The environmental impact assessment (EIA) process has been used in a number of countries since the early 1970s as an instrument of environmental regulation at the planning stage of economic activity. Since the mid-1980s, some of the principle of EIA have been introduced in the USSR's environmental legislation and regulations which has resulted in the development of two distinctive regulatory conce

The mechanism of how patatin-like phospholipase domain-containing protein 3 (PNPLA3) variant M148 is associated with increased risk of development of hepatic steatosis is still debated. Here, we propose a novel role of PNPLA3 as a key player during autophagosome formation in the process of lipophagy. A human hepatocyte cell line, HepG2 cells, expressing recombinant I148 or 148M, was used to study

Glycosaminoglycans (GAGs) are essential polysaccharides in normal physiology and disease. However, understanding of the contribution of specific GAG structures to specific biological functions is limited, largely because of the great structural heterogeneity among GAGs themselves, as well as technical limitations in the structural characterization and chemical synthesis of GAGs. Here we describe a

A typical approach when designing a bio-inspired robot is to simplify an animal model and to enhance the functionality of interest. For hexapod robots, this often leads to a need of supplementary mechanics to become multifunctional. However, a preferable solution is to employ the embodied multifunctional capabilities of the animal as inspiration for robot design. Using this approach, we present a

Exposure to UV light triggers the rapid generation and accumulation of reactive oxygen species (ROS) in skin cells, with consequent increase in oxidative stress and thus in photoaging. Exogenous supplementation with dietary antioxidants and/or skin pretreatment with antioxidant-based lotions before sun exposure might be a winning strategy against age-related skin pathologies. In this context, plan

Searchable symmetric encryption (SSE) schemes are commonly proposed to enable search in a protected unstructured documents such as email archives or any set of sensitive text files. However, some SSE schemes have been recently proposed in order to protect relational databases. Most of the previous attacks on SSE schemes have only targeted its common use case, protecting unstructured data. In this

Institutions for prevention and resolution of industrial conflicts were introduced all over the world in the early twentieth century. We use a new dataset of geocoded strikes and lockouts to analyze the impact of mediation on conflict outcomes in Sweden for the period 1907–1927. Causality is identified by using the distance from the mediator’s place of residence to the conflict as an instrument. D

Background: Venous thromboembolism (VTE) is the third most frequent life-threatening cardiovascular disease with an annual incidence rate of 1-2 per 1000 person-years. After the diagnosis for primary VTE, about 20-30% patients develop a recurrence within 5-years. VTE recurrence can be prevented by anticoagulants, albeit at the risk of severe bleeding. Heritability of VTE is high and hereditary fac

Objective: To describe and analyze a measure that has been introduced in Sweden with the objective of quickly offering treatment for the alcohol or drug problems suspected drink or drug drivers may have. The goal of the measure is that every suspected drink or drug driver shall, as soon as apprehended by the police, be offered contact with the social services or the dependency are and treatment se

Due to their unique optical properties, III-V nanowires are promising candidates for the development of efficient solar cells, LEDs and nanoscaled lasers. The interaction of nanowires with fluorescent molecules is also of interest, as these nanostructures can act as nanoscaled optical fibers. The light emitted by a fluorophore close to a nanowire surface can in fact couple into the supported waveg

The local alignment of DNA stretched in nanofluidic channels is measured using polarization sensitive detection. With increased degree of stretching the polarization anisotropy increases both in the deGennes and the Odijk regime. The technique is expected to find use in studies of, for example, local conformational changes in polymer physics in confined spaces, studies of protein-DNA interactions

It is difficult to introduce long genomic DNA molecules into nanometer scale fluidic channels directly from the macroscale world because of the steep entropic barrier caused by necessary stretching of the polymer. We present a very simple technique using optical lithography to fabricate continuous spatial gradient structures which smoothly narrow the cross section of a volume from the micron to th

Long double-stranded DNA molecules were separated in microfabricated hexagonal arrays in less than 1 min, several orders of magnitude faster than by using conventional technology. DNA samples were first concentrated at the entrance to the array in a thin band by entropic focusing. They were then separated by pulsed field electrophoresis. T4 (168.9 kbp) and λ (48.5 kbp) DNAs could be resolved into

This review describes the history, development, and evolution of cell-based replacement therapy for Parkinson's disease (PD), from the first pioneering trials with fetal ventral midbrain progenitors to future trials using stem cells as well as reprogrammed cells. In the spirit of Tom Isaacs, the review takes parallels to the storyline of Star Wars, including the temptations from the dark side and