Microbial immunoglobulin A (IgA) proteases cleave human secretory IgA, promoting the mucosal adhesion of pathogens. To investigate if the enteric protozoan Blastocystis degrades human secretory IgA, cell lysate and conditioned medium from two species were exposed to immunoglobulin A. Secretory IgA was cleaved by both cell lysate and conditioned medium with mainly cysteine proteinase activity in B.

OBJECTIVES: To examine the mortality pattern and the cancer incidence in a cohort of long term smelter workers exposed to lead.METHODS: The cohort consists of 664 male lead battery workers, employed for at least three months in 1942-87. From 1969 the values of all blood lead samples repeatedly obtained from these workers every two to three months, have been collected in a database. The expected mo

Orkanen Katrina, tsunamin i Indiska oceanen, Lehmankraschen och 11-september attackerna är bara några exempel på sentida händelser som väckt frågor kring vår förmåga att förutse och förstå katastrofrisker. I efterhand är det dock lätt att glömma att vi alltid har ett oändligt antal potentiella scenarier framför oss, men bara ett förflutet, vilket kan få oss att överdriva förutsägbarheten för händeDivision of labor and trade have been prerequisites for the development of welfare societies. Ironically, this specialization has caused a fragmentation of the knowledge necessary to understand risks that may undermine societal safety. This has not only prompted a need for inter-organizational exchange and integration of disaster risk information, it has also prompted a need for understanding how

In this study a model was applied on consumer acceptance of commonly implemented EV focused measures. The model is based on a norm-activation process as defined in the Value-Belief-Norm theory and the Norm-Activation Model. The study was based on a questionnaire survey study on three groups of car owners; conventional fossil fuel vehicle owners (CV, n = 312, owners of vehicles run on alternative f

Although nationalism is an example of a cultural force which in many cases has overruled other, traditional identities and loyalties in nineteenth- and twentieth-century society, the study of nationalism has not been focused very much on the cultural praxis of national identity formation and sharing. As a result, the ideology and politics of nationalism are far better understood than the creation

Smart card data and survey data have different characteristics, which combined have the potential to enrich the total level of information as well as to reduce inherent biases in each dataset. This paper describes a fruitful procedure to use survey data from a smartphone application-based travel survey with prompted recall to validate data from smart card transactions in the same geographical area

An increased use of solar energy is a key ingredient for forging resilient cities. This recognises the importance of the urban fabric being able to use renewable energy sources to become increasingly self-sustainable. In that regard, the integration of active solar energy systems in the built environment will allow cities to reach a high level of sustainability. In this framework, the main objecti

We study a linear quadratic control problem for transportation optimization on a directed line graph. We show that the solution to the Riccati equation associated with this problem is highly structured. The feedback law is almost upper triangular, and the synthesis of the feedback law is given by a recursion, making it scalable. The structure of the feedback law also allows for an efficient realiz

Postpartum depression (PPD) är ett globalt folkhälsoproblem. Mödrar som migrerar till ett annat land har en ökad risk att drabbas av PPD. Före-komsten av PPD bland utlandsfödda mödrar beräknas vara så hög som 20 procent, vilket nästan är dubbelt så hög som bland inhemsk västerländsk befolkning. Asylsökande och flyktingar är särskilt sårbara grupper som löper en ännu högre risk att drabbas, speciel

The study based on the descriptive analytical methodology, using the tools of the modern narrative theories, to examine the Saudi short stories. The study shows that the dialogue performs diverse functions linked to narrative’s transformations in the text. Also some of the dialogues cover the text and other contained different partial narratives, or parallel stories to the central story. The study

Local adaptation to rare habitats is difficult due to gene flow, but can occur if the habitat has higher productivity. Differences in offspring phenotypes have attracted little attention in this context. We model a scenario where the rarer habitat improves offspring's later competitive ability – a carryover effect that operates on top of local adaptation to one or the other habitat type. Assuming

We provide the existence and asymptotic description of solitary wave solutions to a class of modified Green–Naghdi systems, modeling the propagation of long surface or internal waves. This class was recently proposed by Duchêne et al. (Stud Appl Math 137:356–415, 2016) in order to improve the frequency dispersion of the original Green–Naghdi system while maintaining the same precision. The solitar

The thermophysical properties of the ionic liquid, 1-butyl-3-methylimidazolium bis{(trifluoromethyl)sulfonyl}imide, [C4mim][NTf2], at medium temperature, were predicted based on a summary of previous literature data. Furthermore, the heat transfer behavior in smooth and corrugated tubes was numerically studied, using different fluid temperatures and corrugation heights. A multi-objective optimizat

Aims: To assess the effect of baseline body mass index (BMI) and the occurrence of nausea and/or vomiting on weight loss induced by semalgutide, a once-weekly glucagon-like peptide 1 analogue for the treatment of type 2 diabetes. Semaglutide demonstrated superior reductions in HbA1c and superior weight loss (by 2.3-6.3 kg) versus different comparators across the SUSTAIN 1 to 5 trials; the contribu

Background: Cardiac rehabilitation improves prognosis after an acute myocardial infarction (AMI), however, the optimal method of implementation is unknown. The aim of the study was to evaluate the effect of individually-tailored, nurse-led cardiac rehabilitation on patient outcomes. Method: This single-centre retrospective observational study included 217 patients (62±9years, 73% men). All patient

Hemostasis requires conversion of fibrinogen to fibrin fibers that generate a characteristic network, interact with blood cells, and initiate tissue repair. The fibrin network is porous and highly permeable, but the spatial arrangement of the external clot face is unknown. Here we show that fibrin transitioned to the blood-air interface through Langmuir film formation, producing a protective film

Nanostructures are found everywhere in our environment, of either natural oranthropogenic origin. Volcanoes emit them, breakdown of plastic releases them, andthey are even produced in candlelight. Designed nanostructures are used in sunscreen,food products, electronics and many more readily available products. Still, there are alot of things we do not know about their behavior. To call them miniscThis thesis presents the results of studies done on various biomolecules and their interactions with nanomaterials. The biomolecule sources are everything from purified, single proteins to the complicated mixture of blood serum and cell culture media. Similarly, the nanomaterial sources vary from spherical titanium dioxide, gold, and polystyrene nanoparticles to novel nanowires of gallium arsenide