Plant species effects on microbial communities are attributed to changes in microbial community composition and biomass, and may depend on plant species specific differences in the quality of resources (carbon) inputs. We examined the idea that plant-soil feedbacks can be explained by a chance effect, which is the probability of a highly productive or keystone plant species is present in the commu

A polyethylene plant model coded in Modelica and based on a nonlinear MPC model currently used at Borealis AB is considered for calibration. A case study of model calibration at steady-state for four different operating points are analysed, both when looking at one operating point separately, but also to calibrate several simultaneously. Both model parameters and reactor inputs are calibrated for

Malaysia has the highest road fatality risk (per 100,000 population) among the ASEAN countries and more than 50% of the road accident fatalities involve motorcyclists. This study has collected and analysed data from the police, government authorities, and national and international research institutes. Only fatality data are used due to the severe underreporting of severe injuries (up to 600%) and

This study seeks to disclose some of the scientific and philosophical ideas that inform the green movement and its ideology. These ideas, like the groups that have been attracted to the movement, are seemingly heterogeneous. This is one reason why attaining a generally accepted ideology is proving to be a drawn-out process. A second reason considered here is the perceived anomalies inherent to th

Background: NOTCH1 PEST domain mutations in chronic lymphocytic leukemia have recently been shown to be of prognostic relevance. Both NOTCH1 and NOTCH2 are constitutively activated in B-cell CLL but not expressed in normal B cells and may be involved in survival and resistance to apoptosis in CLL. We screened for mutations in different parts of both NOTCH1 and NOTCH2 genes and related the changes

An alternative concept for calibrating spectral image intensity ratios is described, which provides simple, but effective means of compensation for systematic errors, caused by nonlinearities in signal detection. The method relies on image segmentation by means of signal thresholds, where pixels are organized into different subgroups according to their corresponding signal count value. Instead of

Abstract Objective. To examine pregnancy outcomes in relation to different categories of glucose tolerance during pregnancy. Design. Prospective observational cohort study. Setting. Patient recruitment and data collection were performed in four delivery departments in southern Sweden. Population. Women delivering during 2003-2005; 306 with gestational diabetes mellitus, 744 with gestational impair

Background: Attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (AD/HD) and autism spectrum disorders (ASDs) are early-onset, but often life-time impairing, neurodevelopmental disorders. They are highly overlapping and seem to carry considerable risks of negative outcomes, psychiatrically and psychosocially. Childhood hyperactivity is a known risk factor for early-onset conduct disorder (CD), but details con

Objective Saline infusion sonohysterography has been reported to suppress the color signal within the endometrium at color or power Doppler evaluation. The aim of this study was to evaluate if gel-instillation sonography (GIS) affects the power Doppler signal in patients with endometrial polyps. Methods Ultrasound volumes of the uterus, obtained by three-dimensional ultrasound imaging of 25 women

We present the Associative Self-Organizing Map (A-SOM) and propose that it could be used to predict an agent's intentions by internally simulating the behaviour likely to follow initial movements. The A-SOM is a neural network that develops a representation of its input space without supervision, while simultaneously learning to associate its activity with an arbitrary number of additional (possib

Lupus nephritis is a cause of significant morbidity in systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) and its genetic background has not been completely clarified. The aim of this investigation was to analyze single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) for association with lupus nephritis, its severe form proliferative nephritis and renal outcome, in two Swedish cohorts. Cohort I (n = 567 SLE cases, n = 512 contro

The CALIFA calorimeter is an advanced detector for gamma rays and light charged particles, accordingly optimized for the demanding requirements of the physics programme proposed for the (RB)-B-3 facility at FAIR. The multipurpose character of CALIFA is required to fulfil challenging demands in energy resolution (5-6% at 1 MeV for gamma rays) and efficiency. Charged particles, e.g. protons of energ

Understanding the spin-texture behaviour of boundary modes in ultrathin topological insulator films is critically essential for the design and fabrication of functional nanodevices. Here, by using spin-resolved photoemission spectroscopy with p-polarized light in topological insulator Bi2Se3 thin films, we report tunnelling-dependent evolution of spin configuration in topological insulator thin fi

Background/Objective: Carboxylic acids (CAs), especially butyric acid, have been suggested to counteract colonic diseases, such as ulcerative colitis and colon cancer. Colonic formation of CAs can be influenced by the diet, but the concentrations and pattern formed need to be evaluated for different food products in humans. To elucidate how the colonic concentration of CAs in healthy subjects is i

The complex I subunits NuoL, NuoM and NuoN are homologous to two proteins, MrpA and MrpD, from one particular class of Na+/H+ antiporters. In many bacteria MrpA and MrpD are encoded by an operon comprising 6-7 conserved genes. In complex I these protein subunits are prime candidates for harboring important parts of the proton pumping machinery. Deletion of either mrpA or mrpD from the Bacillus sub

Background and aims. Proteins induced by vitamin K absence for factor II (PIVKA-II) is an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay that monitors uncarboxylated prothrombin and responds to vitamin K deficits prior to changes in the prothrombin test. The aim of this project was to study perioperative PIVKA-II changes during various types of surgery in a prospective observational study. Methods. Patients un

A synthetic route to lactam analogues of the fungal STAT3 inhibitor galiellalactone is presented. The synthesis involves a one-pot tosylamide amide coupling/intramolecular Michael addition and an introduction of an alpha,beta-unsaturation, regioselectively directed by the tosyl functionality. An iodolactonization of the octahydroindolizine 9 and a re-opening of the lactone were employed for introd

Different designs of flat-tube heat exchangers with plain fins have been evaluated theoretically in a parameter study in order to evaluate their performance potential in indirectly cooled display cabinets. Two different types of flat-tube heat exchangers were considered; one with serpentine fins and one with continuous plate fins. Both flat-tube heat exchanger types were adapted to the laminar flo