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Recurrent renal calculous disease is often troublesome to treat because of technical difficulties associated with reoperation. Attempts to dissolve the stones by irrigation with various solutions has not had much success. A new extraction technique has therefore been devised whereby the stones can be removed through a percutaneous nephrostomy umder radiological control. Three cases are described.

We study how Swedish citizens updated their institutional and interpersonal trust as the corona crisis evolved from an initial phase to an acute phase in the spring of 2020. The study is based on a large web-survey panel with adult Swedes (n = 11,406) in which the same individuals were asked the same set of questions at two different time points during the coronavirus pandemic (t 0 and t 1). The sample was self-selected but diverse (a smaller subsample, n = 1,464, was pre-stratified to be representative of the Swedish population on key demographics). We find support for the view that the corona crisis led to higher levels of institutional and interpersonal trust. Moreover, reactions were largely homogeneous across those groups that could potentially relate distantly to government authorities.

Innate immunity is important for the integrity of the host against potentially invasive pathogenic microorganisms in the environment. Antibiotic peptides with broad antimicrobial activity are part of the innate immune system. We investigated the presence of the cathelicidin, human cationic antimicrobial protein (hCAP-18), in the male reproductive system. We found strong expression of the hCAP-18 gene by in situ hybridization and hCAP-18 protein, as detected by immunohistochemistry, in the epithelium of the epididymis, but not in the testis. The highest expression in the epididymis was in the caudal part. Western blotting showed a doublet band, the upper part corresponding to the size of hCAP-18 in plasma and neutrophils. Using a specific enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA), levels of 86.5 ؎ 37.8 g/ml (mean ؎ standard deviation; range, 41.8 to 142.8 g/ml; n ‫؍‬ 10) were detected in seminal plasma from healthy donors, which is 70-fold higher than the level in blood plasma. Flow cytometry and immunocytochemistry revealed the presence of hCAP-18 on spermatozoa. ELISA measurement showed levels of 196 ng/10 6 spermatozoa, corresponding to 6.6 ؋ 10 6 molecules of hCAP-18 per spermatozoon. Our results suggest a key role for hCAP-18 in the antibacterial integrity of the male reproductive system. The attachment of hCAP-18 to spermatozoa may implicate a role for hCAP-18 in conception.The integrity of the human reproductive system against potentially invasive pathogenic microorganisms is crucial. Readily available, preformed antimicrobial proteins of the nonadaptive immune system serve as the body's first line of defense (5), while the adaptive immune system becomes involved if pathogens start to invade. In recent years, several components of the human nonadaptive immune system have been isolated and characterized, among them the only member of the cathelicidins known to exist in humans, the human cationic antimicrobial protein (hCAP-18) (4, 10). This protein is synthesized in neutrophil progenitors in the bone marrow and stored in the specific granules of mature neutrophils (15). It is synthesized as an 18-kDa proprotein from which a 5-kDa C-terminal fragment, LL-37, bearing all of the hitherto known biological activity, is cleaved (8). LL-37 has lipopolysaccharide-binding properties and manifests antibacterial effect against a wide range of bacterial species (11,20). Recently, expression of hCAP-18 has also been demonstrated in the epithelium of several organs, including the vagina, cervix, mouth, and lung (2, 6). The cDNA encoding hCAP-18 has been detected in a library prepared from the human testis, suggesting that the gene is expressed here (1).In the present study, we investigated the presence of hCAP-18 in the male reproductive system. We found expression in the epithelium of the epididymis by in situ hybridization and by immunohistochemistry. High levels of hCAP-18 were found in seminal plasma and in association with spermatozoa, but we were unable to detect expression of the hCAP-18 gene or the presence of hC...

The rally-around-the-flag effect describes the tendency of public opinion to become more favourable toward political leaders in times of crises. Political leaders rarely can exchange this initial rally-around-effect into long-term support, however. The central question addressed in this paper is, why political leaders cannot maintain this increase in support over time. Based on three-wave panel data collected during the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic in Sweden (N = 1716), this paper investigates why political leaders cannot maintain initial popular support in the long run. Empirically, we find that perceptions of how Sweden is affected by the crisis and political ideology are both important drivers to understand the declining government approval following a rally-around-the-flag effect.