A growing number of human infections incriminate environmental bacteria that have evolved virulent mechanisms to resist amoebae and use them as a replicative niche. These bacteria are designated amoeba-resisting bacteria (ARB). Despite the isolation of these ARB in various human clinical samples, the possible source of infection remains undetermined in most cases. However, it is known that the ARB

Waddlia chondrophila, an obligate intracellular bacterium of the Chlamydiales order, is considered as an agent of bovine abortion and a likely cause of miscarriage in humans. Its role in respiratory diseases was questioned after the detection of its DNA in clinical samples taken from patients suffering from pneumonia or bronchiolitis. To better define the role of Waddlia in both miscarriage and pn

Purpose The purpose is to identify, categorise and describe barriers for a fossil-free transport system for urban goods. Design/methodology/approach The barriers are studied from a systems perspective in a case of a mid-sized Nordic city. Data are collected from 15 semi-structured interviews with officials from the city and representatives of private companies, and from policy documents and a work

The Swedish Society for Clinical Chemistry has now completed its second board examination for voluntary specialist diploma in clinical chemistry. The first day comprised a 6 hour written examination (about 20 essay questions). The second day was an oral examination in front of five clinical chemists representing different aspects of the specialty, firstly as questions on the subject as a whole and

Climate change is an increasing threat to sustainable development worldwide. However, the dominant incremental policy approaches have not generated action at anywhere near the rate, scale or depth that is needed. This is largely due to the fact that climate change has historically been framed as a purely external, technical challenge. There is an urgent need for a more integral understanding that

The use of cross-laminated timber (CLT) in multi-story buildings is increasing due to the potential of wood to reduce green house gas emissions and the high load-bearing capacity of CLT. Compression perpendicular to the grain (CPG) in CLT is an important design aspect, especially in multi-storied platform-type CLT buildings, where CPG stress develops in CLT floors due to loads from the roof or fro

Climate change and direct anthropogenic impact are recognized as two major factors affecting catchment runoff. This study investigated the separate effect of each of these factors for runoff from the important Tunisian Merguellil catchment. For this purpose, more than forty years of hydrological data were used. The methodology was based on hydrological characterization, NDVI index to monitor land

Assignment of the G3m(g) and (b) correlative amino acid residues was performed at the genomic level by direct sequencing of DNA from nine Caucasian individuals. Two oligonucleotide primers were used for subclass-specific enzymatic amplification of a DNA segment comprising a major portion of the second and third constant region domains (CH2 and CH3) fo the human IgG3 heavy chain gene. Comparison of

Recent developments in artificial intelligence have generated increasing interest to deploy automated image analysis for diagnostic imaging and large-scale clinical applications. However, inaccuracy from automated methods could lead to incorrect conclusions, diagnoses or even harm to patients. Manual inspection for potential inaccuracies is labor-intensive and time-consuming, hampering progress to

Protein HC (human complex-forming glycoprotein, heterogeneous in charge) is a member of the lipocalin superfamily of hydrophobic ligand-binding proteins. The quantitatively dominating blood plasma form of protein HC is a protein HC-IgA complex (HC-IgA), which is the fourth most abundant immunoglobulin species in plasma. A photodiode array detection system on-line with a high performance liquid chr

Recent progress on deep learning (DL)-based medical image segmentation can enable fast extraction of clinical parameters for efficient clinical workflows. However, current DL methods can still fail and require manual visual inspection of outputs, which is time-consuming and diminishes the advantages of automation. For clinical applications, it is essential to develop DL approaches that can not onl

How do people assess risks associated with a hedonic but dangerous activity? I conduct a longitudinal field experiment (N=434) exploiting the conditions of the COVID-19 pandemic to investigate whether monetary incentives induce people to motivate their risk assessments. Each participant receives a café voucher with a random value: treated participants receive a 10EUR voucher, and the control group

We study the impact of early socialization on gender inequality in the labor market. To this end, we link the gender environment in the primary-school cohort to later occupations and wages. We find that women exposed to more girls at this critical age earn more later on, leading to a reduction in the gender wage gap. We explore mechanisms and find that women exposed to a more female-dominated envi

Cystatin C, an efficient inhibitor of cysteine proteinases, is present in all investigated human extracellular fluids. Dexamethasone caused a significant and dose-dependent increase in the cystatin C secretion of cultivated HeLa cells up to a maximal increase of 80% at 10(-6) mol l-1 dexamethasone. Increased production of cystatin C was also observed at lower concentrations, suggesting that glucoc

Renal tubular function can be assessed by measuring low molecular weight proteins in urine. In the present study, urinary levels of protein HC, also called alpha 1-microglobulin, were determined in 84 patients, 3-17 years after conduit diversion or continent urinary reconstruction. Increased excretion of protein HC, indicating tubular dysfunction, was found in 30 patients (36%), but was slight in

Motivated by advances in flexible electronic technologies and by the endeavour to develop non-destructive testing methods, this article analyses the capability of computational multiscale formulations to predict the influence of microscale cracks on effective macroscopic electrical and mechanical material properties. To this end, thin metal films under mechanical load are experimentally analysed b