Psoriasis vulgaris, a type-1 cytokine-mediated chronic skin disease, can be treated successfully with fumaric acid esters (FAE). Beneficial effects of this medication coincided with decreased production of IFN-γ. Since dendritic cells (DC) regulate the differentiation of T helper (Th) cells, this study focussed on effects of monomethylfumarate (MMF, bioactive metabolite of FAE) on polarization of

ABSTRACTContextThe local intensity of farming practices is considered as an important driver of biodiversity in agricultural landscapes and its effect on biodiversity has been shown to interact with landscape complexity. But the influence of landscape-wide intensity of farming practices on biodiversity and its combined effect with landscape complexity have been little explored.ObjectiveIn this stuContextThe local intensity of farming practices is considered as an important driver of biodiversity in agricultural landscapes and its effect on biodiversity has been shown to interact with landscape complexity. But the influence of landscape-wide intensity of farming practices on biodiversity and its combined effect with landscape complexity have been little explored.ObjectiveIn this study, we t

Amount of semi-natural habitats (permanent grasslands, woodlands and hedgerows) and their level of fragmentation are among the main determinants of wild bee diversity in agricultural landscapes. However, their impact on the distribution of bee ecological traits has received little attention. In this study, we aimed to explore whether changes in the distribution of bee ecological traits along gradi

Non-crop vegetation in agricultural landscapes can provide a means of conserving insects in farmed landscapes and optimising on-farm ecosystem services as a result. Inclusion of floral resources may be particularly useful in conserving many beneficial insects, where groups including pollinators and pest natural enemies often rely on nectar and pollen during (at least part of) their life-cycle. As

The U.N. Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) may require the abolition of the insanity defense and similar “special defenses” in criminal law. Proponents argue that abolishing the defense would advance efforts to fully recognize the legal capacity of persons with disabilities on an equal basis with others; detractors suggest it would compound the substantive inequality of

Catalysis is one of the few scientific concepts that has entered common parlance. To laymen catalysts simply speed up processes, but to a chemist they are much more interesting and complex. Catalysis offers the possibility to accomplish chemical reactions in a targeted manner with the least expenditure of energy and material. Given the increasing scarcity of resources, catalysts have become relevaThis thesis deals with the design and synthesis of rhodium and iridium bis-η2 diolefin catalysts and their applications in C–C bond formation and asymmetric catalysis.More specifically, the second chapter describes the development of inter- and intramolecular (5+2) cycloadditions catalyzed by cationic iridium(I) complexes that lead to the formation of seven-membered rings in a single step. DFT was

BACKGROUND: Municipal drinking water contaminated with perfluorinated alkyl acids had been distributed to one-third of households in Ronneby, Sweden. The source was firefighting foam used in a nearby airfield since the mid-1980s. Clean water was provided from 16 December 2013.OBJECTIVE: To determine the rates of decline in serum perfluorohexane sulfonate (PFHxS), perfluorooctane sulfonate (PFOS) a

Nasonia vitripennis is an emerging insect model system with haplodiploid genetics. It holds a key position within the insect phylogeny for comparative, evolutionary and behavioral genetic studies. The draft genomes for N. vitripennis and two sibling species were published in 2010, yet a considerable amount of transcriptiome data have since been produced thereby enabling improvements to the origina

The parasitoid wasp Nasonia vitripennis is an emerging genetic model for functional analysis of DNA methylation. Here, we characterize genome-wide methylation at a base-pair resolution, and compare these results to gene expression across five developmental stages and to methylation patterns reported in other insects. An accurate assessment of DNA methylation across the genome is accomplished using

This paper explores the potential success of the so called sharing economy, focusing on power relations and social practices, emotions and cultural meanings of lending and borrowing as a way of stretching existing urban ecologies.