BACKGROUND A systematic review identified a range of methods, which can influence response rates. However, analysis specific to a healthcare setting, and in particular, involving people expected to be poor responders, was missing, We examined the effect of pre-warning letters on response rates to a postal survey of sedentary patients whom we expected a low rate of response. METHODS Participan...

Introduction This chapter explores some of the main issues related to the regulation of the cultural sector, with specific reference to heritage. As the range of activities in the cultural field raises so many different economic questions, not all of them can be dealt with in the space available. Therefore the analysis is restricted mainly to issues connected with built heritage. So far, the to...

BACKGROUND The factors determining why less than 10% of heavy drinkers develop advanced alcoholic liver disease (ALD) remain elusive, although genetic factors may be important. Interleukin 10 (IL-10) is an important cytokine with anti-inflammatory, anti-immune, and antifibrotic functions. Several polymorphisms have been identified in the IL-10 promoter and recent evidence suggests that some of ...

Phosphorylation of Ser-627 is both necessary and sufficient for full activity of the expressed 35-kDa catalytic domain of myosin I heavy chain kinase (MIHCK). Ser-627 lies in the variable loop between highly conserved residues DFG and APE at a position at which a phosphorylated Ser/Thr also occurs in many other Ser/Thr protein kinases. The variable loop of MIHCK contains two other hydroxyamino ...

Because the influenza A virus has an RNA genome, its RNA-dependent RNA polymerase, comprising the PA, PB1, and PB2 subunits, is essential for viral transcription and replication. The binding of RNA primers/promoters to the polymerases is an initiation step in viral transcription. In our current study, we reveal the 2.7 A tertiary structure of the C-terminal RNA-binding domain of PB2 by x-ray cr...

Correction for 'Polymer-enforced crystallization of a eutectic binary hard sphere mixture' by Anna Kozina et al., Soft Matter, 2012, 8, 627-630.

Perhaps the most fundamental element in the theory of the public sector is the view that the government is an exogenous, benevolent economic agent. The benevolence of the government is often expressed by assuming it to maximize a ‘‘social welfare’’ function of the form Ð utðxðtÞÞmðdtÞ, where the ut are utility functions, x is an allocation of consumption bundles and m is a distribution of agent...

Avian influenza A viruses often do not propagate efficiently in mammalian cells. The viral polymerase protein PB2 is important for this host restriction, with amino-acid polymorphisms at residue 627 and other positions acting as 'signatures' of avian- or human-adapted viruses. Restriction is hypothesized to result from differential interactions (either positive or inhibitory) with unidentified ...