BACKGROUND An association between indoor dampness and respiratory symptoms has been reported, but dampness as a risk factor for the onset or remission of respiratory symptoms and asthma is not well documented. METHOD This follow up study included 16 190 subjects from Iceland, Norway, Sweden, Denmark, and Estonia who had participated in the European Community Respiratory Health Survey (ECRHS I...

BACKGROUND The effects of indoor exposure to volatile organic compounds (VOCs), including formaldehyde, on respiratory health are not clearly understood. The aim of this study was to determine the independent effects of VOCs and other common environmental exposures in the home on the risk and severity of persistent wheezing illness in children. METHODS Total volatile organic compounds, formal...

STUDY OBJECTIVE To explore the relationship between damp housing and adult health using two separate measures of ill health and taking into account the confounding effects of health related lifestyles and social factors. DESIGN AND SETTING Analysis of responses gathered in a cross sectional, postal questionnaire survey of a randomly selected sample of 5347 residents of Worcester. PARTICIPAN...

In between the period of transplantation and revascularization, pancreatic islets are exposed to low-oxygen and low-nutrient conditions. In the present study we mimicked those conditions in vitro to study the involvement of different cell death processes, release of danger-associated molecular patterns (DAMP), and associated in vitro immune activation. Under low-oxygen and low-nutrient conditio...

In this paper, the phenomenon of electronic retailing is examined. Elements that make e-tailing especially attractive to consumers are highlighted. It is argued that traditional retailers have to critically consider the migration to a digital domain, and address challenges that might impede a smooth transition. Conversely, e-tailers have much to learn from their counterparts in the physical wor...

Proinsulin is a single polypeptide chain composed of the B and A subunits of insulin joined by the C-peptide region. Proinsulin is converted to insulin during the maturation of secretory vesicles by the action of two proteases and conversion is inhibited by ionophores that disrupted intracellular H+ gradients. To determine if conversion of prohormone to hormone actually occurs in an acidic secr...

Background: The effects of indoor exposure to volatile organic compounds (VOCs), including formaldehyde, on respiratory health are not clearly understood. The aim of this study was to determine the independent effects of VOCs and other common environmental exposures in the home on the risk and severity of persistent wheezing illness in children. Methods: Total volatile organic compounds, formal...

Persistence, more recently termed the chlamydial stress response, is a viable but non-infectious state constituting a divergence from the characteristic chlamydial biphasic developmental cycle. Damage/danger associated molecular patterns (DAMPs) are normal intracellular components or metabolites that, when released from cells, signal cellular damage/lysis. Purine metabolite DAMPs, including ext...

one of the inflammatory mediators which is secreted by inflammatory cells is high-mobility group protein b1 (hmgb1). interaction of hmgb1 and toll-like receptors (tlrs) leads to increased production of inflammatory cytokines. on the other hand, it was shown that triggering receptor expressed on myeloid cells (trem-1) also can be activated by tlrs, and its soluble form (strem-1) can be formed by...