Background: Diagnosis of Mycoplasma pneumoniae (MP) infection is traditionally based on serology, which may require more than two weeks for diagnostic antibodies to develop. PCR-based methods offer earlier diagnosis. During a community outbreak of MP infection, we compared seminested and real-time PCR of oropharyngeal swabs with serology for diagnosis of MP infection at different time points after

Abstract Serum amyloid P component (SAP) belongs to the pentraxin family of proteins. SAP is evolutionary conserved, and involved in amyloidosis, innate immunity, inflammation, and apoptosis. We have previously described SAP in the male reproductive tract, where it occurs in seminal fluid, on spermatozoa, and in epididymal, seminal vesicle, and prostate tissue. In the present investigation, our ai

Aim Understanding what constituted species ranges prior to large-scale human influence, and how past climate and land use change have affected range dynamics, provides conservation planners with important insights into how species may respond to future environmental change. Our aim here was to reconstruct the Holocene range of European bison (Bison bonasus) by combining a time-calibrated species d

Budget studies in boreal podzols indicate a considerable upward transport of aluminium (Al) from the mineral soil into the organic horizon. In this paper we studied if ectomycorthizal (EcM) fungi can be involved in this upward transport via their extramatrical hyphae. We tested the use of gallium (Ga) as proxy for Al. Transport of Al through EcM hyphae was studied in vitro in a two-compartment Pet

One of the big obstacles for understanding the nervous system is its inherent complexity. It poses problems when interpreting both experimental and theoretical studies since we are currently forced to consider only reduced variants of the actual circuitry of the brain. Since there exist problems that do not appear until a system is sufficiently complex, there are no guarantees that the results ste

Drawing on Freire, this article elaborates on how pictures and artefacts benefit processes of 'prise de conscience' and 'conscientization' among those with powerful voices. Wor(l)d-making was unfolded in the Swedish think-and-do tank, 'the Smithy', emphasizing the intrinsically political nature of promoting 'societal entrepreneurship' (SE). New words for SE were formulated and a more inclusive wor

Globally, malignant melanoma shows a steady increase in the incidence among cancer diseases. Malignant melanoma represents a cancer type where currently no biomarker or diagnostics is available to identify disease stage, progression of disease or personalized medicine treatment. The aim of this study was to assess the tissue expression of alpha-synuclein, a protein implicated in several disease pr

When pathogenic bacteria breach the epithelial lining at mucosal surfaces, rapidly available innate immune mechanisms are critical to halt the infection. In the present study, we characterized the production of antibacterial polypeptides released by epithelial cells. IFN-γ, but neither TNF nor IL-1β alone, induced release of antibacterial activity to a cell culture medium, causing a lytic appearan

We provide a simple set of rules for predicting interference effects in off-resonant transport through single molecule junctions. These effects fall into two classes, showing, respectively, an odd or an even number of nodes in the linear conductance within a given molecular charge state, and we demonstrate how to decide the interference class directly from the contacting geometry. For neutral alte

BACKGROUND: The CD44 cell adhesion molecule is aberrantly expressed in many breast tumors and has been implicated in the metastatic process as well as in the putative cancer stem cell (CSC) compartment. We aimed to investigate potential associations between alternatively spliced isoforms of CD44 and CSCs as well as to various breast cancer biomarkers and molecular subtypes. METHODS: We used q-RT

Quantitative investigation of insect activity in their natural habitat is a challenging task for entomologists. It is difficult to address questions such as flight direction, predation strength, and overall activities using the current techniques such as traps and sweep nets. A multispectral kHz remote detection system using sunlight as an illumination source is presented. We explore the possibili

This study examines the exposure of the members of supplier networks to two layers of social influences. First, as the network connects an actor to a foreign constellation, the actor faces influences of a global character. Second, each individual actor experiences different forces emanating from its indigenous institutional environment. The exposure to two institutional practices presents a conund

Context. NGC 4815 is a populous similar to 500 Myr open cluster at R-gc similar to 7 kpc observed in the first six months of the Gaia-ESO Survey. Located in the inner Galactic disk, NGC 4815 is an important potential tracer of the abundance gradient, where relatively few intermediate age open clusters are found. Aims. The Gaia-ESO Survey data can provide an improved characterization of the cluster

The production of W bosons in association with two jets in proton-proton collisions at a centre-of-mass energy of root s = 7 TeV has been analysed for the presence of double-parton interactions using data corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 36 pb(-1), collected with the ATLAS detector at the Large Hadron Collider. The fraction of events arising from double-parton interactions, f(DP)((D)),

Popular Abstract in Swedish En ordentlig bildning av det centrala nervsystemet är viktigt för ett nyfött barn eller en vuxen. Den senaste tidens kartläggning av människans arvsmassa har lett till identifiering av ungefär 23000 gener, många av dem aktiva i det utvecklande nervsystemet. Men lite är känt om deras funktion och hur de samverkar för att påverka utvecklingen av organ så komplexa som den Morphogens such as Hedghog, Wnt, FGF, and retinoic acid are important signals whose concentrations need to be tightly regulated in the vertebrate embryo to ensure body axis development and formation of the central nervous system. We first show that the intracellular cytoplasmic protein XSufu acts as a dual regulator of Hedgehog (Hh) and Wnt signals during neural induction and patterning in the Xen

The effects of Li deposition on hydrogenated bilayer graphene on SiC(0001) samples, i.e. on quasi-freestanding bilayer graphene samples, are studied using low energy electron microscopy, micro-low-energy electron diffraction and photoelectron spectroscopy. After deposition, some Li atoms form islands on the surface creating defects that are observed to disappear after annealing. Some other Li atom

A label-free immunosensor for the direct detection of cholera toxin (CT) at sub-attomolar level has been developed based on potential-step capacitance measurements. Anti-CT antibody was adsorbed on gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) incorporated on a polytyramine-modified gold electrode. The concentration of CT was determined by detecting the change of capacitance caused by the formation of antibody-antig