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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
The growing utilization of second homes has led to extended heating periods and, to some extent, renovations to enhance their standards, resulting in increased energy and resource consumption. This study, conducted in Sweden, investigates user patterns across various seasons, heating systems, and implemented energy renovation measures. Findings reveal that 40% of second homes in winter sport areas
Accessible housing plays a crucial role in supporting aging in place, yet Japan lacks adequate tools for assessing housing accessibility among older adults. This study describes the process of translating and adapting the environmental component checklist of the Swedish Housing Enabler instrument for valid use in Japan. During translation to the Japanese language, technical terms and specification
4MOST is a new high-multiplex, wide-field spectroscopic survey facility under construction for ESO's 4m-VISTA telescope at Paranal, Chile. Its key specifications are: a large field of view of 4.4 square degrees, a high multiplex fibre positioner based on the tilting spine principle that positions 2436 science fibres in the focal surface of which 1624 fibres go to two low-resolution optical spectro
The 4MOST consortium is currently halfway through a Conceptual Design study for ESO with the aim to develop a wide-field (>3 square degree, goal >5 square degree), high-multiplex (>1500 fibres, goal 3000 fibres) spectroscopic survey facility for an ESO 4m-class telescope (VISTA). 4MOST will run permanently on the telescope to perform a 5 year public survey yielding more than 20 million spectra at
The formation of a biomolecular corona on nanoparticles in blood is a well-known phenomenon influencing in vivo performance. Analogous phenomena in other biological fluids, such as the formation of a gastrointestinal (GI) corona, remain under-investigated. The ingestion of medicines leads to the generation of drug particles in the GI fluids. Consequently, an understanding of the behavior of drug p
Context. The Milky Way’s history of recent disturbances is vividly demonstrated by a structure in the vertical phase-space distribution known as the Gaia phase spiral. A one-armed phase spiral has been seen widely across the Milky Way disc, while a two-armed one has only been observed in the solar neighbourhood.Aims. This study aims to determine the properties of the two-armed phase spiral and to
In a recent study, we showed that the large (x, t) behavior of a class of physically relevant solutions of Boussinesq's equation for water waves is described by ten main asymptotic sectors. In the sector adjacent to the positive x x -axis, referred to as Sector I, we stated without proof an exact expression for the leading asymptotic term together with an error estimate. Here, we provide a proof o
With the introduction of x-ray free electron laser sources around the world, new scientific approaches for visualizing matter at fundamental length and time-scales have become possible. As it relates to magnetism and ‘magnetic-type’ systems, advanced scattering methods are being developed for studying ultrafast magnetic responses on the time-scales at which they occur. We describe three capabiliti
Dynamic processes in catalysis are gaining increased attention and could very well be one of the next frontiers in surface science. One way to study such processes is to induce chemical changes on the surface for example by periodically adjusting the (electro)chemical potential in situ and identify the resulting spectral changes. Often this is referred to as Modulation Excitation Spectroscopy (MES
Antibody radionuclide conjugates are an emerging modality for targeted imaging and potent therapy of disseminated disease. Coupling of radionuclides to monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) is typically achieved by applying non-site-specific labelling techniques. With the ambition of reducing variability, increasing labelling efficacy and stability, several site-specific conjugation strategies have been de
Objectives: There are several breast cancer (BC) risk factors—many related to body composition, hormonal status, and fertility patterns. However, it is not known if risk factors in healthy women are associated with specific mammographic features at the time of BC diagnosis. Our aim was to assess the potential association between pre-diagnostic body composition and mammographic features in the diag
Microplastics are pervasive throughout aquatic ecological communities. While their negative impacts on the life history traits of aquatic species are well studied, the effects on community dynamics remain elusive. Consequently, community-level assessments of microplastic effects on marine food webs are largely lacking, creating significant knowledge gaps regarding marine ecosystem structure and dy
