Granular media (i.e., assemblies of grains, containing voids), such as sand, are highly complex materials, possessing inherently heterogeneous structure and properties that are manifested by the mobility and interaction of their constituent particles. Despite having been widely studied for centuries (i.e., the study of granular media in modern science essentially begins with the work of Charles-Au

The failure of pancreatic isletβ-cells is a major contributor to the etiology of type 2 diabetes.β-Cell dysfunction and declining β-cell mass are two mechanisms that contribute to this failure, although it is unclear whether they are molecularly linked. Here, we show that the cell cycle regulator, cyclin-dependent kinase 2 (CDK2), couples primary β-cell dysfunction to the progressive deterioration

Thermoresponsive structures in the 5'-untranslated region of mRNA are known to control translation of heat shock and virulence genes. Expression of many rhizobial heat shock genes is regulated by a conserved sequence element called ROSE for repression of heat shock gene expression. This cis-acting, untranslated mRNA is thought to prevent ribosome access at low temperature through an extended secon

To ensure a continuous high standard of police units, it is critical to recruit people who perform well in stressful situations. Today, this selection process includes performing a large series of tests, which still may not objectively reveal a person’s capacity to handle a life-threatening situation when subjected to high levels of stress. To obtain more systematic and objective data, 12 police o

Background: Hand injuries occur at any age and cause disability in hand and arm function as well as impaired quality of life, but no study has focused on hand disability and quality of life in the elderly after a hand injury. Globally, the population over 60 years of age is expected to double by 2050 and more hand injuries are estimated among the elderly population. Our goal is to obtain more info

Climate variability is highly impacting on mosquito-borne diseases causing malaria and dengue fever across the globe. Seasonal variability change in temperature and rainfall patterns are impacting on human health. Mosquitoes cause diseases like dengue fever, yellow fever, malaria, Chikungunya, West Nile and Japanese encephalitis. According to estimations by health organizations, annually one milli

Purpose We investigated if early intensive care unit (ICU) scoring with the Simplified Acute Physiology Score (SAPS 3) could be improved using artificial neural networks (ANNs). Methods All first-time adult intensive care admissions in Sweden during 2009-2017 were included. A test set was set aside for validation. We trained ANNs with two hidden layers with random hyper-parameters and retained the

Scholars and activists opposing the killing of nonhuman animals have long shared the assumption that the invisibility of the animals killed for meat is one of the most sig- nificant factors when it comes to explaining how meat eating is perpetuated. However, a recent tendency towards a new visibility of these animals and their physical trans- formation into meat fundamentally challenges this assum

Autoimmunity associated with tumor cell development seems an important mechanism by which to prevent progression to clinical cancer. In this brief review, tumor autoantigens associated with paraneoplastic syndrome, non-HLA- associated organ-specific autoimmune diseases, and the highly cell-specific autoimmune eradication of the islet beta cells in type I diabetes are compared and discussed. It is

Glutamate decarboxylase autoantibodies (GAD65Ab) and β-cell function were evaluated at and 3 years after diabetes onset in consecutive subjects over 15 years of age. At onset, 21 32 (66%) insulin-treated patients (mean age 43, range 16-79 years) had GAD65Ab; all GAD65Ab persisted 3 years later. At onset, 20 82 (24%) non-insulin-treated patients (mean age 56, range 20-79 years) had GAD65Ab. Of thos

Most autoimmune diabetes occurs in those without a diabetic relative, but few cases are identifiable prospectively. To model general population prediction, 491 consecutive newly diabetic children from all of Sweden were tested for autoantibodies to glutamate decarboxylase (GAD65ab), insulin (IAA), and islet cells (ICA), and for HLA-DQ genotypes by PCR; 415 matched control children were tested in p