................................................................................................................................. 242 Autobiographical Statement .................................................................................................... 244

INTRODUCTION Acute kidney injury (AKI) is a common and feared complication of sepsis. The pathogenesis of sepsis-induced AKI is largely unknown, and therapeutic interventions are mainly supportive. In the present study, we tested the hypothesis that pharmacological inhibition of Toll-like receptor 4 (TLR4) would improve renal function and reduce renal damage in experimental sepsis, even after A...

[This retracts the article on p. 242 in vol. 8.].

doi: 10.1111/j.1755-5949.2009.00132.x Apathy is defined as a disorder of motivation. There is wide acknowledgement that apathy is an important behavioral syndrome in Alzheimer’s disease and in various neuropsychiatric disorders. In light of recent research and the renewed interest in the correlates and impacts of apathy and in its treatments, it is important to develop criteria for apathy that ...

The nitrate aerosol field over Europe: simulations with an atmospheric chemistry-transport model of intermediate complexity M. Schaap, M. van Loon, H. M. ten Brink, F. J. Dentener, and P. J. H. Builtjes 2 University of Utrecht, Institute of Marine and Atmospheric Science, PO Box 80005, 3508 TA, Utrecht, The Netherlands TNO institute of Environmental Sciences, Energy and Process Innovation, PO B...

In our discussion of mutual exclusion so far, we have considered atomic access to a single object. What if we wish to atomically access multiple objects. For instance, what if we wish to atomically remove an item from the input buffer and put it in the echo buffer? The high-level constructs such as monitors and path expressions do not give users of shared objects flexibility in defining the uni...

been shown to form bilayer vesicles (cationic liposomes) and have been applied to gene delivery. Cationic vesicles designed for that purpose are generally intrinsically unstable. Although application of cationic liposomes has also been anticipated for the delivery of drugs, peptides, vitamins and lipids and other biologically active compounds to biological cells and tissues, liposomes used for ...

Opioids rank among the most potent analgesic drugs but gastrointestinal side effects, especially constipation, limit their therapeutic utility. The adverse effects of opioids have been attributed to stimulation of opioid receptors, but emerging evidence suggests that opioids interact with the innate immune receptor Toll-like receptor 4 (TLR4) and its signalling pathway. As TLR4 signalling affec...