BACKGROUND: Increased infection risk in inflammatory rheumatic diseases may be due to inflammation or immunosuppressive treatment. The influence of tumor necrosis factor (TNF) inhibitors on the risk of developing surgical site infections (SSIs) is not fully known. We compared the incidence of SSI after elective orthopedic surgery or hand surgery in patients with a rheumatic disease when TNF inhibi

Some non-Western immigrant groups in Europe have elevated risk of psychosis relative to native-born. It is hypothesized that neighborhood ethnic density moderates this risk. Immigration to Sweden has increased substantially recently, particularly from the Middle East. This study examined the relationship between neighborhood ethnic density (i.e., living in an immigrant enclave) and risk of psychot

Bending and first flexural mode vibration behavior of electrostatic actuated nanometer-sized interdigitated cantilever arrays are characterized under vacuum conditions. The "pull-in" effect in dc driving and the "hard spring effect" in ac driving are observed. A mass sensitivity of 20 fg is expected for our devices due to the ultra-small mass of the arm and relative high.. factor. The mass-spring

Attempts have been made to make traditional local foods a part of the tourists' experiences, but few have caught great interest among the tourist and leisure consumers. An exception is the Norwegian traditional Sheep's-head meal. This article focuses on driving factors behind this success. Sheep's heads have been continuously available and used at private meals, albeit the status of the meals has

We present new algorithms for listing triangles in dense and sparse graphs. The running time of our algorithm for dense graphs is O~(n^ω+n^3(ω−1)/(5−ω)t^2(3−ω)/(5−ω)), and the running time of the algorithm for sparse graphs is O~(m^2ω/(ω+1)+m^3(ω−1)/(ω+1)t^(3−ω)/(ω+1)), where n is the number of vertices, m is the number of edges, t is the number of triangles to be listed, and ω < 2.373 is the expo

Hollow structures on the submicrometer scale (urn) are obtained with the assembly of polyelectrolytes according to the layer-by-layer (LbL) technique. Following the LbL procedure, polymers alginate and chitosan were alternatively adsorbed on a vesicular template made of didodecyldimethylammonium bromide (DDAB). Evidence for the removal of the vesicular template entrapped in the alginate/chitosan f

The recovery the alkaline solvent from of a residual stream after the extraction of hemicelluloses in wheat bran was investigated. The solution was withdrawn from an ultrafiltration (UF) process in which hemicelluloses were recovered. The UF permeate, containing mainly NaOH, lignin and mono- and oligosaccharides, was treated by nanofiltration (NF). Seven NF membranes were tested in a parametric st

Adsorption of trimethyl phosphate (TMP) and triethyl phosphate (TEP) on well-characterized nanopartides of hematite (alpha-Fe2O3), maghemite (gamma-Fe2O3), and goethite (alpha-FeOOH) has been studied by in situ diffuse reflectance infrared Fourier transform spectroscopy (DRIFTS), 2D correlation DRIFTS analysis, and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) on dry and water pre-covered surfaces. It is

The dynamics of ionization-induced electron injection in high density (similar to 1.2 x 10(19) cm(-3)) regime of laser wakefield acceleration is investigated by analyzing the betatron X-ray emission. In such high density operation, the laser normalized vector potential exceeds the injection-thresholds of both ionization-injection and self-injection due to self-focusing. In this regime, direct expe

AIM: Cigarette smoke exposure increases the risk of stroke. Upregulation of 5-hydroxytryptamine 1B (5-HT(1B) ) receptors is associated with the pathogenesis of cerebral ischemia. The present study examined the hypothesis that the expression of 5-HT(1B) receptors is altered in brain vessels after secondhand smoke (SHS) exposure. METHODS: Rats were exposed to SHS in vivo for 200 min daily for 8

Evidence suggests that exposure to welding fumes is a risk factor for lung cancer. We examined relationships between low-to-moderate occupational exposure to particles from welding fumes and cancer-related biomarkers for oxidative stress, changes in telomere length, and alterations in DNA methylation. We enrolled 101 welders and 127 controls (all currently nonsmoking men) from southern Sweden. We

Echolocating bats employ active sensing as they emit sounds and listen to the returning echoes to probe their environment for navigation, obstacle avoidance, and pursuit of prey. The sensing behavior of bats includes the planning of 3D spatial trajectory paths, which are guided by echo information. In this study, we examined the relationship between active sonar sampling and flight motor output as

Shannon's seminal approach to estimating information capacity is widely used to quantify information processing by biological systems. However, the Shannon information theory, which is based on power spectrum estimation, necessarily contains two sources of error: time delay bias error and random error. These errors are particularly important for systems with relatively large time delay values and

Are people strategically ignorant of the negative externalities their activities cause the environment? Herein we examine if people avoid costless information on those externalities and use ignorance as an excuse to reduce pro-environmental behavior. We develop a theoretical framework in which people feel internal pressure ("guilt") from causing harm-to the environment (e.g., emitting carbon dioxi