The molecular sensitivity provided by optical photons has potential advantages in medical diagnostics, for example, in distinguishing healthy from cancerous tissue. However, scattering resulting from inhomogeneities in the refractive index of tissues prevents spatially resolved optical measurements in biological material, except at very shallow depths. This thesis presents research on a medical im

Agents that trigger cell differentiation are highly efficacious in treating certain cancers, but such approaches are not generally effective in most malignancies. Compounds such as DMSO and hexamethylene bisacetamide (HMBA) have been used to induce differentiation in experimental systems, but their mechanisms of action and potential range of uses on that basis have not been developed. Here, we sho

The bi-component leukocidins of Staphylococcus aureus are important virulence factors that lyse human phagocytic cells and contribute to immune evasion. The γ-hemolysins (HlgAB and HlgCB) and Panton-Valentine leukocidin (PVL or LukSF) were shown to assemble from soluble subunits into membrane-bound oligomers on the surface of target cells, creating barrel-like pore structures that lead to cell lys

Reconstitution of the tyrosyl radical in ribonucleotide reductase protein R2 requires oxidation of a diferrous site by oxygen. The reaction involves one externally supplied electron in addition to the three electrons provided by oxidation of the Tyr-122 side chain and formation of the μ-oxo- bridged diferric site. Reconstitution of R2 protein Y122F, lacking the internal pathway involving Tyr-122,

BACKGROUND: Patients with oesophageal and gastric cancer have a low likelihood of being cured and suffer from a broad spectrum of symptoms and problems that negatively affect their quality-of-life (QOL). Although the majority (67-75%) of patients at the time of diagnosis suffer from an incurable disease, research has primarily focused on the pre- and postoperative phase among patients treated with

Adopting a human rights-based approach to examining law, policy and practice relating to displacement in the context of disasters and climate change highlights gaps between international and national standards, and realities on the ground.

October is coming to an end as we release this sixth and last episode of the first season (not to worry, we are already planning a second season). This time Nic and Rebecca have invited Paul McMillan to the mic and chat with him about our galaxy, the Milky Way, and his involvement in ESA's Gaia satellite . Thereafter they take a closer look at the Pleiades.

In this very special solstice episode of The Meridian Nic and Rebecca look back at some of the highlights of 2021. With the days growing ever longer here in the Northern Hemisphere they have rallied a troupe of PhD students to compete in the 2021 Astronomy Games! Nic is joined by Alvaro and Johan on his team and Rebecca has convinced Daniel and Madeleine to join her team. The Games were recorded i

In this first episode of the second season Nic and Rebecca invite Ori Fox to the podcast to discuss the newly launched JWST. Ori is an instrument scientist at the pace Telescope Science Institute (STSI) working on the Mid-Infrared Instrument (MIRI) which is one of four instruments on the James Webb Space Telescope. In this second season of the Meridian we are also bringing you some field reporting

This work presents an analysis of the observed trends in extreme precipitation events in the Paraná River basin (PRB) from 1977 to 2016 (40 yr) based on daily records from 853 stations. The Mann–Kendall test and inverse-distance-weighted interpolation were applied to annual and seasonal precipitation and also for four extreme precipitation indices. The results show that the negative trends (signif

Brown macroalgae (Phaeophyta) hold high potential as feedstock for biorefineries due to high biomass productivity and carbohydrate content. They are, however, a challenging, unconventional feedstock for microbial refining and several processing problems need to be solved to make them a viable option. Pre-treatment is necessary to enhance accessibility and solubility of the biomass components but s

A continuous integrated bioprocess available from the earliest stages of process development allows for an easier, more efficient and faster development and characterization of an integrated process as well as production of small-scale drug candidates. The process presented in this article is a proof-of-concept of a continuous end-to-end monoclonal antibody production platform at a very small scal

The elliptic flow (v2) of (anti-)3He is measured in Pb–Pb collisions at sNN=5.02TeV in the transverse-momentum (pT) range of 2–6 GeV/c for the centrality classes 0–20%, 20–40%, and 40–60% using the event-plane method. This measurement is compared to that of pions, kaons, and protons at the same center-of-mass energy. A clear mass ordering is observed at low pT, as expected from relativistic hydrod

Cigarette smoking is a risk factor for osteoporosis and bone fracture. Moreover, smoking causes exposure to cadmium, which is a known risk factor for osteoporosis. It is hypothesized that part of smoking-induced osteoporosis may be mediated via cadmium from tobacco smoke. We investigated this hypothesis using mediation analysis in a Swedish cohort of elderly men. This study was performed in 886 el

Objective: The aim of this systematic review and meta-analysis (SR-MA) was to identify signaling molecule profiles and blood-derived biomarkers in migraine and cluster headache (CH) patients. Background: Currently no migraine and CH valid biomarkers are available. Blood tests based on biomarker profiles have been used to gather information about the nervous system. Such tests have not yet been est

Noninvasive methods for the characterization of shallow subsurface have been used routinely for some 20–30 years. The growth in these methods has been driven by a variety of breakthroughs in the use of electrical, electromagnetic, and seismic methods, to mention only the most common techniques. Increasing field capabilities and computational power have yet to yield all their potential fruits. In t

Purpose of review: The main goal of this narrative review is to assess whether physical activity (PA) influences peak bone mass and fracture risk. Recent findings: Several randomized controlled trials (RCT) show that short-term PA intervention programs in childhood improve the accrual of bone mineral. There are now also long-term controlled PA intervention studies demonstrating that both boys and

Vertical nanowires with cointegrated metal-oxide-semiconductor field-effect-transistor (MOSFET) selectors and nonvolatile resistive random access memory (RRAM) cells represent a promising candidate for fast, energy-efficient, cross-point memory cells. This paper explores indium-tin-oxide-hafnium-dioxide RRAM cells integrated onto arrays of indium-arsenide (InAs) vertical nanowires with a resulting

Venoarterial (VA) extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) support for postcardiotomy cardiogenic shock (PCS) in patients undergoing surgery for acute type A aortic dissection (TAAD) is controversial and the available evidence is confined to limited case series. We aimed to evaluate the impact of this salvage therapy in this patient population. Between January 2010 and March 2018, all TAAD patie

We envision the use of large intelligent surface (LIS) technology, which is a promising concept that goes beyond massive multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO), for positioning applications due to its ability to focus energy in the 3D space. The Cramér-Rao lower bounds (CBLBs) for positioning using a LIS which can resolve amplitude and phase with full resolution have already been determined in the