OBJECTIVES: Angiopoietins modulate endothelial permeability via endothelial cell junctions. Angiopoietin-2 blocks the angiopoietin-1/Tie-2 interaction that stabilizes these junctions, and elevated plasma angiopoietin-2 levels are associated with vascular leakage. We hypothesized that plasma angiopoietin-1 and angiopoietin-2 levels are associated with indirect markers of increased vascular permeabi

The Internet and the development and deployment of new access networktechnologieshas opened up for new information and communication applications.The mobile or cellular networks have evolved from a facility for voice call totoday's IP only network. The evolution has also allowed for re-use of old andavailable infrastructure for technologies that increases the available capacity farbeyond the origi

The regulatory credit value adjustment (CVA) for an outstanding over-the-counter (OTC) derivative portfolio is computed based on the portfolio exposure over its lifetime. Usually, the future portfolio exposure is approximated using the Monte Carlo simulation, as the portfolio value can be driven by several market risk-factors. For derivatives, such as Bermudan swaptions, that do not have an analyt

This paper describes an American Monte Carlo approach for obtaining fast and accurate exercise policies for pricing of callable LIBOR Exotics (e.g., Bermudan swaptions) in the LIBOR market model using the Stochastic Grid Bundling Method (SGBM). SGBM is a bundling and regression based Monte Carlo method where the continuation value is projected onto a space where the distribution is known. We also

This paper presents a computationally efficient technique for the computation of exposure distributions at any future time under the risk-neutral and some observed real-world probability measures; these are needed for the computation of credit valuation adjustment (CVA) and potential future exposure (PFE). In particular,we present a valuation framework for Bermudan swaptions. The essential idea is

The combustion process in a hydrogen fueled scramjet combustor with a rearwall-expansion cavity was investigated numerically under inflow conditions of Ma=2.52 with stagnation pressure P0=1.6 Mpa and stagnation temperature T0=1486 K. The numerical solver was first evaluated for supersonic reactive flows in a similar combustor configuration where experimental data is available. Wall-pressure distri

Protein engineering to functionalize the self-assembling enamel matrix protein amelogenin with a cellulose binding domain (CBD) is used. The purpose is to examine the binding of the engineered protein, rh174CBD, to cellulose materials, and the possibility to immobilize self-assembled amelogenin nanospheres on cellulose. rh174CBD assembled to nanospheres ≈35 nm in hydrodynamic diameter, very simila

Current mobility patterns mean that many trips cross one or several municipal borders. This emphasises the need to integrate land-use and transport planning at regional functional scales. However, the Swedish planning system is characterised by a ‘municipal planning monopoly’, where local governments control the formal planning instruments. The lack of formal means for regional-level planning has

In this article, I investigate the slowly changing territorial landscape of a seemingly typical Swedish Million program housing area (from the record years 1961-1975), Norra Fäladen in Lund. The area has, through the decades, been subject to a slow, but steady gentrification and densification including a decrease in rental housing and the building on former park areas. Through the decades we have

The survival of asteroid Vesta during the violent early history of the Solar System is a pivotal constraint on theories of planetary formation. Particularly important from this perspective is the amount of olivine excavated from the vestan mantle by impacts, as this constrains both the interior structure of Vesta and the number of major impacts the asteroid suffered during its life. The NASA Dawn

BACKGROUND: Health-promoting interventions tailored to support older persons to remain in their homes, so-called "ageing in place" is important for supporting or improving their health. The health-promoting programme "Elderly Persons in the Risk Zone," (EPRZ) was set up for this purpose and has shown positive results for maintaining independence in activities of daily living for older persons 80 y

Lime-hemp concrete (LHC) is a building material consisting of a lime-based binder combined with hemp shiv that is suitable for various building applications. This thesis aimed to elucidate the possibilities for using LHC for exterior walls in a cold, wet climate through investigating mechanical, thermal and moisture-related properties of the material. The mechanical properties of LHC containing bo

Splatting photons onto primary view samples, rather than gathering from a photon acceleration structure, can be a more efficient approach to evaluating the photon-density estimate in interactive applications, where the number of photons is often low compared to the number of view samples. Most photon splatting approaches struggle with large photon radii or high resolutions due to overdraw and insu

Preparedness and resilience planning for critical infrastructure networks requires evaluating the impact to the network when its components are disrupted. We extend the well-studied problem of component importance measures in single-commodity networks to multi-commodity networks by integrating a flow based multi-commodity optimization model with a multi-criteria decision analysis tool. A three-sta

Modern society is becoming increasingly dependent on a continuous supply of electricity. In order to maintain the safety and security of society and its citizens, it is therefore necessary that electricity networks are resilient toward disruptions whether caused by natural disasters, sinister attacks, or other. Margin and sensitivity are two crucial aspects of the resilience concept which have so

Catalytic processes have tremendous importance in our everyday life. Most chemicals, pharmaceuticals, plastics etc. are, in fact, produced with the help of catalysts. What is probably even more important is that the toxic wastes produced in great amounts by modern factories and plants are recycled or transformed into less poisonous substances by means of catalytic units. One example from our everyThe present work is devoted to atomic scale structural studies of the surfaces of model heterogeneous catalysts relevant to oxidation reactions. A novel approach using high-energy surface X-ray diffraction combined with mass-spectrometry measurements is employed to perform in situ structural characterization of Pd(100) and Pd(553) single crystal surfaces acting as catalysts in the process of CO ox

BACKGROUND: MIF is a critical mediator of the host defense, and is involved in both acute and chronic responses in the lung. Neutralization of MIF reduces neutrophil accumulation into the lung in animal models. We hypothesized that MIF, in the alveolar space, promotes neutrophil accumulation via activation of the CD74 receptor on macrophages.METHODS: To determine whether macrophage CD74 surface ex