Respiratory viral infections, especially involving rhinovirus, are main triggers of exacerbations of asthma and COPD. These severe conditions are a great burden to both the individual and society and currently lack effective treatments. Hence, a clear need exists for research into the cellular and molecular mechanisms by which viral infections evoke exacerbations of airway disease in order to bett

In contemporary Ghana, the traditional system and professional social work operate as two parallel systems within the field of social work. The aim of this study was to investigate if and how the teaching of contemporary professional social work in Ghana takes into account traditional actors and practices. The traditional system includes extended family members and traditional authorities such as

The Natural gas Combined Cycle (NGCC) with post combustion capture using liquid solvents may in some cases be of interest to design with a flexible steam bottoming cycle, so that it can operate both with and without CO2 capture. It is then important that the choice of the low pressure (LP) steam turbine exhaust size is made accordingly. The paper describes why a flexible NGCC requires a LP steam t

In heart transplantation, selection of an optimal recipient-donor match has been constrained by the lack of individualized prediction models. Here we developed a customized donor-matching model (CODUSA) for patients requiring heart transplantations, by combining simulated annealing and artificial neural networks. Using this approach, by analyzing 59,698 adult heart transplant patients, we found th

We have used synchrotron X-ray diffraction experiments to measure the strain field introduced by a hydride blister grown on a section of a pressure tube from a CANDU nuclear reactor. After charging the tube section with a homogeneous hydrogen concentration of 300 wt ppm, the blister was produced by creating a small cold spot on its surface (similar to 200 degrees C), while the bulk was kept at a t

We review recent theoretical investigations on the two-particle Aharonov-Bohm effect and its relation to entanglement production and detection. The difficulties of the entanglement detection due to dephasing and finite temperature are discussed regarding a recent experimental realization of a two-particle Aharonov-Bohm interferometer [15]. We also discuss a theoretical proposal for a two-particle

Oxygen K absorption and emission spectra of water molecules confined in dodecyltrimethyl ammonium chloride micelle structures are presented. The local electronic structure of the water molecules is found to be dramatically different from the electronic structure of water molecules in the gas-phase as well as in liquid water. Hybridization with states of the ions in the surrounding ions is directly

A high resolution TPC is the main option for a central tracking detector at the future International Linear Collider (ILC). It is planned that the MPGD (Micro Pattern Gas Detector) technology will be used for the readout. A Large Prototype TPC at DESY has been used to test the performance of MPGDs in an electron beam of energies up to 6 GeV. The first step in the technology development was to demo

We describe the chemical and electromagnetic enhancements of surface-enhanced resonance Raman scattering (SERRS) for the pyridine molecule absorbed on silver clusters, in which different incident wavelength regions are dominated by different enhancement mechanisms. Through visualization we theoretically investigate the charge transfer (CT) between the molecule and the metal cluster, and the charge

Oil/water emulsions can be produced through phase inversion, by adding water to a reverse water/oil microemulsion. According to small angle neutron scattering experiments and visual observations performed during phase inversion, the stages of this process are as follows: (i) upon water addition, the microemulsion gives way to a highly swollen lamellar phase; (ii) the transient lamellar phase break

Glomalin is a glycoprotein produced by arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) fungi, and the soil fraction containing glomalin is correlated with soil aggregation. Thus, factors potentially influencing glomalin production could be of relevance for this ecosystem process and for understanding AM fungal physiology. Previous work indicated that glomalin production in AM fungi may be a stress response, or relate

It has been known for a long time that the clinical manifestations of urinary tract infections (UTI) differ markedly between individuals, ranging from a sometimes beneficial, asymptomatic state to life threatening infections. This variability in clinical manifestation can be explained in part by the arsenal of virulence factors of the bacteria but the predisposition of the patient is equally impor

An overview on the Norwegian-Danish connections from the middle ages until 1660.

Purpose The aim of this paper is to explore key challenges of adopting, designing and managing performance-based contracts (PBC) for advanced logistics services, as seen by providers. The shift towards performance-based solutions has proved challenging since providers often struggle to link performance to their payment. Despite such managerial challenges, empirical research in this area has been l

We studied the nature of the relationship between bone mineral density (BMD) and the risk of death among elderly men. BMD was associated with mortality risk and was independent of adjustments for other co-morbidities. A piecewise linear function described the relationship more accurately than assuming the same gradient of risk over the whole range of BMD (p = 0.020). Low BMD was associated with a

The topic of this thesis is estimation of nonlinear dynamical systems, focusing on the use of methods such as particle filtering and smoothing. There are three areas of contributions: software implementation, applications of nonlinear estimation and some theoretical extensions to existing algorithms. The common theme for all the work presented is the pyParticleEst software framework, which has b