BACKGROUND In high income countries, vaccine-preventable diseases have been greatly reduced through routine vaccination programs. Despite this success, many parents question, and a small proportion even refuse vaccination for their children. As no qualitative studies have explored the factors behind these decisions among Dutch parents, we performed a study using online focus groups. METHODS I...

Negative regulation of cytokine gene transcription is an important mechanism in maintaining homeostasis of immune function. In this study, we characterized a silencer element in the human interleukin-3 gene promoter that is responsible for the cell-specific expression of interleukin-3. This silencer activity was proposed to be mediated by an unidentified nuclear inhibitory protein (NIP). In thi...

We show that there is a structure of countably infinite signature with P = N2P and a structure of finite signature with P = N1 P and N1 P N2P. We give a further example of a structure of finite signature with P : NIP and N1 P $ N2P. Together with a result from [10] this implies that for each possibility of P versus NP over structures there is an example of countably infinite signature. Then we ...

The role of alpha 2-adrenoceptors on vascular sympathetic nerve endings in modulating release of the sympathetic neurotransmitter norepinephrine (NE) in humans was examined by measuring the regional rate of appearance of NE in forearm venous plasma (forearm NE spillover [FSO]) in 32 healthy volunteers during intra-arterial infusion of drugs acting at adrenoceptors or directly on vascular smooth...

BACKGROUND Under the Dutch national immunization program (NIP), childhood vaccination is not mandatory, but its recommendation by childhood vaccine providers (CVP) is important for maintaining high vaccination coverage. We therefore examined factors related to providers' intentions to recommend vaccinations to parents of young children. METHODS We conducted four focus group discussions with n...

Chronic glial activation and neuroinflammation induced by the amyloid-β peptide (Aβ) contribute to Alzheimer's disease (AD) pathology. APOE4 is the greatest AD-genetic risk factor; increasing risk up to 12-fold compared to APOE3, with APOE4-specific neuroinflammation an important component of this risk. This editorial review discusses the role of APOE in inflammation and AD, via a literature re...

Background: Diamond turning is widely used in machining metals and semiconductors but the turning marks are incurred on machined components due to the mechanics of the technology. The marks are generally harmful to the systems comprising of the machined components. Therefore, the capability of ion beam planarization (IBP) to reduce turning marks of diamond turned metal surfaces was investigated...

The study was conducted to assess the level of understanding and the ability to extract information from a nutrition information panel (NIP) among women (n = 232, 20-59 years) in the Klang Valley, an urban area in Malaysia. The study involved the currently used format in Malaysia and three other formats, namely (i) based on Guideline Daily Amount (GDA), (ii) Multiple Traffic Light (MTL) and (ii...

BACKGROUND It has been demonstrated that the outcome of primary radiotherapy in squamous cell carcinomas of the head and neck is strongly influenced by overall treatment time. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the results of high-dose-rate (HDR) interstitial brachytherapy (ISBT) for early mobile tongue cancer and to examine whether the non-irradiated period affected treatment results. ...

The primary anti-(4-hydroxy-3-nitrophenyl)acetyl (NP) antibody response is known to have a heteroclitic fine specificity, i.e., anti-NP antibodies bind (4-hydroxy-5-iodo-3-nitrophenyl)acetyl (NIP) with greater affinity than NP itself. Past studies of NP-specific DTH responses and NP-specific T cell-mediated suppression have demonstrated sharing of fine specificity patterns and idiotypic structu...