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RATIONALE AND OBJECTIVES: Thymic stromal lymphopoietin (TSLP), an epithelial upstream cytokine, initiates production of type-2 (T2) cytokines with eosinophilia and possibly airway hyperresponsiveness (AHR) in asthma.This study aimed to determine whether tezepelumab (a human monoclonal antibody targeting TSLP) decreases AHR and airway inflammation in patients with symptomatic asthma on maintenance
‘Modern astronomy’ was introduced to Siam (present-day Thailand) when the Belgian Jesuit missionary-astronomer Father Antoine Thomas carried out astronomical observations in 1681 and 1682 in order to determine the latitude and longitude of Ayutthaya. Three years later a contingent of French Jesuit missionary astronomers observed a total lunar eclipse from Lop Buri, which marked the start of an int
Background: Plasmodium falciparum parasites cause malaria and co-exist in humans together with B-cells for long periods of time. Immunity is only achieved after repeated exposure. There has been a lack of methods to mimic the in vivo co-occurrence, where cells and parasites can be grown together for many days, and it has been difficult with long time in vitro studies. Methods and results: A new me
Self-adaptive applications are capable of changing their behavior thousands of times per second to autonomically find a way to accomplish given goals despite working in an unpredictable environment whose conditions can vary continuously. In this work we propose an evolvable system that runs self-adaptive applications on top of a heterogeneous system consisting of a general purpose processor and a
Recent years’ publications have shown how valuable information can be in the integrity management of civil structures. Monitoring systems increase the knowledge about the structural state, improving the prioritization of the interventions, and the selection of optimal maintenance strategy and thereby allowing for budget optimization and risk minimization. This paper investigates the effect of mult
This paper addresses the attitude synchronization problem of multiple rigid body agents in SO(3) with directed and switching interconnection topologies. Using the axis-angle representation of the orientation, a distributed controller based on differences between the orientations of agents in a global frame is proposed. In the case of the balanced interconnection graph, the attitude synchronization
BACKGROUND: Little is known about risks of hypertensive disorders of pregnancy in both first-and second-generation immigrant women in Europe and other Western countries; such knowledge may help elucidate the influence of genetic versus social factors on such risks. We aimed to study both first-and second-generation immigrant women for the presence of all types of hypertension (preexisting hyperten
Thermostimulated and photostimulated luminescence of ZnWO4, ZnWO4:Fe and ZnWO4:MO Crystals irradiated at low temperatures by X-rays or UV photons was studied in the temperature range 4.2-300 K in order to clarify the creation and recombination processes of the elementary colour centres. The connection of the luminescence phenomena with the self-trapped holes has been revealed. (C) 2003 Published b
The majority of the spinal injuries (60 %) affect young healthy males between 15 and 35 years of age with cervical spine injuries to be most common. The main cause for spinal injuries is blunt trauma most commonly due to motor vehicle accidents (48 %), followed by falls (21 %), and sport injuries (14.6 %). Assault and penetrating trauma account for approximately 10-20 % of the cases. Injuries to t
The kidneys are the major organs affected in diarrhea-associated hemolytic uremic syndrome (D(+)HUS). The pathophysiology of renal disease in D(+)HUS is largely the result of the interaction between bacterial virulence factors such as Shiga toxin and lipopolysaccharide and host cells in the kidney and in the blood circulation. This chapter describes in detail the current knowledge of how these bac
The development of a plasmid-based genetic transformation protocol for Chlamydia trachomatis provides the basis for the detailed investigation of the function of the chlamydial plasmid and its individual genes or coding sequences (CDS). In this study we constructed a plasmid vector with CDS6 deleted (pCDS6KO) from the original Escherichia coli/C. trachomatis shuttle vector pGFP::SW2. pCDS6KO was t
Oestradiol and the selective oestrogen receptor modulator (SERM) raloxifene have been shown to ameliorate collagen-induced arthritis (CIA) in rats and in mice. One aim was to investigate if raloxifene exerts its anti-arthritic and anti-osteoporotic effects during the induction or effector phase of arthritis. A second aim was to analyse if raloxifene activates the oestrogen response element (ERE) t
Anti-neutrophil cytoplasmic antibody associated vasculitides (AAV) are conditions defined by an autoimmune small vessel inflammation. Dying neutrophils are found around the inflamed vessels and the balance between infiltrating neutrophils and macrophages is important to prevent autoimmunity. Here we investigate how sera from AAV patients may regulate macrophage polarization and function. Macrophag
Six vaccine formulations containing AS02(V) or alum (aluminum phosphate [AlPO4]) adjuvant with pneumococcal proteins, pneumococcal histidine triad D (PhtD), and/or detoxified pneumolysin (dPly), either as a polysaccharide carrier in an 8-valent pneumococcal conjugate vaccine (8PCV) or as free (unconjugated) proteins, were evaluated in adults -65 to 85 years of age. In this phase I observer-blind s
The current research considers the approximate string matching search for important subsequences from DNA sequences, which is essential for numerous bioinformatics computation tasks. We tested several approximate string matching algorithms and furthermore developed one for DNA data. Run times of the algorithms are important, since the amount of data is very large.
Deep brain stimulation is an accepted technique for the treatment of Parkinson's disease. Deep brain stimulation affects the electrical functions of neurons and several explanations are available to describe this treatment modality. Such as depolarization blockade, synaptic inhibition, synaptic depression and stimulation induced modulation of pathological network activity. An electrical impedance
Cell surface proteins of the human gastric pathogen Helicobacter pylori, reference strain CCUG 17874, were extracted with acid glycine and fractionated by heparin affinity chromatography. The extracts were subsequently analysed using high-resolution two-dimensional gel electrophoresis (2-DE) and immunoblotting. Four proteins of low molecular masses (25-30 kDa) stained by Coomassie R-350, were iden
Determining the electronic and geometric structures of photoexcited transient species with high accuracy is crucial for understanding their fundamental photochemistry and controlling their photoreactivity. We have applied X-ray transient absorption spectroscopy to measure the XANES and EXAFS spectra of a dilute (submillimolar) solution of the osmium(II) polypyridyl complex [Os(bpy)(2)dcbpy](PF6)(2
Our study had three objectives: to extend the plasmid-based transformation protocol to a clinical isolate of C. trachomatis belonging to the trachoma biovar, to provide "proof of principle'' that it is possible to "knock out'' selected plasmid genes (retaining a replication competent plasmid) and to investigate the plasticity of the plasmid. A recently developed, plasmid-based transformation proto
