A homeostatic function of CXCR2 signalling in articular cartilage

Funding This work was funded by Arthritis Research UK (grants 17859, 17971, 19654), INNOCHEM EU FP6 (grant LSHB-CT-2005-51867), MRC (MR/K013076/1) and the William Harvey Research FoundationPeer reviewedPublisher PD

High-Density Peptide Arrays with Combinatorial Laser Fusing

Combinatorial laser fusing is a new method to produce high-density peptide arrays with feature sizes as small as 10 mu m. It combines the high spot densities achieved by lithographic methods with the cost-efficiency of biofunctional xerography. The method is also adapted for other small molecules compatible with solid phase synthesis

Factors associated with self-assessed increase in tobacco consumption among over-indebted individuals in Germany: a cross-sectional study

Background Over-indebtedness is an increasing phenomenon in industrialised nations causing individual hardship and societal problems. Nonetheless, few studies have explored smoking among over-indebted individuals. Methods A cross-sectional survey (n=949) on retrospectively assessed changes in tobacco consumption was carried out in 2006 and 2007 among clients of 84 officially approved debt and insolvency counselling centres in Germany (response rate 39.7%). Logistic regressions were performed to explore factors associated with reports of increased smoking after onset of over-indebtedness. Results 63% of all respondents stated daily or occasional tobacco consumption. Almost one fifth reported an increase in smoking after becoming over-indebted. Females were less likely to report increased smoking than men (aOR 0.66, 95% CI 0.44-0.99) whereas respondents who had been over-indebted for more than 10 years were more likely to report increased smoking than those who had been over-indebted for less than five years (aOR 1.66; 95%-CI 1.00-2.76). The odds of increased smoking were also elevated among those who reported that their families and friends had withdrawn from them as a consequence of their over-indebtedness (aOR 1.82; 95%-CI 1.06-3.14). Conclusions The study identifies over-indebted individuals and particularly over-indebted men as a high-risk group of smokers. Low levels of social embeddedness/support were associated with a further increase in smoking after becoming over-indebted. Given recent increases of over-indebtedness, the findings highlight the need to develop appropriate public health policies

Association between overweight, obesity and self-perceived job insecurity in German employees

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Recent studies have shown an association between job insecurity and morbidity as well as mortality, however until now, knowledge about a potential association between job insecurity and overweight or obesity has been lacking.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>In order to identify a possible association between job insecurity and overweight or obesity, we analysed data from the German Socioeconomic Panel (GSOEP) 2004/2005, a longitudinal study of private households in Germany. In this representative cohort of the German adult population, living and working conditions were observed. Data on Body Mass Index (BMI) and self-perceived probability of job loss within the next 2 years were available for 10,747 adults either employed or attending training programs.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>We identified 5,216 (49%) individuals as being overweight (BMI > 25 kg/m²) and 1,358(13%) individuals as being obese (BMI > 30 kg/m²). A total of 5,941 (55%) participants reported having concerns regarding job insecurity. In the multivariate analysis - after adjustment for relevant confounders - a statistically significant association between obesity and job insecurity (100% probability for losing the job in the following two years) could be observed with an adjusted odds ratio of 2.55 (95% confidence interval: 1.09-5.96).</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>Because of these results, we were able to conclude that overweight and obese persons perceive job insecurity more often than their normal weight counterparts in Germany and that the concurrence of obesity and job insecurity might lead employees into a vicious cycle. Further research with an emphasis on the occupational setting might be necessary in order to establish useful preventive programmes at the workplace.</p

The Role of Transporters in the Pharmacokinetics of Orally Administered Drugs

Drug transporters are recognized as key players in the processes of drug absorption, distribution, metabolism, and elimination. The localization of uptake and efflux transporters in organs responsible for drug biotransformation and excretion gives transporter proteins a unique gatekeeper function in controlling drug access to metabolizing enzymes and excretory pathways. This review seeks to discuss the influence intestinal and hepatic drug transporters have on pharmacokinetic parameters, including bioavailability, exposure, clearance, volume of distribution, and half-life, for orally dosed drugs. This review also describes in detail the Biopharmaceutics Drug Disposition Classification System (BDDCS) and explains how many of the effects drug transporters exert on oral drug pharmacokinetic parameters can be predicted by this classification scheme

A fuzzy-neural network based on the backpropagation algorithm

Researching artifical intelligence there are two areas especially up-to-date. On the one hand there are neural networks, with the ability of independent learning by example, which implies the flexibility to adapt to new situations. On the other hand it is the fuzzy-logic as a tool for describing fuzzy knowledge and for the representation of linguistic terms (like 'large'). So it is obvious trying to combine these two domains and to use the advantages of both procedures in one. There were only a few attempts to completely fuzzify a neural network so far. These attempts were moreover cancelled because of technical problems after a short time. Here we will pick up the idea to fuzzify a neural net as a whole again. The fuzzy-neural network described in this work is able to work with both fuzzy-numbers and crisp-numbers (real-numbers). In this report it is assumed that the reader knows the meaning of the terms fuzzy-logic and backpropagation. Merely the definition of the fuzzy calculations are given. The description of the learning algorithm bases on an object oriented description of neural networks, so we will take a short look at the architecture of the networks to avoid confusion because of lightly changed formulas. At the end of this report we will present and explain the numerical results and give an outlook to possible improvements. (orig.)Available from TIB Hannover: RO 7057(1995,10) / FIZ - Fachinformationszzentrum Karlsruhe / TIB - Technische InformationsbibliothekSIGLEDEGerman

Die epiphytische Flechtenvegetation als Bioindikator fuer die Luftqualitaet im Stadtgebiet von Muenster

SIGLETIB: RO 2933(7) / FIZ - Fachinformationszzentrum Karlsruhe / TIB - Technische InformationsbibliothekDEGerman

Ueber einen Zusammenhang zwischen der Spektraltheorie automorpher Funktionen auf dem oberen Halbraum und den Klassenzahlen biquadratischer Zahlkoerper. Geometrie von Konfliktvarietaeten

Available from TIB Hannover: RO 8934(17) / FIZ - Fachinformationszzentrum Karlsruhe / TIB - Technische InformationsbibliothekSIGLEDEGerman

Uebersicht ueber die Funktionen des cl-pds

Available from TIB Hannover: RR 8798(1997,1.1) / FIZ - Fachinformationszzentrum Karlsruhe / TIB - Technische InformationsbibliothekSIGLEBundesministerium fuer Bildung, Wissenschaft, Forschung und Technologie, Bonn (Germany)DEGerman

Optimale sequentiell geplante Entscheidungsverfahren. Kap. 4 Sequentiell geplante Tests; sequentiell geplante SPRT's

TIB Hannover: RO 7057(1990,6) / FIZ - Fachinformationszzentrum Karlsruhe / TIB - Technische InformationsbibliothekSIGLEDEGerman