Building occupant behaviour is known to be an important factor that drives building energy use and the associated carbon emissions. A substantial body of work has investigated occupant behaviour and the underlying drivers. Yet it is generally known that some buildings allow only minimal behavioural intervention, such as on/off control of lights. Other buildings allow a much higher degree of interv

Background: Hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection can lead to a type of primary liver cancer called hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). Georgia, a high HCV prevalence country, started an HCV elimination program in 2015. In addition to tracking incidence and mortality, surveillance for the HCV-attributable fraction of HCC is an important indicator of the program’s impact. This study assesses HCV infection-

In the low deposition situation of today at many of the long-term Swedish forest monitoring sites, the deposition measured as precipitation to the open field, i.e. bulk deposition of oxidized sulphur (S) is often higher or equal to deposition of S sampled under the forest canopies, i.e. as throughfall. This suggests that the total S deposition estimated using throughfall is underestimated. The rea

Non-structural protein 3 (Nsp3) is the largest protein encoded by the coronavirus (CoV) genome. It consists of multiple domains that perform critical functions during the viral life cycle. CoV-Y is the most C-terminal domain of Nsp3, and it exhibits evolutionary conservation across diverse CoVs; however, the exact biological function of CoV-Y remains unclear. Here, we determined the crystal struct

Some dinoflagellates produce toxic secondary metabolites that correlate with increased resistance to grazers. The allocation costs of toxin production have been repeatedly addressed, but with conflicting results. Few studies have considered the potential costs of this defense to the photosystem, even though defense toxins (e.g., karlotoxins and brevetoxins) are closely linked to the photoprotectiv

Distributed optimal control is known to be challenging and can become intractable even for linear-quadratic regulator problems. In this work, we study a special class of such problems where distributed state feedback controllers can give near-optimal performance. More specifically, we consider networked linear-quadratic controllers with decoupled costs and spatially exponentially decaying dynamics

In recent years, hydrogels have been demonstrated as simple and cheap additives to improve the optical properties and material stability of organometal halide perovskites (OHPs), with most research centered on the use of hydrophilic, petrochemical-derived polymers. Here, we investigate the role of a peptide hydrogel in passivating defect sites and improving the stability of methylammonium lead iod

In the present work, we have studied the interaction of water with spinel cobalt oxide (Co3O4), an effect which has been considered a major cause of its catalytic deactivation. Employing a Co3O4(111) model thin film grown on Ir(100) in (ultra)high vacuum, and ambient pressure X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (APXPS), hydroxylation in 0.5 mbar H2O vapor at room temperature was monitored in real tim

Background: In Sweden, surgical treatment of Hirschsprung’s disease (HSCR) was centralized from four to two pediatric surgery centers 1st of July 2018. In adults, centralization of surgical care for complex or rare diseases seems to improve quality of care. There is little evidence supporting centralization of pediatric surgical care. The aim of this study was to assess surgical management and pos

Phosphorus (P) is a limiting nutrient to production in various agricultural ecosystems and many soils contain large amounts of legacy P that is strongly adsorbed on iron (Fe) and aluminum oxides and therefore poorly available to plants. Here we investigate how much mineral-bound P is mobilized in different cropping systems and the influence of agronomic practices on this process. Root ingrowth cor

Background: The aim of this study was to assess whether hypothermia increased survival and improved functional outcome when compared with normothermia in out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA) patients with similar characteristics than in previous randomized studies showing benefits for hypothermia. Methods: Post hoc analysis of a pragmatic, multicenter, randomized clinical trial (TTM-2, NCT0290830

Pneumococcal surface protein A (PspA) is an important virulence factor in Streptococcus pneumoniae that binds to lactoferrin and protects the bacterium from the bactericidal action of lactoferricins—cationic peptides released upon lactoferrin proteolysis. The present study investigated if PspA can prevent killing by another cationic peptide, indolicidin. PspA-negative pneumococci were more sensiti

The study of combustion characteristics and heat feedback mechanisms of liquid fuels is important for fire safety engineering, particularly in the context of energy utilization. In thiswork, the effect of lip height on the evolution of n-heptane pool fire burning rates and flame heights, as well as the thermal feedback control mechanism, were investigated in a series of experiments in the presence

The insulin-like growth factor 1 (IGF-1) is a pleiotropic hormone that regulates essential life-history traits and is known for its major contribution to determining individual ageing processes. High levels of IGF-1 have been linked to increased mortality and are hypothesised to cause oxidative stress. This effect has been observed in laboratory animals, but whether it pertains to wild vertebrates

Cardiac arrest is a sudden cessation of heart function, leading to an abrupt loss of blood flow and oxygen to vital organs. This life-threatening emergency requires immediate medical intervention and can lead to severe neurological injury or death. Methods and biomarkers to predict neurological outcome are available but lack accuracy. Such methods would allow personalizing healthcare and help clin

Surface soil moisture (SM) is a crucial variable representing the water content in soil at the topmost soil layer. Accurate data of SM are essential for various purposes, including the monitoring of drought, vegetation modeling, weather forecasting, and agriculture management. Over the past decades, microwave remote sensing has been employed to estimate SM at large scales, with the Sentinel-1 sate

Introduction: Diet stands as a pivotal modifiable risk factor influencing weight gain and the onset of type-2 diabetes (T2D). This study delves into the variation in glucose and regulatory pancreatic hormone levels subsequent to the consumption of meals with differing macronutrient compositions. Methods: The cohort comprised 20 individuals diagnosed with T2D and 21 without diabetes. Participants u

Techno-economic analysis and life cycle assessment of thermophilic dark fermentation (TDF) and mesophilic dark fermentation (MDF) integrated with anaerobic digestion (AD) from coffee-manufacturing wastewater (CW) as feedstock were studied. The pilot plants were based in Iran and designed to convert 800 m3/day of CW into hydrogen. The hydrogen volume flow rate (m3/h) under thermophilic conditions w