OBJECTIVES Our purpose was to determine whether the common polymorphisms (SNP-604, SNP1192, and SNP1719) in KDR are associated with risk of coronary heart disease. BACKGROUND Vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) and its receptor KDR (kinase insert domain-containing receptor/fetal liver kinase-1, also called VEGFR2) play critical roles in angiogenesis and vascular repair, which are involv...

We estimate and test the conditional version of an International Capital Asset Pricing Model using a parsimonious multivariate GARCH process. Since our approach is fully parametric, we can recover any quantity that is a function of the first two conditional moments. Our findings strongly support a model which includes both market and foreign exchange risk. However, both sources of risk are only...

This paper proposes a methodological framework for the research of ergonomic risk factors in dentistry, since this is profession with very specific and complex challenges. When analyzing dental practice, three separate entities should be taken into account: dentist, as central figure office; office equipment, which includes all instruments devices, chair dentist stool; office, including workpla...

BACKGROUND There are concerns that metal-on-metal hip implants may cause cancer. The objective of this study was to evaluate patterns and timing of risk of cancer in patients with metal-on-metal total hip replacements (THR). METHODS In a linkage study between the English National Joint Registry (NJR) and the Clinical Practice Research Datalink (CPRD), we selected all THR surgeries (NJR) betwe...

Recently the DRD3 gene has been associated with ASD in two independent samples. Follow up analysis of the risk allele of the SNP rs167771 in 91 subjects revealed a significant association with a specific type of repetitive behavior: the factor "insistence on sameness" (IS) derived from the Autism Diagnostic Interview. This risk allele was associated with a decreased risk for IS, but not with an...

Structural walls commonly used as efficient structural elements to resist lateral and vertical loads. Diverse performance of bearing wall system in past earthquakes, motivates investigation on the adequacy of current seismic design provision for these walls. This study considers seismic performance of model walls of bearing wall and building frame systems designed as ordinary and special struct...

Sex-ratio meiotic drive occurs when males produce a predominance of X-chromosome bearing sperm and an inordinate number of daughters. A driving X causes highly female-biased sex ratios and the risk of extinction. Polyandry can rescue a population from extinction.

Clark's nutcrackers (Nucifraga columbiana) are capable of very precise searching using the metric relationships between a goal and multiple landmarks to relocate the goal location. They can judge the direction more accurately than the distance to a landmark when the landmark is distant from the goal. On the basis of these findings, we propose that nutcrackers use a set of bearings, each a measu...