Prediction of analyte retention times requires prior knowledge of the column void volume, the measurement of which is still highly contested within the literature and therefore experimental based prediction is often used. In this study, we investigated deuterated acetonitrile as an isotopically labelled mobile phase component to observe its elution behaviour in a binary mixture with water at 25 di

Circularity in manufacturing is critical to reducing raw material usage and waste. Ecological embeddedness examines circular relationships intended to benefit both economic actors and the natural environment. By understanding circular relationships in the value chain, manufacturers can formulate strategies that are eco-effective. This work develops and validates an original circularity tool to mea

Industry 4.0 (I4.0) is an emerging concept describing the business setting application of a broad set of digitalisation technologies, connectivity, and automation. The most common critical infrastructure (CI) uses Industrial Control Systems (ICS) for operation and supervisory control. However, the Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) and Internet of things (IoT) systems are examples of

Sterols have played an important role in membrane evolution. The effect of these molecules, particularly the naturally occurring ones, such as cholesterol, ergosterol, lanosterol, phytosterols and oxysterols on the properties of lipid model membranes have been extensively investigated. Unfortunately, other naturally occurring sterols such as desmosterol and lathosterol have received very little at

Mycobacterial infections, including tuberculosis, are a major health problem globally. Prevention and treatments of tuberculosis are challenging due to the poor efficacy of the current vaccine and the emergence of drug-resistant strains. Therefore, it is critical to increase our basic understanding of mycobacterial virulence strategies as well as the host immune response during infection in the co

The ongoing climate change can modulate the behavior of global vegetation and influence the terrestrial biosphere carbon sink. Past observation-based studies have mainly focused on the linear trend or interannual variability of the vegetation greenness, but could not explicitly deal with the effect of natural decadal variability due to the short length of observations. Here we put the variabilitie

Multiple episodes of Enterococcus faecalis bacteremia (EfsB) may indicate a relapse and be due to an undiagnosed infective endocarditis (IE). The aims were to study the clinical presentation of patients with EfsB with focus on the risk of recurrent infection and IE, identify potential improvements of the management, and to investigate whether E. faecalis isolates from different episodes in the sam

This master thesis assesses the potential of Cloud Manufacturing applications in large-scale manufacturing. Firstly, this thesis determines the benefits and drawbacks of and the barriers to the implementation of Cloud Manufacturing. Secondly, five interviews were conducted with two companies that had begun implementing Cloud Manufacturing within their organizations. Lastly, Cloud Manufacturing was

The structural reforms of the curriculum implemented by the Hong Kong administration in the field of education at the beginning of the 2000s had profound implications for the future perspectives and ambitions of students and graduates. This thesis tries to investigate the key constraints posed by the reforms and their direct influence on Hong Kong local student’s perception of their future careers

It is well-known that an ideal extraction method enabling quantitative analysis should give complete extraction of the target analytes as well as minimal co-extraction of unwanted matrix substances. If the extraction method is part of a nontarget screening protocol, the desired analytes can differ widely in terms of chemical properties. In chromatography, terminologies such as recovery, selectivit

The immune system is of central importance to clear-off pathogens in order to keep an organism healthy. In vertebrates, the Major Histocompatibility Complex (MHC) is a genomic region that holds key genes involved in adaptive immunity and in particular in the antigen presenting process. The presentation relies on MHC class I (MHC-I) and MHC class II (MHC-II) molecules that are encoded by MHC-I and

Smooth muscle cells (SMCs) are constituents of hollow inner organs. Their contractile function governs essential physiological functions, such as breathing, eating, blood pressure control, urination, and childbirth. Skeletal and cardiac muscle cells are terminally differentiated cell types, but SMCs are highly plastic and change their phenotype in disease. Cues presented by the microenvironment an

Surveillance cameras are used for video monitoring. To complement the video stream, different external accessories can be attached to a camera. The addition of external accessories brings certain limitations in terms of aesthetics and functionality. To overcome these limitations, an internal platform for connecting accessories would enable the creation of better and more future-proof products. Thi

The scanning photoelectron microscope (SPEM), developed more than 30 years ago, has undergone numerous technical developments, providing an incredibly vast kind of feasible sample environments, which span from the traditional high spatial resolution core level based chemical analysis to insitu and operando complex experiments, including also electrochemical setups and operational electronic device

We discuss how multinational enterprises (MNEs) can play a leading role and take more responsibility towards reducing inequalities by developing a global sustainability regime. We especially focus on how this may contribute towards the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (UN SDGs). Our purpose is to identify and discuss the components and activities that are needed to develop such a stra

The behavioural variant of Alzheimer’s disease (bvAD) is characterized by early predominant behavioural changes, mimicking the behavioural variant of frontotemporal dementia (bvFTD), which is characterized by social cognition deficits and altered biometric responses to socioemotional cues. These functions remain understudied in bvAD. We investigated multiple social cognition components (i.e. emoti