Mucus covers the epithelium found in all intestinal tracts, where it serves as an important protecting barrier, and pharmaceutical drugs administrated by the oral, rectal, vaginal, ocular, or nasal route need to penetrate the mucus in order to reach their targets. Furthermore, the diffusion in mucus as well as the viscosity of mucus in the eyes, nose and throat can change depending on the relative

There are two main bioengineering approaches to extending the half-life of factor (F)VIII or FIX products used for hemophilia replacement therapy. These are fusion to Fc-immunoglobulin G (FVIII and FIX) or to albumin (FIX) or pegylation/glycopegylation (FVIII and FIX). Four FVIII and three FIX products are in clinical development or have recently been licensed in regions of the world. The reported

Background and purpose Increased interleukin 16 (IL-16) levels in carotid plaques have been associated with reduced incidence of cardiovascular (CV) events during follow-up in patients who underwent carotid endarterectomy (CEA). In the present study we aimed to determine whether high circulating levels of IL-16 also are associated with a decreased risk of CV events after CEA. Methods Patients, who

In Parkinson's disease (PD), pathological microstructural changes occur and such changes might be detected using diffusion magnetic resonance imaging (dMRI). However, it is unclear whether dMRI improves PD diagnosis or helps differentiating between phenotypes, such as postural instability gait difficulty (PIGD) and tremor dominant (TD) PD. We included105 patients with PD and 44 healthy controls (H

Background and purpose — Randomized trials have found that treating spinal burst fractures with reduction and posterior fixation is adequate without the use of bone grafting for definitive fusion. Restitution of intervertebral mobility of such an unfused segment after fracture healing may unload the adjacent parts of the spine and reduce the risk of degeneration of these segments. We used radioste

The aim was to compare postprandial plasma levels of calprotectin, cortisol, triglycerides and zonulin between a control breakfast and a moderately low-carbohydrate test breakfast, given randomly after 10-h fast. Blood samples were collected before and repeatedly after the meal. Plasma calprotectin, cortisol, triglycerides and zonulin were analyzed. The total area under the curve (tAUC) and change

The creation of an efficient public transport system requires collaborations between formal independent organizations. This paper examines collaborations between public and private organizations and passengers, with the aim of contributing to the conceptual understanding of collaborations on public transport. The study begins by describing previous research on collaboration in the public transport

Background/Aims: Increasing evidence suggests a link between brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) and suicidal behaviour (SB). Furthermore, decreased peripheral BDNF levels have been associated with clinical symptoms in various psychiatric disorders as well as with personality dimensions in healthy individuals. However, the relationship between BDNF and psychopathology is poorly investigated r

Background: Our aim was to test if plasma copeptin, a stable surrogate marker of arginine vasopressin, predicts decline of glomerular filtration rate (GFR) and risk of chronic kidney disease (CKD). Methods: We measured copeptin and renal function at the Malmö Diet and Cancer Cardiovascular Cohort baseline exam and reassessed renal function after a follow-up time of 16.6 ± 1.5 years (n = 3,186). Fu

Background: Inflammatory cells and inflammatory mediators play an important role in colorectal cancer (CRC). Previous studies have shown that CRC patients with increased expression of cysteinyl leukotriene receptor 1 (CysLTR1) have a poorer prognosis, and Cysltr1−/− mice display fewer intestinal polyps. However, the role of mast cells (MCs) in colon cancer progression remains unclear. The aim of t

In bottom-up mass spectrometry (MS)-based proteomics, peptide isotopic and chromatographic traces (features) are frequently used for label-free quantification in data-dependent acquisition MS but can also be used for the improved identification of chimeric spectra or sample complexity characterization. Feature detection is difficult because of the high complexity of MS proteomics data from biologi

Little is known about the extent to which interactions between genetics and epigenetics may affect the risk of complex metabolic diseases and/or their intermediary phenotypes. We performed a genome-wide DNA methylation quantitative trait locus (mQTL) analysis in human adipose tissue of 119 men, where 592,794 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) were related to DNA methylation of 477,891 CpG site

Vibration disturbances in buildings may stem from ambient sources, such as motorway traffic, or from internal sources such as people walking inside the building. Vibrations can exceed requirements for sensitive equipment or cause annoyance to humans and therefore the vibrations may need to be reduced. Vibrations from both external and internal sources can be reduced by modifying the properties of

Spalling of concrete has been observed in water retaining concrete structures exposed to long periods of freezing weather. A hypothesis is that poor quality concrete, inadequate compaction or aging make hardened concrete susceptible to macroscopic ice lens growth, i.e. ice segregation. To simulate winter conditions, the top surface of concrete specimens was subjected to freezing, whereas the botto

A wide band fractional-N digital PLL which uses a high resolution 2-dimension gated-Vernier time-to-digital converter (TDC) with 5.2 ps resolution is presented. The quantization noise shaping of the TDC greatly improves the in-band phase noise. While, in the same time, the 2-dimension structure makes the digital PLL (DPLL) be able to process large phase errors almost without the influence of laten

This article explores the European Union (EU)’s Security and Defense Policy (CSDP) through a framework based on feminist institutional theory that highlights the durability in the dynamics of gender relations. Path dependency based on historic features of military institutions—a strict sex division based on “gender war roles”—has influenced the development of different CSDP bodies. The CSDP is sex

Methods for rapid and direct quantification of enzyme kinetics independent of the substrate stand in high demand for both fundamental research and bioprocess development. This study addresses the need for a generic method by developing an automated, standardizable HPLC platform monitoring reaction progress in near real-time. The method was applied to amine transaminase (ATA) catalyzed reactions in

The Tomten-1 drilling at Torbjörntorp in Västergötland, southern Sweden, penetrated 29.85 m of Cambrian Series 2, Cambrian Series 3, Furongian, and Lower–Middle Ordovician strata. Lithostratigraphically, the succession includes the File Haidar, Borgholm and Alum Shale formations, and the Latorp and Lanna limestones. The drill core succession is described herein for the first time, with special foc

InGaAs nMOSFETs with Al2O3 and HfO2 as dielectric are analyzed. The devices with Al 2O3 show a slightly better subthreshold slope. Both high-κ's have an equal transconductance frequency dispersion (gm-f). A reduction of gm-f is reached by scaling the HfO2 thickness. Positive gate stress leads to an increase in threshold voltage and subthreshold slope for all oxides. DC-gmax degradation is related

This letter presents a vertical integration scheme where track-and-hold circuits, consisting of a MOSFET in series with a metal-insulator-metal (MIM) capacitor, are successfully fabricated along vertical InAs nanowires. The nanowire MOSFET is used as a switch with varying switch resistance, Rsw, as the gate-source voltage, VGS, is varied. The track-and-hold circuit operation is verified by a sine