The usefulness of lung auscultation is changing. It depends on how well practitioners understand the generation of sounds. It also depends on their knowledge on how lung sounds are associated with lung and heart diseases, as well as with other factors such as ageing and smoking habits. In clinical practice, practitioners need to give sufficient attention to lung auscultation, and they should use ...

Serglycin is a proteoglycan highly expressed by immune cells, in which its functions are linked to storage, secretion, transport, and protection of chemokines, proteases, histamine, growth factors, and other bioactive molecules. In recent years, it has been demonstrated that serglycin is also expressed by several other cell types, such as endothelial cells, muscle cells, and multiple types of ...

Background: Dioxins and polychlorobiphenyls (PCBs) are persistent organic pollutants that have demonstrated endocrine disrupting properties. Several of these chemicals are carcinogenic and positive associations have been suggested with breast cancer risk. In general population, diet represents the main source of exposure.<p><p> Methods: Associations between dietary intake of 17 dioxins and 35 PCBs ...

The physiological changes that occur during the pregnancy are known to affect women´s oral health. Pregnant women are more vulnerable to oral diseases when compared to non-pregnant. Better understanding of the relation between changing oral microbial milieu and risk of pregnancy complications and associated mechanisms could help to improve maternal and perinatal outcomes. Thus, we aimed to investigate ...

Merkel cell polyomavirus (MCPyV) is a causal factor in Merkel cell carcinoma (MCC). The oncogenic potential is mediated through its viral oncoproteins large T-antigen (LT) and small T-antigen (sT). Cytokines produced by tumor cells play an important role in cancer pathogenesis, and viruses affect their expression. Therefore, we compared human cytokine and receptor transcript levels in virus ...

Aim: To describe newly graduated registered nurses’ (NGRNs’) experiences of encountering stress in emergency departments (EDs) during the COVID-19 pandemic.<p><p> Design: A qualitative descriptive study. <p>Methods: Data from 14 in-depth interviews with NGRNs working in an ED for 3-36 months after graduation was analysed by the means of qualitative content analysis as described by Graneheim and ...

BACKGROUND: Although myocardial infarction (MI) and atrial fibrillation (AF) are frequent comorbidities and share common cardiovascular risk factors, the direction and strength of the association of the risk factors with disease onset, subsequent disease incidence, and mortality are not completely understood.<p> <p>METHODS AND RESULTS: In pooled multivariable Cox regression analyses, we examined ...

Aims: This study aimed to explore the tension between local, regional, and national authorities evoked by some rural municipalities’ decisions to impose local infection-control measures during the first weeks of the COVID-19 pandemic in Norway. Methods: Eight municipal Chief Medical Officers of Health (CMOs) participated in semi-structured interviews, and six crisis management teams participated ...

Prediction of eye and hair colour from DNA can be an important investigative tool in forensic cases if conventional DNA profiling fails to match DNA from any known suspects or cannot obtain a hit in a DNA database. The HIrisPlex model for simultaneous eye and hair colour predictions was developed for forensic usage. To genotype a DNA sample, massively parallel sequencing (MPS) has brought new ...

Sexual incentive stimuli activate sexual motivation and heighten the level of general arousal. The sexual motive may induce the individual to approach the incentive, and eventually to initiate sexual acts. Both approach and the ensuing copulatory interaction further enhance general arousal. We present data from rodents and humans in support of these assertions. We then suggest that orgasm is ...