Type 2 diabetes has become a leading health problem throughout the world. The escalating epidemic of type 2 diabetes is believed to result from a collision between inherent biological susceptibilities (genotypes) and a shift toward dietary habits and lifestyle that promote obesity over the past several decades; the transition from “traditional” to modern “obesogenic” lifestyles is characterized by

Context: Alkyl glucosides and alkyl poly-glucosides are widely used as wetting agents, surfactants and emulsifiers in several industrial and cosmetic products. They are known as well-tolerated and are usually added to the primary surfactants in order to reduce the irritating potential of the main foaming agents.Objective: Recently, some authors suggested that allergic contact dermatitis to alkyl g

Mice with striatal 6-hydroxydopamine (6-OHDA) lesions are widely used as a model to study the effects of neurorestorative, symptomatic, or antidyskinetic treatments for Parkinson's disease (PD). The standard praxis is to utilize young adult mice with relatively acute 6-OHDA lesions. However, long post-lesion intervals may be required for longitudinal studies of treatment interventions, and the lon

In many cases, the principle goal of a fire safety engineering (FSE) design is the life safety of the users of a structure. There are, however, other potential fire safety goals to consider, e.g., property protection, continuity of operations, protection of the environment and protection of cultural heritage [1]. Whatever the goal, users of the building, both building managers and occupants, will

Effect of misfit strain in the layers of (Ga,Mn)(Bi,As) quaternary diluted magnetic semiconductor, epitaxially grown on either GaAs substrate or (In,Ga)As buffer, on their magnetic and magneto-transport properties has been investigated. High-resolution X-ray diffraction, applied to characterize the structural quality and misfit strain in the layers, proved that the layers were fully strained to th

We consider a two-dimensional inviscid irrotational flow in a two layer fluid under the effects of gravity and interfacial tension. The upper fluid is bounded above by a rigid lid, and the lower fluid is bounded below by a rigid bottom. We use a spatial dynamics approach and formulate the steady Euler equations as a Hamiltonian system, where we consider the unbounded horizontal coordinate x as a t

In this work, we utilize classical polymer density functional theory (DFT) to study gelation in systems containing colloidal particles onto which polymers are grafted. The solution conditions are such that the corresponding bulk system displays a lower critical solution temperature (LCST). We specifically compare our predictions with experimental results by Shay et al. (J. Rheol. 2001, 45, 913-927

Mesenchymal stromal cells (MSC) are multipotent cells with regenerative and immune-modulatory properties. Therefore, MSC have been proposed as a potential cell-therapy for bronchiolitis obliterans syndrome (BOS). On the other hand, there are publications demonstrating that MSC might be involved in the development of BOS. Despite limited knowledge regarding the functional role of tissue-resident lu

This paper analyses the use of wonder in the TV-series Cosmos: A Personal Voyage (1980). Popular science has been studied extensively (e.g. Broks 2006; Leane 2007; Perrault 2013), and wonder has been studied moderately (e.g. Daston & Park 1998; Fuller 2006; Vasalou 2015). However, there are very few studies of wonder in popular science. This paper explores how and why wonder is used in Cosmos,

A method based on using supercritical CO2 as an antisolvent (SAS method) is explored as a co-crystallization technique. Co-crystallization is an emerging and powerful technique to improve the physicochemical properties of an active pharmaceutical ingredient. The solid-state and solution co-crystallization methods usually employed present several disadvantages. The one-step SAS method has a low env

Aquaporins (AQPs) are membrane channel proteins that transport water and uncharged solutes across different membranes in organisms in all kingdoms of life. In plants, the AQPs can be divided into seven different subfamilies and five of these are present in higher plants. The most recently characterized of these subfamilies is the XIP subfamily, which is found in most dicots but not in monocots. In

Objective: To highlight expectant parents’ attitudes concerning prenatal diagnosis, what the parents wish to know and what they chose not to know about their unborn baby, also in what form and to what extent they wish for prenatal diagnosis. Background: Parents have to make decisions concerning prenatal diagnosis. Screening programmes change rapidly and there is a need for parental influence on th

An adaptive algorithm optimizing single-particle translational displacement parameters in Metropolis Monte Carlo simulations is presented. The optimization is based on maximizing the mean square displacement of a trial move. It is shown that a large mean square displacement is strongly correlated with a high precision of average potential energy. The method is here demonstrated on model systems re

Formation of Maillard products and the influencing factors, which are of crucial importance for both manufacturers and consumers, are still not fully understood. Thus in this study available lysine was used as a marker to monitor the extent of Maillard reactions in freeze-dried, spray-dried and drum-dried skim milk powders during 200 days of storage at highly controlled atmospheres. Storage variab

Purpose – There is growing concern about the performance of public organizations (POs) in developing countries. Despite the fact that the advantages of innovation and learning orientation to organizations have been evidently documented in Western economies and private owned enterprises, there has been little research into these practices and their impact on enhancing competitive advantages in POs

We show, experimentally and theoretically, that swelling of both natural and refined clays has an anomalous temperature behavior depending on counterion valency. In an aqueous clay dispersion dominated by monovalent counterions the swelling pressure increases with temperature as expected from entropic arguments. In a clay with predominantly divalent counterions, the opposite behavior is found. The

An optically stimulated luminescence technique with a high-resolution sampling strategy, as well as a set of multiple proxies such as grain size distribution, shape, surface and microstructures of quartz grains, along with mineral composition of light and heavy fractions was used to investigate the age and origin of fan-like forms at the southern margin of Mazovian Lowland, Poland. The predominanc

Large ears enhance perception of echolocation and prey generated sounds in bats. However, external ears likely impair aerodynamic performance of bats compared to birds. But large ears may generate lift on their own, mitigating the negative effects. We studied flying brown long-eared bats, using high resolution, time resolved particle image velocimetry, to determine the aerodynamics of flying with

In this study, a rapid and sensitive ultra-high performance supercritical fluid chromatography-mass spectrometry (UHPSFC-MS) method has been developed and partially validated for the separation of carotenoids within less than 6 min. Six columns of orthogonal selectivity were examined, and the best separation was obtained by using a 1-aminoanthracene (1-AA) column. The length of polyene chain as we