BACKGROUND The mortality rate from cardiovascular disease (CVD) among young adults has declined less than that in the older population, raising concerns about the increasing prevalence of obesity-related conditions including hypercholesterolemia in the younger population. We investigated the age-standardized mean levels of serum cholesterols and the prevalence, awareness, treatment and control ...

On hehalf of the Wisconsin Mental Heallh Task Force, I am wriling 10 express the mixed emotional reaction experienced when reading the article "Ne\\ Pathways for Psychosocial Occupational Therapists" hy Sally Price (AJOT, June 1993, pp. 557-559). We were excited to see an arlicle [hat seemed to address the same issues that caused the development of our task force, hur as those in attendance rea...

BACKGROUND The effects of natural environmental factors upon health, documented in Minnesota, support the proposition of Bratislava's champions of the cosmos and of the biological week, gauged via circaseptan rhythms by the late Ladislav Dérer, whose "macro-rhythm" lasted "most frequently about 6 days". MAIN PURPOSE To introduce 7-day monitoring of blood pressure and heart rate into routine p...

The apolipoprotein(a) (apo[a]) gene encodes a protein component of lipoprotein(a) [Lp(a)] whose plasma levels vary widely among individuals. Hyper-Lp(a)-emia constitutes a risk factor for thromboembolic disease. We previously subclassified the apo(a) gene into four allelic types (A-D) by polymorphisms in the 5'-flanking region. To elucidate whether these polymorphisms affect the expression of a...

Palaeomagnetic methods of analysis have largely been concentrated on distinguishing between the relatively hard and soft components which make up the natural remanent magnetization (NRM) of sedimentary rocks. Ihis has been because of the widespread beliefthat, in general, the hard cornponents are primary in origin whule the soft components are secondary, having been acquired a long time afler d...

Biotin-binding IgG (B-IgG) in human sera was quantified using previously developed F(ab')(2)anti-human IgG-coated multiwell microplates (Muratsugu M. et al., 2003, Biol. Pharm. Bull., 26, 1605--1608). The levels of B-IgG in sera, however, were higher than those we predicted. In this study, we modified the assay using F(ab')2anti-human IgG-coated multiwell microplates and successfully quantified...

Thirteen Japanese patients with hyper-IgM syndrome but normal CD40 ligand were characterized. All patients had mutations in AID (activation-induced cytidine deaminase) gene. Five of them had a missense mutation of Arg112His. In all patients, serum IgG, IgA and IgE levels were undetectable, B cells failed to produce detectable amounts of IgE even if cultured them with anti-CD40 and IL-4. Somatic...

Immunoglobulin class switch recombination deficiencies (Ig CSR deficiencies) or Hyper IgM syndromes (HIGM) are a group of primary immunodeficiency diseases, characterized by defective CD40 signaling of B cells, resulting in reduced CSR and somatic hypermutation. The affected patients are characterized by low serum levels of IgG and IgA, and normal or elevated levels of IgM, which lead to an inc...

During antigen-induced immune responses, human B cells switch isotype from immunoglobulin M (IgM)-IgD to IgG1-4, IgA1-2, or IgE. In the human, no cytokines have yet been demonstrated to act as switch factors for IgG1, IgG2, and IgG3. In this paper, we report that in response to interleukin 10 (IL-10), anti-CD40 activated tonsillar surface IgD+ (sIgD+) B cells are induced to secrete large amount...

New data is emerging from evolutionary anthropology and the neuroscience of social cognition on our species-specific hyper-cooperation (HC). This paper attempts an integration of third-person archaeological and second-person, neuroscientific perspectives on the structure of HC, through a post-Ricoeurian development in hermeneutical phenomenology. We argue for the relatively late evolution of ad...