Serotonin (5-hydroxytryptamine) has repeatedly been associated with the development of fibrotic disorders such as pulmonary fibrosis. By blocking the binding of 5-HT to 5-HT2B receptors with receptor antagonists, several pro-fibrotic mechanisms can be inhibited. Bleomycin-induced pulmonary fibrosis is a model used to evaluate pathological mechanisms and pharmacological interventions. Previously we

Despite their widespread use in non-invasive studies of porous materials, conventional MRI methods yield ambiguous results for microscopically heterogeneous materials such as brain tissue. While the forward link between microstructure and MRI observables is well understood, the inverse problem of separating the signal contributions from different microscopic pores is notoriously difficult. Here, w

Dietary carotenoids have been proposed to boost immune system and antioxidant functions in vertebrate animals, but studies aimed at testing these physiological functions of carotenoids have often failed to find support. Here we subject yellow canaries (Serinus canaria), which possess high levels of carotenoids in their tissue, and white recessive canaries, which possess a knockdown mutation that r

Glucagon secretion by pancreatic α-cells is triggered by hypoglycemia and suppressed by high glucose levels; impaired suppression of glucagon secretion is a hallmark of both type 1 and type 2 diabetes. Here, we show that α-cell glucokinase (Gck) plays a role in the control of glucagon secretion. Using mice with α-cell-specific inactivation of Gck (αGckKO mice), we find that glucokinase is required

Male breast cancer (MBC) is rare and largely hormonally driven. Here, the authors examine the action of steroid hormone receptors in male and female breast cancers and find gender selective hormone receptor action that associates with the survival of MBC patients.

A combined measurement and Monte-Carlo simulation study was carried out in order to characterize the particle self-shielding effect of B4C grains in neutron shielding concrete. Several batches of a specialized neutron shielding concrete, with varying B4C grain sizes, were exposed to a 2 Å neutron beam at the R2D2 test beamline at the Institute for Energy Technology located in Kjeller, Norway. The

The problem of parameters estimation of signals composed of an unknown number of chirps with time-varying amplitude is presented using a sparse reconstruction framework. The method employs a parametric model using a weighted combination of splines to model the time-varying nature of the signal amplitudes. To obtain high-resolution of the frequencies and to avoid large dimensional matrices, a dicti

In order to obtain a higher thermal efficiency, the inlet temperature of gas turbines is gradually increased. However, this increases the thermal load on the first stage vane endwall surface. Therefore, an advanced cooling technique must be implemented for the endwall cooling to ensure that the gas turbine operates safely. In the current study, effects of swirling coolant flow from the upstream sl

The influence of surface roughness and microstructure heterogeneities in the vicinity of macroscopic stress concentrations are investigated by crystal plasticity simulations. It is shown that in the extruded Al6082-T6 alloy under consideration, twin grain boundaries and other highly misoriented grain interfaces, which constitute significant barriers to plastic slip, provide internal domains in the

A new three-parameter (valency, ion size, and charge asymmetry) model, the asymmetric restricted primitive model (ARPM) of ionic liquids, has recently been proposed. Given that ionic liquids generally are composed of monovalent species, the ARPM effectively reduces to a two-parameter model. Monte Carlo (MC) simulations have demonstrated that the ARPM is able to reproduce key properties of room tem

This paper considers the long-term effects of smoking on disability retirement in Sweden. Smoking is known to have damaging effects on health, but there is limited evidence on how the effects of smoking translate into worse labour market outcomes, such as the inability to work. In contrast to the few previous studies on smoking and disability retirement, we use a large population sample with regis

Alzheimer's disease (AD) brain tissue can act as a seed to accelerate aggregation of amyloid-β (Aβ) into plaques in AD transgenic mice. Aβ seeds have been hypothesized to accelerate plaque formation in a prion-like manner of templated seeding and intercellular propagation. However, the structure(s) and location(s) of the Aβ seeds remain unknown. Moreover, in contrast to tau and α-synuclein, an in

Many workers are occupationally exposed to polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), which may cause various health problems, and some PAHs are known or suspected carcinogens. PAH exposure is primarily monitored by air sampling, but contamination may also occur through dermal exposure. PAHs adsorbed to the skin can be sampled by tape-stripping, but subsequent extraction of sampling tapes in organic

Etnopharmacological relevance: Thirty-eight Tacana medicinal plant species used to treat skin problems, including leishmania ulcers, skin infections, inflammation and wound healing, were collected in the community of Buena Vista, Bolivia, with the Tacana people. Twenty two species are documented for the first time as medicinal plants for this ethnic group living in the northern area of the Departm

The effect of the addition of n-hexanol as co-surfactant on the structure of cetyltrimethylammonium bromide (CTAB) micelles has been studied using small-angle X-ray and neutron scattering (SAXS, SANS). Contrast variation neutron scattering experiments were performed to determine the structure of both pure CTAB and n-hexanol modified CTAB micelles. The incorporation of n-hexanol leads to an elongat

Single-digit nanometer patterning by nanoimprint lithography is a challenging task, which requires optimum stamp fabrication technique. In the current work, we present different strategies for technology of hard master stamps to make intermediate working stamps with sub-10 nm features. Methods of both negative and positive master stamps fabrication, based on EBL, RIE and ALD are described and comp

For life time estimation, it is desirable to capture the lowering of yield strength and premature failure that some alloys exhibits when subjected to hydrogen. For this, a mechanism based material model has been developed to simulate the hydrogen enhanced localized plasticity (HELP) for the superalloy IN718. The model accounts for the increase in mobility of moving dislocations during plastic defo