BACKGROUND The face is a frequent site of burn, but prevalence rates vary and reports are often limited to one healthcare setting. We examined the incidence of facial burns in the Netherlands in Emergency Departments (ED), hospitals and burn centres. Additionally, we identified which patient, injury and burn-related characteristics were predictors of facial burns, facial surgery and facial reco...

Toxoplasmosis is a disease caused by the intracellular protozoan parasite, Toxoplasma gondii which infects up to one-third of the world human population. Toxoplasmosis in neonates and immunocompromised patients can lead to severe disease and death. We investigated the prevalence and risk factors for T. gondii infection in Iceland, Sweden and Estonia, and tested the hypothesis that T. gondii inf...

Ultrafast computed tomography (CT) is a new method for detecting calcific lesions in the coronary arteries. The ability of CT to detect and quantify coronary artery atherosclerosis in children and young adults at risk for malignant atherogenesis was evaluated. A total of 11 consecutive familial hypercholesterolemic (FH) homozygotes (3 to 37 years old) participated. Untreated total cholesterol c...

The “Three-Legs” or “Triskele” is the national symbol of the Isle of Man, and on the national flag it is found in the centre of a red field. The Three Legs symbol has a long association with Man. Heraldically, the kings of Man bore, at least from the thirteenth century, the three-legs clad in chain mail. They are found in four places on the medieval Manx Sword of State. The earliest known docum...

We examined "descriptor collision" for several chemical fingerprint systems (MDL 320, Daylight, SMDL), and for a 2D-based descriptor set. For large databases (ChemNavigator and WOMBAT), the smallest collision rate remains around 5%. We systematically increase the "descriptor collision" rate (here termed "descriptor confusion"), in order to design a set of "descriptors to mask chemical structure...

The Saccharomyces cerevisiae genes KAR1 and CDC31 are required for the initial stages of spindle pole body (SPB) duplication in yeast. The Cdc31 protein is most related to caltractin/centrin, a calcium-binding protein present in microtubule organizing centers in many organisms. Because of a variety of genetic interactions between CDC31 and KAR1 (Vallen, E. A., W. Ho. M. Winey, and M. D. Rose. 1...

Nephrogenic systemic fibrosis (NSF) has been associated with the administration of gadolinium-based contrast agents in patients with severely impaired renal function (SIRF), endstage renal disease (ESRD), or acute renal failure (ARF). Since the vast majority of these patients do not get NSF, it is highly likely that patient factors play a role in its development. Although "free" or dechelated g...

The kinetics of electron transfer from the triplet-excited Zn-porphyrin to a Ru(NH(3))(5)(His-33)(3+) complex have been measured in Zn-substituted ruthenium-modified cytochrome c under denaturing conditions. In the folded protein, the electron-tunneling rate constant is 7.5 x 10(5) s(-1). As the protein is denatured with guanidine hydrochloride, a faster adiabatic electron-transfer reaction app...

A personal history of asthma or allergy has been associated with a reduced risk for adult malignant gliomas. Recent reports on the use of nonsteroidal antiinflammatory drugs (NSAID) and the presence of risk alleles in asthma susceptibility genes showed similar inverse associations. To further explore the relationship between immune mediators and gliomas, we examined the use of NSAID and antihis...

Climate change is expected to increase future abiotic stresses on ecosystems through extreme weather events leading to more extreme drought and rainfall incidences [Jentsch A, et al. (2007) Front Ecol Environ 5(7):365-374]. These fluctuations in precipitation may affect soil biota, soil processes [Evans ST, Wallenstein MD (2012) Biogeochemistry 109:101-116], and the proportion of exotics in inv...