In structural engineering the system effect is known as the possibility of transversal collaboration among parallel load-bearing elements due to mechanical load sharing. The statistical system effect, related to the variation of strength within structural timber elements, is investigated in this paper. The system investigated is a roof truss of W-type. The strength variation within and between tim

Incomplete taxon sampling has been a major problem in resolving the early divergences in birds. Five new mitochondrial genomes are reported here (brush-turkey, lyrebird, suboscine flycatcher, turkey vulture, and a gull) and three break up long branches that tended to attract the distant reptilian outgroup. These long branches were to galliforms, and to oscine and suboscine passeriformes. Breaking

With the growth of mobile computing, users will have simultaneous access to multiple overlaid networks, each with different characteristics, services and costs. This paper introduces TOMTEN (TOtal Management Of Transmissions for the ENd-user), a framework for managing resources in both this type of environment as well as the traditional single network environment. TOMTEN is a reactive framework th

The development of photodynamic therapy into a modality for treatment of prostate cancer calls for reliable optical dosimetry. We employ, for the first time, interstitial time-resolved spectroscopy to determine in vivo optical properties of human prostate tissue. Nine patients are included in the study, and measurements are conducted prior to primary brachytherapy treatment of prostate cancer. Int

A long-standing hypothesis posits that natural selection can favour two female strategies when density cycles. At low density, females producing many smaller progeny are favoured when the intrinsic rate of increase, r, governs population growth. At peak density, females producing fewer, high-quality, progeny are favoured when the carrying capacity, K, is exceeded and the population crashes. Here w

Arthrospira is one genus of cyanoprokaryota for which information on toxin production exists for only a few strains. The purpose of this study was to investigate whether strains of Arthrospira fusiformis produce intracellular toxic compounds such as microcystins and anatoxin-a. The study was based on three strains of Arthrospira, two strains isolated from wastewater ponds in Mozambique and one fro

Small-x evolution in QCD is conveniently described by Mueller's dipole model which, however, does not include saturation effects in a way consistent with boost invariance. In this paper we first show that the recently studied zero and one dimensional toy models exhibiting saturation and explicit boost invariance can be interpreted in terms positive definite k-> k+1 dipole vertices. Such k-> k+1 ve

Neutrophil granulocytes carry storage organelles, e.g., azurophil and specific granules. Poorly understood are the mechanisms for retrieval from constitutive secretion followed by sorting for storage. Therefore, we asked whether the specific granule protein human cathelicidin (hCAP-18) could be sorted for storage in other granules when the biosynthetic window is widened to allow this. We observed

Information about forest biodiversity has so far been collected mostly by using field inventories, but it is desirable to find other methods that can cover large areas at a lower cost. In a forest landscape covering 2000 ha in southern Sweden we tested if colour-infrared (CIR) aerial photographs on the scale of 1:30000 can be used to interpret forest stand characteristics correlated to the occurre

In this work, we present Monte Carlo simulations of mixtures containing negatively charged latex particles and positively charged dendrimers. We focus on the interaction between two latex particles as salt concentration, dendrimer dose, and generation number are varied. Interaction free energies and corresponding stability ratios are calculated. Minimal stability is found near the isoelectric poin

The etiology of Langerhans cell histiocytosis (LCH), a disease characterized by uncontrolled proliferation of Langerhans cells, is unknown. Although some believe that LCH is reactive, others support a neoplastic origin. We tested the hypothesis that LCH is neoplastic by investigating potential consistent chromosomal aberrations in LCH cells. We used multiparameter DNA flow cytometry to analyze the

Phylogenetic relationships and levels of geographic differentiation of two closely related bipolar taxa, Cladonia arbuscula and Cladonia mitis, were cladistically examined with ITS regions, SSU rDNA introns, partial P-tubulin, and partial glyceraldehyde 3-phosphate dehydrogenase (GAPDH) genes. In the combined analysis of the four genes, C arbuscula was paraphyletic, while C mitis, nested within C

For a short-lived organism, such as a freshwater zooplankter, the ways of coping with years of local recruitment failure are either to disperse between habitats and recolonise or to disperse in time through diapause. Diapause is common among freshwater zooplankton and is generally seen as a way to escape periods of harsh environmental conditions. The egg-bank or pool of diapausing copepodites in l

Two experimental systems representative of the mitochondrial and death receptor apoptotic pathways are the dexamethasone-induced programmed cell death in mouse thymocytes and the antibody-mediated cross-ligation of the Fas receptor in the human leukemic T-cell line Jurkat, respectively. In both cell systems, caspase-9, -8, and -3 were activated upon induction of apoptosis and a sub-G(1) peak appea

For the analysis of small concentrations of organics in aqueous solutions, a novel add-on accessory for dual-beam / optical subtraction spectroscopy has been built for a commercial Fourier transform infrared spectrometer. A standard FT-IR instrument requires a sample measurement and a separate reference measurement, whereas the optical subtraction instrument directly measures the difference betwee

An experimental investigation has been carried out to find the pressure difference of the process of steam condensation across the port to channel in plate heat exchangers. In the present study, low corrugation angle (30 degrees) plates have been used for different number of channels, namely, 10 and 80. The process steam entered at 1 bar with a small degree of superheat. Water has been used as the