Asthma is typically characterized by variable respiratory symptoms and airflow limitation. Along with the pathophysiology and symptoms are immunological and inflammatory processes. The last decades research has revealed that the immunology of asthma is highly heterogeneous. This has clinical consequences and identification of immunological phenotypes is currently used to guide biological treatment

Purpose: Getting an incurable oesophageal or gastric cancer diagnosis is a major stressful life event associated with severe physical, psychosocial and existential challenges. To provide timely and efficient support, based on patients' experiences, the aim of the study was to explore how patients newly diagnosed with incurable oesophageal and gastric cancer manage everyday life. Method: Semi-struc

Non-negative matrix approximation (NNMA) has been used in diverse scientific fields, but it still has some major limitations. In the present study a novel trilinear decomposition method, termed three-way NNMA (TWNNMA), was developed. The method decomposes three-way arrays directly without unfolding and overcomes the restriction of locking zero elements in the deduced multiplicative update rules by

Epithelial cells play an important role in maintaining the intestinal mucosa barrier, a barrier that is impaired in several inflammatory conditions. The mechanisms behind this impairment are not known, but it can be presumed that structural alterations of the epithelial cells are involved. In support of this notion, we here show the inflammatory mediator leukotriene D4 (LTD4) triggered first a rap

Att social isolering och ofrivillig ensamhet har negativa effekter på den psykiska och fysiska hälsan är ingen nyhet. Ensamhet är en folksjukdom. Och undersökningar visar att den ofrivilliga ensamheten har starka kopplingar till boendet och det egna hemmet. Tiden under Covid-19-pandemin har präglats hårt av uppmaningen om ”social distansiering”. Ännu mer tid har spenderats i eller i närheten av h

Background: With the increasing digitalization in health care, an effective instrument is necessary to assess health care consumers' digital competencies-their "eHealth literacy." The 7-scale eHealth Literacy Questionnaire (eHLQ), based on the theoretically robust eHealth Literacy Framework, has shown strong psychometric properties in Denmark and Australia.Objective: The aim of this study was to t

Protein-DNA interactions are involved in many biological processes essential for gene expression and regulation. To understand the molecular mechanisms of protein-DNA recognition, it is crucial to analyze and identify DNA-binding residues of protein-DNA complexes. Here, we proposed a novel descriptor shape string and another two related features shape string PSSM and shape string pair composition

Images are created not in a vacuum but in hidden yet potent, contending political forces. The missionary endeavour of the nineteenth century was not exempt from this reality. Images became integral to missionary publications and shaped the metropolitan imagination regarding the colonised people, their religion, gods, and rituals. Displaying the colonies and their people was of utmost importance as

Segmentation of grey matter in magnetic resonance images of the spinal cord is an important step in assessing disease state in neurological disorders such as multiple sclerosis. However, manual delineation of spinal cord tissue is time-consuming and susceptible to variability introduced by the rater. We present a novel segmentation method for spinal cord tissue that uses fully convolutional encode

Channel fabrication technology has become increasingly important for microfluidic and nanofluidic devices. In particular, glass channels have high chemical and physical stability, high optical transparency, and ease of surface modification, so that there is increasing interest in glass microfluidic devices for chemical experiments in microfluidics and nanofluidics. For the fabrication of glass cha

Many studies have demonstrated that shape string is an extremely important structure representation, since it is more complete than the classical secondary structure. The shape string provides detailed information also in the regions denoted random coil. But few services are provided for systematic analysis of protein shape string. To fill this gap, we have developed an accurate shape string predi

Numerous methods for predicting c-turns in proteins have been developed. However, the results they generally provided are not very good, with a Matthews correlation coefficient (MCC) ≤0.18. Here, an attempt has been made to develop a method to improve the accuracy of γ-turn prediction. First, we employ the geometric mean metric as optimal criterion to evaluate the performance of support vector mac

This thesis focuses on various aspects in terahertz quantum cascade lasers such as high temperature performances, electrical instabilities and chaos. In the first part of the thesis, an introduction to the topic and the non equilibrium Green's function package applied is given with particular emphasise on the inhomogeneous domain model and the chaos theory. In addition, new results regarding the h

It is often a challenge for a child to communicate their pain, and their possibilities to do so should be strengthened in healthcare settings. Digital self-assessment provides a potential solution for person-centered care in pain management and promotes child participation when a child is ill. A child's perception of pain assessment differs when it is assessed using digital or analog formats. As w

Shakespeare's Hamlet has been retold in children's versions several times in Sweden in recent years. It was the subject of the first episode of the children's television programme På teatern [At the Theatre], written and directed by Christina Nilsson for SVT in 2001–2002, where Shakespearean actors meet their child or grandchild backstage after a performance to tell and partly enact the story of t

Objective: This study aimed to evaluate the 9-month cost and health-related quality of life (HRQOL) outcomes of resistance versus viral load testing strategies to manage virological failure in low-middle income countries. Methods: We analyzed secondary outcomes from the REVAMP clinical trial: a pragmatic, open label, parallel-arm randomized trial investigating resistance versus viral load testing

INTRODUCTION: Decreased dopaminergic activity - as reflected by lower levels of the major metabolite homovanillic acid (HVA) in cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) - may be involved in the pathophysiology of attempted suicide. An inverse association has also been found between dopaminergic activity and clinical symptoms of depression and anxiety in non-suicidal individuals. The aim of this study was to asse

Despite the passing in 2015 of UNSCR 2250 on Youth, Peace, and Security, the study of young people’s political agency in conflict, and the possibilities for empowerment and transformative change, remains sparse. This article investigates generative processes of youth political agency in the Syrian war since 2011 and under what conditions conflict has politically empowered/disempowered youth. Drawi