial DNA polymorphisms and systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE). A cohort from the Department of Rheumatology, Lund University Hospital, Sweden, consisting of 166 unrelated SLE patients was investigated as well as 190 unrelated healthy blood donors. Mean age at SLE diagnosis was 39 years (range 10-83) and mean f

Systematic multiconfiguration Hartree-Fock results are presented for the transition probabilities and excited-state lifetimes in the term system of the boron atom. Particularly, the interaction between the 1s(2)2s2p2 configuration and the 1s(2)2s2ns2S and 1s(2)2s2nd2D Rydberg series is considered. Term energies and transition-matrix elements are calculated to convergence using increasing active se

Objective:To investigate the prevalence and the secular trends of obesity in a rural Swedish community with emphasis on the association with socioeconomic status and lifestyle.Design:The Skaraborg Project cross-sectional population surveys were conducted in Vara, a rural community in the southwest of Sweden, every fifth year between 1977 and 2002.Subjects:A total of 3365 residents (1634 men and 17

We present a compact, fast, and versatile fiber-optic probe system for real-time determination of tissue optical properties from spatially resolved continuous-wave diffuse reflectance measurements. The system collects one set of reflectance data from six source-detector distances at four arbitrary wavelengths with a maximum overall sampling rate of 100 Hz. Multivariate calibration techniques based

Purpose: We aimed to compare the retinal nerve fibre layer (RNFL) in different Stratus optical coherence tomography (OCT) images in glaucoma eyes with RNFL thickness values within normal limits. Methods: We studied the Stratus OCT high-resolution standard protocol for assessment of peripapillary RNFL thickness. The four glaucoma eyes presented (with reproducible visual field defects, mean deviatio