BACKGROUND: Butyric acid is produced by degradation of dietary fibre by microbiota and is crucial for maintaining a healthy colon. The physicochemical properties are important for butyric acid formation, and this study aimed to evaluate the use of malting to tailor the functional characteristics of barley dietary fibre. The effect of different steeping conditions was evaluated in laboratory-scale

Lipases are key components in the mechanisms underlying the persistence and virulence of infections by fungi, and thus also promising triggers for bioresponsive lipid-based liquid crystalline nanoparticles. We here propose a platform in which only a minor component of the formulation is susceptible to cleavage by lipase and where hydrolysis triggers a controlled phase transition within the nanopar

Rent seeking is central to processes of financialisation and crisis formtation, not least in tourism economies. Rent seeking involves the making and taking of rent gaps geared to expand unearned incomes in the form of interest revenues from debt and rental revenues from property. Changes in built environments become increasingly determined by where rent gaps can be created and appropriated, rather

Suppression of nitrite oxidizing bacteria (NOB) is of vital importance to achieve successful, energy efficient, mainstream anammox processes for wastewater treatment. In this study, biofilm carriers from a fully nitrifying MBBR system, fed with mainstream wastewater, were temporarily exposed to reject water from sludge dewatering, to evaluate this as a possible strategy to inhibit NOB and achieve

Sustainable agriculture requires nutrient management options that lead to a profitable crop yield with relatively low nitrogen (N) losses to the environment. We studied whether the addition of contrasting organic amendments together with inorganic fertilizer can promote both requirements simultaneously. In particular we studied how the chemical composition of organic amendments affects the biomass

Extramatrical mycelia (EMM) of ectomycorrhizal fungi are important in carbon (C) and nitrogen (N) cycling in forests, but poor knowledge about EMM biomass and necromass turnovers makes the quantification of their role problematic. We studied the impacts of elevated CO2 and N fertilization on EMM production and turnover in a Pinus taeda forest. EMM C was determined by the analysis of ergosterol (bi

The web of relationships between wellbeing and the environments in which people live has long been recognized. However, relatively little research has been conducted about end-of-life surroundings from the perspective of the dying person. In this study, we investigate which aspects of their surroundings are particularly meaningful for the people inhabiting them in the last phases of life, based on

The use of process models to simulate the fate of micropollutants in wastewater treatment plants is constantly growing. However, due to the high workload and cost of measuring campaigns, many simulation studies lack sufficiently long time series representing realistic wastewater influent dynamics. In this paper, the feasibility of the Benchmark Simulation Model No. 2 (BSM2) influent generator is t

Intercalated composite materials were prepared with CaAl-layered double hydroxide as host and Cu(II)-amino acid (L-cysteine, L-histidine and L-tyrosine) complex anions as guests. Two methods (intercalation of the ligand first followed by constructing the complex; preforming the complex first, then introducing it among the layers of the host) and optimization of the synthesis conditions were perfor

Global Bodies in Grey Zones departs from the current globalised market in biological material and treatments. Three different forms of medical travel are in focus: transplant travel, fertility travel and stem cell travel. The global travelling includes legally organised cross-border care, as well as completely illegal activities involving trafficking in bodies and body parts implicating a range of

Migratory connectivity describes to which degree different breeding populations have distinct (non-overlapping) non-breeding sites. Uncovering the level of migratory connectivity is crucial for effective conservation actions and for understanding of the evolution of local adaptations and migratory routes. Here we investigate migration patterns in a passerine bird, the great reed warbler Acrocephal

For elderly patients with mantle cell lymphoma (MCL), there is no defined standard therapy. In this multicenter open-label phase I/II trial we evaluated the addition of lenalidomide (LEN) to rituximab-bendamustine (R-B) as first-line treatment to elderly MCL patients. Patients >65 years with untreated MCL, stage II-IV were eligible for inclusion. Primary endpoints were maximally tolerable dose (MT

'Heat' diarrhea in foals is an onerous but not life-threatening ailment, which indicates that it may be of osmotic origin. This was confirmed by a successful attempt, presented in this paper, to alleviate the severity and duration of foal heat diarrhea with the use of a typical absorbent, kaolin clay, as a feed additive, usually applied in feed production as an anticaking agent. Based on the prese

This doctoral thesis examines the encounter between the dead and the living within 19th and 20th century landscape cemeteries. It shows how the relationship unfolds through the materiality and practices occurring within them.Landscape cemeteries were established from the late 18th century and with their garden-inspired design, location outside of the city and increasing secular administration were

Graphene's success has stimulated great interest and research in the synthesis and characterization of graphene-like 2D materials, single and few-atom-thick layers of van der Waals materials, which show fascinating and technologically useful properties. This review presents an overview of recent electrochemical sensors and biosensors based on graphene and on graphene-like 2D materials for biomarke

The well-tuned spinning technology from spiders has attracted many researchers with the promise of producing high-performance, biocompatible, and yet biodegradable fibers. So far, the intricate chemistry and rheology of spinning have eluded us. A breakthrough was achieved recently, when the 3D structures of the N and C terminal domains of spider dragline silk were resolved and their pH-induced dim

Surface emissions of CO2 from fossil fuel combustion (ΦFFCO2) are estimated for the Netherlands for the period of May 2006-June 2009 using ambient atmospheric observations taken at station Lutjewad in the Netherlands (6°21'E, 53°24'N, 1 m. a.s.l.). Measurements of Δ14C on 2-weekly integrations of CO2 and CO mixing ratios are combined to construct a quasi-continuous proxy record (FFCO2*) from which