The characteristic striped appearance of zebras has provoked much speculation about its function and why the pattern has evolved, but experimental evidence is scarce. Here, we demonstrate that a zebra-striped horse model attracts far fewer horseflies (tabanids) than either homogeneous black, brown, grey or white equivalents. Such biting flies are prevalent across Africa and have considerable fitne

The reliability of bridge-supporting structures to resist impacts from heavy goods-vehicles (HGV) is investigated. Probabilistic simulations are carried out to calculate the reliability index of a circular reinforced concrete column that has been designed using historical values for equivalent static impact loads provided in the Eurocode. Considerations are made for the uncertainties related to th

Introduction: The homeobox-containing transcription factor muscle segment homeobox 2 (Msx2) plays an important role in mammary gland development. However, the clinical implications of Msx2 expression in breast cancer are unclear. The aims of this study were to investigate the potential clinical value of Msx2 as a breast cancer biomarker and to clarify its functional role in vitro. Methods: Msx2 ge

The aim of this study was to investigate myocardial wall motion using echocardiography and color-coded tissue velocity imaging and to generate a cardiac state diagram for evaluation of the duration of the pre- and post-ejection phases in asphyxiated fetal lambs. Six near-term lambs were partly exteriorized and brought to cardiac arrest through asphyxia. Echocardiography measurements were recorded

Molecular-beam epitaxy grown, 5 nm thick annealed Ga0.95Mn0.05As films demonstrate transition from metallic to insulating state for sheet resistances near resistance quantum, which we connect with the two-dimensional hole localization. Below the metal-insulator transition we found the giant anisotropic magnetoresistance (GAMR) effect, which depends on the orientation of magnetization to crystallog

Background: The performance of creatinine-based glomerular filtration rate (GFR) estimating equations may vary in subgroups defined by GFR, age and body mass index (BMI). This study compares the performance of the Modification of Diet in Renal Disease (MDRD) study and Chronic Kidney Disease Epidemiology Collaboration (CKD-EPI) equations with the revised Lund-Malmo equation (LM Revised), a new equa

The Fifth Assessment Report (AR5) of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) in 2013–2014 was the most comprehensive analysis of anthropogenic climate change, its impacts, and potential responses. It concluded that climate change is “unequivocal” and human activities are the dominant cause. Avoidance of “dangerous” climate change will require sustained substantial reductions of emissi

Purpose: The primary aim was to analyse regional incidences of retinopathy of prematurity (ROP) and frequencies of treatment and their relation to perinatal risk factors during a 3-year period. A secondary aim was to study adherence to the study screening protocol in the different regions. Methods: A population-based study of neonatal morbidity in extremely preterm infants in Sweden (EXPRESS) was

Context: Re-planning of product releases is a very dynamic endeavor and new research methods or improvements of existing methods are still required. This paper explores the role of re-estimation in the re-planning process of product releases. Objective: The purpose of this study is to analyze effects of defect and effort re-estimation in the process of release re-planning. In particular, two ques

In early stages of various pulmonary diseases, such as emphysema and fibrosis, the change in X-ray attenuation is not detectable with absorption-based radiography. To monitor the morphological changes that the alveoli network undergoes in the progression of these diseases, we propose using the dark-field signal, which is related to small-angle scattering in the sample. Combined with the absorption

It is well-known that the participation in a design process can be experienced as being so meaningful that the participation in itself overshadows even the result of that process. The participants in this design project represent a user group that often use products in which functional value is pre-eminent: people with disabilities. Thereby special attention has been given to the concepts of stigm

Rye bran, oat bran and barley fibre have been compared as additives in low-fat sausages and meatballs. The water/protein ratio and starch content were constant to allow direct comparisons. Oat bran was the best alternative in low-fat sausages due to its gelling ability upon heating. These sausages exhibited low process (0.9%) and frying losses (10.9%), and high values of firmness (11.0N) and senso

Abstract It has been suggested that birds migrate faster in spring than in autumn because of competition for arrival order at breeding grounds and environmental factors such as increased daylight. Investigating spring and autumn migration performances is important for understanding ecological and evolutionary constraints in the timing and speed of migration. We compiled measurements from tracking

We consider the absorption spectrum of a Fermi gas mixed with a minority species when majority fermions are transferred to another internal state by an external probe. In the limit when the minority species is much more massive than the majority one, we show that the minority species may be treated as static impurities and the problem can be solved in closed form. The analytical results bring out

Background: The Swedish Medical Products Agency (MPA) provides a voluntary reporting system for adverse reactions to cosmetics. However, the reporting is sparse, and the products involved are sometimes difficult to identify. Objectives: To investigate how often patients referred for patch testing were tested with the cosmetic products that they had been using themselves, and to improve the repor

Uraemia is a strong risk factor for cardiovascular disease. Osteopontin (OPN) is highly expressed in aortas of uraemic apolipoprotein E knockout (E KO) mice. OPN affects key atherogenic processes, i.e. inflammation and phenotypic modulation of smooth muscle cells (SMCs). We explored the role of OPN on vascular pathology in uraemic mice. Uraemia was induced by 5/6 nephrectomy in E KO and in OPN and

We report transport studies of GaSb/InAs core/shell nanowires. It is shown that with increasing InAs shell thickness, it is possible to tune the carrier concentrations and transport in the structures from p-type (core-dominated) to n-type (shell dominated). For nanowires with an intermediate shell thickness (5-7 nm), we show that the transport is ambipolar, such that an applied top-gate potential