Cellular peptide vaccines contain T-cell epitopes. The main prerequisite for a peptide to act as a T-cell epitope is that it binds to a major histocompatibility complex (MHC) protein. Peptide MHC binder identification is an extremely costly experimental challenge since human MHCs, named human leukocyte antigen, are highly polymorphic and polygenic. Here we present EpiDOCK, the first structure-b...

BACKGROUND We examined prospectively which of the four blood pressure (BP) components (systolic BP [SBP], diastolic BP [DBP], pulse pressure [PP], and mean arterial pressure [MAP]) was best in predicting the risk of proteinuria. METHODS This prospective study included 9341 non-diabetic Japanese middle-aged men who had no proteinuria and an estimated glomerular filtration rate ≥60 mL/min/1.73 ...

BACKGROUND Low IQ is associated with an increased risk of suicide and suicide attempt in adults, but less is known about the relationship between IQ and aspects of suicidal/self-harm behaviours in adolescence. METHODS We used data from the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children (ALSPAC), a population-based prospective UK cohort. Binomial and multinomial logistic regression models wer...

AIMS The aims of this study were to examine levels of AIDS knowledge and contraceptive practices in a birth cohort of 16 year old Christchurch born children. METHODS The study was based on the birth cohort of young people participating in the Christchurch Health and Development Study. At age 16 years 953 subjects were questioned about: (a) levels of AIDS knowledge using a 16 item AIDS knowled...

The development of epitope-based vaccines, which have wide population coverage, is greatly complicated by MHC polymorphism. The grouping of alleles into supertypes, on the basis of common structural and functional features, addresses this problem directly. In the present study we applied a combined bioinformatics approach, based on analysis of both protein sequence and structure, to identify si...

OBJECTIVE The present study investigates the relationship between BMI and all-cause mortality among middle-aged and older adults with or without pre-existing diseases. DESIGN A population-based cohort study. SETTING The Taiwan Longitudinal Study on Aging is a nationwide prospective cohort study comprising a representative random sample of middle-aged and older adults. The study period was 1...

In 2011, the monovalent rotavirus vaccine was introduced into a universal immunization program in Quebec (Canada). This retrospective cohort study assessed vaccine effectiveness (VE) in preventing acute gastroenteritis (AGE) and rotavirus gastroenteritis (RVGE) hospitalizations among children <3 y living in the Quebec Eastern Townships region according to socioeconomic status (SES). Data were g...

The aim of this study was to explore the association between parental separation during childhood (up to 18 years of age) and cardiometabolic risk factors (body mass index, fat mass index, blood pressure, physical activity, smoking, and alcohol consumption) in late adolescence using a cross-cohort comparison and to explore whether associations differ according to the age at which the parental s...

Upper respiratory tract infections (URIs) represent the most frequent cause of acute asthma exacerbations. It has yet to be determined whether leukotriene receptor antagonist (LTRA) treatment prevents URI-induced acute asthma exacerbations in adults. The objective of the present study was to evaluate the preventive effects of LTRA treatment on URI-induced acute asthma exacerbations. The inciden...

BACKGROUND The purpose of this study was to investigate hearing threshold changes of workers with unilateral conductive hearing loss who were exposed to workplace noise for 8-years. METHODS Among 1819 workers at a shipyard in Ulsan, 78 subjects with an air-bone gap ≥10 dBHL in unilateral ears were selected. Factors that could affect hearing were acquired from questionnaires, physical examinat...