Several diesel exhaust (DE) characteristics, comprising both particle and gas phase, recognized as important when linking with health effects, are not reported in human chamber exposure studies. In order to understand effects of DE on humans there is a need for better characterization of DE when performing exposure studies. The aim of this study was to determine and quantify detailed DE characteri

Allergic rhinitis is a major atopic disease. Even if much is known about the pathophysiology of this condition, and despite the fact that good treatments are available, there is a need for new treatment options, particularly for such aiming at new targets and reduced side effects. Recruitment and activation of eosinophils is a key feature of allergic rhinitis. Eosinophils have different activatio

The automotive industry is experiencing tightening emission legislations together with high demands on performance and driveability. As a counteraction, controller software tends to become more and more complex. Intricate controller software has several downsides, the large number of controller parameters yields an exhaustive calibration task, often performed through costly experiments. In additio

An all digital phase-locked loop (ADPLL) has been implemented in a 90-nm CMOS process. It uses a phase-frequency detector (PFD) connected to two time-to-digital converters (TDC). To save power the TDCs use delay line cells with uneven delay time. During frequency acquisition an automatic tuning bank controller selects active bank of the digitally controlled oscillator (DCO), which features three s

Although the familial clustering of multiple myeloma (MM) supports the role of inherited susceptibility, only recently has direct evidence for genetic predisposition been demonstrated. A meta-analysis of two genome-wide association (GWA) studies has identified single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) localising to a number of genomic regions that are robustly associated with MM risk. In this review,

We present a study on the electronic properties of grain boundaries (GBs) in polycrystalline Cu(In,Ga)Se-2 (CIGSe) thin films by means of Kelvin probe force microscopy. As grown as well as KCN-treated films were investigated comparatively. No influence of the chemical treatment on the electronic properties of GBs was found. GBs generally exhibited large variations in their electronic properties. B

We investigated a 3.75-m-long lacustrine sediment record from Lake Äntu Sinijärv, northern Estonia, which has a modeled basal age >12,800 cal yr BP. Our multi-proxy approach focused on the stable oxygen isotope composition (δ18O) of freshwater tufa. Our new palaeoclimate information for the Eastern Baltic region, based on high-resolution δ18O data (219 samples), is supported by pollen and plant ma

Objectives. To explore whether aspects of housing and health among very old people with self-reported Parkinson's disease (PD) differ from matched controls. Methods. Data from the ENABLE-AGE Survey Study were used to identify people with self-reported PD (n = 20) and three matched controls/individual (n = 60). The matching criteria were age (mean = 82 years), sex, country, and type of housing. The

Selection is assumed to eliminate life-histories showing high variability in vital rates that have the greatest influence on population performance. Therefore, an inverse variability-importance relationship of vital rates is believed to be a universal pattern for diverse life-histories. We tested for such a relationship using multi-year demographic data on a large number of populations of two pere

The present review examines the evidence regarding the effect of β-glucan on variables linked to the metabolic syndrome (MetS), including appetite control, glucose control, hypertension, and gut microbiota composition. Appetite control can indirectly influence MetS by inducing a decreased energy intake, and promising results for a β-glucan intake to decrease appetite have been found using gut horm

Background: Propionibacterium acnes is a Gram positive rod inhabiting the human skin that also infects orthopaedic implants and is associated with acne vulgaris. Previously, one lytic bacteriophage, PA6, from P. acnes has been sequenced and partially characterized. We recently isolated several inducible phages from P. acnes classified as Siphoviruses based on morphology and partial genome sequenci

Abstract in UndeterminedUzbekistan, after gaining independence from the Soviet Union in 1991, had publicly declared that it would adhere to democratic governance principles in designing and implementing its public administration policies. As a newly-independent state with democracy claims, Uzbekistan had tried to establish new democratic institutions with an effort to capture international communi

The formation and microstructure of a novel microemulsion based on a salt-free catanionic surfactant have been examined by considering the hexadecyltrimethylammonium octylsulfonate (TASo)-decane-D(2)O system and using small-angle neutron scattering and self-diffusion NMR. With focus on the emulsification failure boundary, o/w discrete droplets have been observed and characterized for all of the st

A simulation scheme based on nonequilibrium Green's functions for biased periodic semiconductor heterostructure devices is presented in detail. The implementation can determine current and optical gain both for small and large optical fields. Specific results for superlattices, quantum cascade lasers, and quantum cascade detectors are shown which demonstrate the capabilities of the approach.

The silver flat field spectrometer (SFFS) is a high-resolution grazing-incidence diagnostic for magnetically confined plasmas. It covers the wavelength range of 25-450 A with a resolution of Delta lambda=0.3 A full width at half maximum. The SFFS employs a spherical 1200 lines/mm grating for flat-field focusing. The imaging is done using a backilluminated Photometrics charge-coupled device camera

GaMnAs layers on (0 0 1)-oriented GaAs substrates were grown by the molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) method. Structural properties of samples processed at up to 920 K under hydrostatic Ar pressure up to 1.1 GPa were investigated by X-ray, secondary ion mass spectroscopy and atomic force microscopy methods. The sign of strain (compressive or tensile) of the GaMnAs layers, related to a creation of MnAs