Males and females differ in both parasite load and the strength of immune responses and these effects have been verified in humans and other vertebrates. Sex hormones act as important modulators of immune responses; the male sex hormone testosterone is generally immunosuppressive while the female sex hormone estrogen tends to be immunoenhancing. Different sets of T-helper cells (Th) have important

Increasing oil prices and growing environmental concerns in recent years have driven the development of renewable biofuels. Until now, most of the bioethanol production concepts are based on sugar and starch crops as feedstock, while research on second generation of bioethanol concepts is investigating the use of cellulosic biomass such as straw, wood, etc. as feedstock. The first part of the pape

The focus of this paper is on the design of pervaporation units for wastewater treatment taking into account technical, economic, and environmental aspects. Two different sized industrial wastewater streams of water-chloroform, and of water-methyl-isobutylketone (MIBK) are considered. Based on a wastewater stream of 1,500 kg/d, a semi-batch process combining pervaporation with a decanter recycle l

In hydrophobic pervaporation, the evaluation and prediction of coupling effects in multicomponent systems is one of the key requirements to improve its applicability in the biotechnology and food industry. The focus of this study is first on binary aqueous systems with methanol, ethanol, acetone, 1-propanol, 2-propanol 1,3-dioxane, and 1,4-dioxane, and then on ternary aqueous systems with 1-propan

Type 2 Diabetes (T2D) is a disease of increasing importance and represents a growing burden on global healthcare and human health. In T2D, loss of effectiveness of insulin signaling in peripheral tissues cannot be compensated for by adequate insulin secretion, leading to hyperglycemia and resultant complications. In recent years, inflammation has been identified as a central component of T2D, both

Objective: The aim of this study was to create a preoperative prediction model predicting extraprostatic tumour growth in men with clinically organ-confined disease from a prospectively collected Swedish cohort. Materials and methods: The study used data from 3386 men in the prospective multi-centre Laparoscopic Prostatectomy Robot Open (LAPPRO) trial, with 14 participating urological departments.

We describe a method and device (< 1.2 g) for recording, processing and storing data about activity and location of individuals of free-living songbirds throughout the annual cycle. Activity level was determined every five minutes from five 100 ms samples of accelerometer data with 5 s between the sampling events. Activity levels were stored on an hourly basis throughout the annual cycle, allowing

Time synchronization is crucial for wireless sensor networks (WSNs), where operations often rely on time ordering of events. WSNs are deployed in different scenarios, and therefore their timing requirements are often related to the peculiar characteristics of the specific environment they have to act in. Synchronization is anyway always an issue: transactional applications need monotonicity of the

I argue that Mumford and Anjum’s recent theory of simultaneous causation among powerful meso-level objects is problematic in several respects: it is based on a false dichotomy, it is incompatible with standard meso-level physics, it is explanatory deficient, and it threatens to render the powers metaphysics incoherent. Powers theorists are advised, therefore, to adopt a purely sequential conceptio

This paper situates political assassinations by Western states in the global south in a wider discussion concerning decolonization and the progressivist narrative of international law. The paper looks at three generations of such assassinations, focusing on the international legal environments in which they took place and setting the parameters for both legitimation and opposition: the mid-twentieThis paper situates political assassinations by Western states in the global south in a wider discussion concerning decolonization and the progressivist narrative of international law. The paper looks at three generations of such assassinations, focusing on the international legal environments in which they took place and setting the parameters for both legitimation and opposition: the mid-twentie

The importance of flow conditions during scale-up of high-solid enzymatic hydrolysis of steam-pretreated spruce was demonstrated by comparing hydrolysis rates between laboratory (2 L) and demonstration (4 m3) scale. A positive effect of increased agitation speed on the rate of enzymatic hydrolysis was found regardless of scale. Importantly, the hydrolysis rate was higher at the larger scale when c

Assortative mating is of interest because of its role in speciation and the maintenance of species boundaries. However, we know little about how within-species assortment is related to interspecific sexual isolation. Most previous studies of assortative mating have focused on a single trait in males and females, rather than utilizing multivariate trait information. Here, we investigate how intrasp

STUDY DESIGN: Cross-sectional. BACKGROUND: The association between muscle function and lack of knee confidence in people with anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) injury has not been well investigated. Such knowledge would help in the design of training programs for this population. OBJECTIVE: To investigate associations between self-reported knee confidence and muscle function in patients with ACL in

Many questions in animal intelligence and cognition research are challenging. One challenge is to identify mechanisms underlying reasoning in experiments. Here we provide a way to design such tests in nonhuman animals. We know from research in skill acquisition in humans that reasoning and thinking can take time because some problems are processed in multiple steps before a solution is reached (e.

Microscreening (using Discfilters) is a widely used technology for suspended solids removal in tertiary effluent streams of wastewater treatment plants. Several pilot studies have shown the feasibility of using coagulation and flocculation in combination with microscreens for advanced phosphorus removal, but the number of fullscale references is still limited. In summer 2014, the first Scandinavia