Mycobacterium bovis bacilli Calmette-Guerin (BCG) is used as a benchmark to compare the immunogenicity of new vaccines against tuberculosis. This live vaccine is administered intradermal, but several new studies show that changing the route to mucosal immunisation represents an improved strategy. We analysed the immunomodulatory functions of BCG on human neutrophils and primary airway epithelial c

Background: Concerns about falling, a construct related to fear of falling, is increased in people with Parkinson's disease (PD) and is recognized as a barrier for exercise, negatively affecting health-related quality of life and participation. Aim: To investigate modifiable factors associated with concerns about falling in elderly with mild-to-moderate PD. Methods: Eighty-nine elderly (39 females

Detta är en efterlängtad bok som bidrar till utveckling av forskarhandledares kompetens och ger ett fördjupat perspektiv på doktoranders lärande. Med förankring i aktuell forskning behandlar författarna forskarutbildningens organisation, handledarens professionella praktik, doktorandens lärande samt utbildningens kvalitetssystem. Kopplingen mellan teori och praktik utgör en röd tråd genom boken.

Background: Peptidyl-prolyl isomerases (PPIases) catalyze cis/trans isomerization of peptidyl-prolyl bonds, which is often rate-limiting for protein folding. SlyD is a two-domain enzyme containing both a PPIase FK506-binding protein (FKBP) domain and an insert-in-flap (IF) chaperone domain. To date, the interactions of these domains with unfolded proteins have remained rather obscure, with structu

Jesper Kristiansen1, Maria Kristine Friborg1, Lars Brandt2, Nanna Eller3, David Glasscock4, Anders Daldorph Nielsen2, Roger Persson5, Aniella Besèr6, Marie Åsberg6

Objective: To examine the efficacy of fixed-frequency Békésy’s home audiometry to assess hearing fluctuation and treatment outcomes in patients with subjectively fluctuating hearing loss. Design: SMAPH, a software audiometry program for Windows, was installed and calibrated on laptop computers. Békésy’s audiometry was carried out daily in the patients’ homes, using sound-attenuating earphones. Stu

We present a minimal solver for a special kind of homography arising in applications with planar camera motion (e.g. mobile robotics applications). Since the camera motion we consider only has five degrees of freedom, an explicit parametrisation allows us to reduce the required number of point correspondences to 2.5. Using fewer point correspondences is beneficial when used together with RANSAC, b

We present results of a coherent x-ray diffractive imaging experiment performed on a single colloidal crystal grain. The full three-dimensional (3D) reciprocal space map measured by an azimuthal rotational scan contained several orders of Bragg reflections together with the coherent interference signal between them. Applying the iterative phase retrieval approach, the 3D structure of the crystal g

Background:Generalist predators may vary their diet and use of habitat according to both internal state (e.g. breeding stage) and external (e.g. weather) factors. Lesser black-backed gulls Larus fuscus (Linnaeus 1758) are dietary generalists, foraging in both terrestrial and marine habitats during breeding. We investigate what affects the gulls’ propensity to forage at sea or on land. We assess th

Chemotherapy-induced neuropathic pain (CINP) remains a major unmet medical need. Estrogen receptor beta (ERβ)-selective agonists represent a novel strategy for treating CINP because they are neuroprotective and may also have anticancer activity. We confirmed that ERβ-selective agonists have antiallodynic effects in the spinal nerve ligation model of neuropathic pain. We then showed that structural

One of the factors limiting the performance of organic solar cells (OSCs) is their large energy losses (E loss) in the conversion from photons to electrons, typically believed to be around 0.6 eV and often higher than those of inorganic solar cells. In this work, a novel low band gap polymer PIDTT-TID with a optical gap of 1.49 eV is synthesized and used as the donor combined with PC71BM in solar

A typical obstacle to cancer therapy is the limited distribution of low molecular weight anticancer drugs within the carcinoma tissue. In experimental carcinoma, imatinib (STI571) increases efficacy of synchronized chemotherapy, reduces tumor interstitial fluid pressure, and increases interstitial fluid volume. STI571 also increases the water-perfusable fraction in metastases from human colorectal

The enzymatic interesterification of a solvent-free, equimolar mixture of trilaurin and 1,3-palmitin-2-olein was studied using three immobilized lipase preparations as catalysts. Analysis of triacylglycerol (TAG) content and fatty acid (FA) distribution monitored the lipase-catalyzed interesterification in sn-1,3 positions and FA exchange in the sn-2 position caused by acyl migration. Lipase from

Juveniles of numerous lizard species have a vividly blue-coloured tail that likely serves to deflect predator attacks toward the autotomizable tail rather than the lizard's body. The shades of blue colour in the tails of juvenile Plestiodon latiscutatus lizards vary across populations, most notably among those island populations with different predator assemblages. Here, we determine if this intra

In facultative partial migrants some individuals in a population are migratory and others are resident and individuals decide each year anew which strategy to choose. While the proportion of birds migrating is in part determined by environmental conditions and competitive abilities, the timing of individual departure and behaviours on route are little understood. Individuals encounter different en

Despite the discovery of antibiotics almost a century ago, infectious diseases continue to be a substantial cause of human mortality and morbidity worldwide, especially in developing countries. The adverse affects of infectious diseases are thought to increase over the coming years as the widespread misuse of antibiotic leads to the emergence of strains for which current therapies are ineffective.

The record of scolecodonts (polychaete jaws) from the Ordovician of Sweden is very poor. In this paper, we document a Darriwilian (Middle Ordovician) assemblage recovered from palynological samples from the “orthoceratite limestone” (Lanna and Holen limestones) of Mount Kinnekulle, Västergötland, southern Sweden. The collection of diminutive specimens forms an assemblage taxonomically composed mai