Service life planning and performance classification are key issues in the building sector. Well-functioning 'performance models' are absolutely essential to predict the service life and functionality of buildings, building assets, and building products overtime. Different types of performance models have been established for various building materials, but cannot necessarily transferred to wood-b

A secondary sexual character may act as an honest signal of the quality of the individual if the trait bears a cost and if its expression is phenotypically condition dependent. The cost of increasing the trait should be tolerable for individuals in good condition but not for those in a poor condition. The trait thus provides an honest signal of quality that enables the receiver to choose higher qu

Valence-band structure and magnetic properties, especially magnetic anisotropies, in the (Ga,Mn)As diluted ferromagnetic semiconductor are shortly discussed. Next, magneto-resistive, cross-like nanostructures fabricated by electron-beam lithography patterning and chemical etching from thin (Ga,Mn)As epitaxial layers are described. The nanostructures, composed of two perpendicular nanostripes cross

By simultaneous coherent anti-Stokes Raman scattering (CARS) and 2-photon fluorescence microscopy of Thioflavin-S stained Alzheimer´s diseased human brain tissues, we show evidence of lipid deposits co-localizing with fibrillar β-amyloid (Aβ) plaques. Two lipid morphologies can be observed; lamellar structures and coalescing macro-aggregates of sub-micron sizes to ~25 μm. No significant lipid depo

A good material for CO2 capture should possess some specific properties: (i) a large effective surface area with good adsorption capacity, (ii) selectivity for CO2, (iii) regeneration capacity with minimum energy input, allowing reutilization of the material for CO2 adsorption, and (iv) low cost and high environmental friendliness. Smectite clays are layered nanoporous materials that may be good c

Qualitative reporting of home indoor moisture problems predicts respiratory diseases. However, causal agents underlying such qualitative markers remain unknown. In the homes of 198 multiple allergic case children and 202 controls in Sweden, we cultivated culturable fungi by directly plating dust, and quantified (1-3, 1-6)-beta-d-glucan and ergosterol in dust samples from the child's bedroom. We ex

Adults with intellectual developmental disorder are at considerable risk of somatic as well as psychiatric illness, but seldom have access to services on equal conditions as adults without intellectual developmental disorder. The symptoms of illness are often difficult to interpret, due to communication difficulties, and examinations may be difficult to carry out. Patients with moderate/severe/pro

Triple-negative breast cancers are an aggressive subtype of breast cancer with poor survival, but there remains little known about the etiologic factors that promote its initiation and development. Commonly inherited breast cancer risk factors identified through genome-wide association studies display heterogeneity of effect among breast cancer subtypes as defined by the status of estrogen and pro

Introduction An estimated 2.4 [1.8–3.2] million people in the WHO European Region now live with HIV, and none of the Region’s 53 countries have been spared. The epidemic is spreading most rapidly in western Europe among migrants and men who have sex with men, and in eastern Europe among male injecting drug users – and increasingly their sexual partners. This doctoral research investigates several

The spin and configurational structure of excited states of Cd-127, the two-proton and three-neutron hole neighbor of Sn-132, has been studied. An isomeric state with a half-life of 17.5(3) mu s was populated in the fragmentation of a Xe-136 beam on a Be-9 target at a beam energy of 750 MeV/u. Time distributions of the delayed gamma transitions and gamma gamma coincidence relations were exploited

Objective Psychosocial adversity is a risk factor for cardiovascular disease (CVD) in adults. The authors assessed associations of reactive hyperaemia peripheral arterial tonometry (RH-PAT), a measure of endothelial function predictive of CVD, with self-assessed psychological health among school children. Methods A total of 248 healthy school children (mean (SD) age 14.0 (1.0); 136 girls and 112 b

Adsorption of glycine on Pt{111} under UHV conditions and in different aqueous environments was studied by XPS (UHV and ambient pressure) and NEXAFS. Under UHV conditions, glycine adsorbs in its neutral molecular state up to about 0.15 ML Further deposition leads to the formation of an additional zwitterionic species, which is in direct contact with the substrate surface, followed by the growth of

This thesis has evaluated the immunological- and epidemiological aspects of human papillomavirus transmission dynamics and its effect on circumcision. Effective prophylactic vaccines are based on type-specific neutralizing antibodies. A major neutralizing epitope is defined by the monoclonal antibody H16.V5. To investigate the importance of this epitope for overall immunogenicity of HPV16, we en

Purpose. This research describes and evaluates a liposuction surgery and multidisciplinary rehabilitation approach for advanced lymphedema of the upper and lower extremties. Methods. A prospective clinical study was conducted at an Advanced Lymphedema Assessment Clinic (ALAC) comprised of specialists in plastic surgery, rehabilitation, imaging, oncology, and allied health, at Macquarie University,

Coeliac disease (CD) is becoming a model for understanding the pathogenesis of autoimmune disorders. In CD, antibodies against transglutaminase 2 (TG2) and specific glutamine residues of gliadins have been identified. A similar situation is seen in rheumatoid arthritis with both anticitrullinated protein antibodies (ACPA) and auto-antibodies against the citrullinating enzyme, peptidylarginine deim