Objective methods for distinguishing conscious from unconscious states in humans are of key importance for clinical evaluation of general anesthesia and patients with disorders or consciousness. Here, we test the generalizability of a DTF-based algorithm - a measure of effective connectivity - as an objective measure of conscious experience during anesthesia and correlate it with a well-tested index ...

The human body is willing to expend great amount of energy on mechanisms that keep the core temperature within a very small range. When these mechanisms are overwhelmed the body temperature either rises (hyperthermia) or drops (hypothermia). Hypothermia has earlier been used to induce retrograde amnesia (forgetting) and we have in this study examined if hypothermia can affect a robust long-term ...

<p><i>Phenomenon:</i> The mentoring of undergraduate medical students has been shown to benefit the mentors; however, detailed information on the factors that influence the satisfaction and motivation of mentors remains unclear. Such knowledge can be useful in sustaining group mentorship programs. The aim of this study was to investigate the experiences and perspectives of mentors to ascertain the ...

Hypertension is one of the most important risk factors for heart failure in the general population. Hypertensive heart failure is associated with heart failure with preserved ejection fraction (HFpEF). Women have an increase proportion of HFpEF compared to men. Endothelial dysfunction thereby reduced NO production is proposed to play an important role in the pathophysiology of HFpEF. A suggested ...

Background: Glycated hemoglobin (HbA1c), a marker of average plasma glucose during the last 8-12 weeks, is associated with future risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD) and all-cause mortality. Objectives: To examine the association between hyperglycemia, assessed by HbA1c, and future risk of VTE in a population based cohort. Methods: HbA1c was measured in 16 156 unique subjects (25-87 years) ...

Background: Even though clinical data support a relation between ischemic stroke and venous thromboembolism (VTE), the strength and time dependence of the association remain to be settled at the population level. We therefore aimed to investigate the association between ischemic stroke and VTE in a prospective population-based cohort. Methods and Results: Participants (n=30 002) were recruited from ...

Autophagy is a conserved catabolic pathway for the lysosomal degradation of cytoplasmic components. Autophagy can be both selective and unselective. Selective autophagy receptor proteins are involved in mediating the degradation of specific substrates. Among these receptors we find the evolutionary related proteins p62 and NBR1, which are both involved in autophagic degradation of different ubiquitinated ...

<p><i>Background:</i> MicroRNAs (miRs) have critical regulatory roles in cell functions, and are involved in prostate cancer tumorigenesis. miR-20a-5p is a member of the oncogenic miR-17-92 cluster. Overexpressed miR-20a-5p has been shown to increase both cell proliferation and cell migration in cancers. The aim of our cohort study was to evaluate the prognostic role of miR-20a-5p in prostate cancer. ...

Dissemination of vancomycin-resistant Enterococcus faecium (VREfm) with similar pulsed-field gel electrophoresis patterns in three Swedish hospitals between 2007 and 2011 prompted molecular characterization to reveal the possible origins and features of the strain. A representative subset of collected isolates (VREfm (n=18) and vancomycin-susceptible Enterococcus faecium (VSEfm) (n=2)) reflecting ...

Oral squamous cell carcinomas (OSCC) are associated with a poor prognosis, which may be partly due to functional impairment of the immune response. Lymphocyte recruitment to the tumor site is facilitated by high-endothelial venules (HEV), whereas expression of programmed-death ligand 1 (PD-L1) can impair T cell function. Thus, we hypothesize that these factors are important in shaping the immune ...