We investigate kinetic broadening effects on the length distributions of gold-catalyzed InAs nanowires having different diameters. It is shown that the length distributions acquire bimodal shape when the longest nanowires exceed the diffusion length of indium adatoms on the nanowire sidewalls. Later on, the length distributions recover unimodal shapes. We develop a theoretical model that is capabl

Coaxial heat exchanger is widely used in air conditioning, refrigeration etc., due to its highly efficient heat transfer performance. Spiral corrugated tube plays an important role in coaxial heat exchanger. In this paper, the numerical model of a six starts spiral corrugated tube and a smooth tube with the same size are developed. The temperature field and the velocity field of their streamline a

The functional outcome after a brachial plexus birth injury (BPBI) is based on changes in the peripheral nerve and in the central nervous system. Most patients with a BPBI recover, but residual deficits in shoulder function are not uncommon. The aim of this study was to determine cerebral activation patterns in patients with BPBI and also residual symptoms from the shoulder. In seven patients (six

This article presents and argues for a collaborative model for disaster risk management in the Southern African Development Community (SADC). The research employed a qualitative study through a literature review and empirical research through focus group interviews to realize its objectives. As a key theory of multinational collaboration, neoliberal institutionalism—a subset of the international r

Objectives Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) is associated with elevated levels of S100A8/A9, pro-inflammatory proteins mainly secreted by activated polymorphonuclear neutrophils (PMNs). The underlying mechanisms for increased S100A8/A9 levels and their relation to the clinical phenotype have not been carefully investigated. We assessed S100A8/A9 and S100A12 levels in SLE patient sera in relation

The concentration of the biologically active molecular oxygen gas is of crucial importance for fruits in the metabolic respiration, maturation, and ripening processes. In our study, oxygen content and oxygen transport in fruits, exemplified by apples and guavas, were studied noninvasively by gas in scattering media absorption spectroscopy. The technique is based on the fact that free gases typical

Streptococcus equi (SE) rarely causes human infections. We identified 18 SE isolates from blood cultures. The focus of infection was unknown (n = 5), arthritis (n = 3), catheter-related (n = 2), pneumonia (n = 2), or other (n = 6). There were no fatalities. Several patients had animal contacts but there were no indications of clonal outbreaks.

Background: There is an increasing recognition of epidemics of primarily tubular-interstitial chronic kidney disease (CKD) clustering in agricultural communities in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). Although it is currently unclear whether there is a unified underlying aetiology, these conditions have been collectively termed CKD of undetermined cause (CKDu). CKDu is estimated to have led

Snuff lesions were induced in 30 rats. Ten of the snuff-exposed rats were killed immediately after 13 months snuff exposure, as were the 10 control animals. Ten rats were killed 1 month and 10 rats 4 months after the snuff administration had ceased. The rats exposed to snuff for 13 months exhibited hyperplastic, hyperorthokeratotic epithelium with focal mild atypia, focal ulcerations and marked su

Parasite proteases play key roles in several fundamental steps of the Plasmodium life cycle, including haemoglobin degradation, host cell invasion and parasite egress. Plasmodium exit from infected host cells appears to be mediated by a class of papain-like cysteine proteases called 'serine repeat antigens' (SERAs). A SERA subfamily, represented by Plasmodium falciparum SERA5, contains an atypical

Cysteine proteases mediate liberation of Plasmodium berghei merozoites from infected hepatocytes. In an attempt to identify the responsible parasite proteases, we screened the genome of P. berghei for cysteine protease-encoding genes. RT-PCR analyses revealed that transcription of four out of five P. berghei serine repeat antigen (PbSERA) genes was strongly upregulated in late liver stages briefly

Objective: To study whether serum levels of tumour necrosis factor-α (TNF-α), free or bound to etanercept, in biological-naïve adults with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) could predict the long-term efficacy of etanercept, measured as drug survival. Method: We identified 145 biological-naïve patients with RA starting treatment with etanercept at the Department of Rheumatology, Skåne University Hospital

During the last few years most work done on the task of image segmentation has been focused on deep learning and Convolutional Neural Networks (CNNs) in particular. CNNs are powerful for modeling complex connections between input and output data but lack the ability to directly model dependent output structures, for instance, enforcing properties such as smoothness and coherence. This drawback mot