Natural gas has been traditionally applied in spark-ignited combustion engines due to similar combustion characteristics for methane gas and gasoline. However, spark ignition requires a low compression ratio to avoid knock problems and therefore, gas engines have lower efficiency than diesel engines. A combustion concept that has been successfully applied on large stationary engines and to some ex

Diagonally implicit Runge–Kutta methods (DIRK) are evaluated and compared to standard solution procedures for finite strain crystal plasticity boundary value problems. The structure of the DIRK implementation is similar to that of a conventional implicit backward Euler scheme. It is shown that only very small modifications are required in order to transform the numerical scheme from one into the o

Acoustic comfort is a concept hardly described in the literature. But it has been used in engineering typically to refer to low noise or annoyance in order to invoke no discomfort. Current standardized methods for airborne and impact sound reduction are deployed to assess acoustic comfort in dwellings. However, the measured sound pressure levels do not represent comfort. The latter should include

Numerous species of nematodes have evolved to inhabit the gastrointestinal tract of animals and humans, with over a billion of the world's population infected with at least one species. These large multicellular pathogens present a considerable and complex challenge to the host immune system given that individuals are continually exposed to infective stages, as well as the high prevalence in endem

We analyze the local convergence of proximal splitting algorithms to solve optimization problems that are convex besides a rank constraint. For this, we show conditions under which the proximal operator of a function involving the rank constraint is locally identical to the proximal operator of its convex envelope, hence implying local convergence. The conditions imply that the non-convex algorith

Due to critical impacts of air pollution, prediction and monitoring of air quality in urban areas are important tasks. However, because of the dynamic nature and high spatio-temporal variability, prediction of the air pollutant concentrations is a complex spatio-temporal problem. Distribution of pollutant concentration is influenced by various factors such as the historical pollution data and weat

Objectives Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) is a chronic autoimmune condition with heterogeneous presentation and complex aetiology where DNA methylation changes are emerging as a contributing factor. In order to discover novel epigenetic associations and investigate their relationship to genetic risk for SLE, we analysed DNA methylation profiles in a large collection of patients with SLE and he

In this paper we consider L1 optimal and H-infinity optimal control problems for a particular class of Positive Bilinear Systems that arise in drug dosage design for HIV treatment. Starting from existent characterizations of the L1-norm for positive systems, a convex formulation for the first problem is provided. As for the H-infinity case, we propose an algorithm based on the iterative solution o

A major goal in evolutionary biology is to understand the genetic basis of adaptive traits. In migratory birds, wing morphology is such a trait. Our previous work on the great reed warbler (Acrocephalus arundinaceus) shows that wing length is highly heritable and under sexually antagonistic selection. Moreover, a quantitative trait locus (QTL) mapping analysis detected a pronounced QTL for wing le

Fluoroscopic examinations of the upper gastro-intestinal tract and, especially, barium meal examinations, are commonly performed in a majority of hospitals. These examinations are associated both with substantial individual patient doses and contribution to the collective dose from medical exposure. Effective dose estimation for this type of examinations is complicated due to: 1) the necessity to

The impact of different passive protective measures against external vertical fire spread was investigated using the numerical tool Fire Dynamics Simulator (FDS). The numerical study was divided into a validation study and a comparative analysis. The validation study was performed to evaluate FDS as a calculation tool for modelling external vertical fire spread and was conducted using experimental

Purpose: The aim of this study was to verify if radiotherapy (RT) safely can be omitted in older women treated for estrogen-receptor positive early breast cancer with breast-conserving surgery (BCS) and endocrine therapy (ET). Patients and Methods: Eligibility criteria were: consecutive patients with age ≥65 years, BCS + sentinel node biopsy, clear margins, unifocal T1N0M0 breast cancer tumor, Els

Background: Women with childbirth fear have been offered counseling by experienced midwives in Sweden for decades without evidence for its effectiveness, in terms of decrease in childbirth fear. Women are usually satisfied with the counselling. However, there is a lack of qualitative data regarding women's views about counselling for childbirth fear. Aim: To explore women's experiences of midwife-

Novel Sm2O3−NiO composite was prepared as the functional electrolyte for the first time. The total electrical conductivity of Sm2O3−NiO is 0.38 S cm−1 in H2/air condition at 550 °C. High performance, e.g. 718 mW cm−2, was achieved using Sm2O3−NiO composite as an electrolyte of solid oxide fuel cells operated at 550 °C. The electrical properties and electrochemical performance are strongly depended

The Japanese skeleton shrimp Caprella mutica, originally from the north-west Pacific, artificially introduced to many parts of the world, is recorded in Sweden for the first time. The new record is from Eastern Skagerrak, slightly north of the border between the North Sea and the Baltic Sea. A detailed morphological description of the specimens from Swedish waters with notes on habitat is presente

Objective: Population-based osteoarthritis (OA) cohorts provide vital data on risk factors and outcomes of OA, however the methods to define OA vary between cohorts. We aimed to provide recommendations for combining knee and hip OA data in extant and future population cohort studies, in order to facilitate informative individual participant level analyses. Method: International OA experts met to m

We investigate the population of high-redshift (3≤z < 6) active galactic nuclei (AGN) selected in the two deepest X-ray surveys, the 7 Ms Chandra Deep Field-South and 2 Ms Chandra Deep Field-North. Their outstanding sensitivity and spectral characterization of faint sources allow us to focus on the sub-L* regime (logLX ≲ 44), poorly sampled by previous works using shallower data, and the obscured