A general assumption reported in the literature is that the structural response of a stress-laminated-timber (SLT) bridge deck is linear until failure. However, few studies of ultimate-load tests (ULTs) on timber bridges have been reported. A full-scale test of a SLT deck (span, 4.9 m; thickness, 270 mm) was performed to obtain the deformations at various prestress levels as well as at the ultimat

Transparent, needle-like single crystals of the isostructural compounds [Sb4O7+3 delta X4][Zn-3](1+delta) = CL Br, I) delta approximate to 0.2 were obtained from chemical reactions in evacuated and sealed silica tubes. First, the average structure was solved in P211n but the model refined poorly and a lowering of the symmetry to the 3 + 1 dimensional space group P2(1)(alpha 0 gamma)0 gave a signif

The European Summer School in Logic, Language and Information (ESSLLI) is organized every year by the Association for Logic, Language and Information (FoLLI) in different sites around Europe. The main focus of ESSLLI is on the interface between linguistics, logic and computation. ESSLLI offers foundational, introductory and advanced courses, as well as workshops, covering a wide variety of topics

Diffuse reflectance spectroscopy (DRS) is a rapid, non-invasive optical method widely adopted to gain diagnostic information of tissue. The most flexible approach to this method is a fiber-optic contact-probe used with a spectroscopy system. A challenge of this method is that the external pressure brought by the probe can significantly affect the tissue optical properties as well as the light coup

Aerosol-cloud interactions constitute a major uncertainty in future climate predictions. This study combines 10 years of ground-based aerosol particle measurements from two Nordic background stations (Vavihill and Hyytiala) with MODIS (Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer) satellite data of convective clouds. The merged data are used to examine how aerosols affect cloud droplet sizes and

It has been often claimed that the scientific process is quite opposite to the design process, mainly based on the former’s analysis of existing phenomena in order to develop a theory, while the design process is an act of synthesis that creates something new in the world. In the light of the developments that led to this conception, and with reference to the current views of the scientific proces

Chondroadherin is a leucine-rich repeat protein known to mediate adhesion of isolated cells via the integrin alpha(2)beta(1) and to interact with collagen. In this work, we show that cell adhesion to chondroadherin leads to activation of MAPKs but does not result in cell spreading and division. This is in contrast to the spreading and dividing of cells grown on collagen, although the binding is me

To validate and evaluate the psychometric properties of the ALPS-Neo, a new pain assessment scale created for the continuous evaluation of pain and stress in preterm and sick term infants.

Obesity is heritable and predisposes to many diseases. To understand the genetic basis of obesity better, here we conduct a genome-wide association study and Metabochip meta-analysis of body mass index (BMI), a measure commonly used to define obesity and assess adiposity, in up to 339,224 individuals. This analysis identifies 97 BMI-associated loci (P < 5 × 10(-8)), 56 of which are novel. Five loc

Background Low socioeconomic status (low education and income level) has been found to be associated with increased stroke mortality. However, findings from previous studies on the association between socioeconomic status and case fatality (survival) after stroke have been inconsistent. Aims The study aims to explore the association between socio-economic status and survival after stroke using Rik

The awareness of the significance of the Southern Ocean in the Earth's climate system has become increasingly obvious. The deglacial atmospheric CO2 rise during warming periods in Antarctica has been attributed to CO2 ventilation from the deep ocean caused by enhanced upwelling around the Antarctic Divergence. It has been hypothesized that, more intense Southern Hemisphere westerly winds aligned w

Background: Ultrasound-guided transvaginal oocyte retrieval is often performed under local anaesthesia on an outpatient basis. The objective of this study was to compare the overall pain experience of a newly designed reduced needle (RN) compared with a thicker standard needle (SN). Methods: A prospective, randomized, multi-centre study was performed at four different clinics from June to December

Abstract is missing (Short).

Raptors have excellent vision, yet it is unclear how they use colour information. It has been suggested that raptors use ultraviolet (UV) reflections from vole urine to find good hunting grounds. In contrast, UV plumage colours in songbirds such as blue tits are assumed to be 'hidden' communication signals, inconspicuous to raptors. This ambiguity results from a lack of knowledge about raptor ocul

We have studied how disturbance by ploughing and rotavation affects the carbon (C) flow to arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) fungi in a dry, semi-natural grassland. AM fungal biomass was estimated using the indicator neutral lipid fatty acid (NLFA) 16:1ω5, and saprotrophic fungal biomass using NLFA 18:2ω6,9. We labeled vegetation plots with (13)CO(2) and studied the C flow to the signature fatty acids a

The M2 protein is a small, single-span transmembrane (TM) protein from the influenza A virus. This virus enters cells via endosomes; as the endosomes mature and become more acidic M2 facilitates proton transport into the viral interior, thereby disrupting matrix protein/RNA interactions required for infectivity. A mystery has been how protons can accumulate in the viral interior without developing

The stability of the Nyström method for the Sherman–Lauricella equation on piecewise smooth closed simple contour $\Gamma$ is studied. It is shown that in the space $L_2$ the method is stable if and only if certain operators associated with the corner points of $\Gamma$ are invertible. If $\Gamma$ does not have corner points, the method is always stable. Numerical experiments show the transformati