Recent decades have witnessed an innovation in genetics and biomedical practices, shifting the practice from treatment to prevention. Testing healthy individuals for genetic inherited diseases has now become increasingly common, preventing potential disease by offering early screenings, medication, or potentially surgery, reducing the genetic risk from developing into disease. Though, social scien

Idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) is characterized by an aberrant repair response with uncontrolled turnover of extracellular matrix involving mesenchymal cell phenotypes, where lung resident mesenchymal stem cells (LRMSC) have been supposed to have an important role. However, the contribution of LRMSC in lung fibrosis is not fully understood, and the role of LRMSC in IPF remains to be elucidate

Primary treatment of municipal wastewater by rotating belt filtration followed by hydrolysis and acidogenic fermentation of the filter primary sludge (FPS) at ambient temperature was studied at pilot-scale during one year. The seasonal variations of volatile fatty acids (VFAs), nutrient release and soluble COD production as well as microbial community assembly were assessed, leading to novel findi

The CO2 corrosion-induced scale developed in the surface region of the low-grade carbon steel is thoroughly investigated to understand the corrosion mechanisms involved during exposure to CO2-saturated aqueous environments. In this work, in addition to the electron microscopy and lab-source X-ray diffraction (XRD) methods, ex-situ depth-resolved phase identification of the corrosion scales develop

Cellobiose dehydrogenase (CDH) is a bioelectrocatalyst that enables direct electron transfer (DET) in biosensors and biofuel cells. The application of this bidomain hemoflavoenzyme for physiological glucose measurements is limited by its acidic pH optimum and slow interdomain electron transfer (IET) at pH 7.5. The reason for this rate-limiting electron transfer step is electrostatic repulsion at t

Nonradical-based advanced oxidation processes (AOPs) catalyzed by defective carbonaceous materials have exhibited great superiorities in trace antibiotics removal from natural water matrices. However, the complicated, extensive and highly-energy consumed synthesis methods are seriously hindering its development and application. Herein an in-situ electrochemical synthesis technology was developed a

Conspiracy theories fomented by political division and a global pandemic have gained traction in the public consciousness in the last couple of years. For some people these ideas are just fun and entertaining, but for others their interest in them becomes much more consuming. Why do people become involved in this kind of conspiratorial thinking? That’s the question that LSE iQ tackles in this mont

A network mechanics model for analysis of materials made of dry-shaped cellulose fibres is proposed. In terms of the model, the network is composed of fibres of arbitrary distribution in length, curvature, cross-section. stiffness and strength. The fibres are arranged in a random structure according to an arbitrary orientation distribution. Where fibres meet there may be fibre-to-fibre interaction

The classification of toxic comments is a well-researched area with many techniques available. However, effectively managing multi-label categorization still requires a considerable amount of work. In this thesis, we performed a classification experiment on over 200 thousand comments from the Jigsaw toxic comment competition data available on Kaggle. We aimed to optimize a model to identify six di

A new methodology was developed to support contaminant mass discharge (CMD)-based risk assessment of groundwater contamination downgradient of point source zones. Geoelectrical cross-borehole induced polarization (IP) data were collected at a site undergoing in situ remediation of chlorinated solvents for determining 2D hydraulic conductivity (K) distributions with an inversion model resolution of

A novel dual-amplification system based on CRISPR-Cas12a and horseradish peroxidase (HRP) was developed for colorimetric determination of MC-LR. This dual-amplification was accomplished by combining the nuclease activity of CRISPR-Cas12a with the redox activity of HRP. HRP linked to magnetic beads through an ssDNA (MB-ssDNA-HRP) was used to induce a color change of the 3,3′,5,5′-tetramethylbenzidi

Sniffing out friends and foes: Bark beetle larvae and fungal scents. A tiny but destructive force is threatening Eurasian forest habitats – the Eurasian spruce bark beetle, Ips typographus. The larvae of this beetle species develop under the bark of conifers and feed on tree tissue. This leads to tree death and thus widespread devastation in wooded landscapes. The beetles live in partnership wit

Over the past few decades, mobile and wireless technologies have been evolving rapidly which has influenced household income, wealth, and consumption levels, especially in developing countries. Specifically, this paper estimates the impact of digital technology on household economic status in Nigeria, the largest economy and mobile market in Africa. The analysis exploits a unique data set in 2018